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独立游戏开发者有没有机会参与Battle Royale?

发布时间:2018-05-28 09:34:52 Tags:,

独立游戏开发者有没有机会参与Battle Royale?

原作者:Iain Harris 译者:Willow Wu

Battle royale一词最早出现于17世纪James Howard的喜剧All Mistaken/the Mad Couple中,自此之后battle royale似乎都带着着一丝庄严、宏伟的感觉。“Royale”一词在这个短语中或许只是起到辅助作用,但是它能给我们一种为国王而战的使命感。

所以这大概也是为什么腾讯《绝地求生:刺激战场》(PUBG:Exhilarating Battlefield)以及网易《终结者2:审判日》(Rules of Survival)这样的battle royale游戏要做得这么大规模——100个玩家同时为生存而战,目标是成为战场上最后活下来的人。

但这也不禁让我们产生了疑问——battle royale游戏一定要做成这么大场面、大规模的吗?世界各地的独立开发者有没有机会参与到这个市场潮流中?幸运的是,这里有一群优秀的手游专家能够为我们解答。

独立开发者能够参与到这个潮流中吗?

他们制作大型多人游戏的风险有多大?对于那些想尝试的人能给些建议吗?

Aaron Fothergill(Strange Flavour的合作创始人)

啊,又有人说“我要做个MMO游戏”了。不管你是在哪个游戏开发论坛或者是小组,总是会有那种什么都没做过的新人蹦出来问“我有一个关于MMO游戏的好主意,请问我该怎么写代码?”

从独立游戏的角度来说我并不认为这完全不可行(但是对于不懂编程开发新手来说还是不太实际),关键在于你对MMO游戏规模要有规划。

MMO游戏的发展历史比我们大多数想的要长得多。在电脑刚问世不久的时代,玩家是通过电脑杂志或者奇幻游戏杂志上的广告进行注册,然后把你的当周/当月的舰队行动计划写下来,然后寄出去。

托管公司会实施每个玩家的行动,完成所有战役然后把结果寄回去。现在的速度可是快多了。

在所有的MMO类型中肯定是有一些衍生类游戏适合独立开发者们下手,其实我们正打算在Fish!中应用MMO机制。

在Flick Fishing的早期版本中我们就有使用这种多人模式,名为FishNet——就是让玩家创造一个游戏,获得一个由五个或者六个字母组成的邀请码。使用邀请码的人就可以加入到你的FishNet中,主机服务器会一直关注谁抓到了最大的鱼。

在Fish!中我们把个人邀请码扩展成了团队邀请码,那样玩家就能直接创造团队或者是加入团队。每周/月,服务器就会列出抓到最大的鱼的团队,或者是捕捞数量最多的团队,给与奖励。

游戏不会产生大量的即时数据,但是分数是实时更新的,大规模数量的玩家也不会让游戏过载。(Flick Fishing版本的FishNet有几百万玩家的数据在Xserve上运行。)

去年.io游戏也是一大热门领域。Unity甚至还提供了游戏制作以及服务器搭建教程,所以对于独立开发者们来说,.io游戏无疑是MMO机制的最佳载体之一,就看你想把资源用在哪里了。

我的建议是想清楚你要把开发时间花在哪里——游戏画面?即时反馈(很烧钱)?还是你想做一个紧张、有趣、简单的游戏?

根据你的个人能力划出一个可行的范围。如果你想把战斗弄成是“房间式”风格,就比如限制每个游戏区的人数,那我估计你能避免挺多游戏规模方面的问题。

 Rules of Survival(from pocketgamer.biz)

Rules of Survival(from pocketgamer.biz)

Tanya X. Short(Kitfox Games的创意总监)

我同意Aaron的观点,MMO游戏燃起了我的玩家之心,而且从很多方面来说,它们依然还有一些未经探索的玩法值得挖掘。

既然现在有那么多好用、简单的网络插件,我当然希望有更多独立游戏开发者能够制作多人游戏,亮出他们的新点子,把MMO游戏引入一个新的时代(虽说battle royale来的有点迟)。

如果我们都足够勇敢,那么MMO游戏的第二个黄金时代就会出现。研究研究A Tale in the Desert、Subterfuge以及SpryFox旗下的游戏,看看能学到些什么。

具体来说,我特别鼓励独立开发者们在未完全开发的大规模co-op游戏或者大型不对称设计游戏上进行创新,因为那里有很多成熟的东西可以直接拿来用。

第一个游戏就做MMO可能不太理智,其实就算是第一百个,MMO也不是一个非常合适的选择。但是既然你有梦想,有时候就该做个勇往直前的“傻瓜”。

Pierre-Luc Vettier(Zero Games Studios CEO)

我认为对于独立游戏开发者来说,哪里都有机会。七八年前就有独立开发者想做MMO游戏了,比如受《火箭联盟》启发的游戏、多人版本的第一人称射击游戏以及模仿《我的世界》的游戏。

不管是在游戏主机还是PC平台上,一旦出现了新的潮流,有些独立开发者就马上抓住这个机遇,把它应用到移动产品上,有时候效果还不错。

如果你是一个手游设计师,非常喜欢一款新出的热门主机/PC新游戏,而且你发现移动平台上没有类似的游戏,于是你就想把这种游戏体验移植到你的主场,这是很正常的想法。

现在要加入battle royale有点晚了,要是在几个月前的话机会就比较多了。如果你错失了某个潮流,那你就安心等待下一个,反应再快点就好啦。

关于制作大型多人游戏我没办法给出什么建议,毕竟我掌握的相关知识不是特别多。但就我看来,现在制作大型多人游戏的风险比以前小很多了,因为现在有各种各样的工具可以帮助独立开发者。

但是它毕竟还是一个比较复杂的类型,需要一个有经验(或者工作热情极高)的团队来一起完成,即时多人游戏的设计会受到很多限制因素的影响,最终成品的效果也存在着不确定性。

Molly Heady-Carroll(Arcane Circus合作创始人&首席设计师)

独立游戏开发者有没有机会参与battle royale?

创新无处不在,而那些愿意承担风险小型开发团队正是创新的主要群体。Battle royale的潮流引领者《绝地求生》是起源于一个mod,所以怎么能说独立开发者没有机会参与呢?

其实我很好奇battle royale游戏能火多久。它会成为下一个死亡竞赛(death match)或者是部落模式(horde mode)吗?我猜这要看其它游戏愿不愿意用了。

如果battle royale成为游戏的常用模式(就跟上述提到的模式一样),它会成为游戏中非常重要的部分。这样的话,在各种类型的射击游戏中battle royale就成了必不可少的游戏模式,从另一方面来说它也会因为太过普遍而成为不了游戏的亮点。

他们制作大型多人游戏的风险有多大?对于那些想尝试的人能给些建议吗?

我们现在正在开发自己的多人游戏。多人游戏肯定有它独特的挑战,但是我并不认为它比其它任何类型游戏的风险都高。(除非你打算做一个《魔兽世界》那样的MMO独立游戏,那就太可怕了,别那么做!)

独立开发者有很大机会可以通过制作手游脱颖而出。Reptile Games,也就是《致命联盟》(Lethal League)的开发团队,写过一篇很有意思的文章,有段话讨论的是独立多人游戏:

“在Steam上,多人在线游戏的价值应该是显而易见的。人们对游戏的兴趣是无止境的,只要有合适的诱因他们就能被新的游戏所吸引。网游设定也让很多游戏成为市场中的赢家,但是它的作用很像是增效器,意思就是说游戏本体还是最重要的。”虽然他讲的是Steam平台,但是我认为独立手游也是这个道理。

有很多工具和插件可以帮助小型游戏团队渡过难关(比如Firebase、AppWarp Cloud、Photon Engine),创造出一个多人游戏。

我的建议是开发者们应该根据团队的资源、预算来做游戏。如果遇到困难,看看有没有可以用的工具或者有没有办法向谁寻求帮助。

如果还是没办法解决,那你可能得对游戏做出调整了,要有一个周密的计划!挑战自我是一件好事,但是执着于空中楼阁会让大家都很辛苦。

Ben Murch(Perchang合作创始人)

独立游戏开发者有没有机会参与battle royale?

“想在这一行谋生,有三种方法:动作快,智商高或者会骗人。我不想骗人。虽然我相信,这栋楼里有很多聪明人,但是动作快才最容易取胜。”——《商海通牒》台词。

如果让我引用一句/段话来回答这个问题,那这就是我唯一的答案。Jeremy Irons在电影里提出了这个一针见血的观点。那些开创性的游戏就是最先出现的,然后才有模仿者,再后来就有冒充者,也就是骗人的产品。

有很多开发者都想通过克隆《绝地求生》来快速获利。而聪明的开发者会抓住这个潮流,创造出有特点的东西,这就是独立开发者们擅长的事。我们人数不多,做事不用过那么多环节,可以尝试很多新想法然后快速判断它可不可行。

然而,我觉得这与人们一开始就选择当独立开发者的原因背道而驰——我们是想尝试自己的创意、创造出新的游戏体裁、做别人不敢做的事,你明白我的意思了吧?我们的目的不是二次创作。所以,这个问题应该是“为什么独立开发者要加入这个潮流?”

他们制作大型多人游戏的风险有多大?对于那些想尝试的人能给些建议吗?

这涉及到很多问题。你要用哪个平台?你要做哪种类型的MMO?玩家的互动方式是怎样的?

《绝地求生》是一个大型多人游戏,但Words With Friends也是啊。首先先考虑下你的开发预算,如果在制作过程中发现成本过高了那就考虑一下寻求合作伙伴,能够帮助你解决资金问题,把游戏做下去。

想想游戏的吸引点是什么。把《绝地求生》搬到太空中并不是什么能够引爆全球的好点子。然而,如果你在游戏玩法上做一些改变那可能还会有机会。

总而言之,我觉得大型多人游戏对独立开发者来说还算是高风险项目。但是不要畏惧,你知道人们对高风险项目的看法。

Tanya X. Short(Kitfox Games的创意总监)

有人玩了这星期刚发行的One Hour One Life吗?多人游戏设计师都应该去玩一玩,

它采用了一种新方式来促进玩家之间合作关系,认同对方的指导、共同维护联盟。

Dan Menard(Double Stallion的CEO)

我觉得battle royale还是挺酷的,很多开发者都会选择紧跟潮流,但是我不确定《绝地求生》的成功有多少要归功于它的整体游戏结构——也就是简单的游戏模式+一大堆不确定因素。

实际上,《绝地求生》就是在一个非常安静、空旷的游戏世界中展开高度紧张刺激的行动。并不是每个角落都有玩家潜伏着,但是游戏给你的感觉就是这样的。有很多效仿者都没弄明白这点。

尽管如此,这一类型的游戏还是具有无限的可能性。就像MOBA游戏一样,DOTA是潮流的源头,一直到现在新MOBA游戏还是层出不穷。

Nathan Fouts(Mommy’s Best Games创始人)

就如Tanya所说的,One Hour One Life是一个很棒的游戏,也是一个非常好的独立作品。Jason Rohrer也是游戏设计界的一大人才。独立开发者还是有机会进入battle royale/MMO领域的,但是具体的设计概念可能会有所不同。

他们制作大型多人游戏的风险有多大?对于那些想尝试的人能给些建议吗?

对于“大型多人游戏”,独立开发者们应该要有自己的想法,不要纠结于大家眼中的游戏应该是怎样的。他们需要去改变规则或者是创造规则,不要被传统多人游戏的海量工作内容压得喘不过气。

我想我们都明白跟《堡垒之夜》这样的游戏硬碰硬是在送人头吧?在游戏中加点新花样,选一个有趣的、可行的艺术风格,这对于小型团队来说这就是一个比较好的开始。

比如说在couch co-op游戏中应用battle royale模式?

Travis Ryan(Dumpling Design工作室负责人)

独立游戏开发者有没有机会参与battle royale?

把游戏行业的竞争想成是battle royale,100个产品同时投入到市场中。

虽说潮流的引领者并不一定只能是大型游戏开发公司,小型开发团队也可以,他们可以将有限的资源用在刀刃上,创造出新鲜而独特的东西,但是battle royale所带来的挑战不是那么好解决的。

玩家基础是确保良好游戏体验的关键,这就意味着高额运营成本和后勤保障还只是你迈出的第一步。

他们制作大型多人游戏的风险有多大?对于那些想尝试的人能给些建议吗?

在如今,开发battle royale游戏的风险其实也没比单人游戏高到哪里去。先想一个大概,游戏结构是怎么样的,规模能到多大/灵活性有多高。早期的battle royale mods,甚至是初始阶段的《我的世界》都是从小做起,逐渐累积玩家进而扩大、成型。

去年,我们因为一系列的原因转向制作新型的多人游戏。主要还是因为我们十分热衷于这些游戏,我们也想把多人游戏的开发过程变得有趣些。

另外,在这种更注重反馈的开发过程中(游戏邦注:尤其是移动平台),我们可以和玩家们一起迭代、创造出新的内容、发行核心体验,但一切会如何发展我们也无法完全确定。听起来很刺激哈?

AR游戏Smash Tanks!是我们的第一款产品,我们的核心想法是让同一地区的玩家在同一块地方使用AR进行多人游戏,我们打算在累积到一定数量的玩家后就把这个游戏移植到线上,我们距离那个标准还有相当一段距离。我们还要对收费模式进行重新评估(目前Smash Tanks!还是付费游戏,多人游戏玩家肯定要难过了哈?),游戏平台也会进一步扩大(安卓马上就有了!)。

如果进展不顺利,我们会将这些经验运用到下一个多人游戏上,然后再利用新的知识对之前的项目进行优化。

我认为多人游戏的可扩展性是非常重要的,这不仅仅关系到产品本身,还关系到它的市场表现。在玩家看来,你做的每一个改变、增加的每一个东西都是游戏的新章节,同时也是吸引他们下载游戏的新机会。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Since first appearing in James Howard’s comic play All Mistaken or the Mad Couple in 1672 the term battle royale has always carried with it a sense of grandeur. The “royale” may be included in the phrase as a mere intensifier, but it gives us the meaning of a battle fit for a king.

So it is perhaps fitting that battles waged in such battle royale-styled games as Tencent’s PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield and NetEase’s Rules of Survival are equally grand, with 100 players fighting it out for survival and to be crowned the last player standing.

However, it did cause us to wonder. Do the studios behind these games need to be equally as grand and large-scale or is there room for indie developers around the world to get in on the trend? Luckily for us in times like these, we have a fantastic cast of mobile mavens to call upon.

Specifically, we asked them:

Is there any room for indie developers to get in on the ‘battle royale’ trend?

How risky is it for indies to create a big multiplayer game and what advice do you have for those who attempt it?

Aaron Fothergill

Co-founder Strange Flavour

Ah the “I want to write an MMO” line. Whatever games developer forums or groups you’re on, there’s always a post from someone new who’s never written anything along the lines of “I’ve got a great idea for an MMO, how do I code it?”

From an indie game standpoint though I think it is actually feasible (although not for a newbie developer who doesn’t know how to code yet), it just depends on how you plan for the scale of the MMO.

MMOs have been going for a lot longer than most of us realise. Even in the very early days of computers there were play by mail space exploration/battle games where you would sign up from an ad in a computer or fantasy games magazine and write in with your fleet moves for the week/month.

The hosting company (i.e. a man in a shed, ostensibly with a mainframe, but more than likely just an Apple) would work out everybody’s moves, resolve all the battles and post back the results. There are still web-based equivalents of that going nowadays, although turns are a little faster.

If you consider all the types of MMO, then there are certainly some variants an indie dev game can do. We’re actually working one into Fish! at the moment.

It’s a version of the multiplayer mode we did in early versions of Flick Fishing, called FishNet, where you create a game and get a five or six letter code. Anyone who uses that code in the game joins your FishNet and the hosting server keeps tabs on who’s caught the biggest fish as you all play.

For Fish! we’ve simply expanded it with team codes so that you can create or join a team and every week and month the server lists the teams that have caught the biggest fish or biggest overall catch and gives them in-game prizes.

It’s not a huge load of real-time data, but the scores are updated live and feasibly it can scale to a very large number of players. (The Flick Fishing version of FishNet ran a couple of million players on the Xserve on top of Freeverse’s office fridge.)

There’s also the .io type games that were big last year. Unity even does a tutorial on how to make them and set up their servers, so it’s certainly within the bounds of an indie dev to do something massive multiplayer online, it’s just down to where you’re focusing the resources.

My advice, consider where you’re going to spend the development time. Is it going to be graphics heavy and real-time (which gets expensive fast), or something edgy, fun and simple that can be hosted easily?

There’s probably a viable range inbetween depending on your skillset. If you’re doing battles in a ‘rooms’ style, where each play zone has a limited number of players for instance, you can probably get away with quite a bit scale-wise in your network and game code as you can design it to a set player max (or adjust the player max down to suit).

Tanya X. Short
Creative Director Kitfox Games

I agree with Aaron, my gamer-heart was actually forged in MMOs and in many ways they still offer some of the deepest unexplored gameplay potential.

Now that there are more accessible networking plugins and support than ever before, I absolutely hope more indies get into multiplayer design and start innovating the heck out of it, though battle royale seems a bit late to the party at this point.

A second golden age for weird massively multiplayer could be on the horizon if we’re all brave enough. Let’s all learn from A Tale in the Desert and Subterfuge and the cool stuff going down over at SpryFox, like Beartopia.

To be completely explicit, I’d specifically encourage indies to innovate in the under-explored massively co-op or massively asymmetrical game design areas as there’s a lot of ripe fruit there to be harvested.

MMOs are maybe a bit foolish for your first game, or maybe even for your hundredth, but we should all be a little bit foolish when we’re dreaming.

Pierre-Luc Vettier
CEO Zero Games Studios

Is there any room for indie developers to get in on the ‘battle royale’ trend?

I think there’s room for indie mobile developers in all trends. Since six or eight years, we’ve seen indies trying to develop MMOs, Rocket League-inspired games, multiplayer FPSs and Minecraft clones.

With each new trend on console and PC, some indies tries to follow it and recreate it for mobile and sometimes it works pretty well.

If you’re a mobile developer who likes a new popular game on console or PC and you see there’s no such game following the trend on your device, trying to re-create a great experience you had is very tempting, and that’s normal.

It may be a bit late for the battle royale trend right now, but I’m pretty sure there had been a place for indies in this segment a few months ago. But if you miss a trend, you just have to wait for next one and be more reactive.

How risky is it for indies to create a big multiplayer game and what advice do you have for those who attempt it?

I can’t give any advice about how to make a big multiplayer game as my technical knowledge is a bit limited, but as far as I know, It’s less risky to create this kind of big games than before thanks to a lot of tools that didn’t exist many years ago.

But it’s still something complicated which requires an experienced (or mad) team as constraints of real-time multiplayer games can have a huge impact on design and performance of your final product.

Molly Heady-Carroll
Co-founder & Lead Artist Arcane Circus

Is there any room for indie developers to get in on the ‘battle royale’ trend?

Innovation can come from anywhere, especially smaller devs who are more willing to take risks. The original trendsetter, PUBG, came from a mod so it would be silly to deny there is room for indies in the trend.

I am curious to see how long-lasting the battle royale game mode will stick around. Will it be the next death match or horde mode? I guess it depends how much it is embraced by games.

If battle royale becomes as common-place as the other modes mentioned previously, it will transform into a staple in gaming. In that case, battle royale will be so expected in shooters of all sizes, it won’t even be notable anymore.

How risky is it for indies to create a big multiplayer game and what advice do you have for those who attempt it?

We are actually in the process of developing a multiplayer game of our own right now. Creating a multiplayer game is certainly coming with its own unique challenges but I wouldn’t say it is really more risky than creating any other new game independently. (Unless you’re planning to make a World of WarCraft-like MMO on your own, don’t do that!)

There is a lot of potential for Indies to stand out by creating mobile games. There is a very interesting article by Reptile Games, the creators of Lethal League, (love that game! Play it if you haven’t by the way!) who had this to say about indie multiplayer games (They are talking about Steam but I think the same is true for mobile indie games):

“On Steam, the value of online multiplayer should be clear. Humans are endlessly more interesting than any game, with the right stimuli (which is where a game comes in). Online also makes a game stand out between many other independent titles. But it seems to work like a kind of multiplier, meaning the base game still matters most.”

There are lots of tools and plugins that can help a smaller team along with punching above their weight and creating a multiplayer experience (Firebase, AppWarp Cloud, Photon Engine).

I would advise developers to take care to create a game within their team’s means and resources. If there are things you are not able to do, see if there is a tool or a person that can do what you need for a price you can afford.

If you can’t find anything, you might want to change the scope of the game you are working on. Plan carefully! Challenging yourself is good, but jumping into the impossible doesn’t make anyone happy.

Ben Murch
Co-Founder Perchang

Is there any room for indie developers to get in on the battle royale trend?

“There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat. Well, I don’t cheat. And although I like to think we have some pretty smart people here in this room, it sure is a hell of lot easier to just be first,” said Margin Call.

I promise this will be my only answer I start with a quote. Totally promise, possibly. Anyway, Jeremy Irons in that film had a really good point. Groundbreaking games are “first,” then come the copycats, the pretenders, the “cheats”.

We’ve already seen a whole load of titles that try to rip PUBG directly for a quick buck. The smarter ones are developers who capture a trend and develop it into something unique.

This is where indie developers can excel. We are small and nimble enough to try out new ideas and throw them away just as quickly.

However, I feel it goes against why developers go independent in the first place. We do this to try our own ideas, invent genres, to boldly go – well; you get the idea. We don’t do this to copy what’s gone before. So, perhaps the question should be “Why would an indie dev get in on the trend?”

How risky is it for indies to create a big multiplayer game and what advice do you have for those who attempt it?

This depends on a lot of factors. What platform are you using? What game type are you creating? How do players interact with the game?

PUBG is a big multiplayer game, but then, so is Words With Friends. Think primarily about the cost of developing and then running your game and if it’s too much for you to handle, think about partnering with people who can foot the bill and make it possible to create your title. Think about your hook.

Just copying PUBG and setting it in space probably won’t set the world on fire. However, if you throw in a new gameplay hook which re-invents how it plays, you may stand a chance.

Overall, I’d say big multiplayer games are highly risky for indies, but be brave because you know what they say about big risk.

Tanya X. Short
Creative Director Kitfox Games

Has anyone else tried One Hour One Life that just came out this week? It’s a really interesting experimental co-op MMO that every multiplayer designer should try out.

It innovates in new ways to encourage player-to-player mentorship, alliances, and identity. Now if I can figure out what milkweed looks like, maybe my next mom will be proud of me.

Dan Menard
CEO Double Stallion

I think the battle royale is a neat trend, and many developers will be hopping onto the bandwagon, but I’m not sure how much of the success of PUBG can be attributed to simply the game mode versus a myriad of other factors.

PUBG is periods of crazy high action punctuating a largely quiet/empty game world. There isn’t a player lurking around every corner but it feels that way. A lot of the copycats seem to get that wrong.

Regardless, there are infinitely many possibilities within the genre, just like how new MOBAs are still coming out after DOTA initiated the trend.

Nathan Fouts
Founder Mommy’s Best Games

Is there any room for indie developers to get in on the ‘battle royale’ trend?

Working off of what Tanya said, One Hour One Life is a great idea and a great indie move. There’s probably room in the battle royale/MMO area for an indie, but the concept would have to be different. Also, Jason Rohrer is a treasure of a designer.

How risky is it for indies to create a big multiplayer game and what advice do you have for those who attempt it?

Indies shouldn’t follow the rules of how a “big multiplayer game” should be. They need to change the rules or make new rules, and then they won’t be shackled by the massive amount of work a traditional multiplayer game requires.

I think we all know trying to go head-to-head against Fortnite on all fronts would be a mistake for most. Putting a new twist on it and picking an interesting, but workable art-style for a very small team would be a better start.

Maybe a battle royale format in a couch-co op game? Or couch-co op games, but they are somehow modified asynchronously by other players?

Travis Ryan
Studio Head Dumpling Design

Is there any room for indie developers to get in on the ‘battle royale’ trend?

Hear me out; 100 battle royale games are dropped onto an island.

While no trend is exclusive domain to bigger developers – smaller developers can and will always challenge trends, taking limited resource to focus and craft something new and unique – the battle royale format specifically proposes some unique challenges.

Playerbase is everything to ensuring a good gameplay experience, which means hefty running costs and logistics just to get out of the gate.

How risky is it for indies to create a big multiplayer game and what advice do you have for those who attempt it?

It’s no riskier than creating single player games these days, provided you design/build with scalability/flexibility in mind; early battle royale mods or even Minecraft started out as relatively small, indie projects that grew and were shaped with an audience.

At some point last year we (Dumpling) made a pivot toward making new types of multiplayer games for a whole bunch of reasons. Primarily because these are the games that we play and enthuse about – we also assumed making multiplayer games would be more fun to develop, which they are.

Also, by moving to a more responsive development model, particularly on mobile, we can iterate and create alongside an audience, releasing a core experience and not really knowing how it will grow. Sounds super exciting, right?

AR Smash Tanks! was our first, we focused on local shared-space multiplayer via AR, with an eye on expanding it to online multiplayer once the player base grows to a sufficient scale to ensure a good experience.

We’re still in the thick of that process; re-evaluating the pricing model (currently premium, a death knell for multiplayer?) and expanding platforms (Android soon!).

If it doesn’t work out, we’ll apply our learnings to the next multiplayer thing and bring back any new learnings to the older projects.

I believe that scalability around a multiplayer core is key, not only regarding building a multiplayer product but also marketing it; every change, every addition is a story for your audience and a chance for them to get involved.

(source: pocketgamer.biz)


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