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开发者需为自己创造游戏才能取悦目标用户

发布时间:2012-06-02 09:00:03 Tags:,

作者:Brandon Sheffield

很多人说,如果你想要创造一款大受欢迎的游戏你就需要听取焦点小组的意见,小心地观察着各种参数的变化并关注流行趋势。但我想说的是,如果你的方向对了,你就只要做好自己便能够攻下免费游戏市场并大获其利。甚至,你还能够因此创造出更加有趣的游戏!

个人的力量

让我们先来看一些例子。面向iOS平台的《Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP》是一款拥有华丽图像的单人游戏,其售价为4.99美元,这在App Store中算是高价了。在这个免费游戏当道的领域里,高价游戏总是难以避免惨痛的失败。但是最终这款游戏却在发布后的6个月内达到了30万份销量,可以说这都是归功于创造者真正坚持了自己的见解吧。也就是开发者是在为自己创造游戏。

sword_sworcery_ep(from kotaku.com.au)

sword_sworcery_ep(from kotaku.com.au)

《Minecraft》便是另外一个典型的例子。Notch也是因为自己想玩才创造出这款游戏。当然了,Notch也知道自己为玩家创造了一个消磨时间的沙盒,但是一开始他却从未想过为游戏进行市场研究。在为自己创造《Minecraft》的同时,Notch也是在创造一种能够自主运转的宣传机器,即随着社交媒体的发展,并且当人们真正喜欢你的游戏时,他们自然就会口口相传地帮你推广游戏。

那些达成共鸣的群体们将与好友们分享游戏信息,而他们的好友们也将会与自己的好友,甚至是父母和祖父母进行分享(游戏邦注:如果没有分享,这些人可能永远都不会去接触这种游戏)。

这种口口相传之所以如此有效也是因为人们总希望自己喜欢的东西能够获得别人的认同,他们希望别人也会喜欢自己所喜欢的东西。而当人们愿意分享你的游戏时,就表明他们真正欣赏你的游戏。

让我们就这样行动吧

你该如何模仿这种成功?你不应该直接模仿现实中的产品,你应该更多地关注开发者在创造这些产品的思维过程,也就是从最初的构思开始。

你肯定有某些自己非常喜欢的内容,也许是苹果II时代的平台游戏,是分形学,或者是电子乐。但是不管是什么,你都需要明确它并深入研究它。

什么东西才称得上是细分内容?如果是“体育”这个范围就过广了,而奥林匹克便稍微接近了一点,但是如果你进一步细分到跨栏,你便算明确了一种细分类型。而现在你便需要寻找一种能够吸引你注意的视觉效果或游戏玩法。

play_qwop(from qwophq.com)

play_qwop(from qwophq.com)

《Qwop》便是一个很典型的例子——这是一款面向浏览器并大受欢迎的跨栏赛跑游戏。虽然游戏中有许多复杂的控制方式,但是玩家却能在观看游戏的运转时倍感欢快,所以他们都很乐意一边玩游戏一边与好友进行讨论。所以最终这款游戏在App Store中取得了非常好的成绩,并成为了优秀的细分游戏典例。

当你明确了你的细分市场以及游戏玩法基调时,便需要确立你想要到达的目标,并始终坚持着这一目标而发展。如果你的目标是“炸毁一切内容”,那你就需要在所有内容中体现这种元素,甚至是UI也不例外。如此才能够帮助你有效地缩小规模。并且你也应该舍弃那些违背自己观点的内容。

你可能会担心人们不愿意听取你的想法。但因为我们都是再普通不过的人了,所以我们自己也会抱有这样的想法。并且肯定也存在一些人喜欢与你做同样的事。也就是说如果你是为了自己创造游戏,那你同时也是在为这些人创造游戏。没有人会期待你真的创造出满足他们特殊需求的游戏,而如果你真的做到了这一点,他们便会极力赞扬你的游戏并为其做宣传。

开发商Capy Games(创造了《Sword & Sworcery》)总裁Nathan Vella便非常赞同这一点。他说道:“我认为当你将所有人视为目标用户时,你其实并未真正瞄准任何人。你并不是特别为某一对象创造游戏,所以这就等于你未瞄准任何对象。”

人们总是能够真切感受到一款产品是否足够真诚,并且也没有什么比你为自己创造的产品来得真诚了。这种“我不认为其他人也能创造出同样的产品”的想法能够帮助你在一些像Reddit等社区中快速获得成功。

除此之外,游戏的发行方式也很重要。如果玩家很难找到你的游戏,那么我之前所说的一切便都是废话。让我们以Xbox Live上的独立游戏《Bloody Checkers》为例。玩家需要在游戏中以第一人称的形式在地牢中进行探索,并且当玩家与可怕的城堡居民进行战斗时,他们便有可能获得战利品,道具或经验值。我想说的是,如果这款游戏是发行在Steam上,创造者便有可能获得难以估计的收益。也就是开发者应该挑选那些深受玩家欢迎的平台去发行游戏。

Bloody Checkers(from thestealthminer.wordpress.com)

Bloody Checkers(from thestealthminer.wordpress.com)

如果你是为了自己开发游戏,你便可以创造一些成本和风险较低的游戏。并且你也可能因此获得巨额的回报。如果你是为一些较大的开发团队效力,你可能会认为这种方法并不适合自己;而这也不是全无道理。但是当你深入挖掘这一原理时,你便能够将其有效地应用于游戏中的某些功能中。就像是如果你的开放游戏世界拥有一个深层次的锻造系统,那么肯定有些玩家是看中了这点才选择了你的游戏。

谁会强迫你始终在一个巨大的团队中默默无闻地工作呢?如果你拥有自己的想法,那就大胆地走出团队的束缚去实现这一想法。同时你还需要努力挖掘自己的激情,并利用这一激情去打倒一切阻碍因素!(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

Opinion: Make games for yourself – and nobody else

by Brandon Sheffield

A lot of people say that if you want to make a popular game, you need to listen to focus groups, carefully monitor metrics, and focus on the mainstream. I say: bullshit. Scaling small and being true to yourself can win you free marketing and make you rich, if you do it right. Even better, your games will be way more interesting!

Personal power

Let’s look at some examples. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for iOS is single-player, has a singular aesthetic, and launched at $4.99, which is expensive for the App Store. It was a recipe for commercial failure in a world where the birds are angry, and the top games are free. Still, the game wound up selling 300,000 units in the first 6 months, because the game was absolutely true to its creators’ vision. They made it for themselves.

Minecraft is another easy one. Notch made the game that he wanted to play. Granted, he knew he was making a sandbox for other people to fool around in, but he didn’t do any market research first. In making Minecraft for himself, Notch created a massive self-perpetuating hype machine, because when people like your game, with the proliferation of social media, they can’t help but talk about it.

Something that resonates with a small group of people will expand to their friends, and then their friends, and eventually to their parents and grandparents, who would never have otherwise thought of playing one of these games.

The reason this works so well is because people want to identify with cool things, and they want other people to think that they’re cool for thinking that this “cool thing” is cool. This little corner of the world they’ve discovered is something they now identify with, and they’ll want their friends to like it too. When they share it around, they’ve already put the weight of their appreciation behind it.

Okay, let’s do it

How do you emulate these successes? Contrary to popular belief, you shouldn’t emulate the actual products. Instead, pay attention to the thought process that goes into making them, beginning with the initial idea.

There is something that you like more than anyone else you know does. Maybe it’s Apple II-era platformers. Maybe it’s fractals. Maybe it’s dubstep, god forbid. Find it, and dive right into it.

What qualifies as a niche, then? “Sports” is too vague. The Olympics gets a bit closer, but if you take, say, the Hurdle event in isolation, you’re starting to get somewhere. Now you need to find a visual or gameplay hook that really appeals to you (and hasn’t been done to death).

A good example of this is Qwop, which was a massively popular Hurdling game for browsers. It had stupidly difficult controls, but was hilarious to watch in action, so people played and talked about it religiously. The game has since gone on to App Store success, and is a great example of a good niche game.

Once you’ve established your niche and tone of gameplay, determine the targets you want to hit, and never deviate from them. If the mandate is “everything blows up,” then make everything blow up, even your UI. Rules like this can help you scale small. Throw out everything that doesn’t fit your vision.

You may worry that people won’t latch on to your idea. But none of us is unique, as much as we might like to think so. There’s almost certainly someone else out there that likes the things you do. If you make a game for yourself, you’re also making it for them. Nobody expects you to make a game that targets their weird special interest, so if yours matches theirs, they will sing your praises to the ends of the earth.

Nathan Vella, president of Sword & Sworcery developer Capy Games said this quite well. He said, “I believe that when you’re targeting everyone, you’re really targeting no-one. You’re not making it for anyone specific, so your target group is no-one.”

People can feel when a product is genuine, and there’s nothing more genuine than something you’ve made for yourself. That feeling of “I can’t believe someone made this” is what gets you instant success on aggregator communities like Reddit, which are huge drivers of content.

Your method of delivery is important too, though. If your game is hard to find, none of what I just said applies. Consider BloodyCheckers, which is an Xbox Live Indie Game. Players explore a massive first person dungeon, with loot, items, and experience points, as they battle the denizens of a haunted castle – all by playing a bizarre version of checkers. If this game were on Steam, the creator would be a millionaire. You have to go where the people are.

If you’re developing a game for yourself, you can make something smaller for less money and only take a minimal risk. But the payoff can be huge. You might think this doesn’t apply to you if you’re working on a big team, and you might be partially right. But the principle of digging deep can be applied to one or two features just as nicely. If your open world game has a really deep crafting system, for example, someone out there will play it just for that.

And who says you should be anonymously toiling away on that big, bloated team anyway? If you have an idea, just get out there and make it. So find your passion, see it through, and don’t let the bastards get you down. I’m taking my own advice, and I’ll live or die by it. (source:GAMASUTRA)

 


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