2d手機游戲開發

by William Kwan

關冠偉

我的手機游戲如何在2周內獲得365K應用商店下載(以及為什么以后我退出獨立游戲開發者) (How My Mobile Game Got 365K App Store Downloads in 2 Weeks (And Why I Quit Indie Game Dev Afterwards))

I’m not a successful game developer. My most popular game, Frantic Architect, only had 410,678 free installs before being removed from the App Store; nothing compared to the likes of Flappy Bird or 2048.

我不是一個成功的游戲開發商。我最受歡迎的游戲Frantic Architect ，在從App Store移除之前，只有410,678次免費安裝。與“ 飛揚的鳥”或“ 2048”之類的東西相比沒有什么了。

But I was 21, had an unconventional but respectable background in games, and had built the game by myself with relatively little effort. This looked like the perfect jumpstart to my career as an indie game developer.

但是我當時21歲，在游戲領域具有非常規但受人尊敬的背景，并且我自己花費了很少的精力就制作了這款游戲。這看起來像是我作為獨立游戲開發人員的職業生涯的完美起點。

Instead I quit.

相反，我退出了。

It’s been a year and half since Frantic Architect came out. Things move quickly in tech and I don’t spend much time reflecting on abandoned ventures. But browsing through the App Store now, I see casual mobile game developers finding success with the same strategy I used back then. I doubt it’ll still work years down the line, but for now it does, and it’s very straightforward (not saying it’s easy).

自Frantic Architect問世以來已經一年半了。科技的發展日新月異，我不會花很多時間思考廢棄的企業。但是，現在瀏覽App Store，我發現休閑手機游戲開發人員以我當時使用的相同策略獲得了成功。我懷疑它是否還會繼續工作多年，但是目前它確實可以，而且它非常簡單(并不是說很容易)。

You don’t even need the couple years of game programming and design experience I had. If your goal is to develop a mobile app quickly, you don’t care about what kind of app it is, and you want to replicable method to acquire ton of users fast without spending a fortune on ads, then the casual mobile game niche is for you.

您甚至不需要我有幾年的游戲編程和設計經驗。如果您的目標是快速開發移動應用程序，而不在乎它是什么類型的應用程序，并且想通過一種可復制的方法來快速獲取大量用戶而又不花大錢在廣告上，那么休閑移動游戲的利基市場就是為了你。

I’ve got no interest in repeating the experiment because I think it’s a shitty business model. Maybe you can prove me wrong.

我對重復實驗沒有興趣，因為我認為這是一種糟糕的商業模式。也許你可以證明我錯了。

March 17, 2016

2016年3月17日

I rolled out of my bed in my university dorm and checked my Skype. My game had been submitted to Apple for review a week ago and I knew it could go live at any time. I was in Toronto, and my product manager was in Paris, so I had gotten into the habit of waking up to a flood of messages.

我從大學宿舍的床上滑下來，檢查了Skype。我的游戲已在一周前提交給Apple審核，我知道它可以隨時發布。我當時在多倫多，我的產品經理在巴黎，所以我養成了醒來時要大量信息的習慣。

I recall reading some congratulatory message about my game getting featured worldwide by Apple. I turned on my iPad and opened up the App Store. Sure enough, Frantic Architect was sitting there as a Best New Game.

我記得曾經讀過一些祝賀性消息，稱我的游戲在Apple的全球推廣下得到了認可。我打開iPad并打開了App Store。果然，《 瘋狂的建筑師》被評為最佳新游戲。

I got access to the analytics a few days later. Day 4 was my by best day with 58,486 downloads.

幾天后，我可以訪問分析了。第四天是我最好的一天，有58,486次下載。

By two weeks, downloads had already dropped off precipitously. I wasn’t too disappointed because I wasn’t expecting this volume of users to begin with. During the 6 months which I worked/procrastinated on my game, I was given very little indication of how well it was going to do besides the fact that I had gotten a contract from one of the most successful casual mobile game publishers at the time, BulkyPix.

到兩周時，下載量已經急劇下降。我并不感到失望，因為我并不期望這么多的用戶開始。在我從事/拖延游戲開發的6個月中，除了我從當時最成功的休閑手機游戲發行商之一獲得合同的事實之外，我幾乎沒有得到任何進展的跡象， BulkyPix。

However, I was underwhelmed with the ad revenue given the download numbers.

但是，鑒于下載數量，我對廣告收入感到不知所措。

This was the first alarm bell which made me question whether I should keep doing this. That initial spike of traffic at launch was nowhere near enough to generate livable income, and I didn’t want to constantly push out new content to keep my game relevant because I didn’t think the game was very good to begin with. More importantly, I didn’t even know what kind of content players would want.

這是第一個警鐘，使我懷疑我是否應該繼續這樣做。發行時最初的流量高峰遠不足以產生宜居的收入，我不想不斷推出新內容來保持游戲的吸引力，因為我認為游戲一開始就不是很好。更重要的是，我什至不知道播放器需要什么樣的內容。

My initial batch of users found out about the game through the App Store feature, which led to the game hitting the top charts in over a hundred countries, resulting in even more downloads. But I had no idea who these people were, or why they were interested in my game. As far as I knew, they just happened to download it because it was in front of their faces.

我的第一批用戶通過App Store功能發現了有關該游戲的信息，這導致該游戲在100多個國家/地區排名最高，從而獲得了更多的下載量。但是我不知道這些人是誰，或者為什么他們對我的游戲感興趣。據我所知，他們只是偶然下載了它，因為它在他們的面前。

It turned out to be a good thing that my game wasn’t a cash cow because a couple months later, BulkyPix declared bankruptcy and I never got paid a penny. I was pretty pissed but this wasn’t why I left indie games. I needed to generate reliable revenue, but my approach, which I had shamelessly copied from other games, was flawed.

事實證明，我的游戲不是搖錢樹，這是一件好事，因為幾個月后，BulkyPix宣布破產，而我卻一分錢也沒有得到。我當時很生氣，但這不是我離開獨立游戲的原因。我需要產生可靠的收入，但是我從其他游戲中無恥復制的方法存在缺陷。

The entire strategy relies on getting your game featured by Apple or Google. A casual mobile game isn’t going to stand out among the thousands of other games released every month if you just post it on random places on the Internet.

整個策略取決于使您的游戲成為Apple或Google的特色。如果將休閑游戲發布在Internet上的隨機位置上，它將不會在每月發布的成千上萬種其他游戲中脫穎而出。

In order to get featured, you need to get through to their editorial teams. You could try sending mass emails and LinkedIn connections to try to find an inside contact to pitch your game to (I’ve never done this but I guess it’s worth a shot) but what most of the top casual mobile game developers do is pitch their games to well-known publishers. These publishers meet with the Apple and Google editorial teams regularly, and will pitch them your game in-person. Their connections and reputation are your best way of getting that coveted spot on the front page of the store if your game is mediocre like mine was (I assume yours isn’t much better, or else you aren’t making casual mobile games).

為了獲得關注，您需要聯系他們的編輯團隊。您可以嘗試發送大量電子郵件和LinkedIn連接，以嘗試找到內部聯系人來宣傳您的游戲(我從未做過，但我想這很值得一試)，但是大多數頂級休閑手機游戲開發商所做的就是宣傳他們的游戲。游戲給知名發行商。這些發行商會定期與Apple和Google編輯團隊會面，并親自向您推薦您的游戲。如果您的游戲像我的游戲一樣平庸(我認為您的游戲并沒有更好，或者您不是在制作休閑手機游戲)，那么他們的聯系和聲譽是您在商店首頁上獲得夢co以求的位置的最佳方式。

To get your game through to a publisher, you need to pitch them a game which fits their portfolio but also has a unique selling point. If they accept your game, they’ll handle all the business stuff in exchange for a large percentage of the revenue and ownership of the IP, and you just focus on making the game good.

為了將您的游戲推向發行商，您需要向他們推薦一款既適合他們的產品組合又具有獨特賣點的游戲。如果他們接受您的游戲，他們將處理所有業務，以換取IP收入和所有權的很大一部分，而您只是專注于使游戲變得更好。

The overall strategy can be broken down into 5 steps:

總體策略可以分為5個步驟：

Comb through the top charts and the featured games on the App Store and Google Play and look for games which are dead-simple to build. As I’m writing this, prime candidates would be games like Fire Up! and Dunk Shot.
梳理App Store和Google Play上的熱門排行榜和特色游戲，尋找難以構建的游戲。在我撰寫本文時，主要候選人將是Fire Up之類的游戲！和灌籃高手 。
Find the publishers behind those games and look for the ones which have worked with many different developers. Look for patterns across their portfolio of games. Generally, they all have short gameplay session duration and simple mechanics. There’s isn’t much difference between most of these publishers in terms of what they accept, so if one of them likes your game, chances are there’ll be others which like it as well.
查找那些游戲背后的發行商，并尋找與許多不同開發商合作過的發行商。在他們的游戲組合中尋找模式。通常，它們都具有較短的游戲時長和簡單的機制。這些發行商之間的接受程度并沒有太大差異，因此，如果其中一個發行人喜歡您的游戲，那么就有機會也有其他發行人也喜歡它。
Make prototypes fast. Don’t code anything except for the core gameplay loop and keep the graphics simple. It’s fine to rip off other games as long as you have one unique selling point. This is usually a mechanic, but you can also just skin an existing game concept in an interesting way if you have the artistic talent.
快速制作原型。除了核心游戲循環外，不要編寫任何代碼，并保持圖形簡單。只要您擁有一個獨特的賣點，就可以剝離其他游戲。這通常是一種機制，但是如果您具有藝術才華，也可以通過一種有趣的方式來修飾現有的游戲概念。
Send playable builds to all the publishers you researched earlier. Keep your email pitch brief. It shouldn’t take more than a sentence to describe that one selling point.
將可玩的版本發送給您之前研究過的所有發行商。保持電子郵件簡短。描述一個賣點不需要多用一句話。
Sign a contract and finish the game. You’ll probably have to make the sales material such as ads and descriptions as well. Pay special attention to the graphics you need to submit to Apple and Google.
簽訂合同并完成游戲。您可能還必須制作銷售材料，例如廣告和說明。請特別注意您需要提交給Apple和Google的圖形。

My first 3 games were universally rejected, but this was only a few hundred hours of lost work, and I could have reduced this to a few dozen if I hadn’t fallen in love with the first two games and kept adding features to them in spite of the fact that they were getting ignored/passed on by every publisher I showed it too. Don’t do that. Scrap your rejected games quickly and mitigate your losses. Casual mobile games should be easy to make, so starting over is often faster than iterating on a boring or broken design.

我的前三場比賽被普遍拒絕，但這只是幾百個小時的工作損失，如果我不愛上前兩場比賽并繼續在其中添加功能，我本可以減少到幾十個小時盡管我也向每位發布者都忽略了它們/將它們傳遞給了我。不要那樣做快速報廢您拒絕的游戲并減輕損失。休閑手機游戲應該易于制作，因此從頭開始通常比在無聊或折斷的設計上迭代要快。

When I say your publisher will handle the business stuff, I mean they’ll maximize your chances of getting featured. You might think that there are other avenues of marketing they can help with. There are, but it mostly involves sending sales material to a lot of gaming and tech-related news/review/social media sites. Not very impactful if your game is another casual mobile game. To give a sense of how little this helps, the Google Play version of Frantic Architect only had a grand total of 3,817 downloads. It was submitted to the same sites which the iOS version was (I don’t know what all these sites were, but you can find a bunch of them if you Google the game). It just didn’t get featured on Google Play.

當我說您的出版商將處理業務事務時，是指他們將最大程度地發揮您的特色。您可能會認為還有其他可以幫助您進行營銷的途徑。有，但主要涉及將銷售材料發送到許多與游戲和技術相關的新聞/評論/社交媒體網站。如果您的游戲是另一款休閑手機游戲，影響不大。為了大致了解這一點，Google Play版本的Frantic Architect僅下載了3,817次。它被提交到了與iOS版本相同的網站(我不知道所有這些網站是什么，但是如果您使用Google游戲，可以找到很多這些網站)。它只是沒有在Google Play上出現。

What does seem to help, from what I’ve researched, is cross-promotion between different games in a publisher’s portfolio. Basically, instead of paying a ton of money for ads, you get the ads for free from other games the publisher owns. I don’t have the data for the sources of Frantic Architect’s downloads, but I doubt BulkyPix ever did this for me. It was a mistake to overlook this when I signed the contract, but it wouldn’t have prevented the game from dying.

根據我的研究，似乎有幫助的是發行商產品組合中不同游戲之間的交叉促銷。基本上，您無需為廣告花費大量資金，而可以免費從發布者擁有的其他游戲中獲得廣告。我沒有Frantic Architect下載源的數據，但我懷疑BulkyPix是否曾為我這樣做。當我簽訂合同時忽視這一點是一個錯誤，但這并不能阻止游戲的滅亡。

If I had to describe why making casual mobile games is a dumb way to make money, I’d compare it to running a hot dog stand. It has a cookie-cutter business model and even though the food is terrible, customers come because it’s fast and convenient. The higher-end indie game developers are like restaurant owners, who put out good food but struggle to make money just the same because there’s just as much competition. Regardless of whether you’re running the restaurant or the hot dog stand, how do you convince someone that they need to come and eat your food, when there are so many other places they can go?

如果我不得不描述為什么制作休閑手機游戲是一種愚蠢的賺錢方式，我可以將其與運行熱狗架相提并論。它具有千篇一律的商業模式，即使食物很糟糕，顧客也因為它的快速和便捷而來。高端獨立游戲開發商就像餐館老板一樣，他們提供美味佳肴，但由于存在同樣多的競爭而難以賺錢。無論您經營的是餐廳還是熱狗攤，當有很多其他地方可以去時，您如何說服某人他們需要來吃您的食物？

Of course, a select few will make it out on top as successful hot dog stands and restaurants. But why not choose a market with less competition, and one where you can succinctly explain to your customer why they should buy your product, instead of a vague promise of fun and satisfaction?

當然，少數幾個將成為成功的熱狗攤位和餐館的佼佼者。但是，為什么不選擇競爭較少的市場，而您卻可以在其中向客戶簡潔地解釋為什么他們應該購買您的產品，而不是含糊其詞的樂趣和滿足感呢？

I still love games. I was raised on them and I’ll probably be a gamer for the rest of my life. But if I’m ever going to make another game, I’m not going to treat it as a business.

我仍然喜歡游戲。我在他們身上長大，一生可能會成為游戲玩家。但是，如果我要制作另一款游戲，就不會將其視為公司。

I don’t know much about running a company. I’ve abandoned multiple other projects since Frantic Architect, so I don’t even consider it a particularly painful failure. But I don’t think it’s due to luck or more effort that my current venture, a game server provider for a survival crafting game, is on track to surpass the total revenue of Frantic Architect next month, yet has a userbase of hundreds instead of hundreds of thousands, and has been growing steadily since launch a month and a half ago. I get why people need my service, I can charge accordingly for it, and I can improve it without having to take wild guesses at what to do.

我對經營公司一無所知。自Frantic Architect以來，我已經放棄了其他多個項目，所以我什至都不認為這是一個特別痛苦的失敗。但是我不認為這是由于運氣或更多的努力所致，我目前的企業是一家生存手工游戲的游戲服務器提供商，有望在下個月超過Frantic Architect的總收入，但擁有數百名用戶，而不是數十萬，并且自一個半月前推出以來一直穩定增長。我明白了為什么人們需要我的服務，我可以相應地收費，并且我可以改進它，而不必大膽猜測要做什么。

Too many people look at the apps at the top of the App Store and mistakenly think that those are the the most successful. But targeted customers are worth way more than random customers, and the businesses which understand this are the ones worth learning from, even if they aren’t in the spotlight.

太多的人看了App Store頂部的應用程序，卻錯誤地認為它們是最成功的。但是，目標客戶比隨機客戶更有價值，而且了解目標客戶的企業是值得向他們學習的企業，即使他們沒有受到關注。