手游的成功之道（二）：付费游戏

原作者：Will Freeman 译者：Willow Wu

在本篇你的可以了解到类似《纪念碑谷》以及Threes!这样大热门付费游戏是如何成功的。(上一篇游戏设计参阅链接 ）

在不久之前，有部分游戏行业分析人士预言说付费游戏要‘没活路了’。在F2P游戏成为手游行业的新宠后，很多人就将付费游戏的价值抛到脑后。2013年之后，付费游戏经历了风生水起的一年，各大商店平台又将付费产品放在最显眼的位置上了，2014年中最受好评、最成功的几款游戏都是付费游戏，而且其中许多都是用Unity引擎制作的。要说现在的移动市场已经不适合付费游戏还为时过早。

Monument Valley（from gamesindustry.biz）

就比如Threes、《纪念碑谷》 以及《未上锁的房间》，这三款游戏和其它许多用Unity引擎开发的游戏都证明了这个开发平台的实力。如果你好奇他们的成功究竟到了何种程度，不妨来看看《纪念碑谷》制作团队ustwo公布的最新数据：正如图表所示，这个精致的等距式解谜游戏使用的是Unity引擎，历时55周，花费资金85.2万美元。继官方售出240万份之后，《纪念碑谷》盈利达到了585多万美元。

游戏在谷歌商店、苹果商店以及亚马逊发行，在首日就获得了了14多万美元的收益,有81%的收入来都自iOS平台，这还得归功于Unity的跨平台优势。对于一个八人开发团队来说，这算是相当不错的成绩了，尤其是考虑到他们在开发初期还有些评论人士在预言付费游戏的灭亡。

对于其他Unity游戏开发者来说，你们应该庆幸ustwo能给出这么慷慨的建议。Neil McFarland是游戏的项目主管，他说：

“我觉得作为一个开发者，你必须明白你的游戏是不是能够匹配上付费设定，游戏中有没有包含免费游戏惯用的那些烦人的赚钱手段。所以这就意味着一个付费游戏应该是从一开始就有非常好的、与众不同的游戏体验。”

“你的游戏讲了什么？”“你为什么要这么设计？跟其它同类游戏相比，它有新奇之处吗？或者它有没有比其它游戏做得更好？这个游戏到底值不值得玩家花钱？如果你的答案是肯定的，那么你应该有很大机会能得到平台负责人的推荐。这些人看中你的游戏是出于商业角度，而你作为这款游戏的创作者是值得这份酬劳的。”

除ustwo之外，还有其他团队也愿意跟广大Unity用户分享成功经验。Asher Vollmer是Sirvo工作室的一名游戏设计师,他们的Unity解谜游戏Threes! 在2014年取得了爆炸性的成功，还赢得当年的苹果应用设计大奖（同样使用Unity开发的《纪念碑谷》《手指画线》（Blek）以及Device 6也是当年的赢家）。“我觉得要做出一个猎奇、有趣、能赚钱的付费游戏比做一个同样类型的免费游戏容易多了，”这就是为什么Vollmer倾向于付费游戏。

“如果是免费游戏，你可能会因为放错焦点而失败——比如说你关注的是如何做出一个好游戏，但其实你应该关注的是如何搭建游戏中的经济体系，想办法让玩家氪金。

“如果你做的是付费游戏，搞清楚你的目标受众是非常关键的，”他补充说，“我觉得这就像是‘优秀游戏设计原则第一条：了解你的游戏，了解你的目标受众。’付费游戏的用户定位和免费游戏是不一样的。你要思考这其中的区别，利用起来。”

另一个工作室也认同这种观点，它就是Fireproof Games。如今他们依然凭借着Unity付费游戏在市场中蓬勃发展。《未上锁的房间》系列预计将会在2015年春季发行第三部续作，由这个英国团队开发的同系列前作也是付费游戏，而且备受好评。

Fireproof Games的总监&合作创始人Barry Meade解释说：“付费游戏的设计方式当然不是固定的，但是有些东西是一定要有的，不能忘记：你的脑中必须要有商业意识，意思就是你要清楚你为什么做这个游戏，换句话说就是用户为什么要买这个游戏。它填补了市场上的某个空隙吗？或者它是个容易上手、极其有趣的游戏，大家都想玩？又或者它是个全新的游戏，独树一帜？”

不管怎样，“喜欢这个创意”距离“把它做成付费游戏”还有很远的一段距离。而且，从某种程度上说，游戏还需具备能创造经典的能力。

“在Fireproof，我们会一致认为新鲜感是很重要的，”Meade继续说，“在执行的过程中一定要有个聪明人，而且要在一定程度上达到‘这个游戏别人做不出来’的效果。如果有人告诉我说把项目做成某某游戏那样，那我肯定不会听他的。”

如果你计划发行一款手游，完全不考虑免费游戏也是不理智的。F2P仍是移动行业的一种主流趋势，虽然我们有时会看到某些公司的用户获取以及留存成本日益增加，数字高得吓人，但免费游戏依然可以为各种规模的工作室带来收益。

幸运的是，Unity用户在游戏的商业模式选择上不止一种。这还要多亏了Unity引擎的跨平台优势，开发者们可以在不同平台推出不同版本的产品。

Rebel Twins是一家成立于2012年的波兰小型工作室，他们开发的《老爸曾是小偷》（Daddy Was a Thief）在安卓和iOS平台上都获得了成功。其中有一部分原因是这个游戏既是收费游戏也是免费游戏。意思就是它在iOS平台是收费的，在安卓平台是免费的；Rebel Twins利用Unity根据不同平台制定了不同的商业模式。

Rebel Twins的艺术总监&开发者Cezary Rajkowski说：“我们不喜欢F2P模式和双货币体系，这会对游戏玩法产生负面影响。不幸的是，付费游戏在安卓平台很难卖出去。因此，考虑到安卓用户的习惯，我们将这个游戏转为包含广告的免费游戏。我们尽量避免安卓版本的游戏和iOS版本之间的过大差异，所以游戏中只有一种货币，你只要玩游戏就能陆续解锁其它的内容。”

这种模式对Rebel Twins来说效果不错。它也为工作室带来了330万下载量，到现在，游戏仍拥有60多万的活跃用户。那Rebel Twins在市场营销、用户获取、推广等等方面花了多少钱呢？答案是零！我想，无论你的工作室是做免费游戏还是付费游戏还是两者都做，你都希望能像Rebel Twins这样能在有限的预算下收获傲人的成绩。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

In the latest in our series of blog posts bringing you insights from Unity users that have that have thrived in the mobile space, the experts behind games like Threes and Monument Valley explain how to succeed with premium.

It wasn’t long ago that some games industry analysts were predicting the ‘death of premium’. At a time when free‐to‐play was a new frontier for mobile games development, many were quick to forget the merits of the paid‐for game. Now, after rumbles in 2013 that gained momentum throughout the following year, premium should not be discarded yet in the mobile space. Platform holders are again putting premium titles front and center of their app stores, while some of the 2014’s most critically acclaimed, successful titles came with an upfront price tag.

And a lot of those games were made with Unity. Threes, Monument Valley, The Room 2; these and many others prove both the potential of free, and the power of Unity as a platform for building a free‐to‐play mobile success story. If you want a sense of just how successful, look no further than the latest figures made public by Monument Valley studio ustwo; a team that have never been afraid to share their data. As detailed in the London outfit’s recently published infographic ‘Monument Valley in Numbers’, the refined isometric puzzle game was built using Unity in 55 weeks, costing the studio $852,000 dollars. 2.4 million official sales later, Monument Valley has generated $5,858,625 in revenue.

81 per cent of Monument Valley’s revenues came on iOS – the game was also launched on Google Play and Amazon; a feat made simple by Unity’s cross platform strengths – and made $145,530 in its first day. Not bad for a title made by a team of eight developers who began work on the game when some observers were still predicting the demise of premium priced games.

Fortunately for their fellow Unity users, ustwo are as generous with their advice as they are with their numbers. Neil McFarland is Head of Games at the studio, and he has some tips for Unity developers with a game that they feel might suit premium.

“I think a developer must understand whether or not their game holds a premium offering; if in fact it is offering content or experience that needs to be free from the pestering a freemium title must insert,” suggests McFarland. “So that means that a premium game should be considered in terms of making a really good and valuable experience right from the start.

“What is your game saying?” continues McFarland. “Why are you making it? Is it different from or better than similar games and therefore valuable to the player? If it is these things then you should stand a good chance of being promoted by the platform holders. They value these experiences because they sell their products and you’re justified in thinking you should be paid for producing the game.”

And ustwo isn’t alone in its willing to share the experience of mobile success with the wider Unity community. Asher Vollmer is a game designer at Sirvo, which saw its Unity‐built tile puzzler Threes! explode in 2014, scooping an accolade at the Apple Design Awards (during a ceremony packed with premium Unity‐made winners, such as

Monument Valley, Device 6 and Blek). “I think it’s much easier to have a weird creatively interesting game that’s premium that makes a profit, than to have a weird creatively interesting game that’s free [and makes a profit],” says Vollmer on why he feels premium appeals.

“With free you can fail if you focus on making a game good instead of making a good in‐game economy that people can spend infinite money on.

“Knowing who your audience is important if you’re going premium with you game,” he adds. “I mean, that’s a pretty good, fundamental ‘rule number one’ for good game design. Know your context and know your audience. When you make a premium game your audience is going to be different from when you make a free game. You should think about that audience, and take advantage of that distinction.”

It’s a sentiment expressed by another studio continuing to thrive through premium with Unity‐made titles. Fireproof Games’ series The Room is presently set to continue with the anticipated launch of the third installment in spring 2015, following two hugely well regarded premium releases from the UK team.

“There’s no one way [to design premium games] for sure but, there’s a few things we’d bear in mind,” explains Barry Meade, Director and Co‐founder at Fireproof Games. “Your game must be commercially aware ‐ that is, know why you’re making it, or in other words, why an audience might want it. Is it answering an un‐served niche ripe for the taking? Or is it a very fun and accessible game anyone would like? Or maybe a brand new game, a genre of its own?”

Regardless, says Meade, it’s not enough to make an idea into a premium title just because you like it. Instead, it has to be best in class in some way.

“I think at Fireproof we’d all say novelty is important here,” continues Meade. “There must be a cleverness to the execution and in some ways it should be a game only your team could make. I certainly wouldn’t listen to anyone telling you to copy other game styles.”

Of course, it would be rather unwise to disregard free‐to‐play all together if you plan on releasing a mobile game. It remains a dominant trend across mobile development, and despite some headline grabbing statistics about user acquisition and retention’s increasing costs, free can still work for teams of everysize.

Fortunately, Unity users need not always commit one way or the other with their game’s business model. That’s because of the simple fact that the engine’s cross platform advantages don’t demand target platforms each receive an identical version of a given title.

Rebel Twins is a small Polish studio founded in 2012, which has seen its hit game Daddy Was a Thief prosper on both Android and iOS mobile phones for some time. Partly, the success came from the fact that the game is both freemium and premium. That is to say, it is a premium title on iOS, and a freemium release on Android; a simple result of the studio identifying an opportunity in using Unity to adapt their business model to suit each platform.

“Daddy Was A Thief is a paid app on the App Store,” says Cezary Rajkowski, Rebel Twins Art Director and Developer. “We’re not a huge fans of freemium models and dual‐currency systems which usually ruin gameplay. Unfortunately premium game sales are almost non‐existent on Google Play. That’s why our particular focus is on free games supported by ads for Android users. We tried to be fair so there is only one in‐game currency and you can unlock everything by just playing.”

It’s a model that has worked well for Rebel Twins. By offering a paid version and a player‐friendly free version, the studio has seen its game downloaded over 3.3 million times, and to this day enjoys well over 600,000 active users. And the total Rebel Twins spend on marketing, user acquisition, advertising and so on? A wholesome zero dollars; a figure any studio should like the sound of, whether they are opting to go with premium, freemium, or both.（source：unity3d ）