作者：Zen Terrelonge

ZeptoLab工作室首席执行官Misha Lyalin曾在我们4月份的采访中表示，免费模式是手机游戏的未来。

但值得注意的是，ZeptoLab的最新iOS游戏却售价99美分，些举似乎有违当前盛行的免费模式趋势。

在本次采访中，我们讨论了该公司走向免费模式的决定，以及先于App Store而非Android平台发布游戏等话题。

你们什么时候开始做出制作原版游戏续作的决定？

我们两年前就决定制作《割绳子》的续作了。在推出原作之后，我们对新款游戏没有太多想法，但我们开始进行头脑风暴，这样就有了新游戏的点子。

为什么现在才推出这续作？

现在正是推出续作的好时期，因为距离原作问世恰好三周年了。

你曾说过这是少数拥有直接续作，而不是衍生产品的手机游戏之一，请问能说细说明一下吗？

已经有不少人推出续作，但我并不认为多数续作游戏的关卡与原作有真正的区别。我们已经连续推出了许多新内容，但《割绳子2》对我们来说才是变化最大的版本，所以我们可以骄傲地称之为第二部。

它与原版游戏有何区别？

一切都有所不同。Om Nom现在有一个叫Nommies的朋友，这些角色能够适应不同的环境：它们可以舔舌、弹跳和滑翔。

这个版本中有更多玩法变化，Om Nom可以由此同多种物体而不只是绳子互动，它还可以自由移动，在屏幕上翻来覆去地活动。

Om Nom还是可定制的。它可以穿戴不同的服装，呈现不同主题，例如圣诞帽和糖果。这一理念可以让游戏更具个性化特点。

新游戏中的地点包含森林、丛林等等，为何采用这些场景？

一切都要取决于游戏机制，我们是根据玩法来决定地点，角色，并且这只是创意过程的一部分。

原版游戏在10天内用户突破100万，你预测这个续作版本将会有什么市场反应？

该游戏在免费下载时的下载量更高，所以这100万的用户数量全部是基于实际销量，因为游戏当初发布时是付费模式。

对于续作的相关数据，我想这是极为保守的预测。

我们在公司内部没有什么特殊的计划，但我们认为它现在更有潜力，因为过去三年市场上的移动设备增长极为显著 。我们还做了大量营销活动，以确保人们知道这款游戏。

你们刚开始时采用了什么营销方法？

我们在几周前就开始了。我们在社交媒体发布了不同的贴子，与粉丝进行了大量对话。当我们讨论时，我们就用它来提供更多信息。

所以社交媒体广泛使用于双方交流而不只是单向的发贴？

对，我们积极参与对话。另外，我们最近还向Facebook引进了Om Nom贴纸以便调动人们的情感。这真的很棒，人们也很喜欢使用，所以这也形成了一种持续的营销形式。在社交媒体上，你得参与对话而不只是发贴。

你们的贴纸收费吗？为什么不收费？

这些贴纸是免费的。人们并不会为Facebook上的贴纸付费，但在亚洲的情况则有所不同，那里的用户更习惯为此类事物付费。也许Om Nom贴纸在其他通信服务工具上收费更可行，但目前它主要还是一种推广手段。

那么，你们会考虑选择Line平台进行推广吗？

当然会。

除了社交媒体，你们还将如何推销产品？

我们的游戏就是重要的营销渠道。有成百上千万用户会突然从游戏中看到Om Nom消失，我们以此来推广《割绳子2》——-这并不是一个条幅广告，而是一种与人们互动的绝佳方式。

该营销活动始于12月5日，在游戏发布前先在我们所有iOS游戏中交叉推广——Om Nom先消失来引起你的注意，但过后又回来了。我们在Android版本中也将采用类似的方法。

现在还不是很多人意识到手机应用和游戏已经成为一种很棒的营销工具。我们自己及其他品牌的经验能够证明这一点——我们有三分之一收益来自广告，并且这一现象尚无减缓的趋势。

你们同什么品牌合作？

有许多广告是推广电影，玩具和其他游戏。

当你们同其他游戏合作时，是直接付费还是双向交换式的交易呢？

这要看情况，我们支持不同的模式。双向交换对我们来说意义不大，因为我们并不需要购买流量，所以我们出售广告位。我们会谨慎选择广告，确保不使用那些同网页一样的广告格式。

例如，Om Nom消失在游戏中在我看来就是一种很酷的广告形式。

你们有三分之一收益来自广告，那么其他收益来源是？

应用内置付费（IAP），付费应用，周边及授权产品。在2010年，所有收益都来自99美分的销售额，从那时起我们开始快速发展。

这个新版游戏在iOS独家发布，并且售价0.99美元，而不是免费下载，为什么？

我们最终也会推出Android平台的免费版本。原因是原版游戏已经有许多玩家体验了99美分的游戏，我们希望通过续作再为这些玩家提供独家体验的机会。游戏会一直保持这个售价，直到2014年某个时间才会改变。

独家发售结束时，游戏定价会是多少？

这个还没有决定。

Android游戏发布时，iOS版本会推出免费模式选项吗？

我们知道免费模式才是趋势，我们在中国市场就一直是采用免费模式，但这要取决于不同的市场情况。

我们创造免费游戏已经有一段时间了，但最终我想我们还是会在iOS推出免费版本。

《Pudding Monsters》在iOS推出了付费和免费版本，《Cut the Rope:Experiments》则是免费版本，但这并不意味着《割绳子2》就会采用相同的做法。

免费游戏可以获得广泛的用户，但对我们来说，我们能够吸引用户是因为用户爱游戏——我们不会收买用户。我们的公司不同于许多其他公司，这正是我们能够发布多个付费游戏，以及不走寻常路的原因。

但如果我向市场发布了一款不知名的游戏，我就会采用免费模式。

该游戏下载量已经超过4亿次，为何它如此盛行？

这种下载趋势还没有停止。该游戏和角色设计良好。

但这种通过割绳子来融合游戏机制，使用了重力和划动手势的设计理念正好填补了市场的空白，我们将通过自己的劳动结晶，继续扩大这个游戏系列。

你们目前有多少成员？

我们三年前刚成立时只有两名员工，现在有80人了。这对我们来说是合适的规模，有这么多人手已经足够做成许多事情了。

大家或多或少都会参与到《割绳子2》的相关工作中，但这个项目有一个约10人左右的固定支持团队。

对你们来说，交叉游戏推广的规模有多大？

交叉推广对我们来说是个大项目，我们所到的回馈也非常惊人。

也很惊喜地看到人们谈论我们的品牌，并将其推荐给其他人，让他们也购买和下载。

对Windows和黑莓等不同平台有何看法？

我们试过许多平台：Windows、Windows Phone、Firefox OS等等。我们选择平台的标准是，判断该平台是否能让我们向用户传递出色的游戏体验，如果能我们就会向该平台进军。

游戏的Firefox版本如何？

它运行于Firefox手机，是完全基于HTML5的平台，其出色体验令人惊讶。

显然，Android和iOS仍是主导平台，Windows Phone也已经小有所成，但我们并不会局限于特定平台。

最重要的是应用本身有所限制，你在哪获得游戏就在哪玩游戏，所以基于网络的平台极有利于接触到广大用户。我们会关注所有技术，甚至是增强现实技术（简称AR）。

你们如何使用AR技术？

我们在产品标签中列出这一技术。像其他技术一样，我们开始体验这一技术也有段时间了。

我们是游戏公司，所以我们的周边产品应该有所不同。我们将产品视为数字玩具，我们拥有大量粘性。

从更广泛的游戏市场来看，PS4和Xbox One已经问世，会考虑这些平台吗？

当然，我们最终会走向这些平台。我们已经进军任天堂DS和3DS平台，效果甚好。

ZeptoLab在2014年有何愿景？

我们仍将推出新游戏和产品，发展和创新《割绳子》系列。（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）

Cut the Rope studio ZeptoLab: Games are an incredible marketing phenomenon

by Zen Terrelonge

CEO, Misha Lyalin, talks about 400m users, Cut the Rope 2, and why the company can afford to avoid freemium.

Following a recent Cut the Rope 2 presentation, Misha Lyalin, the CEO of ZeptoLab – who makes the game – kindly praised my gameplay by saying “you’re good.”

We originally spoke back in April around the release of Cut the Rope: Time Travel, when Lyalin said freemium is the future of mobile gaming.

With that in mind, it’s interesting that Zepto has gone against the ongoing free-to-play trend in the market to charge 99 cents for the new iOS exclusive.

After briefly watching me pretend I knew what I was doing with the new game, which is now ME App of the Day, we spoke about the decision to go premium and favour the App Store ahead of the Android launch, which will come in 2014.

When did you decide you were going to make a direct sequel to the original?

The sequel for Cut The Rope was decided around two years ago. After the original, we thought there wasn’t much scope for another but we started brainstorming and knew another was coming.

Why now?

Now is the right time to do this because it’s been three years since the launch of the original.
You said that this is one of the only mobile games to have a direct sequel, rather than a spin-off, can you be more specific?

Well, there are people that do have sequels, but I haven’t seen many games that really change the level of the game. There are many follow-ups, but it’s really major for us and we’re really proud to call it number two.

What’s different to the original?

Everything. Om Nom is animated and now has little friends called Nommies and the characters are functional for the respective environments they’re featured in: they can lick, multiply, spring and glide.

There’s so much more gameplay variety that allows Om Nom to interact with objects and not just rope, giving him the freedom to move and get tossed around the screen.

Om Nom is now customisable too. He can embrace different clothes and themes, such as a Christmas hat and sweets. The idea is to make the game more personable to the user.

New game locations include forests, jungles and more, how did you decide on them?

Everything comes from game mechanics, so those locations were based on the gameplay, characters and it’s just part of the creative process.
The original game hit one million users in ten days, what predictions do you have for number two?

In terms of downloads, they’re a lot higher when the game is free, so the one million user figure was all based on actual sales as the game was premium at launch.

I’d be lying if I said we don’t have figures in mind, but they’re pretty conservative predictions.

Internally, we never plan for anything special, but we obviously think it has much greater potential now because the amount of devices on the market has grown significantly over the past three years. We’ve also done a lot of marketing to ensure people would know about the game.

What marketing methods have you used and when did you start?

We started a few weeks ago. We posted different clues on social media, generating a lot of conversations with fans. When people talk, we use it to offer more information.

So social media is actively used for two-way communications and not just one-way posting?

Yeah, we actively participate in conversations. Also, we recently introduced Om Nom stickers to Facebook so they can be used as emotions. That’s been really cool and people love to use them, so that’s an ongoing form of marketing.  With social media you need to enter conversations and not just post.

Do you charge for stickers? If not, why?

No they’re free. People don’t really pay for stickers on Facebook, but in Asia that’s a different story, over there they’re more accustomed to paying for such things. Perhaps if Om Nom stickers work out in other messengers then we may start charging, but right now it’s more of a promotion.

In that case, would Line be a marketing option you’d look at?

Certainly.

Beyond social media, how else are you marketing your materials?

Our games are important marketing methods. Tens of millions of people suddenly saw Om Nom disappear from the game itself to promote Cut the Rope 2 – it wasn’t a banner ad we used and thatt’s a pretty cool way to impact people.

The campaign started on December 5th across all iOS games ahead of launch – he disappears to get your attention, but he does come back, though you’ll definitely notice he’s missing. We’ll have a similar approach for Android.

Not very many people realise that mobile apps and games have become an absolutely incredible marketing phenomenon. We’re working to realise that further for ourselves and other brands – ads are a third of revenue for us and we don’t see that slowing down.

What brands do you work with?

A lot of ads are for movie promotions, toys and other games.

When you work with other games, is that paid for or a mutual exchange?

It all depends, we support different models. Exchange doesn’t matter for us that much because we don’t buy our traffic, so we sell those slots. We’re very careful with our ads and make sure we don’t use the same formats that are found on the web.

For example, Om Nom missing from the game is pretty cool advertising to me.

You said a third of revenue comes from ads, where is the rest generated?

In-app purchases, paid apps, merchandise and licensing. Back in 2010, all revenue was based on purchases of 99 cents or 69p, so we’ve grown a lot since then.

You’re launching exclusively on iOS and charging $0.99 rather than going free, why is that?

We will still work on Android eventually, which will be free-to-play. The reason we’re launching on iOS exclusively and charging is that that the original game had tens of millions experience the game for 99 cents and we want to have an exclusive window of time for those people to do the same again with the sequel. The game will remain that price until sometime in the new year.

How much will the game cost when the window closes?

That’s still undecided.

When the Android game is released, will the iOS version have a freemium option too?

We know freemium is the way to go and that’s everything we’ve done in China has been freemium for a while, but it depends on the market.

We’ve been creating freemium games for a while, but eventually I think you may see free stuff from us on iOS.

Pudding Monsters has been paid and free on iOS and Cut the Rope: Experiments is freemium, but it doesn’t mean Cut the Rope 2 will have the same approach.

With free, the funnel is so much wider, but for us, we get users because they love the game – we don’t buy the users. Our business is different from many others, which is why we can afford to launch multiple paid options and do things unconventionally.

But if I was launching an unknown game on the market now then I’d go free.

The game has over 400 million downloads, why is it so popular?

And counting, they don’t stop. The game and character were exceptionally well done and they were designed just right.

But this notion of being able to embrace the mechanics by cutting the rope, using gravity and swipes filled a gap in the market, which is really cool. We’re trying to expand the franchise with the seeds we’ve already planted.

How many staff do you have now?

We started with two people three years ago and we’re now at 80 people. That’s a good size for us, there’s an amazing number of things you can achieve with so many people.

Everyone was involved in Cut the Rope 2 in one way or another, but there was a dedicated support team of around ten people.

How big is cross-game promotion for you?

Cross-promotional is a big thing for us and the level of response we’re getting is pretty amazing.

It’s also amazing that people talk about our brand and recommend it to each other, then buy and download it and so on.

How do you feel about different platforms like Windows and BlackBerry?

We’ve experimented with a lot of platforms: Windows, Windows Phone, Firefox OS. You name it, we’re on a bunch of different ones. The way we feel is if a platform allows us to deliver a great experience and if it’s going to matter, we’ll be there.

What’s the Firefox version like?

So, it’s on Firefox phones. It’s all HTML5-based and it was quite surprising just how great the experience is.

Obviously, Android and iOS are still dominant and Windows Phone is in there somewhere, but our eyes are always open.

It’s important because apps are somewhat limited, you get a game, play it and everything happens right there, so something web-based is very natural way to expose all of that. The world isn’t going to keep moving technology forward and we look at all of them, even augmented reality.

How did AR use come about?

We feature the technology on product labels. We started playing with it a while ago just like any other technologies.

Ultimately, we’re a games company so our merchandise has to be different. We think of the products as digital toys, we’ve had millions of engagements.

In terms of wider games, the PS4 and Xbox One are now on the market. Are they considerations for you?

Of course, we’ll eventually be coming to those platforms. We’re available on the Nintendo DS and 3DS and that’s gone well.

What’s the vision for Zepto in 2014?

We’re going to continue to grow and innovate the Cut the Rope franchise with new games and products.（source：mobile-ent）