作者：Seth Tipps

Row Sham Bow的CEO Philip Holt认为他有充分的理由抛弃使他的工作室荣获GDC Online大奖的平台。

《Woodland Heroes》是发布于Facebook的游戏，因卓越的设计而倍受好评，并获得GDC大奖，但其制作工作室Row Sham Bow已经携新作《Letter by Letter》转战iOS和Android平台。

letter by letter(from a865.phobos)

虽然许多开发者抛弃社交网络转向手机市场是出于商业考虑，但Holt的理由却与游戏设计更有关系。

Holt表示：“我不知道怎么描述这个原因——作为玩家，我们并不喜欢社交网络中的病毒式营销、留存率和赢利机制。”

“在社交网络上可行的元素导致游戏失去趣味。所以我们并不是那个平台的受众。因此，将其作为我们的主要发布行台，其实是有一点儿虚伪的。”

尽管手机平台也有自己的问题，但Holt认为它对团队来说，是一个更好的归宿。

“手机平台似乎更好一些，我们对这个平台更有热情，这可能是导致转变的最重要原因。”

这并不意味着Row Sham Bow完全脱离社交网络了，因为这个工作室还在制作Facebook版本的《Letter by Letter》，但从现在起，Holt的工作室将手机视为主要发布平台。

另一方面，虽然手机可能更益于更大众化的游戏设计，但却并不容易找到玩家。

“我们是通过一系列付费获取渠道来争取用户。”

“我们想尽快建立玩家基础，这样我们就可以在排行榜上获得更高的排名，因为我们知道许多应用是因为玩家浏览排行榜才被发现的。”

这个工作室的主要推广工具是Facebook注册系统，但Row Sham Bow很快发现，许多玩家更倾向于选择e-mail注册渠道。

因此该工作室也努力想办法通过e-mail和SMS推广游戏。

但Holt承认这种方法替代不了口口相传，好游戏一般是靠这种自然而然的方式获得成功的。

“我认为我们将看到在Facebook上成功的游戏发生一种转变，也就是从非常大众化、休闲的游戏转变为有一点儿“中等硬核”的游戏，后者不会吸引大量一般玩家，但能产生更理想的留存率和赢利。”

Holt总结道：“不同平台来来去去，我认为幸存下来的公司都明白，平台转变是游戏业发展中很自然的一部分，玩家往哪个平台跑，你就必须往哪个平台跑。”（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）

Social good for business, bad for users says CEO

by Seth Tipps

Row Sham Bow CEO Philip Holt says there’s a good reason for abandoning the platform that won his studio a GDC Online award.

Woodland Heroes was launched on Facebook and gained accolades for design at the prestigious award show in Austin, Texas, but Row Sham Bow has already switched to iOS and Android for its new title Letter by Letter.

While many developers have abandoned the social network in favor of the mobile market for business reasons, Holt’s reasoning has more to do with game design.

“One reason is – I don’t know how to put this delicately – looking at what works in social games, the mechanics that allow for viral growth and retention and monetization are not the kind of mechanics that we enjoy as users,” Holt told Gamasutra.

“The stuff that works on the platform leads to games that we don’t like to play. So we’re not the audience. Therefore, it felt a little disingenuous to focus on that platform as our primary launch platform.”

While mobile has its own problems, Holt says it’s a better home for his team.

“It felt like a better place to be, because it’s a platform we’re more passionate about, so that was probably one of the most important influences.”

This doesn’t mean Row Sham Bow has ditched the social network entirely, as the studio is currently working on a version of Letter by Letter for Facebook, but from now on Holt’s company will consider mobile its primary platform.

On the other hand, while mobile may be more condusive to less cynical game design, it isn’t exactly easier to find users.

“Our approach to launching the title was we went through a number of paid acquisition channels,” said Holt.

“We wanted to get a seed audience established as quickly as we could so that we could get as high up the charts as possible, because we know that a lot of app discovery happens from people just browsing the charts.”

One of the primary tools the studio used to get a viral presence was Facebook registration, but Row Sham Bow quickly found that many users instead opted for e-mail registration.

This has led to the Studio scrambling to provide a way for users to spread the word through e-mail and SMS.

But Holt admits this is no replacement for the natural word-of-mouth success enjoyed by the best games.

“I think what we’re seeing is a transition to the kinds of games that are going to be successful on Facebook, and going away from the very mass casual stuff, to games that a bit more ‘mid-core,’ ones that don’t appeal quite as much to a broad general audience, but can retain and monetize users better.”

“Platforms come and go,” Holt concluded, “and I think the companies that survive understand that platform transitions are a natural part of the game industry, and you need to go where the audience is going.”（source：develop-online）