作者：Brice Morrison

苹果App store主要服务iPhone、iPad之类的平台，该应用商店下载量最近突破150亿次，真令人难以置信。

这些应用大多是游戏，它们通俗易懂，只需99美分，且颇具沉浸性，热门应用令开发商获得丰厚营收。扩展新平台，挖掘新用户总是颇令人兴奋。但是各大平台都有其规则、挑战和用户，设计师需对此烂熟于心，方能大获成功。

设计师能从这些成功游戏中学到什么？通过分析这些顶级iPhone游戏的设计原理，获悉其共性，挖掘可借鉴之处，我们能够收获良多。我尽可能保持客观，阐述这些热门应用的共同之处，供设计师们参考。

下面我们来看看数款付费iPhone应用：

* 《愤怒的小鸟》

* 《Tap Tap Revenge》系列

* 《口袋上帝》

* 《宝石迷阵闪电战》

* 《交通堵塞》

* 《机场空管》

* 《涂鸦跳跃》

Tap Tap Revenge from mzstatic.com

10秒钟预先操作

玩家从启动到最终进入体验，还面临两大障碍因素。首先就是真正进入操作环节，其次就获悉如何操作。

很多其他平台的游戏（游戏邦注：如掌机、PC游戏）需经过很久才能真正进入游戏。掌机游戏需花费几分钟设置游戏，浏览介绍影片，启动新的保存文件。掌机游戏更大型，克服游戏障碍所要耗费的时间也就更久。

所有畅销游戏只消玩家进行10秒钟操作。仅10秒钟！这比所有在线Flash游戏快得多，在线Flash游戏曾是休闲游戏的典范，其前期操作需1分钟左右。

举例说明：

* 在《交通堵塞》中，玩家按下启动键，汽车就迎面而来。

* 在《涂鸦跳跃》中，玩家按下启动键，角色就会自动在平台跳跃。

* 在《口袋上帝》中，玩家加载游戏后，小岛就会出现，玩家就能开始体验。

Traffic Rush from applerepo.com

除让玩家直接进入游戏状态（游戏邦注：玩家可以开始互动）外，这些游戏大多凭直觉操作，这苹果游戏的共同特点。所有游戏玩家都能即刻获悉如何操作。即便刚开始不清楚，点击1、2次后也就一目了然。

这是供设计师借鉴的宝贵经验。解释游戏设计有两个传统方式，或通过辅助指南，或给予玩家充足时间，让其弄清其中所以然。但这些游戏开发商通过快速传达游戏设计，除去其中最大障碍，方便玩家进行体验。

单一操作完成任务

想想有些游戏需完成的任务。在RPG（角色扮演游戏）中，你得先浏览菜单，选择“Attack”，再选择所要攻击的敌人，然后进行确认，等待数秒才能进入游戏。在《Farmville》中，你需点击作物，选择种植品种，等待角色行走至操作地点，然后再返回收割。即便是在《Mario super》这样简单的游戏中，你也得进行跳跃，将自己瞄准敌人，从其上方直直落下。这非最简单的操作。

而在这些iPhone游戏中，只消轻轻一点或一扫，你就完成所有任务。只要通过一个快速动作，玩家就能实现所有操作。参考如下例子：

* 在《Tap Tap Revenge》中，一个点击键就控制所有音符（游戏邦注：而《吉他英雄》则需靠按键和吉他伴奏）。

* 在《交通堵塞》中，轻轻一点就能暂停小汽车，而一扫就能让其提速。

* 在《愤怒的小鸟》中，轻轻一扫就能把小鸟拉回来，一抛便其瞄准目标。

Flight Control from wordpress.com

这个设计原理促使玩家从体验中获得满足感。没有什么比进行互动却未获得回馈更令人生厌。行走于《Zelda》长廊，却没有经历任何有趣的事情。在《Super Mario》中袭击某砖块，试图发现秘密，却一无所获。想骚扰哥哥，他却熟视无睹。

但这些从未在上述iPhone游戏中出现过。你每次点击或扫射，游戏都会以有趣方式给予回应。此快速循环机制促使玩家陶醉其中。

玩法颇具深度

虽然这些游戏非常简单，全凭直觉操作，但它们仍旧颇有深度。这些游戏秉承这样的理念：“入门快，精通难”。游戏最初呈现给玩家的是简单易懂的设计，然后快速延伸至更广阔的游戏空间，游戏清楚传递购买完整游戏的价值所在。

举例说明：

* 《涂鸦跳跃》起初提供的是各种稳固平台，但最后便引入破碎平台、弹簧和移动平台。

* 《愤怒的小鸟》最开始是进行简单瞄准，出现的是破坏木块，但很快就变成水泥块和冰块，以及保护更完善的小猪目标，就连高级玩家也很难轻松过关。

* 《宝石迷阵闪电战》有组合设置和高分计时器，促使玩家不断提高自我。

* 《机场空管》最初只有几架飞机，但很快就频繁增加。

设计师竟能在这些简单的机制中融入如此多乐趣，着实颇具启发性。常常有很多玩家谈论他们如何沉浸于这些游戏当中。听到此番言论，你的第一反应通常是，“真的吗？”但当自己亲身体验后便发现这些游戏确实非常令人着迷。而开发商通常无需彻底解锁新功能，只需对一个本身就趣味横生的游戏稍作调整，便能够实现此目标。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

What Makes a Mobile Blockbuster? Designs in Top iPhone Apps

by Brice Morrison

The Apple App store, servicing apps to the iPhone, iPad, and more, recently passed its 10 billionth app download.  Incredible.

A very large portion of these apps are games.  Simple, only $0.99, and addictive, the most popular titles have made a few talented developers rich and given others a good chunk of change.  It’s always exciting when new platforms and audiences open up.  But each always brings with it its own set of rules, challenges, and player behaviors that need to be mastered by designers in order to succeed on the platform.

What can we game designers learn from the successes of these games?  We can learn a lot by analyzing the game designs of each of these top iPhone games and see what they have in common, and how they can be used in our own game titles.  I’ve done my best to stay objective in this article and point out aspects that are factually similar between these top sellers.  Designers, you’re free to take from this analysis what you will.

Let’s take a look at the following paid iPhone apps (source):

* Angry Birds

* Tap Tap Revenge Series

* Pocket God

* Bejeweled 2 + Blitz

* Traffic Rush

* Flight Control

* Doodle Jump

Playing within 10 Seconds

There are two hurdles to getting a player to actually play your game once they’ve booted it up.  The first is getting the game to a point where the player can perform an action, and the second is getting the player to understand what to do.

Most other platforms, consoles, PC games, and so on, take a substantial amount of time before the fun begins.  On console games it’s a few minutes for setting up the game, getting through the intro movie, starting a new save file, and so forth.  Because the games are larger, the barriers to beginning to play take longer to trudge through.

Each of these top selling games gets the player performing an action in the game in about 10 seconds.  Just 10 seconds!  That’s even faster than most online Flash games, which used to be the gold standard for attention deficit game design, clocking in at about one minute before the player is enjoying what they’re doing.

Some examples:

* In Traffic Rush, the player presses start, and the cars start coming

* In Doodle Jump, players press start and the character automatically begins jumping up the platforms

* In Pocket God, you load the game, the island appears, and you can begin playing with it

In addition to getting the player to a state of the game where they can begin interacting, all of these games are also designed to be very intuitive, which is the name of the game for Apple’s platform.  In each game, players can more or less figure out exactly what they need to do almost immediately.  And if they don’t, then it becomes amply clear in one or two clicks.

This is a great takeaway for designers.  The two traditional approaches for teaching a game’s design are usually either a tutorial, or allowing the player enough time to poke around and figure it out.  But by taking the time to convey the game’s design quickly, the developers of these titles removed one of the central hurdles to getting a player up and running.

Complete Action within One Swipe

Think of all of the work that needs to be done for some games.   In an RPG you need to navigate a menu, select “Attack”, then select the enemy to hit, and then confirm, and wait a few seconds for it to be your turn.  In Farmville you need to click a crop, select which one to plant, wait for your avatar to walk over, and then come back later to harvest.  Even in a game as simple as Mario super need to jump, aim yourself to land on an enemy, and come down on top of him.  Not as simple as possible.

In each of these iPhone games, a single click or swipe (which uses about the same amount of brain power as a single click) performs an entire action.  With one quick movement the player is satisfied with what they’ve done and what happened because of it.  Here are some examples:

* In Tap Tap Revenge, a single tap handles each note (compare this to Guitar Hero, which requires both a button and a guitar strum)

* In Traffic Rush, a tap stops a car, while a swipe speeds it up

* In Angry Birds, a swipe pulls back the bird and flings it at its target

This design philosophy makes playing each of these games very satisfying.  Few things are more boring than something that you interact with and receive no feedback.  Walking through a long hallway in Zelda without anything exciting happening.  Hitting a block in Super Mario, trying to find a secret, and revealing nothing.  Trying to annoy your older brother, and all he does is ignore you.

But this never happens in any of these games.  Each time you tap or swipe, the game responds quickly and in an interesting way.  That quick loop keeps mobile players appetite for action satisfied.

Great Depth of Gameplay

While on one hand each of these games are brilliantly simple and intuitive in their initial designs, don’t let that fool you.  These games are all poster children for the concept “easy to learn, hard to master”.  By getting the player started on a simple and easy-to-understand concept and then moving quickly to expand into vast gameplay space, the games do a great job of conveying the value of purchasing the full game.

Examples:

* Doodle Jump begins with numerous, stable platforms, but eventually introduces crumbling platforms, springs, and moving platforms

* Angry Birds starts with simple targets and destructible blocks, but soon moves to concrete, ice, and more heavily guarded pig targets to stump even expert players

* Bejeweled 2 + Blitz has combos and a high score counter, challenging the player to endlessly improve

* Flight Control begins with just a few planes, but they quickly increase in frequency

It’s really very inspiring how much fun the designers of each of these titles have been able to fit into such simple mechanics.  Video after video has players talking about how they’ve spent hours playing each of these games.  When you hear this your first thought is, “Really?” but upon picking the title up you can see how easy it is to get sucked into getting that one more point.  And they do this without unlocking entirely new features, usually just a few tweaks to an already fun experience.

Other Key Similarities?

One of my favorite things about editing this blog is having smart readers.  There are of course many factors we could talk about that contributed to what made these games successful, but in terms of their designs, are there other similarities that I’ve missed?  Point them out if you see any!（Source：thegameprodigy）