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Supercell团队核心谈公司的可持续发展和公司文化策略

发布时间:2019-03-22 09:01:38 Tags:,

Supercell团队核心谈公司的可持续发展和公司文化策略

原作者:Rebekah Valentine 译者:Vivian Xue

有时,我们在采访中聊到了一些有趣的地方,它们不太符合该采访的主题,但仍值得报道。我们觉得与其把这些内容舍弃掉,倒不如将它们重新编成专栏文章,以提供关于各种话题的额外见解。这些文章将以‘DLC’的名义被发布。

这篇DLC专栏的所有内容来源于我们对Supercell赫尔辛基工作室的访问,Supercell邀请我们参加在那儿举办的《荒野乱斗》发行仪式,并承担了我们的机票和住宿费用。除了这些零散的内容,您还可以阅读我们对该工作室的系列采访的一(http://gamerboom.com/archives/95964)、二(http://gamerboom.com/archives/95948)、三(http://gamerboom.com/archives/96033)部分。

clash_of_clans_logo(from supercell)

clash_of_clans_logo(from supercell)

1. 设计空间像环境一样需要被妥善管理,别一次砍掉太多的树

虽然此行是奔着《荒野乱斗》去的,但要想了解这款新游戏未来可能走向何方,与其他热门游戏如《皇室战争》的制作团队交流必不可少。三年过去了,《皇室战争》依然很受欢迎并且成功留住了一批粉丝,比大多数手机游戏要成功得多,这是由于游戏一发行就人气高涨并保持稳定更新。

游戏开发者塞思·埃里森(Seth Allison)告诉我,团队正在研究下一个重大更新。并且印证了本周我从别处听到的关于Supercell重视玩家社区的言论,在决定更新内容的过程中他们将考虑玩家对现有内容的态度。

“我们尝试把它看作一个解决问题的过程,”埃里森说。“游戏中存在哪些问题?玩家们正面临哪些难处,而我们该如何缓解这些问题或消除这些难处?很多时候我们在讨论问题是什么,是什么导致了问题,以及我们是否想解决这个问题或为玩家提供解决这一问题的工具。如果我们都同意某个解决方案,我们会共同努力实现它。”

长期保持游戏的高人气是很困难的,即便你能定期更新它。埃里森承认随着时间的推移《皇室战争》的数据有些下滑,但这对于一款已有几年历史的游戏来说是很自然的事。埃里森表示,如今对团队来说收入和留存率等商业指标已没那么重要,更重要的是把游戏做好做长久。

“从长期的角度考虑问题对我们帮助很大,”他说。“我觉得人在追求短期目标时,可能会踩到自己的脚指头。但通过不断思考‘这些游戏将存在十多年,所以我们目前先做这个,明年做这个,再过一年做那个’,这有助于防止你因跑得太快而精疲力竭。”

对于埃里森和他的团队来说,这意味着在设计更新内容时,那些最远大最激动人心的想法不一定最好。

“设计空间就像环境。你必须对它进行管理:你会砍掉森林里的多少棵树?你可能会说‘我们现在需要很多燃料,因此让我们砍一半’,但一年后你会发现‘噢,天哪,我们没树可砍了’。”

“了解自己的游戏将在未来十年甚至更长时间内存在的一大好处是你能够谨慎且明智地思考要走的每一步。Supercell从未关停过任何一个全球发行的游戏,因此从理论上看这些游戏将会存在20至30年。你不会感觉到‘天,我们得马上赶下一个项目’那种压力。这种长远的目光有助于持续发展。”

2. 谁还没听说过《部落冲突》?

我与《部落冲突》团队的主管艾诺·乔斯(Eino Joas)展开了类似的谈话。和《皇室战争》团队一样,《部落冲突》的开发者们也面临着如何通过定期更新实现老游戏长期可持续发展的挑战。不同的是《部落冲突》的历史更长,它早在2012年就发行了,因此想让玩家保持新鲜感就更困难了。

“我们拥有数百万热爱这个游戏并愿意继续玩下去的玩家,”乔斯说。“我们面临的挑战是如何年复一年地振奋和激励他们。我们永远不会停止追求这一点。这正是我们想要实现的目标。它将会很困难,因为我们必须不断改造游戏,同时又不能改造,因为人们从某种程度上更想让它保持原样,但你又得为他们提供惊喜。”

作为一款努力维系老玩家的游戏,《部落冲突》面临的另一个挑战是它开始受到自身名气的束缚。由于《部落冲突》自发行起人气一直居高不下,它越来越难吸引全新的玩家。

“我们依然获得了很多良性流量,”乔斯说。“但寻找从没玩过《部落冲突》的玩家越来越困难。寻找从没听说过也没玩过《部落冲突》但又会对它感兴趣的玩家越来越难。明年我们可能会尝试鼓励玩过这款游戏的玩家再次玩它。”

“目前,我们觉得玩家回归游戏比较困难,这正是我们想要解决的问题,我们希望让玩家能以更轻松有趣的方式回归游戏。”

乔斯告诉我,Supercell产品长寿的原因之一是他们专注制作PVP游戏。这意味着玩家在不断地创建他们自己的内容,同时游戏更新为他们提供了更多创作可能性。乔斯表示工作室愿意尝试其他的游戏类型和进阶系统,但若要保持小团队规模和开发者主导的理念,他们必须谨慎对待这一点。

“一直以来我们做的基本都是PVP游戏,因为这种模式适合小规模的公司,”他说,“我们没有大批创作内容的艺术家。举个例子,《堡垒之夜》是个PVP游戏,但游戏进阶基于人物皮肤的改变,并且每个赛季你都能通过Battle Pass获得各种激动人心的新玩意儿。说实话,我们很难做到这样,更别提做纯粹靠内容驱动的游戏,比如要不断更新关卡什么的。”

“如果我们真的要做这些游戏,我们得采取聪明的做法。如今我们正在积极地探索,但过去,考虑到我们的团队规模这么小,我们做的更多是PVP游戏,因为这类游戏的内容实际上就是其它玩家以及玩家之间的竞争。”

3. 加班、公司文化与个人责任

在Supercell时,我们聊得最多的话题之一是该工作室不寻常的、以团队为中心的结构。CEO埃卡·潘纳宁(Ilkka Paananan)经常自称“行业内最没权势的CEO”,他说他的目标是消除公司团队工作道路上的障碍,并且在理想状态下,他将“不做任何决策”。

对于Supercell来说,这种管理模式在创意决策方面似乎发挥了相当大的作用,并且与我交流过的每个团队都一致赞同这种理念。但在任何一个游戏开发工作室里,除了创意决策外,还有其它需要管理层发挥领导作用的重要任务,其中之一就是2018年新闻报道尤为频繁的高强度加班问题。

“我认为加班对整个游戏行业来说不是一件可骄傲的事,” 当被问到关于这一问题的想法时,潘纳宁说。“太多时候,加班不是一个例外,而成了一条规定。仿佛你在做开发时间表时就已经计划好了要加班。你必须在某个时刻开始加班,并且有时候它非常早。”

“但对我们来说,当然团队会有目标,比如把游戏发行出去。但游戏最终什么时候发行,取决于团队什么时候觉得它准备好了。因此我相信我们公司的加班强度比其他公司要小很多。并且真的,这是由团队自己决定的。没有人可以命令他们加班。如果你周三下午5点30分来这里绕一圈,你可能会发现大家几乎都走了。”

尽管态度乐观,但潘纳宁确实表示,加班与否取决于团队,不过当自愿加班成了一个问题时,公司没有相应的机制来鼓励员工抽出时间(休息)。最后,接受还是避免加班(正如工作室“团队第一”的文化)是每个人的责任,一定程度上也是团队领导的责任。

“做游戏是一项创意性的工作,与你投入的时间无关,”潘纳宁说。“当然,有时你需要投入很长时间,过去的两个月《荒野乱斗》团队一直在非常辛苦地工作。但它不是常规的工作方式。加班有时候是必须的,但它不是一条规定。我们做的是创意产业,我不相信人们在极度疲劳甚至透支的情况下能得到什么创意。”

“从长远来看,加班最终对企业是不利的。我们正在努力让公司运营数十年,如果把员工累坏我们将无法实现这一点。这是错误的做法,无论是对人们的生活、他们的家庭还是所有人来说都是错误的。”

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

From time to time, there are interesting bits from our interviews that don’t really fit well into the rest of the story, but are still worth reporting. Rather than relegate them to the trash bin of unpublished work, we’d like to repackage them into columns intended to provide additional insight on a variety of topics. These columns will be published under the banner of ‘DLC’.

All of the content from this particular DLC column comes from our visit to Supercell’s Helsinki studios to celebrate the launch of Brawl Stars, for which Supercell paid the flight and lodging. In addition to these tidbits, you can also read parts one, two, and three of our series on the studio.

Saving the forest for future updates

Though I was at Supercell’s studio for the launch of Brawl Stars, part of looking at where the new game might one day be headed involved speaking to the teams working on big hits such as Clash Royale. Now three years old, the game is still very popular and has managed to sustain an audience with far greater success than most mobile titles both due to its initial surge of popularity and a steady flow of updates.

Developer Seth Allison told me that the team is now at a stage where it can start looking at how to tackle Clash Royale’s next big update. And true to what I heard at other points during the week about Supercell’s community focus, the process for determining what that will be involves looking at how the players were responding to what is already there.

“We try to approach it as a problem-solving mission,” Allison said. “What problems exist in the game? What challenges are players facing and how can we alleviate those problems or solve those challenges? A lot of times we talk about what the problem is, what’s causing the problem, and if we want to fix the causes of the problem or create this other system that gives the players tools to combat that challenge. When we agree on a solution, we all work toward it together.”

It can be challenging to maintain a game’s popularity over time, even with regular updates. Allison acknowledged that Clash Royale’s numbers have dropped off somewhat over time, but that is natural for a game that’s already a few years old. Allison said that it is less important to the team now to try to target business metrics such as revenue or player retention, and more important to focus on making a good game in the long-term.

“Having a long-term view for everything helps so much,” he said. “I feel like when you’re chasing short-term goals, you can end up stepping on your own toes. But by always thinking, ‘These games are going to be around for ten-plus years, so we’re going to do this now, we’re going to do this next year, we’re going to do that the year after that,’ that helps keep you from rushing too fast and burning yourself out.”

For Allison and his team that means, when it comes to decisions like those involved in the next update, sometimes the biggest and most exciting ideas don’t end up being the best.

“Design space is like the environment. You have to manage: How many trees in the forest can you cut down? It’s easy to be like, ‘We need a lot of fuel right now, so let’s just cut down half the forest.’ But then you find yourself a year from then going, ‘Oh, man, we’re out of trees.’

The thing that’s nice about knowing you’re going to be around for the better part of a decade or more — Supercell’s never closed a global game so theoretically these games are going to be around for 20 to 30 years — is that you can be deliberate and intelligent about each step forward you want to make. You don’t feel that pressure to, ‘Oh my God, we have to rush out the next big thing.’ That long-term view helps sustainability.”

Who hasn’t heard of Clash of Clans?

I struck up a similar conversation with Clash of Clans team lead Eino Joas. Like the Clash Royale team, the Clash of Clans developers are challenged with keeping an older game sustainable in the long-term through regular updates. But Clash of Clans has been around for even longer, since 2012, and that makes it even more difficult to continue surprising players.

“We have millions and millions of players who love this game and would like to continue to play,” Joas said. “The challenge for us is to find ways to get them fired up and inspired about it year after year. I don’t think we’ll stop doing that. That’s exactly the goal we want to achieve. It’s going to be hard because we have to constantly reinvent, but also not reinvent because people want more of the same in a way, but you also have to offer them surprises.”

Another challenge Clash of Clans faces as an older game trying to remain relevant is that it’s beginning to come up against its own popularity. Because of how big Clash of Clans was at its launch and ever since, it’s becoming more and more difficult to attract totally new users.

“We still get a lot of organic traffic,” Joas said. “But it’s more challenging for us to find players who haven’t played Clash of Clans. Finding players who have never heard of and played the game but would be interested in it is getting increasingly hard. One thing we want to try out maybe next year is to inspire people who have once played the game to come back and try it again.

“At the moment we think it’s not a very easy experience to come back to and that’s something we’d like to address, to make it easier and more fun to return to Clash of Clans.”

One thing that works in Supercell’s favor for longevity across its portfolio, Joas told me, is that the company specializes in PvP titles. That means the players are constantly creating their own content, and updates come in the form of providing more ways to do that. Joas said that the studio is open to other types of games and progression systems, but it has to tread carefully if it wants to preserve its small team sizes and developer-led philosophy.

“Traditionally, we’ve been doing PvP games because it’s a model that suits a small company,” he said. “We don’t have armies of artists who could create content. If you take Fortnite, for example, it’s a PvP game but progression is in skins, and every season you get the Battle Pass that offers you new and exciting stuff. Frankly, for us, that is a really difficult thing to pull off. Not to even talk about purely content-driven games where you add levels, for example, all the time.

“If we want to do those games, we have to be really smart about it. We are actively exploring those directions, but in the past it’s basically been dictated by the fact that we have such small teams that we have been doing more PvP games where the content is actually other players and the competition between the players.”

Crunch, culture, and everyone’s responsibility

One of the main topics of conversation while I was at Supercell was the studio’s unusual, team-focused structure. CEO Ilkka Paananan has often referred to himself as the industry’s “least-powerful CEO,” saying that his goal is to remove obstacles from the path of the teams at the company, and that, ideally, he would “make zero decisions.”

For creative decision-making this seems to work quite well for Supercell, and the various teams I spoke to were universally on board with the idea. But outside of creative decision making, there are other important tasks that management ought take a leadership role in at any game development studio. A big one, especially coming out of the news cycle of 2018, is dealing with crunch.

“Crunch is one of the things that I don’t think the games industry as a whole can be proud of,” Paananen said when I asked about his thoughts on the issue. “Way too often, crunch is not an exception, it’s a rule. It’s almost like, you plan the game schedule with a crunch assumption. You have to get to crunch at some point, and sometimes that’s very early on.

“But for us, of course the teams have goals, like when we’d like to get the game out. But ultimately they get the game out when they feel it’s ready, so I like to believe we have way less crunch than most companies out there. And really, it’s up to the team to decide. There is no one who can go and tell the team that they have to work much, much later hours. If you walk around this office at, say, 5:30 p.m. on a regular Wednesday, it probably would be quite empty.”

Despite the optimistic philosophy, Paananen did say that the decision to work later was up to the teams involved, and that there wasn’t a particular system in place to encourage workers to take time away if self-inflicted crunch ever became a problem. In the end, accepting or avoiding crunch (just like the studio’s team-first culture) is the responsibility of each individual and, to an extent, their team leads.

“Gaming is a creative business, and it’s not about the hours you put in,” Paananen said. “Of course, sometimes you need to put in long hours, and the Brawl Stars team has been working super hard over the last two months. But that can’t be the de facto way of working. Sometimes it can happen, but it can’t be a rule. We’re in a creative business and I just can’t believe that people would come up with creative ideas if they’re really, really tired or at risk of being burned out.

“Crunch is ultimately bad for the business in the long-term. We’re trying to build a company that lasts for decades, and we can’t do that if people get burned out. It’s the wrong thing to do. It’s wrong for the people’s lives, their families, and everybody.” (source:Gamesindustry.biz

 


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