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针对《Hay Day》的游戏盈利设计分析

发布时间:2014-06-12 17:16:29 Tags:,,,

作者:Pete Koistila

游戏体验:极具成瘾性——了解你的极限

“设计并不只是它看起来的感觉。设计要看它如何执行。”——Steve Jobs

Supercell团队显然深谙乔布斯这话的道理。《Hay Day》整体游戏设计极具娱乐性,用户友好性以及趣味性。其故事叙述和整体氛围也十分完善,教程环节也妥当地引导玩家进入游戏模式。当玩家进入游戏模式时,就会连续在其中逗留数下小时。

我能理解为何《Hay Day》极具成瘾性,以及它为何能够为Supercell持续创造收益。让我们详细分析其中的原因吧。

核心循环:让玩家时刻保持忙碌

设计良好的核心循环会奖励玩家的积极表现,并推动其每个回合的发展。《Hay Day》核心循环似乎结合了4个不同的核心操作:

1.你可以通过种植&收割庄稼获得经验值(XP),以及通过制作&饲养动物获得原料。

2.你可以通过收集制造资源而获得XP。

3.你可以通过出售制造资源而获得XP和钱币(软货币)。

4.你可以使用时间和钱币购买新的制造设备,并赢得XP。

Hay_Day_core_loop(from gamasutra)

Hay_Day_core_loop(from gamasutra)

留存:适用于所有玩家类型

你还记得上一篇分析《Clash of Clans》的文章吗? Supercell所追踪的关键指标是第1、7和30天的留存率。这正是玩家不容易丧失兴趣的原因所在:《Hay Day》所有阶段都进行了严格的分析和优化。游戏中总有适用于所有玩家的内容。无论你是菜鸟,中级还是精英玩家都能乐在其中。

留存率考查的是你让玩家重返游戏的有效性。例如,第1天的玩家第2天继续玩游戏的比例是多少。

《Hay Day》似乎拥有极强的DAU/MAU粘性,据Metricsmonk数据显示,其Facebook应用的留存率约50%。这怎么可能呢?

更详细的观察揭示了《Hay Day》似乎使用了大量的留存技巧:

*游戏的教程阶段设计十分精良。教程阶段极为重要。如果玩家因为游戏太复杂而不想继续玩游戏,过后他们就会删除或者遗忘游戏。在教程阶段,《Hay Day》新手很容易掌握玩法。

*游戏让玩家一直有事可做,并且能够通过星巴克排队考验。无论你有30秒30分钟的游戏时间,总能在其中找到乐子,收获较小或较大的成就。游戏中不会有太多不活跃的阶段

*iPad锁屏信息邀请玩家返回游戏。在你离开iPad数小时后,它就会不断弹出像“应该给奶牛挤奶了”等锁屏信息提示。玩家要是不在游戏中就不会有任何开销。

*限时优惠活动。《Hay Day》报纸中的促销标签和信息可能加速你的游戏进程。让你不断返回游戏查看其中的报纸。

*事件公告板。“访客奖励——访客在有限时间内可双倍增加你的收入”。这会令你不断想重返游戏查看是否有客来访。

*游戏内部生产计时器。玩家持续重返游戏并查看自己在游戏中进行的迷你任务(游戏邦注:例如牛奶是否挤好)。

*在特定关卡解琐道具。玩家因好奇而事先查看解琐道具。不同玩家类型都有相应的粘性功能。这方面可以看看Bartle玩家类型中的探索者和成就者,并重新思考特定关卡解琐道具的意义。

其使用的许多留存技术实际上是基于说服理论和人类心理学。所以我建议游戏设计师去研究消费者行为和促销心理学。

盈利:它不仅仅是榨取金钱

游戏盈利设计的原理与游戏核心循环设计以及核心分析追踪都运用得恰到好处。但仍然还有改进的空间。例如,其社交层面就缺乏一些盈利元素。此外其本身的主题(养猪和牛的农场)可能一开始就无法吸引一些玩家。猪和牛对于穆斯林和印度人来说具有不同的意义。尽管如此,《Hay Day》还是创造了相当可观的收益:据Think Gaming和分析师Tero Kuittinen所称,其日常收益介于18.5万至200万美元。

Hay Day(from 10086.cn)

Hay Day(from 10086.cn)

以下是一些其中十分奏效的元素:

*双货币机制:软货币(硬币)和硬货币(宝石)。宝石和硬币均可用真钱购买。

*优化了用户消费行为:玩家总有东西可买,但对于鲸鱼用户来说,他们可购买的选择更多。

*玩家进程——升级系统:Supercell通过升级系统获得了盈利机会。

*如果你不花宝石或时间来收集资源扩大库存,你的库存很快就满了。

*玩家需要在核心循环活动上花点时间,除非你再次使用宝石来加速游戏进程。否则就得在游戏中投入大量时间。

《Hay Day》还有一些《Clash of Clan》所没有的盈利功能,例如以分钟来计数的促销条幅以及同好友的全球交易。

社交层面:如何创造更多影响力?

这方面有许多人认为Supercell根本无需在营销上投入多少费用,因为在谷歌就可以搜索到许多《Hay Day》攻略了。像“Hay Day攻略”这种字段的谷歌搜索结果在今年6月就超过了1410万条,同样的字段在今年1月份也达到了660万条。所以玩家会继续为这款游戏打造声势。

与《Clash of Clans》相比,《Hay Day》似乎缺少了以下一些能够加快盈利的社交层面。注:以下有些功能已经添加到了较新版本的《Hay Day》中,本文分析的是该游戏的1.15.34版本。

*该游戏社交层面并没有像《Clash of Clans》一样引向添加好友。

*没有向新手解严添加好友的作用:为什么我应该添加好友?这么做有何好处?

*隐藏了玩家为何需要添加好友的信息(但点击任何农场名称旁的笑脸图标就可以看到这一关键信息)。为何不在玩家点击“添加好友”按钮时显示这个关键信息呢?至少也要在玩家添加好友后显示吧。

*没有全球聊天公告板:我发现之后版本的《Hay Day》添加了邻居聊天功能,这是一个大进步。

*没有全球顶级玩家排名榜单。至少我升到第10级了还没有发现这个功能。有些玩家可能想让大家知道他是最棒的。排名榜单可以创造鲸鱼用户。榜单前列的顶级玩家可能成为游戏的品牌大使(游戏邦注:就好《Clash of Clans》的精英玩家Jorge Yao一样)。

*在《Clash of Clans》中,玩家可以结盟组成精英团队。为何《Hay Day》玩家就不能组建一个大型的“农场公会”呢?农场公会之间可以相互竞争,单人玩家也可因结盟而获得激励。

据Merticsmonk数据显示,2014年6月9日《Hay Day》Facebook应用的日均用户(DAU)约750万,月均用户(MAU)约1580万。

在此我想用《Clash of Clans》分析文章中的一句话来总结本文:“数据不会说谎,社交层面、游戏体验、核心循环、留存和盈利都比以往更管用了。你自己试试就知道了。”(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

Game monetization design: Analysis of Hay Day

by Pete Koistila

The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Game experience: heavily addictive – know your limits

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” –Steve Jobs.

Supercell team has understood what Jobs meant. Overall game experience of Hay Day is extremely entertaining, user friendly and most of all fun. Storytelling and overall ambience are well-finalized and tutorial section guides player well into gaming mode. Once player is set into the gaming mode, player stays in for many hours in a row. Hmm… feels like a déjà vu to me? Yes, I felt like this while playing Clash of Clans by Supercell.

I can realize why Hay Day is very addictive and why it creates turnover to Supercell regularly. Let’s analyze the reasons more detailed.

Core loop: it runs like a Swiss clock

Well-designed core loop rewards player for being active and promises progress for each return session. The core loop of Hay Day seems to consist of four different core actions:

By planting & harvesting crops you get experience points (XP) & ingredients for manufacturing & feeding the animals.

By collecting manufactured resources you get experience points.

By selling manufactured resources you get experience points and coins (soft currency).

By purchasing new manufacturing equipment you use coins and time, but get experience points.

Hay Day core loop

Image: Core loop of Hay Day [1]

Retention: something for all player types

Do you remember while I analyzed Clash of Clans? The key indicators Supercell is tracking are 1, 7 and 30-day retention rates. That’s why players won’t lose their interest easily: all stages of Hay Day are heavily analyzed and optimized. There is something for all player types all the time. No matter if you are a newbie, mid-range or elite player.

Retention rate measures how effective you are at getting players to come back to your game. For example what percentage of the players who played your game in day 1 are still playing in day 2. [2]

Hay Day seems to have really good stickyness stats as DAU per MAU percentage of Hay Day Facebook app according to Metricsmonk is about 50%. How come this is possible?

More detailed look reveals Hay Day seems to have multiple retention techniques in use:

Tutorial phase of the game is very well designed. Tutorial phase is extremely important. If player won’t continue to play the game, because it’s too complicated the game might be deleted or forgotten. In the tutorial phase of Hay Day newbie is well and easily learning how to play Hay Day.

Player is kept busy and Starbucks test is passed. No matter if you have 30 seconds or 30 minutes game session ahead there is something fun to do all the time. Smaller and bigger achievements are gained regularly. Not many inactive periods exist within the game.

iPad lock screen messages invite player back into the game. Lock screen messages like “Milk is ready to be collected” keep on popping up once you leave your iPad for few hours. No money is spent unless player is playing the game.

Limited time offers. Sale counter tickers and offers in the Hay Day newspaper might fasten your progress in the game. You just want to go back and check the newspaper again.

Events board. “Visitor bonus – visitors pay double the price for limited time only”. Once again, you just want to go back and see if there are visitors.

Timers for in-game production. Player keeps on coming back again and again to see how well their mini-tasks are progressing (e.g. Milk is ready to be collected).

Items unlocking at certain levels. Player is curious to continue to see the unlocked items ahead. It’s good to have sticky features for different player types. Have a look at Explorers and Achievers of Bartle test and then rethink the purpose of items unlocking at certain levels.

Many of the retention techniques in use are actually based on the theories of persuasion and human psychology. So I recommend game designers to study consumer behavior and sales psychology.

Monetization: it’s not just milking cash cows

The principles of game monetization design seem to work really well as does the game core loop design and the tracking of the core analytics. Still things could be done better :-) For example social aspect is lacking of some monetization elements (see the next chapter for suggested improvements). Also the topic itself (farming with pigs and cows) might prevent some of the players from starting the game at all. Pigs and cows have very different meanings for Muslims and Hindus than Christians. Despite these facts Hay Day is generating revenues very well: estimated daily revenues vary from 185000 USD to about 2 million USD according Think Gaming and analyst Tero Kuittinen. [4, 6]

The following elements seem to work well:

Dual currency mechanism; soft currency (coins) and hard currency (diamonds). Diamonds and coins can be both purchased with real money.

User spending is optimized: Player always have something to buy, but for “whales” (big spenders) there could be even more to purchase.

Player progress – levelling system: with levelling systems Supercell gains monetization opportunities. Achievements are well listed.

Storages get full unless you use diamonds or spend time to gather resources to expand the storages.

Time is spent for core loop activities unless you once again use diamonds to fasten the progress. Otherwise you spend a lot of time with the game.

Hay Day also has some monetization features which are lacking from Clash of Clans (CoC) such as sale banner counting sale time in minutes and global trade with friends.

Social aspect: how to generate even more buzz?

There has been a lot of discussions that there is no need to use real money because Google is full of Hay Day cheats available. Phrase “Hay Day cheats” results over 14,1 million search results in Google in early June 2014 as the amount of the search results in January 2014 for the same phrase “Hay Day cheats” was 6,6 million. So players keep on buzzing more than ever. The other thing is how many of these “cheats” are there for purpose. Just to keep players in playing and discussing about Hay Day.

Compared to Clash of Clans (CoC) Hay Day seems to be missing some of the following features of social aspect which could increase monetization faster. Note: some of the following features have been added in the later release versions of Hay Day. This blog post is based on the Hay Day version 1.15.34:

Social aspect of Hay Day is not guiding towards adding friends as well as CoC

Role of adding friends (“helpers”) is left pretty open for a newbie: Why should I add friends? What do I get out of it?

The key message why player should add friends is hidden under one single smiley face icon (click smiley face icon on any farm next to farm name to see the key message). Why this key message is not shown after “Add friends” button is clicked? At least until player has added friends it could be shown.

Global chat board is missing (compared to CoC): I noticed neighborhood chat feature was added into later version of Hay Day, which is a great enhancement. [5]

Global top player rankings are missing (compared to CoC). At least I could not find those at level 10 still? Some player types want to be best and show it all. No matter what it cost. Ranking lists create whales. Top players of ranking lists might work as brand ambassidors (compare to elite-guild player Jorge Yao of CoC).

In CoC players could unite to form elite-groups. Why in Hay Day players can’t unite to form mass production “farming guilds”? Farming guilds could compete against each other and single players could get incentives for uniting.

Despite the previously listed suggestions social aspect seems to work better than ever. According to Metricsmonk Daily Average Users (DAU) of Hay Day Facebook app is around 7,5 million and Monthly Average Users (MAU) is around 15,8 million on June 9, 2014.

So I’m happy to finalize my blog post with the same sentence as I used for Clash of Clans: “Figures won’t lie, social aspect, game experience, core loop, retention and monetization all work better than ever. Try it yourself and you are hooked.”.(source:gamasutra


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