作者：James Nouch

2011年9月17号，也就是《DragonVale》发行后的三天，它就跻身美国热门iPhone游戏榜单前10位，而且经久不衰。

为庆祝它连续366天位居榜单前10（因为2012年是闰年），PocketGamer日前采访该游戏工作室Backflip Studios首席执行官Julian Farrior，透露了《DragonVile》在榜单上经久不衰的秘诀。

dragonvale-art(from pocketgamer)

规模

Julian Farrior解释道：“我们知道自己制作出了一款出色且与众不同的游戏，但那时如果我说自己认为《DragonVale》可以连续12个月位居热门榜单前10名，那我肯定是在说大话。”

但是当《DragonVile》获得如此高的成功以及保持持续胜利时，他们着实意外，Farrior就此现象有诸多见解。

他指出：“不断更新是游戏持久胜利的因素之一。”他强调“实时团队”为了不断更新内容付出了不少努力。

Backflip也在自己的网络内进行交叉推广，那时《DragonVile》的用户群只是“小型却在不断壮大的部分”——同时，该工作室也同“其它高质量的合作伙伴”交换流量。

显然，这是一项有效的战略。Farrior表示，自《DragonVale》发行后，它的下载量已突破1300万次。

他解释道：“自去年9月份游戏发行后，连续几个月来，我们看到活跃用户仍在不断增加。目前，我们的《DragonVale》拥有150多万的日活跃用户和500万月活跃用户。”

dragonvale-chart-1(from pocektgamer)

营销

然而有趣的是，从原始下载量上看，此游戏并未在榜单上占据多大的优势。

游戏发行后不久，仅仅一天，它就跻身免费游戏榜单前10名——《DragonVale》之后并再未续这一神话。2011年12月的某时，我们看到这款游戏曾跌落出榜单前100的位置。

dragonvale-chart-2(from pocketgamer)

这些情况表示，《DragonVale》在热门榜单的地位更多归功于Backflip在吸引用户及盈利性上的能力，它并非通过高成本的营销手段获得这一成就。

其它方面

实际上，Farrior坚称工作室只利用不到1%的《DragonVale》收益购买流量，而且他坚信正是工作室的这种合理手段让游戏跃居热门榜单。

Farrior解释道：“我们非常小心地保护我们的用户基础。我们不会让玩家深陷花费问题，因此我认为他们乐意为《DragonVale》投入更多时间。”

“这似乎是有违直觉的情况，但是我想，有相当一部分用户乐意掏腰包，因为我们并未给玩家设置障碍。我们努力地平衡经济问题，并同时为新玩家与高级玩家提供可玩的内容。”

这款游戏由15个人组成的强大团队制作，他们仍在为《DragonVale》不断地制作更新内容，包括为庆祝此游戏的周年纪念日而推出的特殊道具。

《DragonVale》的Android和亚马逊版本将在几周后发行，届时《DragonVale》可能也会风靡一些全新的排行榜。（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）

The Charticle: 1 year and 13 million downloads later, Dragonvale still rides high in the iOS top grossing charts

by James Nouch

The Charticle is PocketGamer.biz’s weekly look at the games jostling for position on the app store charts. It covers Apple’s App Store, Google Play and the Amazon App Store.

On Saturday 17 September 2011 – just three days after its launch – DragonValeentered the top 10 chart of highest grossing iPhone games in the US, and hasn’t left it yet.

That means that today is the game’s top grossing anniversary, and to celebrate its unbroken 366 day spell in the top 10 (this is a leap year after all), this edition of the PocketGamer.biz Charticle will examine the secrets of DragonVale’s sustained success.

A question of scale(s)

“We knew we had a good game and one that was distinctly different, but I’d be lying if I said I thought it was going to be in the top 10 grossing games chart for twelve consecutive months,” explains Backflip Studios’ CEO Julian Farrior.

But while the degree and duration of DragonVale’s success has come as a surprise, Farrior has plenty of ideas as to how it happened.

“Constant updates are one facet of longevity,” he says, emphasising the importance of a ‘live team’ to create a stream of content for launched games.

Backflip also cross-promotes across its own network of users – of which DragonVale is just a “small but growing portion” – as well as swapping traffic with “other high quality partners.”

Clearly, it’s strategy that’s working. Farrior tells PocketGamer.biz that DragonVale has been downloaded more than 13 million times since launch.

“We have seen consistent month over month active user growth since we launched the game last September,” he explains. “We are currently seeing more than 1.5 million daily active users and 5 million monthly active users just in DragonVale.”

A different story

But interestingly, in terms of raw downloads, DragonVale has never set the charts on fire.

Shortly after launch, the game breached the top 10 free games chart for just one day – a feat it has never repeated. December 2011 even saw the game drop out of the top 100 games chart for several days at a time.

All of which suggests that DragonVale’s position in the top grossing chart is more the result of Backflip’s ability to engage and monetise its audience, rather than any attempts to generate revenue through expensive chart-based marketing.

A little respect

In fact, Farrior insists that the studio has spent less than one percent of DragonVale’s overall revenue on buying traffic, and believes it’s the studio’s respectful approach to monetisation that’s key to the game’s grossing charts dominance.

“We are very careful and somewhat protective of our user base. We don’t back players into a corner with regard to spending money and as a result I think our users are grateful and spend more time with us,” explains Farrior.

“It seems counter-intuitive, but I think a larger percentage of users actually spend money because we are careful not to put a wall in front of them,” Farrior theorises. “We work hard at balancing our economy and offering content for both new players and advanced players alike.”

That work is being carried out by a fifteen-strong team that’s still crafting content and updates for DragonVale, including special in-game items to celebrate the title’s anniversary.

And with Android and Amazon versions due within a matter of weeks, DragonVale may soon scale a new set of charts, too.

After all, as Julian Farrior tells us, “everyone seems to love dragons.” (source:pocketgamer)