原文作者：Ric Cowley 译者：Megan Shieh

关于挂机游戏（idle games）的一个争论是‘玩家的操作毫无意义’。虽然这么说不公平，但也不是完全没有道理。

挂机游戏的性质允许玩家在什么也不做的情况下，仍然得到奖励，偶尔点击按钮就可以增加奖励，或加快奖励的速度。

egg inc（from pocketgamer.biz）

考虑到挂机游戏的基础机制，玩家的操作听起来确实意义不大。

看着一个数字随着时间的推移慢慢增长，能得到多少乐趣？

但我个人认为，尽管——甚至是因为——有这样的一个基础机制，挂机游戏变得比其他类型的游戏更能吸引人。

较为温和的手法

玩家的技能再差也永远不会面临失败的危险，因为失败是不可能的。

相反的，玩家们会得到一种持续的成就感，鼓励他们投入更多的时间和精力来玩游戏，以挑战自己的能力上限。

挂机游戏的基础机制十分简单，因此开发人员能够拥有更大的扩展空间，用来专注于平衡经济或增加辅助任务以保持玩家的参与。

近几月出现了一些值得注意的轻游戏，例如Futureplay的《Farm Away!》。 该作是市面上最好的挂机游戏之一，同时也是‘奖励视频广告’盈利手法的先驱者。

还有其他的一些例子，比如Bandai Namco的《Tap my Katamari》和Flaregame的《Nonstop Knight》。

目前该类游戏基本上已经被一款名为《鸡蛋公司（Egg，Inc.）》的小游戏所完善。虽然它是挂机游戏中的最佳例子，但却尚未受到媒体的广泛关注。

数数你有几只鸡

该作来自于美国独立工作室Auxbrain, Inc.，于2016年7月15日上线。游戏交给玩家一个养鸡场，让玩家在里面养鸡，然后在玩游戏的过程中解锁新的鸡蛋。

听起来并不像一个引人入胜的游戏，但Auxbrain作出了许多聪明的设计决策，使得该作远超同类游戏。

该工作室采取了创造性的盈利手法，友好地向玩家要钱，而不是强行推销，这种做法有效地提高了玩家的体验，也促进了玩家和开发商双方的友好关系。

该作包含大量的奖励视频广告，同时还提供飞过养鸡场上空的随机附加盒子，点击这些盒子可以得到随机数量的现金或金蛋，两者都是游戏中的高级虚拟货币。

要想在游戏中走得长远也不一定非得观看广告，但是观看广告的行为是受到鼓励的，因为广告可以让你在已经得到的东西之上，再叠加那么一点点额外的东西。

储蓄罐

金蛋还可以作为IAP购得，Auxbrain在这里做了一件非常聪明的事情。

游戏中有三款IAP，每款IAP的鸡蛋数量都是有限的。除此之外还有个“储蓄罐（Piggy Bank）”功能，玩家每购买一栋新建筑，新车或研究项目时，鸡蛋的数量就会+1。

听起来好像没什么特别，但在玩家推进并重置研究进展的同时，用不了多久，涌入存钱罐的鸡蛋数量就会急剧增加。

因此储蓄罐里的鸡蛋数量有可能会比最高价格的IAP还要多，这让玩家有一种占了开发商便宜的感觉，而后暗示、鼓励他们花3美元去砸开储蓄罐，以得到里面的金蛋，然后再重新开始整个过程。

当然，在玩家考虑是否花费3美元的整个过程中，游戏也会推送奖励视频广告。

这是一种非常微妙的手法，利用竞争精神，将他们带入一种玩家VS开发商的场景，以这种方式来让开发商取得胜利。

挂机收益限制

挂机游戏面临的一个问题是：玩家会选择在很长时间内不玩游戏，从而在缺席的过程中积累游戏货币。

开发商需要想方设法地避免这种情况发生。

部分游戏会内置一些隐藏的限制来解决这类问题。

《Farm Away!》从来都没有明确地指出离线收益会以任何方式封顶，但是如果你在不频繁的会话中跟踪游戏币的总数，就会发现你的收入在某些时刻是呈平稳状态的。

《Nonstop Knight》会在玩家遇到BOSS的时候，阻止他们的骑士进阶，限制获取金币和武器的次数，然后要求玩家返回到游戏来击败BOSS并取得进展。

这种做法之所以能够成功，是因为该作独特的进阶机制——这是《鸡蛋公司》所没有的。

而《鸡蛋公司》的做法是，明确地告诉玩家离线收益会被封顶，然后让他们选择用真钱来购买更多的挂机时间，或通过使用金蛋升级农场的方式来提高挂机收入。

这有点像《FarmVille》的预约机制，但是玩家不会因为没有回到游戏而受到惩罚。你不会失去任何东西，但也不会赚到钱。

该作对游戏所设的限制坦诚布公，这种做法令人耳目一新，同时也推动了玩家和开发商之间的友好关系。

友情长存

这就是《鸡蛋公司》做得最出色的地方。

它不仅鼓励玩家不停地玩游戏，还时常提供奖励来为玩家适当地减轻负担，同时温和地推动玩家购买IAP或观看奖励视频广告。

这种做法带有一定的小风险，但玩家越是投入，就越有可能花钱，而且买了一次之后就更有可能回来重复购买。

在挂机游戏领域，光顾IAP的玩家可以说是少之又少，因此开发者应该更注重留存和玩家的体验，而不是一心想着赚快钱。

《鸡蛋公司》的盈利手法就是同类游戏的黄金标准（尤其是增量式储蓄罐IAP），无需把游戏变得过于复杂，甚至不需要社交方面的影响就能轻轻松地让玩家掏腰包。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

One argument concerning idle games is that the player’s action is pointless.

That’s unfair.

Yet it does contain some truth.

The very nature of the idle game allows players to do nothing and still be rewarded, occasionally pressing a button to increase the reward, or the speed at which they are rewarded.

Boiled down to its basic conceit, the exercise does sounds pointless.

How much joy could someone really get from watching a number tick upwards over time?

But I feel that despite – or even because of – such a basic mechanic, idle games have managed to become even more engaging than other genres of game.

A gentler approach

There’s never any danger of failure through player skill, as failure is simply not possible, beyond a slower generation of in-game currency.

Instead, players get a constant sense of accomplishment, encouraging them to play even more to see just how high their accomplishment can go.

And with the basic mechanic being so simple, it gives developers more scope to expand, focusing on balancing the economy or adding ancillary tasks to keep players engaged.

There’s been a number of noteworth idle games in recent months – Futureplay’s Farm Away! springs to mind as one of the best, and the godfather of the rewarded video ad monetisation technique.
And there are others – Bandai Namco’s Tap my Katamari and Flaregame’s Nonstop Knight – that I have now been playing for literal months, longer than any other mobile game in my library.

Now, however, the genre has essentially been perfected by a small game that hasn’t received much press attention, despite it being the very best of the idle genre: Egg, Inc.

Counting your chickens

Released on 15 July 2016 by US indie Auxbrain, Inc, the game gives players a chicken farm that they have to grow, unlocking new eggs as they go.

Again, it doesn’t sound like the most engaging game out there, but Auxbrain has made so many clever design decisions that it elevates the game far above the competition.

Most of its improvements are in its inventive approach to monetisation, which is heavily weighted to goodwill and a pleasant player experience than the hard sell.

It makes heavy use of rewarded video ads, but alongside this rewards players at random with additional boxes of cash and golden eggs, the game’s premium currency.

Players don’t necessarily need to watch the ads to get far in the game, thanks to its generosity, but you’re encouraged to because the ads will give you just that little extra on top of what you’re already given.

Setting the price

You can also buy golden eggs as an IAP, but Auxbrain does something very clever here too, by allowing players to essentially set their own price on the IAP.

While there are three IAPs with set numbers of eggs, a “Piggy Bank” is also available, which increases by one egg every time you buy a new building, vehicle, or piece of research.

This doesn’t sound like much to start, but before long, as players advance and reset their research progress, the amount of eggs pouring into the Piggy Bank increases dramatically.

It’s therefore possible to have a Piggy Bank with more eggs in it than the highest-priced IAP, giving the player a sense of getting one over the developer, and potentially encouraging them to spend the $3 to smash the Piggy Bank, get the golden eggs, and start the whole process again.

And, of course, players are being shown rewarded video ads the whole time they’re building up to making that purchase.

It’s beautifully subtle, tapping into a competitive spirit of the player in a them vs the developer kind of way, but which ultimately leads to the developer winning.

Bringing the cows home

One problem idle games face is trying to avoid players staying away for long periods of time and just accruing money when they’re gone.

Some games have invisible caps to deal with this problem.

Farm Away! never explicitly states that your offline earnings can be capped in any way, but if you keep track of the totals during infrequent sessions, it’s fairly obvious that you’re being levelled off at a certain point.

Nonstop Knight handles this well by stopping your knight from progressing when it reaches a boss, limiting access to more gold and better weaponry, and demanding players return to beat the boss and progress.

But that only works because of the game’s distinct progression mechanic – something a game like Egg, Inc. doesn’t have.

What Egg, Inc. does instead is explicitly tell players they’ll be capped off, before giving them the option to buy more offline time with real money, or improve their offline takings by levelling up the farm with golden eggs.

It’s a little like FarmVille’s appointment mechanic, but without the wither penalty for not returning. You don’t lose anything, but you also stop earning.

It’s refreshing that the game is so open about its limits, and again goes some way to generating goodwill between player and developer.

Best friends forever

And that’s ultimately what Egg, Inc. does brilliantly.

It encourages the player to keep playing, easing them along with constant rewards, while also gently nudging them towards IAPs and rewarded video ads.

It’s a slightly risky monetisation strategy, and faintly reminiscent of the JRPG model found in titles likeTales of LINK and Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, in that it focuses much more on player experience than encouraging them to part with their money.

But the better engaged a player is, the more likely they are to spend, and the more likely they are to spend repeatedly after that first purchase.

In a landscape where so few players actually pay for IAPs, any method that can focus on retention and player comfort instead of trying to make a quick buck is surely the way forward.

And Egg, Inc., especially with its incremental Piggy Bank IAP, is the gold standard on how to do this right, without overcomplicating gameplay or even requiring a social aspect to the game. （Source: pocketgamer.biz  ）