综观iPhone、iPad和Android平台最受欢迎的游戏，你会发现它们存在许多共同特点。本文主要探究热门手机游戏的共同之处，旨在回答此问题：移动平台的游戏要如何取得成功？《愤怒的小鸟》、《割绳子》、《翼飞冲天》、《Physics HD》、《水果忍者》和《Jetpack Joyride》等都是非常成功的手机游戏。它们都存在某些共性。

有限机制：

从广泛意义来看，上述游戏的开发者都试图探究主流手机游戏玩家的追求——什么促使他们体验游戏。他们清楚手机玩家通常都是休闲玩家——而非游戏老手。首先，这意味着游戏需简单易学。因此这些作品鲜少包含差异化的机制。玩家通常都是反复进行相同操作。玩家通常能够迅速把握游戏的核心机制，因为这通常同现实世界的常识呼应。不论《愤怒的小鸟》弹弓背后的逻辑，还是《割绳子》的割绳原理，抑或是《水果忍者》中的切水果方式，操作和结果通常能凭直觉感知，符合逻辑。换而言之，这些游戏完全符合之前谈到的“有意义体验”标准。包含新功能时，游戏总会逐步呈现，伴有简短文字说明，陈述潜在逻辑。

Cut the Rope from reviews.cnet.com

小投入，大收获：

在这些游戏中，玩家能够通过简单输入内容操作游戏内容，获得大量反馈信息（游戏邦注：这通常由物理原理生成）。在《水果忍者》中，简单的扫射就会促使大量五彩缤纷的水果爆炸。在《愤怒的小鸟》中，玩家只要用弹弓轻弹小鸟，建筑就会崩塌，砖块就炸开，小猪就会在混乱的情境中掉落。简单输入内容与大量输出信息的关系通常会令玩家觉得自己威力无比，觉得自己只要进行简单操作就能立即给游戏世界带来巨大影响。

基于物理原理的玩法：

这些“显著影响”都是靠物理原理生成。几乎所有热门手机游戏都基于物理原理。它们迫使玩家通过掌握物理原理获得成功。这个方式非常巧妙。首先，物理原理倾向创造许多意外玩法变体，这能够给简单的游戏内容带来丰富性。融入物理元素能够让玩家更轻松地理解操作结果，因为他们在日常生活中就对这些原理耳濡目染，从而达到“有意义体验”的目标。

愉快、可爱的卡通视觉风格：

不论是《愤怒的小鸟》中的愤怒小鸟，还是《割绳子》中的Omnom，抑或是《翼飞冲天》中的小鸟，它们都极富表现力，非常可爱。凭借大眼睛和卡通轮廓，它们通常能够吸引各性别、年龄和各民族的眼球。这些角色通常惹人喜爱，从中我们能够看到自己的影子。我们能够立即同它们建立起情感联系。这种联系非常重要——特别是对休闲玩家而言。若没有卡通外观，我们很难建立起这种联系。首先，手机设备的小屏幕迫使开发者不得不夸大表现，以便进行完整表达。这种夸大方式在卡通世界完全可行。其次，当前手机设备的运行性能限制开发者创造迷人、仿真角色和游戏世界的可能性。

简单故事情节：

为强化上述情感联系，开发者通常会创建简单而愉快的故事情节。内容通常能够以一句话概括。这能够设定角色的基本动机——需留心某些恼人或危险的内容。同样这些故事情节具有广泛吸引力。不论是小鸟妈妈的蛋被挟持，还是Omnom需要糖果，这些故事能立即引起玩家的共鸣——不论玩家的文化背景是什么。玩家能够理解角色为什么要这样做，他们会希望自己能够帮助它们。

玩家受到持续奖励：

每体验完一个关卡，玩家都会受到星星、钱币或高分奖励，这通常会伴有颇具满足感的夸张视觉、听觉特效。这些奖励举措经常在上述游戏中出现。这些开发者清楚，对手机游戏玩家而言，即时满足感相当重要，他们通常缺乏耐心，或无法像传统硬核玩家那样投入大量时间。这些奖励不仅会带来积极反馈——促使玩家继续体验，还能够提高重玩价值，成绩欠佳的玩家能够重返游戏。

多数关卡都非常简短：

这些游戏通常都融入大量小型关卡——有时数量超过100。小型关卡令玩家能够在时间有限的情况下体验游戏。有时，完成某关卡还无需5秒钟，如备受追捧的iPhone和iPad游戏《Cado》。更重要的是，此结构支持手机玩家追求的即时满足感。

玩家在融入随机元素的关卡中反复体验：

JetPack Joyride from kotaku.com

若游戏未融入大量小型关卡，它们通常都会采用《翼飞冲天》和《JetPack Joyride》中的单一关卡结构。在这些游戏中，玩家反复体验同个关卡。游戏融入随机事件旨在区别这些体验，通常玩家需要在某些回合中完成特定任务。这个模式与经典掌上游戏《俄罗斯方块》类似，这款游戏的主要特色是，玩家需在日益艰难的游戏世界中尽可能生存下去。

2D横向卷轴玩法：

2D游戏在移动平台广泛再现——这不仅是因为移动设备的硬件配置限制3D图形的可能，还因为2D游戏对休闲玩家而言更易于理解。

其他方面：

这里我要提到的是系列出现于热门手机游戏的次要强化功能。这包括通过OpenFeint和Game Center等服务平台植入的排行榜和成就元素。通过添加内容和功能频繁更新游戏内容也非常重要。作品高质量和低价格（游戏邦注：通常很少超过3美元）也能够有效提高销量。

总结

作为iOS开发者，我觉得检查自己的作品融入多少上述功能非常重要。本文并非简单列表，而是制作杰出手机游戏的指南。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

What Makes a Successful Mobile Game

When looking at the most popular and best-selling games for iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms, they generally share a remarkable number of features. In this editorial, I will analyze what the most popular games have in common in order to answer the more general question: What makes a game successful on mobile platforms? Games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Tiny Wings, Physics HD, Fruit Ninja, and Jetpack Joyride are all highly successful mobile games. They generally possess a number of shared features, which I will explain below.

A very limited number of gameplay mechanics:

On a very broad level, the developers of the above-mentioned games have managed to understand what the general mobile game player seeks in a game – what motivates him to play. They have understood that mobile players tend to be casual players – rather than highly experienced ones. First and foremost, this means that the game has to be easy to learn and understand. Therefore, these games have very few different gameplay mechanics. You tend to do the same action over and over again. This core gameplay mechanic instantly clicks with you because it resonates with something you already know from the real world. Whether it is the logic behind catapults as in Angry Birds, the logic behind rope cutting as in Cut the Rope or the slicing of fruit as in Fruit Ninja, the relationship between what you do, and what plays out on the screen seems intuitive and logical In other words, these games heavily support the notion of “meaningful play” as explained in this former blog post. When a new feature does crop up, it is gradually introduced and complemented by a short uninterrupting tutorial, clearly showing its underlying logic.

Little input, big output:

In these games, you set something in motion with a simple input, and get a huge amount of feedback usually generated by physics. In Fruit Ninja, a simple swipe generates numerous huge, colorful fruit explosions. In Angry Birds, you catapult your bird with a similarly simple swipe, after which buildings collapse, bricks explode, and pigs fall on each other in a chaotic and rather unpredictable mess. This relationship between simple inputs and magnificent outputs creates a great feeling of empowerment in players, who instantly see their simple actions have considerable impacts on the game world.

Physics-based gameplay:

These “considerable impacts” are usually generated by physics. Nearly all successful mobile games are physics-based. They force players to master – or predict – the laws physics in order to achieve success. This approach seems to be clever for a number of reasons. First of all, physics tend to be responsible for numerous emergent gameplay variations, thus providing variety to an otherwise simple game. What’s more, the inclusion of physics makes it easier for the player to understand the outcomes of his actions, because he’s familiar with the laws of physics from everyday life, thus supporting the notion of “meaningful play”, as explained earlier.

A bright, cartoony, and cute visual style:

Both the angry birds in Angry Birds, Omnom in Cut the Rope, or the little bird in Tiny Wings look very expressive and cute. With their big eyes and cartoony outline, they tend to appeal to people of all genders, ages and nationality. As a result, these characters become likeable, and we might even see part of us reflected in them. We immediately create a very basic emotional connection to them. This connection appears to be hugely important – especially for casual gamers. It would be significantly harder to achieve this connection without a cartoony look for a number of reasons. First of all, the small screen size of a phone forces the developer to exaggerate a given expression in order to communicate it. This exaggeration makes sense in a cartoon world. Secondly, the lack of horsepower provided by current mobile devices limits the possibility of creating compelling and credible realistic-looking characters and game worlds.

A very simple storyline:

In order to accentuate the aforementioned emotional connection, a very basic and lighthearted storyline is often set up. Oftentimes at can be summarized with a single sentence. It sets up your character’s basic motivation – something irritating or dangerous that needs to be taken care of. Again these storylines tend to have a very universal appeal. Whether bird mothers experience the kidnapping of their eggs, or Omnom needs candy, the story instantly clicks with you – no matter what culture you come from. You understand why the characters do what they do, and you want to help them succeed.

The player is constantly rewarded:

After each play through of a level, players are rewarded with stars, coins, or highscores or a combination of them, and usually they are accompanied by satisfying and exaggerated sound and graphic effects. This reward-giving act happens extremely frequently in the above-mentioned games. Their developers have understood that for mobile game players, instant gratification is particularly important, as they generally can’t muster the amount patience or can’t invest the amount of time that traditional hardcore gamers can. These rewards not only provide positive feedback – thus motivating the player to continue playing . they also boost replay value as players revisit levels with sub-optimal scores. Why this constant reward mechanism is generally an important game design principle is further elaborated in this blog post.

A huge amount of levels that are very short…:

It’s common for these games to have many bite-sized levels – sometimes over 100. Being bite-sized makes them easy to pick up and play when the player has little play time at his disposal. Sometimes, they take less than 5 seconds to complete as in the magnificent iPhone and iPad game, Cado. What’s more, this structure supports the aforementioned instant gratification that mobile players crave for.

…Or one level played over and over again with random elements:

If these games don’t have huge amount of small levels, they tend to adhere to a single level structure as seen in Tiny Wings and JetPack Joyride. Here you play the same level over and over again. Random occurrences serve to differentiate play-throughs, and oftentimes you must complete specific assignments during a play-through. This model is similar to the handheld classic, Tetris, in that the act of surviving for as long as possible in an increasingly difficult game world is a key feature.

2D side-scrolling gameplay:

2D games are seeing a huge revitalization on mobile platforms – not only because the hardware limits complex 3d geometry, but also because 2D games games tend to be inherently easier to understand for the casual player.

And the rest…:

Here, I will mention a couple of minor feature enhancements also present in most successful mobile games. The inclusion of leader boards and achievements via services such as OpenFeint and Game Center is one of them. Frequently updating the game with additional content and features is important too. A general high degree of polish, as well as a very low price point – rarely exceeding 3 $ – can also help sales.

Conclusion:

As a developer for IOS, I think it can be valuable to look at how many of these features you have included or can include in your game. This post shouldn’t be seen as a simple checklist, though. Rather, it’s a general guideline for successful mobile game design. It’s certainly something that we at Red Key Blue Key have considered greatly in the development of our upcoming game Bouncy Flame. Look for it in the App Store early October 2011.（Source：redkeybluekey）