原作者：Sean Cleaver 译者：Willow Wu

这款越来越受欢迎的2D社交游戏Pixel Worlds的开发者向作者详述了游戏社区中社交媒体的重要性。

跟我们聊一聊Pixel Worlds吧。

Pixel Worlds是一款2D大型多人沙盒游戏，有点像是怪物盒子（monster box）。我们是从2015年的夏天开始着手，去年11月测试发行，今年1月中旬在iOS和安卓平台正式上架。所以，到现在已经有四个月多了，而且PC版本和Mac版本现在也在Steam上架了。

pixel worlds（from develop online）

跟我们说说这款游戏的跨平台表现吧。

跟现今的许多开发者一样，我们选择了Unity引擎。这样一来，把游戏移植到其他平台就相对比较简单了，特别是你在一开始做游戏的时候就考虑到跨平台要求，实际上就没有那么难办，就是多了一个需要更新的平台。但是跟前几年相比，更新游戏变得容易多了。App Store以前因为2周甚至3周的超长审核期而声名狼藉，现在不到24小时就可以通过了。如果是在安卓和Steam平台，那真是秒过审。这个年代要做跨平台游戏比以前容易多了，就算是大型多人游戏也没问题。

社交媒体对Pixel Worlds起怎样的作用？

在开始的时候，我们就决定把社交媒体作为游戏的重要组成部分，尤其是考虑到我们的主要受众是少年、青少年们以及年轻人。我家的孩子是青少年，从他们身上我了解到他们不会去阅读纸质的东西，也不会在网上阅读。

他们喜欢的是看视频，他们看YouTube, 看Twitch直播，什么都看，还逛Instagram, KIK, Twitter。

我们决定把这些都融入到游戏体验中，增加对玩家的吸引力。但同时这也是一种营销手段，因为这么做的话我们的游戏就能通过社交媒体传播出去。

我认为把移动平台作为起点对Pixel Worlds也有帮助，鉴于所有社交应用都能在手机上用，比如iPhone或者是安卓设备，比较方便。

确实，而且YouTube可能就是我们最看重的社交媒体平台，但是Instagram可以是不错的第二选择。在PC上你没法好好发挥Instagram的功能，所以大家一开始都在移动设备上使用。从某个时刻开始，我们的Instagram主页每周都可以增长20%，增长系数大概是6%-8%左右。

结合有机增长，你们搞定了社交媒体，人们通过这些社交平台推广你的游戏，这方法对所有的游戏都有效吗？

对Pixel Worlds来说当然是有用，因为它的本质和核心都是一个社交游戏，目的就是让玩家去号召其他小伙伴一起玩游戏。小学高年级的玩家们会去跟整个班级的人讨论这个游戏，然后这个游戏就在整个班级中流行起来，就是类似这样的效果。有个德国的孩子印了1000份Pixel World的小宣传单，然后分发给他家乡的人，因为他实在是太喜欢这个游戏了。如果你的游戏一开始就不具备社交性质，那你就没办法得到这种效果。人们想要和其他人一起玩。

至于是不是所有游戏都适用，那得取决于游戏本身，如果只是作为附加功能，比如说你得了一个高分，你可以分享在社交媒体上，类似这样的还不足以带动其他玩家。你游戏中所包含的社交互动元素越多，你的玩家就有更多东西可以展示给其他人看，自然，游戏在社交平台上出现的频率也会更高。

你强调了一个条件：游戏本身必须是具有社交性质的，才能让玩家之间形成这种互动。你是如何平衡这种社交互动在游戏的所占比率？你在游戏中设定的互动部分有多少？

在我们的游戏中肯定是有聊天还有其他类似的功能，要是玩家在玩游戏的时候感觉一切都很简单，很方便，从而削弱游戏本身的社交功能，那么可能比较明智的办法是不要让玩家有这种感觉。游戏内的经济是由玩家自己掌控的，他们亲手打造世界，贸易互通，就像是一个市场。你大喊一声“我想要买一顶绿色帽子！”，然后也许卖家就来了。或者你想卖点自己的东西，一样的，你去某个世界，然后告诉大家“我在卖东西。”

我们之前在考虑把这部分自动化，建立一个拍卖行，就像是《魔兽世界》那样。但是这样做的话就会减少玩家之间的互动进而削弱游戏的社交性，玩家只需要搞定自己的Excel表格就好了。虽然这样做有时会给玩家增加麻烦，但是玩家之间的互动也会随之增加，这就是我们期望的。在现实生活中，如果你去市场买东西，或者上亚马逊之类的电商网站购物，就算你是自己一个人去市场肯定也会比网购有更多社交互动。

这样的话是不是就成为角色扮演游戏了？比如说成为一个卖帽子的人？

不，我们的游戏中不存在任何角色扮演元素。玩家们也不会给自己打上某种角色的标签。并不是说他们要出去玩，然后就把自己打扮成特定的样子。近期我们的更新的主题是武士，现在你可以在游戏中看到上百个忍者和艺妓。玩家们喜欢装扮，但他们并不是在这个情景中刻意扮演某个角色或者某个人物。更像是你跟好朋友出去逛街，通过服装来展示你的个性。

你之前说25%的游戏体验都来自于社交媒体，跟我们解释下这其中的含义吧。

这数字是我编的，并不准确，但我想要表达的是我们非常重视社交媒体，它是整个游戏体验中非常重要的一部分。我们团队的很多开发者每天都会在游戏中跟玩家互动，不仅如此，他们还会在Twitter，尤其是在Instagram和玩家交流。我们每周都会在YouTube的官方频道中上传新视频，我们也会做直播。玩家们自己录制上传的视频有好几百个，相关的Instagram照片也有上千张，他们对于这个游戏的热情大概就是这样的。就算你没在玩游戏，你也可以在其他地方接触到Pixel Worlds和它的游戏社区。

如果你上Instagram或者是YouTube，你总是能看到有人在发和Pixel Worlds相关的东西，话题热度真的非常高。游戏本身是一部分，但是退出游戏之后你还可以在社交平台上跟你的朋友继续讨论。25%只是我举的例子，为了表达社交在游戏体验中占了很大比例。

这种社区营销（找不到比这更好的词了），你有没有觉得它有时发挥了超越它本身的作用？

这要取决于开发者了，看看他们想要听取玩家的多少意见，交流程度有多深。还有，你必须要经常思考：开发者知不知道什么是能够被当做是资源，什么可以被应用到游戏中，转化成游戏特色或者是游戏机制。但是再次强调下，如果你想要提高社交互动频率，拥有一个比较活跃的社区，你必须得去听听社区中的声音，给他们为游戏出力的机会。就拿现在来说吧，我们举办了一些竞赛。

其中有个比赛就是方格竞赛（block competition），我们邀请社区的玩家设计22×22的像素方格阵，然后我们会选出最优秀的作品然后把它做出来，应用到游戏中。我们举办了设计世界比赛（world planning event），邀请玩家设计出10×10模板。我们收到了上百个参赛作品，把那些比较出众的整理出来，让人们投票选出最好的那一个。这些玩家创造了整个世界。

我们努力地给玩家提供为游戏做贡献的机会，当然很多玩家都是主动的，都不用我们发出邀请，他们帮助我们调整不同的游戏机制或者是游戏特色，或者是其他的都有。

游戏的下一步发展计划是什么？

有件事情我觉得……好吧，也许不只是手游领域，但是移动行业现在的竞争真的是非常激烈。所以从一个开发者的角度来看，当你觉得你做的游戏还行，或者是不错，挺好的或者怎样，这游戏至少还能看。然后，你得花上好几年，一直一直把所有心思耗在开发这个游戏上。

就拿Pixel Worlds来说吧，从最开始计划提高它的社交活跃度到现在至少有5年了，但可能需要10年也说不定，我也无法肯定。之前我做过像《魔兽世界》那样的PC游戏，也花了那么多心思，但是现在越来越多游戏都转入移动平台了。人们会连续好几年都玩某些游戏，比如Beat或者Clash of Clans。那这些游戏就必须在这些年内不断提升。Pixel Worlds大概有20%的新内容也会在未来进行改造、提升，这挺让人兴奋的，但这需要耗费很多年。我不知道未来这几年我们会做出什么样的东西，这种未知性让人感到非常兴奋。

所以这算是非常明确的答案了，社区的玩家们也肯定会喜欢吧？

是的没错，尤其是这类游戏，开发者们想听听社区的反馈，如果可用的话，也会把其中一些建议应用到游戏中。我们自己也是急不可耐。我们有一个很长很长的单子，上面列的东西我们这辈子都做不完，日复一日，我们的新主意越来越多，社区中的新想法也是如此。然后我们就选出最好的、最可行的那个，应用到游戏中去。我认为这么做不仅仅是为了这样一个社交游戏，就算是单人游戏也应如此。竞争如此激烈的移动市场中，有越来越多的游戏成功入围，没有被玩家淘汰，接着被开发者们继续提升优化。

至少一年更新三次，或者是像我们，一个月左右就更新一次，我猜这跟其他大部分游戏还是挺不一样的。一般情况就是你做完游戏，下载，玩家去玩，然后这游戏就成为往事了。但即使是单人游戏，比如无限跑酷游戏或者是其他类型的手游，有越来越多的游戏能够让玩家玩个好几年。

当然，这很大程度上还是取决于游戏本身，也许单人游戏在这方面比较弱。但尤其是带有社交性质的游戏，玩家创造了这些社区，他们玩了游戏，但是到了某个时刻，有些游戏对于玩家来说最重要的不是游戏本身，而是他们能在游戏中遇见朋友，他们甚至都没有以前玩得那么勤了。

意思就是游戏最终会变成社交场所，成为了人们想要去的地方，而不是一个具有社交元素的载体？

没错，我通过Pixel Worlds还了解到一些相关的事情，比如有些孩子不再使用Whatsapp了，他们选择进入到游戏世界跟朋友聊天，反正大家都有玩这个游戏，那就在游戏中聊天吧。也许他们用Whatsapp发消息说：“好了，我正在载入Pixel Worlds，”然后他们就在游戏中碰头，一起玩游戏。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

The developer behind the increasingly popular 2D social game Pixel Worlds talks to Sean Cleaver about the important of social media in game communities

Tell us a little bit about Pixel World.

Pixel Worlds is s 2D, massively multiplayer sandbox, kind of monster box. We started doing it a while back in the summer of 2015 and then soft launched in last November, and then released on mobile, iOS and Android, this January, mid January. So, we’ve been out a bit over four months now, and now we’ve released the PC version and Mac version on Steam.

Tell us a little bit about the cross platform capability of the game.

Like so many other developers these days we use Unity. So its relatively easy to port the game to other platforms as well, especially if you take that cross platform requirement into consideration when you start doing the project in the first place, and it’s not that hard actually. It’s one more platform to apply updates and to have on the loop, but updating games is easier now than it was a few years back. The App Store was notorious for the two or three week review times that they had, but now it can be less than 24 hours. Of course Google and Steam update really right away. It is relatively easy nowadays to do cross platform games, even when the game is massively multiplayer.

What part does social media play in Pixel World?

From the start, we decided that social media is an important part of a game like this, especially as the demographic is primarily pre-teens and teenagers and young adults. I know from my kids, who are teenagers, that they don’t read anything on printed paper. They don’t read anything online either.

What they do is that they watch videos, they watch YouTube, they watch Twitch streams, all of that, and they hang out on Instagram, KIK, Twitter.

We decided that we wanted to integrate those as part of the whole experience and that makes the experience more meaningful for the players, but it also works as a marketing because it spreads out on social media.

I suppose starting on mobile helped Pixel Worlds as well, given that it’s on the one platform where all of these social media platforms are as well, like an iPhone or an Android device.

Yeah, and YouTube is maybe our most important social media platform, but Instagram is a good second. You can’t really use Instagram in any meaningful fashion on PC, so everybody is using that on mobile devices to start with. At some point, our Instagram page was growing 20 per cent week over week, and I think in general it’s like a 6-8 per cent growth factor.

With organic growth, when you’ve got social media and people are promoting your game via those platforms, does that work with video games in general?

The thing, of course, with Pixel Worlds as it is a social game in its heart and its core, is that the players tell others to join in the game with them. We know people will have talked about the game to their whole class in upper elementary school and then the whole class started playing, stuff like that. One kid from Germany printed up 1000 Pixel World flyers and handed them out around his hometown because he loved the game so much. You can’t have that if the game isn’t inherently social to start with. People want to play with other people.

But for games in general, it depends on the game, but if it’s like tacked on, like you just have high scores you can post or something like that, then it’s not really deep and meaningful enough. The more social interactions you have in the game, the more you have stuff that players can probably show the others and the more it helps to be in the social media channels.

One of the things that you pointed to there is the game has to be inherently social to get that kind of reaction from people. How do you balance creating that kind of social interaction and how much interactivity do you promote in-game?

In our game, of course, there’s chat and everything like that, but a good example might be that we don’t want to make things too easy for the players inside the game if that would take away from the social aspect. The players themselves run the in-game economy and they build worlds that are for trading, like a marketplace. You shout out, ‘I want to buy a green hat!’, then maybe you will find a seller. Or maybe you want to sell some items yourself, again, you go to some world and tell everybody that, ‘I’m selling these blocks.’

We have been thinking about automating that, as an auction house like in World of Warcraft. That’s going to take away from the social aspect, because then people wouldn’t have to interact with other players, they could just manage their excel sheet. Even though it may be a bit more work heavy for players to do some things, there’s more social interaction for them, and we want to keep that in there. In real life, if you go to the marketplace, or you just buy online from somewhere like Amazon, it’s more social to go to the marketplace yourself.

Does this lend itself for your players to roleplay, if they take on a role, say, like a hat salesman?

No, we don’t have any roleplaying elements there in the game itself. They don’t role play themselves either. It’s not like they’re hanging out and they might dress up like. We had a samurai update recently, and now you can see hundreds of ninjas and geishas there. They like to dress up but they don’t play a character or roleplay in that sense. It’s more like hanging out with your friends and expressing yourself with the clothing.

You’ve said before that 25 per cent of the experience of your game comes from social media. Tell us a little bit what you mean by that.

That is a number out of my hat, but what it means is that we view that social media is a very important part of the whole experience. Many of us developers interact daily with the users in game but also on Twitter, especially on Instagram. We have the weekly YouTube videos in the official channel and we do streams. Also the players themselves are making hundreds and hundreds of videos, thousands of Instagram posts, so there’s like this whole butterfly. You experience the Pixel World and community even when you’re not in the game.

If you’re on Instagram or YouTube, there’s always someone posting something. The forums are really active. The game is one part but you can continue that and chat with your friends outside the game in the social media channels. 25 per cent is just an example in that we think it’s a big part of the whole experience.

Is there a point where that kind of community marketing, for lack of a better word, actually becomes greater than the sum of what it is?

It depends on the developer, how much he wants to listen to and communicate with the players. And, of course, you always have to take into consideration of does the developer know what are the resources and what is feasible to do as a feature or a mechanic in the game. But again, if you want to have an active social interaction and an active community, you have to listen to that community as well and give them ways to contribute to the game themselves. Right now, for example, we have a few competitions open there.

One is a design a block competition, so we have asked the community to design a 22×22 pixel block and we will decide which one is the best and our director will make that and we will include that in the game. with the results of our world planning event, first we get people that will make a 10×10 platform level. We got hundreds of those and we sent of the best ones and then people voted on the best one and those guys made a whole world of that.

We try to actively give the players ways to contribute to the game, and of course many of them contribute without even asking, adjusting different mechanics or features or whatever.

What’s next for the game?

One thing that I think is … well, maybe it’s not only mobile games, but the mobile space, is so competitive right now. So when you make a game you see that, as a developer, it’s doing okay or great, good, or whatever. But you see that it’s doing okay at least. Then, let’s say you need to concentrate on developing that game further years, and years, and years.

For example, Pixel World from the get go we planned again for it be active for at least five years, but maybe it will last ten years, I don’t know. Previously I’ve had that on PC in games like World of Warcraft, but you see more and more that in mobile as well. People keep playing some games for years and years on end, like Beat or Clash of Clans. Then the game has to evolve during those years. It’s really exciting because Pixel World has maybe 20 per cent of the content that it will have eventually, but that will be a journey of many years. We are really excited because we don’t know what we are going to come up with during those years.

So it’s very open book and also very open to what the community says they would like as well?

Yeah, that is true, because, especially on games like this, you want to listen to the community and when it’s feasible, to also implement some of the things they suggest. We are really eager ourselves as well. We have a mile long list that we could never do completely, and we get more ideas and the community gets more ideas every day. Then we try to pick the best and most feasible ones to implement. I think that’s not just for a game like this one, a social game, but even for single player games. You see more and more games in the very competitive mobile market that are staying there and being developed further and further.

Giving updates, like at least three times a year, or like us, every four weeks or so. I guess that’s different than what it was for most games even five years. Usually, you’d do the game, you’d download it and then they play and they’re done with it. But even with single player games, like endless runners or whatever on mobile, it’s more and more that people keep playing that for years.

Of course, again, it depends a lot on the game and maybe single player games are not that good in that respect. But especially games with any kind of social layer, people create those communities and they play the games and, at some point, some of the games one of the most important things is that you aren’t even playing the game that much but you are meeting your friends in the game.

It ends up being a place of social interaction rather than just having social elements and becomes a place where people will go?

Yeah, and I know from Pixel World, for example, that some kids aren’t using Whatsapp anymore, they are coming to the game to chat with their friends because everyone is in the game anyway, so they come to the game to chat. Maybe they use Whatsapp to say, “Okay, I’m loading on the Pixel World,” and then they meet in the game and play the game at the same time.（source：develop online ）