作者：Lahettanyt Michail Katkoff

Facebook上的泡泡射击游戏已经饱和了。然而Zynga还是决定在这个平台上推出一款同类游戏《Bubble Safari》。这个社交游戏领域的老手又想出了什么king.com和wooga没有想到的花样了？

本文主要分析《Bubble Safari》的盈利机制。

核心循环

Core Loop(from deconstructoroffun)

玩这款游戏会消耗精力。如果玩家通关，不仅精力会恢复，而且能得到经验和金币。随着关卡等级提升，经验也越多，新能量道具也越多。能量道具主要靠金币（软通货）购买。但也有一些强大的能量道具只能用真钱（硬通货）购买。

一旦玩家耗光精力，他就面临三个选择：等待、好友请求或购买。不愿意等待的玩家自然会成为Zynga的病毒性传播源。这款游戏的病毒性传播力值得分析一番！

病毒性传播工具

通关后弹出升级窗口，一看到这种屏幕就知道你在玩Zynga游戏，因为这种方式很方便玩家分享和好友请求——即使玩家并没有这个打算。

popups(from deconstructoroffun)

（“分享和继续”——你能不点击吗？）

但这些花哨的窗口和误导性按钮不是重点。事实上，玩家会因为邀请好友而获得奖励（Facebook不允许奖励病毒性传播的行为，除非是Zynga所为）。

Invite(from deconstructorofffun)

为了让玩家了解与好友一起游戏是人生一大乐事，一旦玩家解锁第一个能量道具，玩家就能得到2位猴子朋友。这些猴子朋友会给你好友特别能量道具（泡泡），并强制你在下一关中使用。太恶毒了！

Bubbles from friends(from deconstructoroffun)

（猴子朋友用泡泡引诱你发送好友邀请！）

为了强化病毒性传播力，游戏抛弃了典型的排行榜，而换成了特殊的好友邀请栏。对于刚进入新游戏的新玩家来说，这个设置太好了。但是，一旦玩家等级提升，并且有了很多朋友，我认为邀请栏又会被换成排行榜。

invite invite(from deconstructoroffun)

病毒性传播的首要工具就是Booster Spinner（抽奖工具）。玩家在游戏时可以看到它。玩家通过它抽奖可以获得随机增益道具。当玩家点击使用按钮，就会弹出一个通知窗口告诉玩家获得了某某道具，且可以与任何点击这个通知的人分享道具。另外，你还可以重复抽奖，但需要花真钱。所以这个功能事实上将病毒性传播与赢利相结合：从分享，到点击再到购买。

Booster Spinner(from deconstructoroffun)

进度

Zynga加强并修改了这个部分，但说到核心玩法，它与经典老游戏《Bubble Witch Saga》和《Bubble Island》的如出一辙，其实甚至不如后者。一方面，关卡难度提升太快（游戏邦注：刺激玩家使用增益道具、购买或请求好友赠送增益道具；关卡失败，玩家会损失精力，于是还是要购买或请求好友赠送精力）；另一方面，玩家在地图上无法看到好友的进度，这就影响了玩家留存率，因为缺少竞争元素。

Progress(from deconstructoroffun)

（按地图设定进度。升级会解锁新能量道具。）

Zynga并没有从一开始就强调购买能量道具，这是我比较欣赏的一点。相反地，游戏让玩家通过完成关卡慢慢获得能量道具。玩家第一次使用能量道具时，游戏提供一步一步的指导，以便玩家养成在每个关卡中使用一两个道具的习惯。另外，如果玩家没有通过关卡，就会损失精力，这就刺激玩家寻求各种有助通关的办法。

赢利策略

我在之前的文章中提出，玩家可以用三种货币支付游戏：每天登录（时钱）、邀请好友（人钱）或直接消费（真钱）。借助游戏的病毒性传播力，我只能说，《Bubble Safari》的赢利策略执行得确实不错。

Replay(from deconstructoroffun)

（继续？支付4个Safari钱！你只有10秒钟时间考虑……）

甚至是纯赚钱的方面，《Bubble Safari》也做得相当好。这款游戏出售只能用真钱购买的能量道具（便宜但消耗量大）、精力和立即重玩功能。为了在保持低单价的情况下获得高收益，Zynga使用了双重货币系统。所以即使玩家需要的Safari钱的还不值1美元，但Safari钱的较高单价会刺激玩家成包成包地购买，于是购买的总量就会很大。《Bubble Safari》也出售Safari金币，但根据我的经验，与硬通货相比，出售软通货通常收益不高。

Bubble Safari on Facebook(from deconstructoroffun)

原文发表于2012年5月15日，所涉事件及数据均以当时为准。（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）

Dissecting Bubble Safari

by L?hett?nyt Michail Katkoff

Facebook is pretty much saturated with bubble shooter games. Yet Zynga decided to take a piece of the action with its latest title Bubble Safari. Now what new did the big boy of social gaming brought to the table that king.com or wooga missed?

Oh and in case if you want an actual game review of Bubble Safari check it out here, because this blog is pretty much about the monetization mechanics of the game.

Core Loop

Playing the game consumes Energy. If player completes the level, Energy is given back accompanied with some XP and Coins. Now getting more XP levels you up while leveling up opens up new power ups. And power ups are purchased mainly with Coins (soft currency). There are though some powerful power ups that are purchased only with premium currency (hard currency).

Now once the player is out of Energy there are those three well known options: wait, request or buy. Players are driven back to the game via timer mechanics (wait for Energy to recharge) and a cocktail of virality. And Zynga’s virality cocktails are something worth checking out!

The Virality Cocktail a’la Zynga

Starting with the Level Passed and Level Up popups you know you’re playing a Zynga game because it’s just so easy to share and request – even if you didn’t ment to.

“Share and Continue” – how can you not press that?

But it’s not about super polished popups with misleading buttons. Players are actually rewarded for inviting friends (rewarding for virality is something Facebook frowns upon if you’re not Zynga).

And in case player is not aware just how cool it is to play with friends, Bubble Island gives you 2 monkey friends once you unlock the first power up. The monkey friends then give you friend specific power ups (bubbles) that you are forced to use in the next level. Awesome!

Here you go! Some monkey friends to hook you up with Bubbles. Now INVITE and REQUEST!

Now to perfect the virality Bubble Island ditches the typical top ranking bar and instead replaces it with an invitation bar. This is a great implementation for a new game and new users, though once player progresses and has plenty of friends I think they will replace the invitation bar with the typical ranking bar, which allows sending requests to plying friends.

A cherry on the top of the virality cocktail was the Booster Spinner. The Booster Spinner is visible when playing a level. Player spins the slot for a random power up. Once the spin is over, player clicks on use button and that opens up a feed post window saying that you won “this-and-that” power up and now you’re sharing the power up with anyone who clicks on the post. In addition you can re-spin the power up slot, though that uses some of your premium currency. So the whole feature is a pretty perfect combination of virality and monetization. Sharable, clickable and purchasable.

Progress

Zynga enhanced and revamped the virality part but when it comes to the core game, it’s pretty much the same what good old Bubble Witch Saga and Bubble Island are offering… Actually it’s even a bit worse. The levels get hard really fast (incentivize to use booster > buy or request boosters) (fail level > lose Energy > buy or request Energy) and you can’t see how far your friends have progressed on the map, which really hinders players retention because a lack of competitive element that good old race to the finish brings.

Progression is map based. Leveling unlocks new power ups.

I like the fact the Zynga didn’t go too heavy on the power ups by starting a selling campaign right from the get go. Instead power ups are gradually earned by completing levels. First power ups are accompanied by a step by step instructions making it natural to use one or two power ups for each of the levels. Also the fact that you lose Energy if you don’t pass the level really pushes the player to use all the help they can.

Monetization

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, there are three currencies player can pay with: return to the game daily, bring friends to the game or pay with hard currency. Now with all the virality amped under the hood of Bubble Safari, I’d say that this game is monetizing pretty well.

Continue? Well the pay 4 Safari Cash son! 10 sec to make up your mind….

But even purely moneywise Bubble Safari is doing pretty well. The game sells Premium Power Ups (consumable though very cheap), Energy and Instant Retries (check out the image above), which are all bought with game specific Premium Currency. To ensure higher revenue with pretty low price points Zynga uses dual currency system. So even though player would need only less of a dollar worth of Safari Cash (yes, super lame name for Premium Currency), the price points for Safari Cash are high and incentivize players to purchase large amounts by giving far more Safari Cash (just love writing that) in bigger bundles. Bubble Safari sells also Safari Coins, but according to my experience, sell of Soft Currency is usually very marginal when compared to Premium Currency.

High price points for bundles allow to keep low prices in the actual game without compromising on average revenue per user.(source:deconstructoroffun)