作者：Junxue Li

最近我们团队为一家加拿大三消游戏开发商创造了图像内容，并且这款在不久前刚刚发行。我非常高兴并迫不及待地将游戏分享给身边的朋友（我在中国）。

一个女生朋友说道：“但是游戏的角色并不可爱。”然后我便让她看看《天天爱消除》，即中国开发商腾讯所创造的一款三消游戏。

我问她：“这里的角色可爱吗？”

她答道：“可爱！”

于是我便跟她解释，我们游戏中的角色设计是符合西方用户口味的。而韩风则更加迎合亚洲女性用户。

只要看一眼你便能够清楚东西方游戏间的视觉差别。现在让我们进一步比较东西方几款最受欢迎的三消游戏并总结出它们之间的一些区别。

我敢保证你肯定对《Candy Crush》，《Cookie Jam》和《Gummy drop》这几款西方市场中大受欢迎的游戏很熟。而为了更好地比较，我将向你介绍两款中国市场中最受欢迎的三消游戏，并且它们都是由中国开发商所创造的：

手机巨头腾讯所创造的《天天爱消除》

I love daily match(from gamasutra)

乐元素所创造的《开心消消乐》

happy match(from gamasutra)

从本质看来它们没什么区别

不管是从外观，游戏玩法，还是社交性和盈利性来看，东西方的游戏都是一样的。它们拥有消除3或4个组件，清除果冻等同样规则以及同样设置，并且都需要玩家使用自己的真钱去购买升级道具。但是对于不同市场来说，它们的“标准”是不同的。

一般的视觉风格

当你面向多款游戏并只着眼于图像作品本身时，你都能够大概判断出这是来自美国，俄罗斯，还是东欧国家的游戏。来自不同地方的美术师都有属于自己的特殊风格。就像《Candy Crush》便非常西方化。

而对于《天天爱消除》和《开心消消乐》，它们看起来都不像是中国人所创造的，更像是韩国开发者的作品。在中国，年轻人都喜欢跟随韩风，即追捧着韩国的时尚，妆容，动画等等。所以这样的风格可谓是为中国市场量身打造的。

更多角色

通常在西方开发者所创造的益智游戏中都没有太多角色。就像在《Cookie Jam》中只有一个熊猫主厨和姜饼人。

而在《天天爱消除》和《开心消消乐》中都有许多角色。因为中国用户更喜欢熙熙攘攘的场景，所以当《Cookie Jam》面向中国市场进行本土化时便添加了更多角色。所以最终的游戏设计能够有效吸引中国市场的注意。

不同主题

在西方市场，三消游戏被甜食掌控着：点心，糖果和水果。

但是在中国却没有一款来自知名开发商的甜食主题的游戏。当然了你也可以在苹果的App Store找到这类型游戏，但它们通常都是基于廉价的开发成本或者复制别人的游戏。

我所列出的两款中国三消游戏的主题都是关于“可爱的动物在一个奇幻世界中的冒险。”

而在西方的三消游戏中，游戏组件通常是伴随着非常简单的设计以及精心制作的图像，并且游戏中通常都有蛋糕，水果和宝石。

在上述两款中国游戏以及许多韩国三消游戏中，游戏的组件都是可爱的动物头像。

不过这两种不同类型的设计都有其各自的吸引力。而如果从游戏玩法和图像平衡的角度来看，更简单的游戏组件形状可能更有优势。

简单的地图

在西方市场中我们可以看到许多三消游戏都在奢华的地图领域展开竞争。

map(from gamasutra)

而不管是《天天爱消除》还是《开心消消乐》，它们都是使用更务实的地图设计。就像在《开心消消乐》中，地图会沿着Jack的豆茎无限延伸，但都是基于同样的图像内容。

尽管我们的团队一直都在为休闲游戏创造地图，但我仍然不清楚具体原因：为什么西方开发者会在地图上投入这么多？因为比起社交功能，似乎在真正的游戏玩法中关卡地图没有那么重要。如果你知道原因的话欢迎和我分享。

登录社交媒体

在西方市场，大多数游戏都会让玩家登录Facebook。而在中国，游戏所连接的通常都是QQ，微信和微博等最受欢迎的社交媒体。

大多数西方游戏都拥有中国版本。但是大多数游戏也仍未改变其蓝色的f按键（游戏邦注：即Facebook）。所以这些游戏往往因为它们在社交功能上的疏忽而在此惨遭滑铁卢。因为在中国Facebook是禁用的。但是我却惊讶地发现这么多年过去了还是有那么多开发者忽略了这一事实。

facebook button(from gamasutra)

一次根本的本土化需要考虑许多情况。例如在中国版本的《Cookie Jam》中，f按键便被网易自己的社交媒体登录按键所取代了。

音乐

在西方市场那些最畅销的三消游戏通常都会使用管弦乐，而中国游戏则更多地使用电子乐。

声音

如果你玩过《Candy Crush》，你肯定不会忘记那声低音的“Sweet”。在《Cookie Jam》中，声音都非常相像。而在本文列出的两款中国游戏中，声音都是来自一个年轻女声，并且使用的都只是一些简单的英文单词，如Ready，Go之类。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Difference Between East and West Match 3 Games

by Junxue Li

Our team recently makes artwork for a Canadian Match 3 developer, and the game was released just a few days ago. I was so excited, and I shared it to my close friends circle at once (I’m in China).

“But the characters are not cute.” A girl said. Then I asked her to look into天天爱消除, a Match 3 game made by Chinese developer Tencent.

“Are the characters cute?” I asked her.

“Yes, yes!”

Then I explained to her, the character design in our game is OK for a western audience. And Korean style would have more appeal to Asian women.

Only by a glance you can see the visual difference between the games made in East and West. Now I would make close comparison of a few top Match 3 games made in both worlds, and sum up a few differences.

I’m sure you’re already familiar with the big titles in the West: Candy Crush, Cookie Jam, Gummy drop. To make the comparison, I would first introduce to you two top Match 3 games in the Chinese market, and they are also made by Chinese developers.

天天爱消除 （I love Daily Match, let’s call it Daily here）made by the mobile giant Tencent

And 开心消消乐（Happy Match, let’s call it Happy）made by Happy Elements.

Essentially they are the same

Games made in the two worlds, no matter how different they look, in terms of game play, social and monetization, they are all the same. They have the same rule of matching three or four pieces, cleanup jellies, the same contraptions and use your real money to buy power up items. Only the “valves” are tuned differently for different markets.

General visual style

If you take up any game, by looking at the art work alone, you can roughly tell this game is made in US, Russia, or an East Europe country. In everyplace the artists have unique style. For example, look at Candy Crush, it’s quite West, right?

And look at Daily and Happy, they don’t look exactly Chinese. They are more like those made by a Korean developer. In China young women have deep love for the Korean wind, fashion, make-up, cartoon, anything. So this style is well tailored for the market.

More characters

Generally, in puzzle games made by west developers, there’re very few characters. For example, in Cookie Jam! there are only the panda chef and the gingerbread man.

In both Daily and Happy, there are a whole bunch of characters, you can see from the title screen. Chinese people prefer more bustling mood, so when Cookie Jam is localized to China, many characters are added. You can see the design appeals to this market.

Different Themes

In the west, Match 3 genre is dominated by sweet food: desserts, candies, fruits.

There’s no single one sweet food themed game made by reputable developers in China. Of course you can find a whole bunch of these in the Apple Store, they’re either cheaply made or rip-offs.

The main theme of the two Chinese games could be expressed as “Adventure of cute animals in fantasy world”

And in Western Match 3 games, the gaming pieces are typically with very simple design, and elaborately made graphics. They’re mostly made into cakes, fruits, gems.

And in the two Chinese games, and a whole bunch of Korean Match 3 games, the game pieces are cute animal heads.

Both type of design have their appeals. And I think from the angle of game play and graphic balance, simpler shapes for gaming pieces is better.

Simple maps

In the western market, we can see Match 3 games are actually vying in sumptuous map art.

And both Daily and Happy games adopt more pragmatic approach to map art. For example, in Happy, the map is infinitely going up Jack’s beanstalk, with one same piece of graphic used in loops.

Although our team makes map for causal games all the time, I still can’t work out the myth: why western developers would invest so much in map art? As the level selection map has little meaning in actual game play than social function. If you know the answer, please kindly leave your comments, thanks!

Login with social media

In the west, most games ask you to login with Facebook. In China, the most popular social media are QQ, Wechat, Weibo.

Most games of the west have decently translated Chinese version. But most of them still have the blue f button unchanged. These games are essentially lame, for they have no social function. Because Facebook is blocked in China. I’m amazed, that after this many years, some developers still ignore the fact.

A thorough localization would give more consideration. For example, in the Chinese version Cookie Jam, the f button is replaced with Net Ease’s own social media login.

Music

In the west, those top Match 3 games generally use orchestra, while the Chinese games use electronic music.

Vocal

If you have played Candy Crush, you would not fail to recall the bass voice “Sweet”. In Cookie Jam the vocal is pretty much the same. While in the two Chinese games, the vocal is ringing young gril’s, pronounced in simple English words, such as Ready, Go.(source:gamasutra)