游戏开发者谈游戏产品开发最常见的五个错误

原作者：Dr. Michael Garbade 译者：Willow Wu

你在考虑开发一款手游吗？如果你想获得成功，就一定要避开那些最常见的错误做法。没有找到正确方法就着手开发，等着你的将会是一场灾难。

来自瑞典的资深开发者MyIsaak擅长C#语言和Unity游戏开发，他经常会在网上直播Diablo III Board的游戏开发过程。

你从这些专业人士身上越到的越多（他们已经经历了这个过程），思维就越清晰，能够及时避开那些常见的错误开发方式。

以下是游戏开发中最常见的五个错误：

1.忽略目标群体

没有对目标群体进行调研就做游戏会在你和玩家之间形成一道巨大屏障，很难让玩家关注到这个游戏。

你的游戏是为谁做的？他们的主要关注点是什么？他们喜欢哪类活动？目标群体负担得起游戏所需的金钱吗？或者能够投入足够的时间吗？你的目标用户用的是iOS还是安卓系统？

prince of persia(from designernotebook)

找到这些问题（还有其它问题）的答案能够帮助你识别适合的目标用户群体。由此，你也可以根据他们的喜好设计游戏机制。就像是冰淇淋小贩，他们会挑在夏天，去沙滩附近挑好位置做生意。所以，你可以从用户的习性入手，重点关注那些可能对游戏感兴趣的人。

举个例子，如果你想设计一个射击游戏，你可以把二三十岁左右的、受过大学教育的年轻人当作是主要目标用户群体，把其他群体当作次要目标。

2.不研究竞争对手

为了制作出一款成功的游戏、能够获得大量积极评价和高留存率，你应该分析分析竞争对手的优势和弱点。

研究竞争对手可以让你了解到你的能力是否能够满足消费者对你的手游或网游的需求，甚至可能是绰绰有余。如果你没有做这份功课，你会失去一个满足玩家群体切实需求的大好机会。除此之外，你可能会重蹈其他开发者的覆辙。

你应该考虑下这些问题，比如“他们的目标用户是哪些人？”“他们的游戏每个月大概有多少下载量？”“他们有哪些资源？”。

回答这些问题可以更好地了解你自己的竞争力、与他们竞争的可行性，以及采取什么样的策略来击败他们。

特别要注意的是，与其去模仿竞争对手的策略，更好的做法是开发一个具有独创性的游戏，为用户提供一个附加值。

3. 设计失败

在开发手游或网游时，你必须采用一种独特的艺术风格和引人入胜的视觉设计，同时避免画蛇添足。人们之所以被游戏所吸引，是因为它的用户界面设计和直观性。

所以，比起花大把时间写出华丽而复杂的代码，你还是去优化游戏设计吧。

没有人会因为漂亮的代码而下载游戏，下游戏的目的是玩。而且，用户最终会不会下载游戏，设计会起到很大的影响作用。

4.所有工作都自己揽

如果写代码、开发3D模型、做动画、录画外音这些都是你一个人负责，那么这个游戏可能不会成功。

成功的秘诀在于根据你自身优势完成相关的任务，然后把其余的外包。要学会把工作分给对应的专业人士来做，这样也可以避免一大堆让你头痛的问题。

不要白费力气、做同样的工作，与其事事亲为，倒不如去利用各种功能强大的工具，减轻些负担。在开源社区能找到的东西你就没有必要重新去做了，不然会浪费很多时间，而且成果可能会让你十分失望。

除此之外，不要自己做beta测试。如果你让其他人来做beta测试，这种外部视角能帮助你发现一些隐藏的问题。

5.不切实际的期望

拥有不切实际的期望是一件非常危险的事，因为它们会让你的游戏开发生涯走向失败。不要把你的期望值设得太高以至于你一味坚持某些事情必须要按照你的方式走。

例如，梦想太大可能会促使你在游戏中加入过多奖励。奖励对于提高玩家的沉浸度、活跃度至关重要，但如果玩家每达到一个小成就能获得奖励，玩家很快就不会把这些东西当回事了。

所以，你应该在玩家完成某些特定的关卡之后给予特定的奖励，这样他们才会觉得自己达到了一个里程碑，成就感满满。

总结

本篇文章中提到的这些错误已经让若干游戏开发者遭遇了失败。所以，做好功课，注意脚下的陷阱。

避免犯常见错误的最好方法是从专家那里学习如何开发游戏。

谁知道呢？也许你的游戏就会成为市场上的下一个大热门。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Are you considering developing a mobile game? If you want to be successful, you should avoid making the most common mistakes. Trying to build a game without figuring out the right approach is a recipe for disaster.

There are experienced developers like MyIsaak from Sweden, an expert in C# and Unity game development who frequently livestreams his Diablo III Board game development process.

The more you learn from professionals like him, who have gone through the processes, the faster you can avoid making the common game development mistakes.

Here are the top 5 game developments mistakes to avoid.

1.Ignoring the target group

Creating a game without properly studying your target group is a huge barrier that will keep it from being downloaded and played.

Who are you building the game for? What are their main interests? What activities do they like participating in? Can the target group afford the gaming app? Does your target audience use iOS or Android operating system?

Seeking answers to the above questions and others can assist in correctly identifying your target group. Consequently, you can design its functionalities around their preferences.

Just like an ice cream vendor is likely to set up shop at the beach during summer, you should focus on consumers whose behaviors are likely to motivate them to play your game.

For example, if you want to create a gun shooting game, you can target college-educated men in their 20s and 30s, while targeting other demographic groups secondarily.

2. Failure to study the competitors

To create a successful game that will increase positive reviews and retention, you should analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Studying your competition will allow you to understand your capabilities to match or surpass the consumer demand for your mobile or web-based game.

If you fail to do it, you will miss the opportunity to fill the actual needs in the gaming industry and correct the mistakes made by the developers in your niche.

You should ask questions like “What is their target audience?” “How many downloads do their gaming app receive per month?” “What resources do they have?”.

Answering such questions will give you a good idea of the abilities of your competition, the feasibility of competing with them, and the kind of strategies to adopt to out-compete them.

Importantly, instead of copying the strategies of your competitors, develop a game that is unique and provides an added value to users.

3. Design failure

When building a mobile or a web-based game, it’s essential that you employ a unique art style and visually appealing design—without any unnecessary sophistication. People are attracted to games based on the user interface design and intuitiveness.

So, instead of spending a lot of time trying to write elegant and complicated lines of code, take your time to provide a better design.

No one will download a game because its code is beautiful. People download games to play them. And, the design of the game plays a critical part in assisting them to make the download decision.

4. Trying to do everything

If you try to code, develop 3D models, create animations, do voice-overs—all by yourself—then you are likely to create an unsuccessful game.

The secret to succeeding is to complete tasks that align with your core competencies and outsource the rest of the work. Learn how to divide your work to other experts and save yourself the headaches.

You should also avoid trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead of trying to do everything by yourself, go for robust tools available out there that can make your life easier.

Trying to build something that is already provided in the open source community will consume a lot of your development time and make you feel frustrated.

Furthermore, do not be the beta tester of your own game. If you request someone else to do the beta testing, you’ll get useful outside perspective that will assist in discovering some hidden issues.

5. Having unrealistic expectations

Unrealistic expectations are very dangerous because they set your game development career up for failure. Do not put your expectations so high such that you force somethings to work your way.

For example, dreaming too big can make you include too many rewards in your game. As much as rewards are pivotal for improving engagement and keeping users motivated, gamers will not take you seriously if you incorporate rewards in every little achievement they make.

Instead, you should select specific rewards for specific checkpoints; this way, the players will feel that they’ve made major milestones.

Conclusion

The mistakes discussed in this article have made several game developers to be unsuccessful in their careers. So, be cautious and keep your head high so that you don’t fall into the same trap.

The best way to avoid making the common mistakes is through learning how to build games from the experts.

Who knows? You could develop the next big game in the industry.（source：gamedev ）