作者：Jon Jordan

Perry Tam是手机社交游戏开发商Storm 8首席执行官及联合创始人，该公司日活跃用户超过1000万，在全球2亿设备的下载量达6亿次。

Storm8旗下品牌还包括TeamLava、Shark Party和FireMocha。

在与他人联合创立Storm8之前，Tam曾是Facebook工程师，负责领导支付团队并创建Facebook Credits系统。

他拥有4项专利权，毕业于康乃尔大学。

storm8-perry-tam(from pocketgamer)

Pocket Gamer：你小时候最喜欢的游戏是什么？

Perry Tam：我一直都很喜欢同小伙伴玩游戏。我小时候就有超级任天堂，在玩游戏上花了大量时间。

我最喜欢的游戏是《Super Mario Kart》和《街头霸王》。

我之后又发现了PlayStaion，我最喜欢的PS游戏是《Pro Evolution Soccer》。我对它的热情一直延续到了现在的PS 3。

你是什么时候开始想把制作游戏作为自己的事业？

我一直就是个狂热的游戏玩家。我就是那些常与好友在家中玩主机游戏的极客之一。我缠着父母给我买第一台电脑的原因就是为了可以玩更多游戏。

有趣的是，这成了我进入软件开发行业的催化剂。这种职业让我得以在Facebook就职时看到了社交游戏的繁荣发展。就是那时候我看到了移动平台社交游戏的发展前景。

创立Storm8令我得以将长期的游戏热情投入到一家有可能影响手机游戏未来形势的公司中。

你在行业中的第一个角色是什么？

我在手机游戏领域的第一个角色就是创立Storm8以及倡导移动平台上的社交游戏。

之后Storm8推出了超过40款的热门游戏，以及6亿次游戏下载量，我想这可以说明一些问题……

你认为自己首个重大成功是什么？

Storm8于2009年以MMORPG开发商的身份起步。在那年底，我们就有9款游戏登上了移动平台十大MMORPG榜单。

那时候我们开始自问：下一步该怎么做？

我们看到了移动平台上其他游戏题材的更多发展机遇。我们制定了一个大胆的决策，就是向新领域进军，开发社交休闲游戏——对当时的我们和移动平台来说，这都是一个全新的游戏题材。

在这个题材扩张过程中，我们还开发了多种组件将不同游戏和用户整合成一个网络。这种方法成了Storm8的成功基石，它后来成就了我们强大的手机社交游戏网络。

这是我们取得的首次重大成功——向全新的题材扩展，并保持同等水平的成功。今天，我们已经推出了5种不同题材的游戏，并且在各个方面都表现良好。

你认为手机游戏是从什么时候开始凸显其发展潜力？

我们一开始就相信智能手机平台上的游戏具有发展潜力，这也是我们创立Storm8的原因所在。

当iPhone问世时，我认为它是一台具有重塑人们与移动设备互动方式的变革性设备。App Store上线时我仍在Facebook就职，它为游戏开发者开启了一扇为用户提供全新体验的大门。

我看到了移动和Facebook平台发展的相似性。

只看这两个平台出现的用户数量，我们就可以发现其中的巨大机遇。我和联合创始人都认为：如果Facebook平台已经很大了，那么移动平台可能至少是它的6倍！

你认为手机游戏领域的最重大事件是什么？

我认为，免费模式（F2P）成为手机游戏的主导商业模式或许就是该领域目前最重大的事件。

F2P模式令移动用户接触了更多游戏。它实际上帮助整个游戏行业扩大了用户规模，令非游戏玩家也可以在毫无成本的情况下试玩游戏。降低人们试玩游戏的门槛是行业扩大市场的重要因素。

移动平台增加了游戏的通俗性，免费模式则真正将主流群体引进游戏世界，将非游戏移动用户转化为游戏玩家。

你最自豪的事情是什么？

我最自豪的是白手起家创立了Storm8，组建了我们现在的团队。我们的团队总能用他们的才华、热情和动力持续促进手机社交游戏的创新。

如果没有团队的辛勤劳动，我们就不可能成功打造Storm8强大的手机社交游戏网络。

你目前最喜欢的手机游戏有哪些？

我很喜欢玩《Subway Surfers》，这款游戏很简单但非常令人上瘾。

你对手机游戏的未来有何看法？

从今天的创新技术发展来看，我预测未来两年我们会看到行业出现更多新游戏题材。

此外，在全球多个市场获得成功也相当关键。这对游戏公司来说是个不断的挑战，因为国际市场的玩家游戏行为变化较大。攻克这个难关将成为在下一代手机游戏中获胜的关键。

未来你希望在哪些领域获得成就？

曝光度仍然是个巨大的挑战，对于小型游戏开发者来说尤其如此。这是我们希望未来能够有所建树的领域。（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）

Storm8 CEO on shaping the F2P gaming explosion

by Jon Jordan

Starting out in simple monochrome in the days of Snake and WAP, the past decade has seen the mobile games industry kaleidoscope into a glorious, multi-billion dollar sector that’s driving global innovation.

So it’s high time we celebrate some of the people who helped make that journey possible – something PocketGamer.biz will be doing in its regular Mobile Gaming Hall of Fame feature.

Perry Tam is CEO and co-founder of Storm8, the leading social game developer on iPhone and Android with more than 10 million daily active users and 600 million downloads across 200 million devices worldwide.

Storm8 is also home to innovative brands: TeamLava, Shark Party and FireMocha.

Prior to co-founding Storm8, Tam worked as an engineer at Facebook, where he led the payments team and architected Facebook Credits.

The author of four patents, he graduated from Cornell University.

Pocket Gamer: What were your favorite games as a kid?

Perry Tam I’ve always enjoyed playing games with friends. I grew up with Super Nintendo and spent most of my time playing games on it as a kid.

My favorite games were Super Mario Kart and Street Fighter.

I later discovered the PlayStation and my favorite game on it was Pro Evolution Soccer (aka Winning Eleven). And this passion continues today on my PlayStation 3.

When did you realize you wanted to make games as a career?

I’ve been an avid gamer all my life. I was one of those geeks who played console games with friends at home. The sole reason I nagged my parents to get me my first computer was so that I could play even more games.

Interestingly, that became a catalyst for me to pursue a career in software development. This career eventually exposed me to the social gaming boom while working at Facebook. It was around that time that I saw the promise of social gaming on mobile.

Founding Storm8 allowed me to turn my longtime passion for gaming into a venture that can shape the future of gaming on mobile.

What was your first role in the industry?

My first role in the mobile gaming industry was when I founded Storm8 and pioneered social games on mobile.

More than 40 hit games and 600 million game downloads later, I think it’s turning out quite well

What do you consider your first significant success?

Storm8 started as a developer of MMORPGs in 2009. By the end of that year, we had conquered that genre with 9 of the top 10 MMORPG titles on mobile.

At that point, we asked: what’s next?

We saw even more growth opportunities in other genres on mobile. We made the bold decision of expanding into a new category to develop social casual games – a genre that was new to us and mobile at the time.

In the process of this genre expansion, we also developed various components to tie the different games and users together to form a network. This network approach is the cornerstone of Storm8′s success, which eventually led to building our strong mobile social gaming network.

That was our first significant success: being able to expand into a whole new genre and keeping up that level of success. Today, we have games in five different genres and are doing extremely well on all fronts.

When did the potential for mobile games become apparent?

We’ve believed in the potential of mobile games on smartphones from day one, which is why we founded Storm8.

When the iPhone was introduced, I knew that it was a revolutionary device that would transform how people interact on mobile. I was still working at Facebook when the App Store launched. It opened up a lot of opportunities for game developers to provide a brand new experience to users who were just getting used to smartphones.

I saw growth similarities between the mobile and Facebook platforms.

From just looking at the number of people who have access to the web versus the number of mobile devices, we could tell how big the opportunity was. My co-founders and I thought: if the Facebook platform is already big, then this mobile platform will be at least six times bigger!

What do you think is the most significant event in mobile gaming?

Free-to-play becoming the dominant business model for mobile games is probably the most significant event in mobile gaming to-date.

The F2P model made gaming popular among mobile users. This was an anchor to the expansion of the gaming industry as a whole, because now we have even more gamers in the ecosystem. It allowed non-gamers to try out games at no cost. Lowering the barrier to try games was really important for the industry because it expanded the market.

Mobile increased the accessibility of games and the free-to-play model really brought gaming to the mainstream – converting even non-gaming mobile users into gamers.

What are you most proud of? Any regrets?

I am most proud of bootstrapping Storm8 and building the team that we have now. Day in and day out, our team continues to amaze me with their talent, passion and drive to consistently innovate in the world of mobile social games.

We wouldn’t have been successful at building our 200 million strong mobile social gaming network without our team’s hard work.

Which mobile games have you most enjoyed recently?

I really enjoy playing Subway Surfers. The game is simple but very addictive.

What are your predictions for the future of mobile games?

Just based on the innovative technologies being developed today, I predict that we’ll be seeing new gaming genres emerge over the next couple of years.

Also, translating success in multiple markets across the globe will be crucial. This is an ongoing challenge for companies because gaming behavior varies significantly internationally. But cracking that nut will be key to succeeding in the next phase of mobile games.

In which area do you hope to make a difference in future?

Discovery is still a big challenge, especially for smaller game developers. This is an area that we’d like to be able to help make a difference in the future.（source：pocketgamer）