作者：Bora Kutlu

当我们成立了Picnic Hippo工作室并开始投入开发第一款游戏《Bucketz》时，我们意识到即使拥有最出色的工作伙伴，但如果没有花时间去明确一些基本原则，我们的产品也很难成为真正受欢迎的主流游戏。

而以下内容便是《Bucketz》（从原先的默默无闻最终变成受到App Store推荐的游戏）发行前1年半时间里我们所遵循的一系列原则：

Bucketz(from itunes.apple.com)

1.聆听有用的建议而非所有意见

当你最初进入App Store领域时，你将会发现周围有许多人想与你分享自己多年积攒的经验。他们将快速呈现给你大量相关数据——甚至比八卦消息传播的速度还快。但是你需要注意的是，那些对他们有帮助的方法在你身上却不一定有效。

如果你所创造的是一款关于水仙花为了复仇而吃掉恐龙的游戏，并已经在进行游戏的收尾工作，那么你便不需要采纳那些依靠制作会计应用而谋生的开发者的建议。

总之，切忌死脑筋地沿着那条看起来雷同且安全的道路走下去。

2.并非所有手机游戏都适用于厕所环境

我们在游戏行业中的一些好友告诉我们要设计出能够让玩家在上厕所时体验的手机游戏。但是这样的设定对于游戏新手来说却并不健康；因为在经过长时间的游戏过程后玩家可能会感觉自己的双脚接近麻木了。而如果你将游戏视为上厕所的消磨工具，并以此降低难度，那么它便只能提供上厕所级别的游戏体验。

你应该根据自己的想法赋予游戏更多内容——但同时也需要设置一些可选择的游戏玩法或功能。不要让游戏成为人们上厕所专用杂志的替代品。如今手机已经成为了人们随声携带的必备品，所以你必须确保你的应用也能够随时派上用场。

3.在真正开始前不要轻举妄动

一开始仔细思考，讨论（头脑风暴），幻想（积极和消极）你想要创造的应用。在脑中构思如何游戏，切记在你真正清楚自己想要创造出怎样的产品之前不要启动任何创造过程。不断发挥各种想象，避免开发团队多次的反复劳作。战争电影中的弓箭手之所以会长时间“手握”弓箭并不是因为他们的箭头不足，而是他们希望能够谨慎地抓住最佳射击点。所以你也应该像弓箭手这样在精心计算过后再“射箭”。

4.服务于各个年龄段的用户

如果你在游戏中获得了高分，便能够保住在Game Center中的最高位置，但是如果你希望游戏获得更广泛的吸引力，它便需要能够吸引同堂三代人的注意。

在为游戏添加“容易上手但却难以精通”的描述前让你的孩子，老婆和妈妈尝试你的游戏，并进行测试。

事实上你最好不要在描述中使用这一短语，因为这只会不断堆积玩家的愤怒感。

5.倾听自己的心声但也要善于控制成本

当你开始花时间开发应用时你便会慢慢产生空洞感。应用开发总是很烧钱，特别是当你创造的是AAA级产品时。你并不需要一下子将自己想到的所有功能都添加到1.0版本中。就像在轮盘赌中，如果你不知道如何控制自己的筹码，你那潜在且完美的搭乘技能便不可能派上用场。

6.参与集体讨论

整合整个团队的智力和创造性。你的脑中可能有无数个想法，但不要认为你自己就能想出所有完美解决方案。你必须与其他不同领域的同事分享自己的想法，也许你们的讨论结果并不是最佳解决方法，但却能够让游戏整体更显活力。

7.不要开发“新瓶装旧酒”的游戏

不要依赖于“复制”“粘帖”方法。既然App Store都未限制你的创造性，你自己更不应该如此。

Lois Lane（游戏邦注：是DC漫画公司旗下的漫画人物，她是超人的妻子）并未骑在超人身体上——在他们第一次共同飞行时她只能够碰到超人的手指。我们可以借鉴市场上其它游戏的一些优秀的游戏元素，并在此基础上极大提升其余的游戏设计。而如果你能够背离主流游戏理念而创造出属于自己的游戏，你便可能取得更好的成果。手机市场中还存在许多未被开发的领域，众多玩家们也希望能够在此看到更多新理念的诞生。

8.享受开发过程

创造一款成功的应用就像是讲出一个非常好笑的笑话。如果你自己都觉得这个笑话很有趣，你便很有可能获得朋友的积极响应。

你应该首先制作出自我感觉良好的应用，并舍弃所有让自己不快的内容。

享受创造应用的每个时刻，绝对不要对此感到压力。想象下那些待在狭小的工厂不断重复着装配线工作的人们，你便会觉得自己面对的是一份多么有趣且多酷的工作。

9.善待并重视漏洞

尝试着去接受漏洞，它们永远都不可能完全消失。与宠物一样，漏洞也喜欢躲躲藏藏，并总是在最不幸的时刻发挥功效。我们需要记得漏洞也是代码的一个组成部分，而代码则是那些遵照你的要求去执行你想要结果的对象。

你应该在每次遇到漏洞时将其记录下来，而不是每次都慌慌张张地去找程序员帮忙。程序员通常不喜欢他人隔三差五地报告漏洞，毕竟这种做事方式也更易出岔子。

10.注重细节和外观

让我们将拥有上百万潜在用户的App Store比作俱乐部。打个比方来说吧，如果你在过去五个月中都穿相同的衣服并且头发凌乱，那么肯定没有人会去关注你。

在将游戏正式推向市面前先更好地完善图像设计，维持代码的有效运行，整合音频元素，游戏玩法等内容。如果你能够达到“非常好”或“让人满意”的结果，你便能够获得足够的关注度。否则便只能是“无人关注”或“微不足道”了。

在Picnic Hippo我们是经过无数次讨论才最终明确了这些主要的原则。而能够否定这10大原则的最有力表述就是——“让我们闭嘴开始创造最出色的游戏！”（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）

Principles to adopt on the way to a Featured App

by Bora Kutlu

When we founded Picnic Hippo and started to ambitiously work on our first title, Bucketz, we immediately noticed that even if you have the best people on the planet working with you, it’s not easy to achieve mainstream appeal if you don’t take the time to layout some ground rules.

Here is a brief list of the principles we have committed to on our one and a half year journey leading up to the release of Bucketz – which went from being a totally unknown title, to an Apple-featured game around the world in App Store:

1. Listen to everyone, they are hilarious

When you first venture into App Store space, you’ll find yourself surrounded by people willing to dispense wisdom beyond their years. They’ll whip out a plethora of slightly relevant statistics at you faster than the speed of gossip. The thing is, what worked for them may not work for you.

If you are putting the finishing touches on a game about a daffodil eating dinosaurs for revenge then it may be a good idea to duck the avalanche of advice coming your way from a guy that makes accounting apps for a living.

Bottom line, don’t be led down the safe path of conformity.

2. Not all mobile games are played on a toilet seat

We’ve heard from our friends in the industry that you should design a mobile game for use in the John. For starters, it’s not healthy; your legs might feel like  they are someone else’s for a while after a long gaming session. If you are trying to dumb down your application because you think it will only be used in a bathroom, then it probably will be.

Make your app’s content as rich as you like – but also consider making some of the gameplay or features optional. Do not sacrifice it all for the limited few who have betrayed age old customs and substituted handhelds for magazines. Today, mobile devices usually travel with their owners. They can be -and in fact are- used everywhere.

3. Before starting, appear to be doing nothing for quite a long time

Think hard, brainstorm, dream or have nightmares about the application you want to create. Play it in your mind, sketch it, plan it but DO NOT kick off any other work process before you know exactly what you want your end product to be like. Always remember to visualize instead of making the creative team do it 200 times over. Archers in war movies “hold” so long not because they have limited arrows but a “literal” deadline rushing towards them and so do you… Make your shots count…

4. Make sure your grandma can use your application

You may have reserved your top spot in Game Center with a million plus points but remember if you want widespread appeal, three generations in a single household may need to be able to play your game.

Always test your app with children, soccer moms and grandma while she’s over your house for a 4 season True Blood marathon before proclaiming in your app description that “it’s easy to pick up but difficult to master.”

Oh, and actually please don’t use this phrase ever in your description, the last quarter million that did may be cumulatively pissed.

5. Listen to your heart but also to the piggy bank that holds your life savings

It may have started sounding hollow while you were taking your time creating your app. App creation is quite costly especially if you are going for a triple A production. You don’t need to put in all the features that your heart desires at once, in version 1.0. Like in roulette, if you don’t know when to stop adding more chips to the table, you may be surprised at your latent and perfectly serviceable hitchhiking skills on the way home…

6. Join the collective

Network the brain power and creativity of your entire team. Your skull may be having a hard time housing a bulging brain running havoc with overly creative ideas but do not presume you have all the best solutions. Always share them with colleagues working in vastly different areas for their input, chances are coughing at the screen may not be the best solution to activate an in game power-up.

7. Don’t play the same tune with different lyrics

Switching angry animals with heated boulders while keeping the CTRL+C & V’ed gameplay mechanics exactly as it is may sadly be the order of the day. However the App Store doesn’t put any restrictions on your creativity and neither should you.

Lois Lane was not riding on superman like he was a donkey on their first flight together, just barely touching his fingers. It’s ok to pay homage to other great games on the market with some gameplay elements while vastly improving upon the rest. Better yet if you can, depart altogether from main popular concepts and create your own. There are still so many unexplored areas in the mobile market and customers respect brand new concepts.

8. Enjoy yourself

Creating a successful app is very similar to cracking a good joke. If you know it’s funny and love it yourself even before blurting it out to your friends then you’re on the right track to receiving quite a few genuine laughs.

Make apps that you feel good about, stuff that you yourself keep getting pulled back into even after work hours, in your bathroom for example.

Enjoy every moment of the process of creating apps and never get stressed about it. Think about all the people that are working in assembly lines in cramped factories around the world. You have a really cool and fun job. Don’t think about surf instructors, though, their job is way cooler than you can possibly imagine.

9. Treat bugs like pets

Accept it, they will never go away entirely. Like pets, bugs like to hide and come out to play at the most unfortunate moments. Remember that bugs are actually small segments of code that are actually trying to please you by doing exactly what you told them to do.

Make a list of them rather than running to your programmers every time you spot one. Programmers are genetically bred to respond badly to bug reports thrown at them in short intervals and will do whatever is necessary to exact revenge on you when you least expect it.

10. Put make up on if you want to attract attention at the club scene

The club being the App Store with millions of potential customers. Figuratively speaking, the same shirt you wore for the last five months and a hairdo in wild disarray will not exactly cut it.

Perfect your graphic design, the code working in the background, the audiovisual elements, gameplay, everything before you step out. Settling for results that are  “good enough” or “satisficing” will ensure you get the placement and attention you deserve. Which is approximately between “None” and “Neglible.”

In Picnic Hippo, these are the main principles we have settled for after countless debates on establishing our working guidelines. The biggest contender to these 10 pillars of conduct was a much more simpler one though:

“Let’s just shut up and make some awesome games!”

But we still went with these ten guidelines, and you should consider them too!(source:GAMASUTRA)