作者：Elena Lobova

在过去3年里iLogos一直在为艺电和Rovio等大型发行商开发基于现有IP的游戏。我们工作室的输出内容包括一些初创项目，受雇去创造的内容以及基于现有IP的创造。现在我们在7个办公地点中共有超过300名雇员，我们也可以灵活地基于不同安排去致力于更多不同的游戏中。

虽然基于现有的IP进行创造很有趣，但是也充满各种挑战性，以下便是我们在过去几年里所吸取的一些经验教训。

1.学习最出色的内容

在你开始致力于现有IP前，你可以先探索这个市场并尝试那些最成功的基于现有IP的游戏。分析其中正确的做法和错误的做法。鼓励你的团队去做出同样的尝试并找出与对应IP最细节化的联系。

2.决定怎样的业务模式最适合你们工作室

当你在致力于现有IP的时候，你可以选择三种业务模式：完全内部开发，授权与合作生产。当IP所有者拥有一支资深游戏开发团队时，完全内部开发便非常适合。但对于IP所有者来说这也是最具风险的一种选择。而如果是授权的话，授权者所面对的财政风险会较低，但是他们对于最终产品的控制权也会较受限。所以在iLogos我们将联合生产作为基于IP的项目的主要运行模式。联合生产意味着IP所有者或获得授权的人和开发者将分担开发成本并共享游戏收益。

3.事先明确一些业务事宜

明确一种公平且互利的收益共享模式并不是件简单的事，所以到底该怎么做呢？你必须在开始前便明确这些内容，以下便是你需要考虑的一些问题：开发者所提供的技术和信息是否有价值？IP能够为游戏增添怎样的价值？IP所有者/发行商在市场营销中投入了多少钱？你还必须确保所有成员都分配到自己所擅长的工作。例如我们是基于动作电影IP去创造游戏，最初我们的合作搭档坚持要由他们创造所有图像资产。几个月后我们发现其实他们根本没有为游戏创造图像资产的经验，所以我们不得不放弃他们所创造的内容而重新进行创造。当两家公司一起工作时，你需要确保所有的一切都能够有效地融合在一起。所以说联合生产有点像是结婚。即在项目执行期间你们结为了夫妻，而IP就像是你们的小孩，双方公司都必须认真去照料它。

4.在这种情况下试验性生产更加重要

通常情况下我们都是从试验性生产开始的。这在iLogos就如黄金法则一般，特别是对于大型项目来说。在试验性生产阶段你必须明确最终的功能集，时间表，并在此创造所有需要的文件和初步原型。你还要根据分析数据，市场营销需求等等与合作伙伴一起制定最终目标。

确保IP的目标用户与游戏类型的目标用户相一致。也就是说如果一款三消游戏的用户主要是中年女性，你便不能基于以男性观众为主的《终结者》去创造这样的三消游戏。同时你还需要去了解平台和设备以确保你的IP的目标用户也是这些设备的用户。

5.为审批过程留出足够的时间

在创造过程中你必须确保所有与IP相关的内容都是经过批准的。根据以往的经验我们知道这一过程总是比我们所预期的更费时。拥有多个利益相关者以及各种不同的优先顺序都意味着审批过程会比你所想的更漫长。就像在我们的第一款IP游戏中，我们便未料到审批过程如此慢，从而导致我们在已经准备好beta测试时才收到有关alpha测试的反馈。为此我们不得不再回头去修改其中的某些内容，甚至一些微小的调整还会影响到剩下的游戏内容以及我们之后的工作。

6.了解用户/所有者的期待

Inside Out(from longwin)

你必须从粉丝的角度去着眼于游戏并确保你们的游戏能够符合他们的期待。你可以着眼于与IP相关的社交媒体并尝试着了解你的目标用户以及他们对于游戏的期待。同时你也必须清楚IP所有者对于他们的IP会有怎样的表现也充满期待。所以你所创造的游戏必须能够真正匹配IP。例如基于《头脑特工队》去创造一款泡泡射击游戏和基于《辛普森一家》去创造城市建造游戏都是让人期待的。而如果你是基于《My Little Pony》去创造一款打斗游戏或基于《福尔摩斯》去创造一款烹饪模拟游戏的话便会让人觉得莫名其妙。虽然这听起来再明显不过，但却仍有许多稀里糊涂的IP游戏不断涌现出来。

7.确保你的团队真正融入项目中

有时候我们总是很难真正融入到别人的IP中。但是让整个团队从情感和创意上融入一个IP中是非常重要的。最理想的情况是他们能够真正了解这个IP成功的原因，并最终将其呈现在自己所创造的内容上。

8.只能有一个执行制作人

执行制作人将监督从概念阶段到发行的所有开发过程，持续识别并传达相关目标与风险。必须有个人拥有关于整个团队的任务分配的决定性发言权。执行制作人可以是来自开发者那方也可以来自授权方，但却只能是一个人。

9.必须虔诚地遵从美术指导手册

美术风格绝对是IP所有者最敏感的问题之一，所以在游戏开发过程中必须始终遵从美术指导手册。我们已经致力于20世纪福克斯公司的一款IP 2年多时间。当我们开始致力于这款游戏时我们便收到一本厚厚的美术指导手册。开发团队深入专研了IP的美术风格，所以现在我们的美术团队已经非常了解IP的所有细节了。而这一切的前提便是仔细研读美术指导手册。

10.所以为什么要选择别人的IP？

一个已建立且大受欢迎的IP能让游戏突显于拥挤的市场中。手机市场上的竞争真的非常激烈，所以在这里开发游戏绝不是易事。像Kabam的《漫威格斗英雄》，Glu的《金卡戴珊：好莱坞》和Zynga的《Wizard of Oz Slots》都是成功使用了IP的优秀案例。如果没有IP这些游戏或许就不会像现在这么突出，但正是有效使用了品牌，它们便获得了如此巨大的成功。你并不需要从头开始创造所有内容，你可以使用许多现有的资产和内容。不要忘记你已经拥有忠实的用户；而玩家往往更愿意下载那些基于他们所熟悉的IP的内容。此外，IP也已经拥有一个巨大的玩家基础。一个典型的例子便是大受欢迎的《星球大战》授权。上一部《星球大战》便没有经过任何推广和营销而轻松成为2015年最受欢迎的电影。而这一切也将为你创造出更多流量（游戏邦注：即更多免费的流量）—-较低的用户获取成本，更高的病毒性传播，许多吸引玩家的额外机会（例如社交网站上的粉丝页面以及简单的口口相传），更高的点击率和较低的每安装成本。如果你能够基于一个合适的IP去创造一款优秀的游戏，它将会始终以上升趋势不断发展着。

虽然iLogos不能公开名字，但是我们已经创造过好多大获成功的IP游戏。在过去三年里我们通过致力于这样的项目学到了许多，希望这些经验教训也能够帮助你们更好地创造出自己的IP游戏。

（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）

WORKING WITH EXISTING IP: iLOGOS 10 TOP TIPS

by Elena Lobova

iLogos has been developing games based on existing IP for the past three years on behalf of several big name publishers such as EA and Rovio. Our studio’s output is a mix of original projects, work for hire and working with existing IP. With over three hundred employees based in 7 locations to support, we pride ourselves on being flexible enough to work on a wide range of different games under many different arrangements.

Working with existing IP, while enjoyable, presents its own set of challenges, here’s what we’ve learnt over the past few years

1.Learn from the Best

Before you start work on an existing IP, explore the market and play the most successful IP based games out there. Analyse what makes some good and others not so good. Encourage your team to do the same and try finding the connection with that IP in the smallest game details.

2.Decide which business model will work for your studio.

When working with an existing IP there are three business models to choose from: full in-house development, licensing and co-production. Full in-house development is suitable when the IP owner has an experienced game development team. But this is usually the most risky option for the IP owner. In the case of licensing, the licensor has lower financial risks, but at the same time a very limited control of the final product. We, at iLogos, prefer co-production as the main cooperation model for our IP based projects. Co-production means that both IP owner or licensee and developer share the development costs, as well as the game revenues.

3.Sort out the business stuff up front

It can be pretty tough to define a fair and mutually beneficial revenue share model, so what it should be based on? This must be decided before work starts and here are some issues to consider: What is the value of technologies and know-how provided by developer? What value does the IP add to the game? How much is the IP Owner/Publisher spending on marketing? Every case will be unique. Also ensure all responsibilities are clearly allocated with everyone doing what they are good at. For example, we created a game based on fighting movie IP and initially our co-prod partner insisted on creating all the art assets themselves. Within a couple of months it became obvious that they didn’t have any experience in art creation for games, we discarded most their work and remade the art assets ourselves. When two companies work together, you need the infrastructure and the people to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Working together on a co-production is a bit like getting engaged. You’re married to each other for the time of the project and the IP is like your child, you both have to take care of it!

4.Pre -production in this situation is even more important than usual

Always start with pre-production. It’s a golden rule for us at iLogos, especially for the big projects. In pre-prod stage you should define the final feature set, milestones, generate all needed documentation and create the first prototype. KPI – set your goals with your co-prod partner according to your analytics, marketing needs and so on.

It is important that TA of the IP and TA of the game genre should match. So, if match-3 audience is mainly middle aged female, it’s not a good idea to do match-3 game based on let’s say Terminator, having a mainly male audience Also research platforms and devices – make sure that your IP’s TA are users of these devices.

5.Factor in a lot of extra time to cover the approval process

You should expect to have all IP related content approved during the production. Be warned, experience has taught us this always takes much longer than you expect! Multiple stakeholders and different priorities means approvals almost always take much longer than you anticipate. With our first IP based game we didn’t fully grasp how slow the approval process would be. We finally received feedback for our alpha build when we had the beta almost ready. Based on that feedback we had to go back and make changes and of course, even minor tweaks can affect the rest of the game and result in further work.

6.Be aware of user/owner expectations

You have to look at the game from the fan’s point of view, and ensure that your game matches their expectations. Take a look at the social media relating to the IP and try and get a feel for who your target audience is and what they expect from your game. You can also expect that the IP owner is going to have some very clear ideas how their IP should be used and portrayed. The game you create should match the IP. For example, making a bubble shooter based on the Inside Out IP worked very well and making a citybuilder based on the Simpsons in Simpsons Tapped Out was inspiring. Equally its probably a very bad idea to make a fighting game based on My Little Pony IP or a Cooking Simulator based on Sherlock Holmes! Although this sounds pretty obvious there are an awful lot of mis-matched IP based games out there!

7.Make sure your team buys in the project

It can sometimes be hard to feel the right connection for someone else’s IP. But it’s really important to get the entire team to be emotionally and creatively engaged with the IP. Ideally they should live and breathe what made the IP successful, it will show in the finished game if they do.

8.There can only be one executive producer

An executive producer oversees all phases of development from the concept phase through release, identifies and communicates goals and risks on an ongoing basis. Someone has to have the final say to ensure the whole team is aligned and working on the same vision. The Executive Producer can be from the developer or the licensee side, but there can only be one.

9.Art Bibles should be followed religiously

Art style is definitely one of the most sensitive issues for IP owners and so an art bible has to be followed religiously. We’ve been working on one 20th Century Fox IP for almost two years. When we started work on this game, we received a giant art bible. The team had to dive into the smallest details of the IP art style and now the art team feels and understands all nuances and the ins and outs of the IP. This connection started with our examination of that art bible.

10.So why work with someone else’s IP?

An established and popular IP allows a game to stand out in the crowded app market. The competition especially in the mobile game market is tough and it is not getting any easier. Think about Kabam’s Marvel Contest of Champions, Glu’s Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and Zynga’s Wizard of Oz Slots these are all great examples of successful use of intellectual properties. Great in the sense that without an IP these games probably wouldn’t stand out but with a proper use of a brand they’re able to become super successful. You don’t need to create everything from scratch as you’ll have access to a huge range of assets and existing content. Don’t forget you already have a loyal audience; players are more likely to download the game if they are familiar with the IP. Moreover, the IP may have a huge fan base. One of the best examples is the hugely popular Star Wars franchise. The last movie didn’t need any promotion or marketing as it was a shoo- in to be the top grossing film in 2015. And all of this naturally leads to more traffic (more FREE traffic) – lower costs of user acquisition, higher virality, lots of additional opportunities to attract players (i.e. fan pages in social network and simply word of mouth), higher click-through rate and lower cost per install. Make a good game for the right IP and it’s difficult to see a downside for this type of project.

While iLogos can’t name names (that’s’ the other thing about existing IP – their owners are incredibly protective of it), the company has worked on several very successful high profile IP based games. We’ve learnt a lot about working on such projects over the past three years and hopefully can offer some useful insights and helpful advice on working with existing IP.(source:gamasutra)