开发手机社交游戏的5个经验编辑本段回目录
游戏邦注：本文原作者是英国敦提开发商Tag Games总经理Paul Farley，该工作室最近刚在iPhone平台发布了《神秘博士:时间迷宫》（Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time）。
有个问题我们一直不解，为何手机游戏经历了15年之久才变得更具社交性，为何“社交”成了当今手机领域的一个热词？
事实上，社交性对于手机领域而言不是什么新鲜事物。早在15年前，Digital Bridges（现称I-Play）等手机游戏行业先锋就已经推出了带有积分排行榜和游戏内置信息功能的手机游戏。
Digital Chocolate也在最近几年发布了一系列社交游戏，这些现象推动了OpenFeint以及Facebook等手机社交游戏平台的崛起。
红海之战
然而，这些游戏由于缺少大量的玩家以及它们自己的社交定位，后来都成了“先烈”。它们过分倚重于自己创建的社交网络，而忽略了去发掘现有社交网络的潜力。
tap-zoo
实际上这种方法确实可行。只要瞥一眼应用商店的排行榜，你会发现《Tap Zoo》仍旧稳居第一宝座。
但许多对此不屑的掌机游戏玩家和开发者可能会认为，这款游戏最多只能算是简单的产品，甚至可能对其感到厌恶。但不可否认的是，《Tap Zoo》和排行榜前10名中的6款游戏，它们正是依靠其社交机制吸引玩家深入体验游戏，并以此留住他们。
人们确实希望和朋友以及家人一起玩游戏，这是人们的天性所致。过去流行了25年的电子游戏，由于侧重于单人模式游戏体验，所以很可能因它的反常态而在游戏史中没落，在新兴社交游戏的反衬下黯然失色。
突破重围
手机社交游戏毫无疑问会再继续发展，但对于开发商和发行商而言，理解如何让自己的游戏更有社交性，这确实是个不小的挑战。
再过几个月，Tag Games发布第一款采用免费增值模式的手机社交游戏。从单人模式游戏向社交手机游戏转型并非易事，我们也还有很长的路要走。我觉得并不是所有的手机游戏开发商都想转变，但你一旦尝试去做了，就没有退路可言！
以下是我们总结的几点经验，希望对各位手机社交游戏开发者有所帮助：
1.学习并掌握社交游戏机制
《FarmVille》并非社交游戏的开端，也绝非社交游戏的终点。
社交机制包括竞争、协作、沟通和互惠等多种人类互动行为。《Farmville》之类的游戏的确开了个好头，但即便是社交游戏之王Zynga也只是触及了社交机制表面的内容，而没有深入挖掘社交元素与游戏融合的潜力。
这些概念可能很费解，但你无需修过人类心理学也能明白其基础内容。如果你有心想掌握其中奥秘，我强烈建议你去查找Raph Koster在今年GDC大会上的演讲内容（游戏邦注：社交游戏的40个社交机制）。
2.免费模式不等于社交性
我们都知道大多数手机社交游戏都使用了免费运营模式，但关键是要理解社交本身并不需要免费增值模式。在这个领域中“社交”和“免费增值模式”经常交替使用，但事实并非如此。
有很多采用免费增值模式的游戏，它们本身没有任何社交功能，而手机社交游戏也并不一定免费。免费增值模式的确为社交提供了很多便利，因为它能解决用户的付费问题，这对吸引潜在玩家很有帮助，免费模式极大降低了用户试玩游戏的风险（游戏邦注：他们试玩游戏的成本为零）。
3.将用户反馈参数和数据分析作为重心
如果你真想为玩家提供最好的游戏体验，同时又获得可观的收益，那就应该将收集用户反馈参数以及分析数据作为公司的重点工作。
只有掌握了玩家的游戏行为并标记出问题。你才能想出对策，保证用户留存率，减少流失率。数据分析是门既专业又高技能的学问，你需要高度重视这项工作，但如果使用得当，它就有可能给你带来高回报，它甚至决定着游戏项目的成败。
4.摒弃传统游戏运营模式
要忘记过去开发、发布一款游戏，就将其抛至脑后的传统运营模式，现在已经不是制造完一个产品就完工的时代了，社交游戏已从产品上升至服务的范畴。这是个好消息，但前提是你有足够的预算可支撑游戏的长期发展。
在多数情况下，长期服务团队的规模会比原来的开发团队更大，你也需要考虑客服支持、社群管理、支付流程以及其他的生产、营销、法务和财政等这些你原来在产品开发中并不需要考虑的问题。
5.尝试更多改变
如果你还在阅读，我保证你一定会想，要改变的东西太多了。没错，在通向社交游戏成功的道路上没有捷径可言。你要做好完全重组工作室运作方式的准备，在获得广泛关注之前采用免费增值模式，还要从其它领域聘请擅长数据分析，网页技术，客户服务等工作的人才，你甚至很有可能得找到更多流动资金才能实现这些计划。
最重要的一点是，你不可把宝押在同一个平台上。刚开始你可能觉得iOS平台最适合开发游戏，但依靠这个平台你只能收获一小撮用户，向多个平台进军才能挖掘更多市场潜力。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）
Tag Games’ Paul Farley on five transitional challenges in moving from single player to social game development
by Guest Author
Paul Farley is the managing director of Tag Games, a Dundee-based developer that recently released Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time on iPhone.
For a device that is inherently connected, why has it taken more than 15 years for mobile games to become more social in nature – and why is ‘social’ now the hottest buzz word in mobile?
Actually, social is nothing new for mobile. Almost fifteen years ago, mobile game pioneers such as Digital Bridges (now I-play) were offering simple WAP games with leaderboards and in-game messaging.
In more recent years, Digital Chocolate launched a series of social café games. These predated the emergence of mobile social gaming networks such as OpenFeint and the widespread adoption of Facebook by, well… everyone.
Now there’s a crowd
Without access to a critical mass of players and their social graph however, these games peaked too early. They relied on building their own social networks rather than being in the enviable position of today’s developers who can simply tap into existing social networks.
And it works. Take a quick glance at the App Store top grossing charts and you’ll find that Tap Zoo is still there at number 1.
A remarkable achievement for a game that many arrogant console gamers and producers would consider at best simple, and at worst an abomination. But it’s no surprise that Tap Zoo and six out of the top 10 grossing games rely on social gameplay mechanics to draw a player into the experience and keep them there.
The fact is people want to play games with their friends and family. They always have done and always will. The past twenty five years of video gaming, with its focus on the single player experience, will I’m sure, go down in gaming history as an aberration. A short blip in the long tradition of predominantly social gaming experiences.
Into the breach
Social mobile games are clearly here to stay, but understanding how to make your games more social presents a huge challenge to both developers and publishers in this space.
In a few months time, Tag Games will launch its first mobile game designed from the ground up for social play and the freemium business model. Our transition from a single player game developer to a social one has been very difficult and we still have some way to go yet. I doubt all mobile game developers will want to make this transition but once you’ve had a taste, you’ll never turn back!
Here are a few things we’ve found so far that may be helpful.
1. You must make the effort to understand social game mechanics
Despite what you might have read, social gaming does not begin and end with FarmVille.
Social mechanics encompass a wide range of human interaction such as competition, collaboration, communication and reciprocation. Games like FarmVille are a good start but even Zynga is barely scratching the surface of what’s possible in terms of incorporating social elements in games.
At first it may seem overwhelming but the good news is you don’t need a degree in human psychology to understand the basics. Once you’re up to speed I strongly suggest you check out Raph Koster’s excellent GDC 2011 talk (40 Social Mechanics for Social Games) as a taste of what’s to come.
2. Freemium is not social
It’s no surprise that most social mobile games use the freemium business model, but it’s important to understand that social does not necessarily mean freemium. Quite often you will see ‘social’ and ‘freemium’ used interchangeably in this context but this is plain lazy.
There are lots of freemium games that have absolutely no social features in them and vice versa. Freemium works well for social because it removes the barrier to entry any price point, no matter how low, presents to the potential player. With success reliant on the viral appeal of a game, freemium makes trying the game zero risk.
3. Put metrics and data analytics at the heart of your business
If you are serious about providing your players with the best possible gameplay, whilst ensuring you turn a profit then you must put metric gathering and data analysis at the heart of your studio.
It’s only through understanding your players’ behaviours and identifying problems that you will be able to improve customer retention and lower your churn rate. Data analysis is a professional and highly skilled field; it is not something you should enter into lightly but the rewards for getting this right are potentially huge and will define success or failure.
4. We aren’t in Kansas anymore
Forget the old ways of developing a game, launching it and forgetting about it; we aren’t making product now. Social games have signalled a move from a product to a service approach. This is good news but make sure you budget beyond your live date and plan to support your game longterm.
Live teams can, in many cases, become bigger than the original development team and you’ll also have to think about customer support, community management, payment processing and many other production, marketing, legal and financial aspects you don’t need to worry about in product development.
5. More change than you can shake a stick at
Assuming you’re still reading, I’m sure you’re thinking this is a lot of change. You’re right! There is just no easy way to shortcut your way to success in the social gaming space. You must be prepared to completely restructure the way you run your studio, have the balls to embrace freemium as the future before the masses catch on, hire team members from fields outside your knowledge base such as data analysis, web technology and customer service, and quite probably you’re going to have to find the working capital to make this happen.
On top of this you can’t just rely on one platform for success. You may choose to start with iOS if that’s what you’re most comfortable with but taking a thin native client approach, the opportunity to go multi-platform is too big to ignore.（source:pocketgamer）
