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解析如何优化游戏UI以增加IAP收益

发布时间:2012-12-23 08:28:32 Tags:,,,

作者:Ethan Levy

我有一点儿落伍了,直到最近才发现这款特别的iOS游戏《Punch Quest》,当即就迷上它了。这款制作精良的游戏融合了《Jetpack Joyride》和《Streets of Rage》(或叫作《街头霸王》)的系统和元素,使我非常着迷。我觉得尤其过瘾的是快节奏的回合和简单的玩法、看到打败独眼世巨人的技能爆发。

cyclops(from insidesocialgames)

cyclops(from insidesocialgames)

《Punch Quest》成为头条新闻不只是因为它获得很高的评分,还因为它采用免费模式失败后突然转向付费模式,真是让人感到不幸。我发现这款游戏时,它刚开始以0.99美元出售,我觉得这价格非常公道。我玩得非常高兴,在游戏内置购买(IAP)上花了很多钱。更重要的是,这款游戏达到了成功免费游戏的一条最重要的指标:玩家能通过消费IAP而获得更多乐趣。

尽管它被安装了超过63万次,赢利性却没有达到让人满意的程度,因此我带着批判的眼光分析了游戏的UI。作为游戏设计师,我认为我们的工作就是确保游戏机制、经济系统设计和UI/UX设计协调运作,以保证免费游戏的成功。但根据我与其人设计师(和美工、工程师)的合作经验看,极少有开发者喜欢做UI/UX设计。结果是,游戏的这个重要部分往往表现不佳。

随着网页、手机和触屏类游戏越来越多,UI/UX作为促进游戏成功的一个元素,其重要性只会增加。因此,我将在本文中对这款游戏提出几条建议,解释《Punch Quest》应该怎么优化它的UI来增加IAP,从而更好地赢利。

核心循环

当设计免费游戏时,极为重要的一点是,密切关注游戏的核心循环。玩家一次又一次进行的基本活动是什么?就核心循环而言,小细节也可能有大作用。为了证明这一点,我把《Punch Quest》与《Bejeweled Blitz》相比较。乍一看,二者的核心循环非常相似,但仔细看你就会发现,为什么前者的免费模式失败了,而后者挣钱快得像印钞机。

下图中显示的是我在《Punch Quest》玩得非常高兴:

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

当我的角色被其中一个怪打败时,屏幕上弹出一个任务面板,这是核心循环的关键部分。

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

任务面板让我在每一回合都有目标,让我想一直玩下去。

我点击下一个按钮,出现了一个带选项的属性面板:

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

如果我要采用最简单的办法,我会点击右下角的大个Retry按钮,然后再开始游戏。每玩完5到10个回合,我就会查看一下商店(如果是游戏指引我去购买任务道具,我可能还会看更多次)。

现在让我将其与《Bejeweled Blitz》的核心循环作个比较。我认为《Bejeweled Blitz》的赢利策略很正确,这一点从它占据2012年iPhone游戏总收益排行榜第7名就可以看出来。

Bejeweled Blitz(from insidesocialgames)

Bejeweled Blitz(from insidesocialgames)

当我耗完时间的时候,假设我没有获得新奖牌,我就会立刻看到得分面板:

Bejeweled Blitz(from insidesocialgames)

Bejeweled Blitz(from insidesocialgames)

这个面板非常重要。作为大约20%的通过手机连接到Facebook的玩家之一,我希望在得分上超过我的好友Doug,以证明我比他强,这是促使我一直玩下去的动力。按下Play后,我看到了增益道具的面板:

Bejeweled Blitz(from insidesocialgames)

Bejeweled Blitz(from insidesocialgames)

我可以用挣到的金币购买增益道具,这些道具可以让我的得分在后面的3个回合中超过Doug。在我开始下一轮60秒的狂欢以前,我必须再次点击Play。

现在,这两款游戏有许多显著的不同点,但为什么《Bejeweled Blitz》入围总收益排行榜,而《Punch Quest》却达不到期望?

显示购买

《Bejeweled Blitz》和《Punch Quest》都使用了类似的模式。在每一个回合,玩家都可以挣到金币。他可以用这些金币购买道具,如果他不想那么辛苦地通过游戏挣钱币,也可以直接用真钱购买金币。

《Punch Quest》的特点是混合使用永久升级、装饰道具和消耗性的增益道具。但重要的区别是《Bejeweled Blitz》将增益道具面板作为核心循环的一部分。在第一回合开始以前,这就鼓励玩家多消费——或至少让玩家意识到他们可以消费。购买的提示非常直观。

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

Punch Quest(from insidesocialgames)

《Punch Quest》有增益道具,但对玩家来说显示得并不直接。玩家要点击两次主菜单来能看到增益道具面板。说实话,在我第一次玩到第50关时,我还没用过一次增益道具(或查看这个面板)。这与《Bejeweled Blitz》是大大地不同,除了更昂贵更稀有的宝石,每过三个回合游戏就会鼓励玩家使用几种增益道具。

增加补充金币按钮

这是一个小细节,但如果你观察一下《Bejeweled Blitz》,你就会发现,在游戏玩法之外,显示金币数目的地方也始终有一个补充金币的按钮。没有补充金币面板的游戏是每天自动补满的老虎机,但在这个面板上,应该有一个要玩家主动补充金币的按钮来起到相同的作用。

在《Punch Quest》中,玩家看不到购买技能的按钮,而这却是核心循环的一部分。正如我在上面提到的,玩家几乎每几个回合都会查看商店一次,而在查看商店时只能看到这个选项。

我认为应该将这两个元素结合起来——购买消耗品的面板和购买技能的按钮。如果能将它们添加到游戏的核心循环中,《Punch Quest》的收益应该会增加。但我还认为这款游戏应该补充几个额外的选项,以便吸引玩家购买消耗性道具。

玩家的竞争压力

在《Bejeweled Blitz》中,高分排行榜是玩家体验的核心。超过好友的得分,这种竞争压力是促使玩家用挣来的金币购买增益道具和稀有宝石、以及不断点击Play的主要动力。《Punch Quest》的核心循环有一个冗长的数值面板,据个人经验,我从来没有认真看过。

根据《Bejeweled Blitz》的经验,尽管我们可以估计少于四分之一的游戏玩家会用Facebook登录,但从TinyCo发表的贴子看,那些通过Facebook连接的玩家转化为付费用户的比例比一般用户高60%。

结论

以上只是三个小建议,但我认为如果执行得当,已经很出色的《Punch Quest》可以获得更丰厚的收益,有希望为开发更新和新游戏打下坚实的经济基础。总而言之,当你的免费游戏快完工时,就要特别关注玩家的花钱路径。高居总收益排行榜免费游戏与出现在新闻头条“iPhone最热门游戏XXX,可惜收益失败”中的游戏,这二者的差别,也许正是几个小小的优化问题所导致的。(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

Guest Post: Punch Quest – Optimizing UI Flow for IAP

by Ethan Levy

I’m a little late to the party, but I recently discovered the exceptional iOS game Punch Quest and was instantly hooked. This beautifully crafted mash up of Jetpack Joyride and Streets of Rage (or Final Fight if you were more SNES than Genesis) transfixed me immediately. I was addicted to the quick rounds of pick up and play simplicity, the explosions of Punchos upon completing a quest and the joy of punching a cyclops right in the eye.

Punch Quest made headlines not only for it’s high Metacritic rating, but unfortunately for its failure with the freemium model and unorthodox switch from free to paid. I only discovered the game after it started charging $0.99 and felt that the purchase was completely justified. I enjoyed playing so much that I spent additional dollars on in-app purchases (IAP). Importantly, Punch Quest fulfilled one of the most important criteria for a successful freemium game: as a player, I had more fun as a result of spending money on IAP.

Reading on their failure to monetize the over 630,000 installs to an acceptable level, I took a critical look at the game’s UI. As a game designer, it is my opinion that it is our job to ensure that game mechanics, economy design and UI/UX design all work in harmony to ensure success in a freemium game. But based on my experience working with other designers (and artists and engineers) I know that there are very few developers out there who enjoy doing UI/UX design. As a result, this critical component of a game often suffers.

As games become more browser, mobile and touch based, the importance of UI/UX will only increase as a factor of your game’s success. With that in mind, I offer some advice on how the fantastic Punch Quest can optimize its UI flow to enhance IAP and hopefully bring in more money for RocketCat.

The core loop

When designing for freemium, it is extremely important to pay close attention to the core loop of the game. What are the basic actions that the player takes over and over again with minimal deviation? Small details can make a big difference when it comes to the core loop. To illustrate the point, I am going to compare Punch Quest to Bejeweled Blitz. On a glance, these two have very similar core loops, but close inspection reveals why one has been a free to play disapointment while the other is printing money.

So, here I am in Punch Quest, happily punching away:

When my punchzerker is knocked out by one of those annoying squiddies. I am then served up the quest screen, which is key part  of the core loop.

Quests give me goals in each round and keep me saying “just one more punch.”

I hit the next button and am treated to a stats screen loaded with options:

And if I am following the path of least resistance, I will hit the large Retry button in the bottom right corner and start punching again. I visit the shop after maybe every five or ten rounds of play (more if I am led there by gnomey to buy a quest item).

Now let me compare this with the core loop of Bejeweled Blitz, a game that I think gets monetization design right as proven by its distinction as 2012’s #7 top grossing game on iPhone. Here I am happily matching 3:

When I run out of time. Assuming I didn’t earn a new medal, I am immediately shown the high score screen:

This screen is very important. As one of the 20 percent or so of users who connect to Facebook on my phone, my desire to top my friend Doug’s score and prove I am better than him is what keeps pulling me in for “just one more match.” After pressing play, I am shown the boost screen:

I can spend the coins I have earned to buy boosts that will help me top Doug’s score for the next 3 rounds. I must hit play again before kicking off my next 60 second burst of matching bliss.

Now, these two games have a lot of obvious differences, but why is it that Bejeweled Blitz is raking in the cash while Punch Quest failed to meet expectations?

Making purchases present

Bejeweled Blitz and Punch Quest both follow a similar model. In each round, the player earns currency. He can spend that currency on additional items, and if he does not want to grind to earn enough currency for an in-game item, he can purchase currency directly for real money.

Punch Quest features a mixture of permanent upgrades, cosmetic items and consumable boosts, whereas Bejeweled only has boosts. But the important difference is Bejeweled Blitz serves the boost screen as part of the core loop. The player is encouraged to spend currency – or at least made aware that he can spend currency – before every round of play. Purchasing is very present.

Punch Quest has boosts, but they are not very present for the player. It takes the player two taps off the main menu to reach this boosts screen. And I have to be honest, I did not use a single boost (or even visit this screen) on my first playthrough to level 50. This is a stark contrast to Bejeweled Blitz, where the player is encouraged to use several boosts every three rounds of play in addition to more expensive, rare gems.

Add an add coins button

It is a small detail, no doubt, but if you look at Bejeweled Blitz you will see that outside of gameplay, there is always an Add Coins button next to my coins display. The one screen without an Add Coins button is the Daily Spin slot machine, but on this screen,there is a Get Spins button which serves largely the same function.

In Punch Quest, the player does not see the Buy Punchos button as part of the core loop. He is only presented with this option when visiting the store, which as I noted above, happens once every few rounds.

I think that by combining these two elements – a Buy Consumables screen and a Buy Punchos button – and adding them to the core loop of the game, Punch Quest can increase its revenue. But I also think the game would have to add a few additional options for enticing consumable purchases.

Peer pressure

The high scores table is core to the player’s experience in Bejeweled Blitz. The peer pressure of trying to top a friend’s score each week is a big part of what motivates the player to use earned coins to purchase boosts and rare gems, and hit the Play button for just one more round. Punch Quest’s core loop features a lengthy stats screen, that from my personal experience, I’ve never paid that much attention.

Although we can expect that less than a quarter of the game’s players will sign in with Facebook, based on Bejeweled Blitz’s experience, we can also expect that those connected players are 60 percent more likely to be payers, as revealed by TinyCo in a June 26 blog post.

Wrapping up

These are three small suggestions, but I believe that if implemented properly the already excellent Punch Quest could boost its revenue and hopefully be in a solid financial position to keep developing updates and awesome new games. But my broader point is that when you are close to shipping your freemium game, take an extremely close look at the user’s path to spending money. A few small optimizations can be the difference between a chart topping, freemium success and a headline that calls you out as “the iPhone’s hottest game, but … a financial flop.”(source:insidesocialgames


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