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阐述打造游戏品牌的5个关键要素

发布时间:2013-04-18 11:31:35 Tags:,,,

作者:Simon Newstead

对于新成立的游戏公司,品牌的意义是什么?

不久以前,我从资深技术企业家那儿汲取了一些经验。他们都创立过成功的公司:

所以他们的意见肯定有道理。

为什么树立品牌?

在一个山寨和盗版在应用商店中横行的时代,强大的品牌显示出前所未有的重要性。

品牌价值上升,意味着消费者生命周期也延长。

强大的品牌有助于交叉推广,弥补上涨的每款游戏的CPA。据供职于某大游戏工作室的朋友估计,品牌创造的价值超过20%。

build-your-brand(frombloggingpro.com)

build-your-brand(frombloggingpro.com)

基本的品牌建设并不太费成本,所以新工作室也可以在这方面有所投入。

然而为什么我们总是最后才想到品牌建设?

6个月以前,我还是主张“产品是唯一重要的东西”,但现在,我改变立场了……

the race vs dead already(from iteratingfun)

the race vs dead already(from iteratingfun)

这些可能是好游戏,但玩家知道它们出自同一家公司吗?

tap paradise cove vs tap pet shop(from iteratingfun)

tap paradise cove vs tap pet shop(from iteratingfun)

另一方面,喜欢《Tap Paradise Cove》、喜欢可爱动物的玩家怎么会不想玩《Tap Pet Shop》?

从何入手?

所以品牌是重要的,但我们这些工程师或设计师,要从何入手?

在经历了《Me Girl》项目后,我发现解决以下5个问题是树立品牌的关键:

1、目标玩家/市场是什么?

2、你的核心品牌特质是什么?

3、你的品牌立足点是什么?(情感联系)

4、什么能让玩家想到你的品牌?

5、什么游戏和特点能强化品牌?

我们依次解答以上问题:

1、目标玩家/市场是什么?

这是最简单的一个问题!当你做游戏时,你应该考虑到主要受众是哪些人了。也就是:

如果是策略游戏,那么目标受众是年龄超过25的高收入男性。

如果是生活类游戏,那么目标受众是成年女性。

如果是赛车和运动游戏,那么目标受众是14岁以上的男孩子。

kids playing games(from iteratingfun)

kids playing games(from iteratingfun)

如果你相信你正在做的游戏将成为《愤怒的小鸟》第二——一款几乎受所有人群欢迎的游戏,那么会怎么样呢?

做这样一款游戏是很困难的。虽然不排除运气的成分,但如果你能根据目标玩家设计游戏和建设品牌,成功的机率总是会大大提高。甚至像《Temple Run》和《Words with Friends》这种在所有玩家中热门的游戏,也有他们的主要市场(青少年和成年女性)。

挖掘并确定目标玩家的特点:

1、目标玩家是哪些人?

2、他们什么时候玩游戏?

3、他们的游戏设备是什么?

4、他们还消费什么媒体?

5、他们关注什么问题?

6、他们在生活中面临什么挑战?

……

以上问题是下一个问题的基础:

2、你的核心品牌特质是什么?

如果你必须挑选品牌的两三个特点,换句话说,你的品牌靠什么脱颖而出?

我们先看看主流案例:

brands(from iteratingfun)

brands(from iteratingfun)

Toms:社会道德(游戏邦注:TOMS是一家制鞋公司,他们承诺每卖出一双鞋子,他们就会向贫穷国家捐献一双鞋子)

Nike:个人成就

Walmart:种类丰富,价格低廉

对于《Me Girl》,经过头脑风暴和一个异常艰难的过程,我们确定了3个品牌特质:

me girl(from iteratingfun)

me girl(from iteratingfun)

个人化——游戏与我的个人生活有关

游戏性——可以自我调侃的游戏

灵感——积极的游戏可以启发我

虽然我们的第一个项目是一款时尚类游戏,我们还是决定不要走像LV或美洲虎这样太高端的路线,因为可能会被某些玩家排斥。比如,最吸引Ashley、Christina和我本人(我们三个均为该项目组成员)的品牌其实是Ellen:

Ellen(from iteratingfun)

Ellen(from iteratingfun)

“如果你的游戏是一档电视节目,或汽车或时装品牌……那会是怎么样的呢?”应该先提这样的问题。

一旦你确定品牌的特质,就相当于在迷途中找到了北极星;它将指导你前进的方向。

3、你的品牌的立足点是什么?(情感联系)

强大的品牌往往让消费者与之产生超越逻辑和理性的情感联系。

在印尼,哪怕是工厂里廉价的橡胶和布料也能让人们联想到“Just Do It”。人们会几天几夜排除买最新的苹果的产品。人们买天价的Beats耳机,为了感受它所传达的城市潮流和自由气息。

我们从中得到启发—-当我们A/B测试《Me Girl》的标语时,我们发现情感性短语如我们最后选择的“Fabulously Me”的效果比不带个人色彩的“Games with Style”要好。

“Fabulously Me”概括了我们的意图:让女性在玩我们的游戏时感觉良好,似乎可以抛开年龄、长相、体型、生活状态、挑战……一切。

这就是我们的品牌的立足点。

如果一个品牌能传达某些东西,比如自由、挑战自我等,那么玩家更可能关注这个品牌。

4、什么能让玩家想到你的品牌?

当你确定了目标受众、品牌特质和情感联系,那就可以将品牌形像化了。

设计图标、版式、颜色、声音、UI元素和动画,并通过吸引人的体验传达品牌的价值观,这就是目标。老实说,说得容易做得难,但我们只是直觉得认为经过这个过程,总会得到一些成果。

模拟人生(from iteratingfun)

模拟人生(from iteratingfun)

《模拟人生》的思路和它们的主题“Play with Life”就与视觉设计配合得非常好,可以让人一眼就辨认出来。音乐和声音将游戏里的古怪语言融入其中,强化了独特的个性。

正如我们在《模拟人生》中看到的,品牌元素必须能够结合到之后的游戏、扩展和续篇中,特别是对于现在这个手机游戏层出不穷的时代。

对于我们而言,“Dance Me Girl”或者“Me Girl Dancer”就可以通过交叉推广,完美地嵌入相同的游戏系列中。

style me girl(from interatingfun)

style me girl(from interatingfun)

5、什么游戏和特点能强化品牌?

一致性是关键——无论是美术设计、剧情、机制、幽默元素等。

如果谷歌把你的个人信息出卖给黑市,你会作何感想?

Google(from iteratingfun.com)

Google(from iteratingfun.com)

类似地,如果你经常在Play First上玩《Bubblez》,却发现网站向你推送硬核地下城MMO游戏,你可能会感到困惑不解。

当然,这是极端的例子,但我们每天都面临无数个选择:

1、我应该给UI添加一个功能,但减少模拟游戏的自由度吗?

2、游戏平衡应该倾向于免费玩家还是高级付费玩家?

3、在免费游戏中,应该做哪种类型的广告?

4、我应该在PVP模式中添加一个功能,让玩家花真钱吗?

5、下一款游戏要做什么?

6、……

知道你的品牌价值通常有助于解决上述问题——当你朝着错误的方向前进时,就会对你发出警报。

例如,我们可以添加竞争系统,允许玩家在这个系统作用下有组织地诋毁其他玩家的声望。虽然这从游戏设计的角度看是有趣的,但与我们的“积极和灵感”的主张并不一致。

另一方面,腾时间做品牌建设,可能不会直接在数值指标上显示出成效,却在无形中促进玩家对游戏品牌产生感情,这就值得了。

坚持不懈的努力

我们都知道,树立品牌绝非一日之功——这是一个从游戏设计,到开拓市场,再到客户服务的不断努力的过程。

当然,好品牌不可能拯救坏品牌。能否将宝贵的时间花在没有做过的东西上,总是一件难以抉择的事。

但假设你在做一款好游戏,从长远看,品牌建设确实能增加成功的砝码。

游戏邦注:原文发表于2012年10月29日,所涉事件及数据以当时为准。(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

Creating a game brand – 5 questions to ask

by Simon Newstead

For a startup game company, does brand matter?

A while back I sought wisdom from a group of experienced tech entrepreneurs, all of whom had built successful companies:

That makes sense.

Why build a brand?

In an age of clones and cluttered app stores, having a strong brand for your portfolio is more important than ever.

Increased brand equity correlates to increased customer lifetime values.

A strong brand will convert better in cross promotion and organic adoption of apps from the same company, offsetting rising CPAs to individual titles.  A friend at a large mobile studio with many games, estimated the brand uplift factor to be over 20%.

And basic brand building doesn’t cost that much, making it startup friendly.

Yet why is branding is usually the last thing on our minds?

6 months ago I would have counted myself in the “product is the ONLY thing that matters” camp, yet now I’ve switched camps…

These may be great games, but would players know these are from the same company?

On the other hand, how could a player who enjoyed Tap Paradise Cove and loves cute animals NOT want to play Tap Pet Shop?

How to do it?

Ok, so it’s important, but for us engineers or designers, where to start?

Having gone through the process with Me Girl, I found working through these 5 questions was very helpful:

Who is the target player & market?

What are your core brand attributes?

What does your brand stand for? (emotional connection)

What will identify your brand to players?

What games and features strengthen the brand?

Let’s go through them one by one:

1.  Who is the target player & market?

Yes, the easiest one!  You’re making a game, you should have a primary audience in mind.  eg-

We’re making strategy games for high income males over the age of 25

We’re making lifestyle games for adult women

We’re making racing and sports games for boys up to the age of 14

What if you believe you’re making the next Angry Birds, a game that will be popular with literally everyone?

Creating a game like this is difficult.  While you might strike it lucky, your chances for success and monetization go up if you create games designed and branded for a target group of players.  Even mega hits like Temple Run and Words with Friends have their primary markets (teens and adult women).

Defining player personas, who you’re building for, lets you really dig in and understand:

Who are they?

When do they play?

What do they play on?

What other media do they consume?

What issues are important to them?

What challenges do they have in their lives?

etc

This will provide your base for the next step…

2.  What are your core brand attributes?

If you had to pick (and you do!) what are the 2 or 3 things that are unique to your brand.  Put another way, what makes you different from everyone else out there?

Let’s look at some examples from mainstream:

Toms – style with a social conscience

Nike – personal achievement

Walmart -  large selection and low prices

In our case with Me Girl, after brainstorming and a surprisingly difficult process we settled on 3 brand attributes:

Personal – games that relate to my life

Playful – games that can laugh at themselves

Inspirational – positive games that inspire me

Even though our first title was a fashion game we decided not to go for the high-end aspirational position ala Louis Vuitton or Jaguar, which we felt could exclude some players.  In fact a brand that appealed to Ashley, Christina and myself (our little branding crew) and seemed most in the Me Girl spirit was Ellen:

It helps to ask “if your game was a TV show, or car or fashion brand… what would it be?”

Once you have gone through this and settled on your brand attributes, it’s like you’ve found your North Star. It will help guide you in decisions from here on out.

3.  What does your brand stand for? (emotional connection)

The strongest brands form emotional connections with consumers that often override logic and reason.

Low cost rubber and fabric stitched in a factory in Indonesia can inspire people to “Just Do It”.  People will queue for days for the latest iDevice.   Overpriced headphones from Beats convey urban cool and freedom from authority:

It opened our eyes – when we A/B tested taglines for Me Girl, we found emotional phrases like our final choice “Fabulously Me” converted much better than impersonal choices like “Games with Style”.

“Fabulously Me” sums our mission: to make women feel fabulous while playing our games.  Regardless of age, looks, body shape, status in life, challenges…everything.

This is what our brand stand for.

If a brand stands for something – Freedom.  Challenging yourself etc., chances are players will care that much more in return.

4.  What will identify your brand to players?

Once you’ve locked down your targets, brand attributes and emotional connection, it’s time to bring that to life visually.

Creating a match of logo, typography, color palette, audio, UI elements and animations in a cohesive experience that conveys your values is the goal.  Honestly, it’s easier said than done (we have a ways to go)  But we just consciously going through the process will often result in something good.

The venerable Sims line and their “Play with Life” proposition does it extremely well, with consistent visual elements that a random 20-something on a street could identify in a second.  And their music and audio right including their quirky Simlish reinforces a unique personality.

As we’ve seen with the Sims, branding elements that anticipate and can weave into future games, expansions and sequels is also important.  Even more so in the age of mobile with more releases more often.

For us a future “Dance Me Girl” or “Me Girl Dancer” would fit nicely into the same family from a cross promotion perspective.

5.  What games and features strengthen the brand?

Consistency is key – whether in art, storyline, mechanics, humour etc.

If Google decided to sell your personal info to shady direct marketers, how would you feel?

Likewise if you’re someone who enjoys Bubblez on Play First and returned to find them pushing a hardcore dungeon raiding MMO, you’d probably be confused.

These are extreme examples of course, but there are plenty of choices that we all face every day:

should I add a feature to simplify UI but reduce freedom in my simulation game?

should the game be balanced to encourage free players or heavily favor paid users?

what types of ads should I be showing in my freemium game?

should I add a feature that lets you lose a lot of real money investment in PvP?

what should my next game be?

etc..

Knowing your brand values often helps in these questions – ringing an warning bell when you’re heading down a wrong path.

For example we could add competitive systems where you systematically tear down the reputation of others. Whilst “fun” from a game design perspective and helping short term numbers, it wouldn’t align with our “positive and inspirational” feel.

And on the flip side, carving out cycles to do brand building features that might not directly boost metrics but help players fall in love with your game brand can be worthwhile.

An ongoing endeavour

As we’re understanding, it’s not a one time activity – building a brand is an ongoing sustained effort that spans from game design, to engineering to marketing and even customer support.

Of course a great brand can’t rescue a bad game and it’s always a tough call to put precious cycles into something you haven’t before.

But assuming you are making good games, investing in brand building can add up to huge wins in the long term.(source:iteratingfun)


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