复制游戏现象编辑本段回目录
过去一个月对开发商Spry Fox来说真的是曝光率大增的一个月，特别是围绕其热门益智游戏《Triple Town》。从与Playdom在Facebook上进行合作到向6waves Lolapps提出关于游戏抄袭问题的诉讼，以及推出游戏的智能手机版本等，这家小型独立工作室持续成为行业话题焦点。
以下是我们与该公司的首席执行官David Edery所谈论的关于复制独立游戏创意的危害以及Android和iOS版《Triple Town》的开发。
triple town from edge-online.com
你们如何开发手机版游戏？
我们雇佣西雅图当地的一名员工，共花费3个月时间开发这款游戏。
你如何让手机版游戏跟进持续发展的网络版内容？
我们有两个完全不同的开发团队。有一些致力于更高级的网络版本；应众多玩家的要求，我们希望将核心游戏移植到手机平台。我们清楚自己需要加快脚步，且知晓随后要如何连接这两个版本的内容。虽然我并不确定连接这两个版本是否是最佳做法，但是终究有众多理由促使我们这么做。我们希望能够在长远的发展中慢慢摸索答案。
为何不连接这两个游戏版本？我们真的好奇你们为何没有在手机版本中添加Facebook排行榜功能。
这么做有几点原因。首先也是最主要的原因是，这么做将会花费我们更多时间。市场上已经出现许多《Triple Town》复制品，我们不能需要再耗费更多时间。其次，也是我们经常从其它开发商口中听到，如果你要求他人订阅其他服务，即便是热门的Facebook平台，你的游戏将面临较大的负面影响。而我们不想增加更多进入障碍。
关于复制品，你们是否想过快速制作出手机版本？
并非如此，我们会一步一步来。我们想要发行真正优秀的内容。即便是像《Triple Town》这样简单的游戏，我们也要花许多时间去雕琢任何小细节。比起之前的Flash版本，我们在这次的手机版本中投入更多时间。尽管我们仍然觉得游戏还是不够好，但是有时我依然会怀疑我们是否投入过多时间。
你们本应该快速迭代手机版游戏？
是的，但现在还能做什么。游戏已推出，希望大家会喜欢。
你是否考虑过在各大平台推出同个版本的游戏？
老实说，这只是时间问题。起初我们认为自己会将手机版本与现有的在线游戏的后端完全联系起来，让它们变成完全相同的游戏。随后我们便开始考虑这需要投入多少时间，这慢慢变成一大问题。令我们有些不知所措的是，其它开发者纷纷表示，登录设置将会让我们失去更多用户。情况的确如此。我们每天都能够获得来自忠实玩家的电子邮件和Facebook信息，随后复制作品开始纷纷涌现。直到现在很多玩家依然非常喜欢这款游戏，尽管它只是简化版《Triple Town》。我也未曾听到有人抱怨手机版游戏为何缺少某些元素。
你是如何看待复制和迭代开发？
这是个很难回答的问题，因为一般来说当你看到一个内容便能够很容易判断自己是否看过它。问题就在这里——我们并不能随便使用“复制”这个词。我们所谓的复制至少要是存在类似游戏机制及销售相同道具的相同商店，甚至连销售数量和价格都一样。也就是说你可能看到一个熟悉的提示系统，发现游戏中的道具出现在棋盘中的相同地方，有时候甚至连动画都极为相似。做到这种程度我们便能够一眼就看出这款游戏是不是复制品。我不清楚关于复制游戏是否有明确的定义，但是让我们这么说吧：有时候不用明说我们便能够判断一款游戏是不是复制品。
你说的是《Yeti Town》（游戏邦注：也就是6waves Lolapps推出的同类游戏）吧？
是的。但是你不一定要相信我所说的。我只是想告诉大家，我认为这两款游戏非常相像，但是不要问我哪里像，你们从Gamezebo或者games.com的文章中寻找答案。
简单的规则和资产设定使得《Triple Town》成为了一款易于复制的游戏。对你们来说，复制风险是否令开发简单游戏变得非常危险？
坦白说，这是必然的。一直以来，复制游戏都是值得注意的大问题，且与早期相比，如今的复制行为更是猖獗。如今，更多公司开始将复制游戏当作公司的核心商业模式，而不再是偶尔采用的举措。
而像《Triple Town》这样的简单游戏是否更容易被复制？我想说，只要你的游戏获得显著成绩，你就必须面对复制的风险。就像我们也很容易找到《蒸汽战鹰》的复制品，并且只要我们一直坚持把游戏难度维持在这一水平，就将会出现更多不同的复制游戏。但是因为我们自己喜欢这种程度的复杂性，所以不会轻易改变它。为了应对压力我们需要放慢脚步，即不要刚在一个平台发行游戏，仅隔了半年或一年又迅速将其移植到其它平台，我们需要瞄准跨平台。但是在现实中，盲目的复制者从来不会为我们留时间。
对于独立开发者来说，一开始便进行跨平台开发是个较困难的目标。
是的，跨平台要求一定的初期投资，而光靠创新根本不可能做到这点，所以很多开发者便选择较为安全的迭代开发。对此我真的感到很遗憾。这也是Danc（游戏邦注：Spry Fox的联合创始人兼设计师Daniel Cook）和我一直在努力克服的问题，特别是面对市场上遭玩家严重唾弃的糟糕复制游戏。
但是，每次当Danc和我同朋友们，或者在公共场合谈起这个话题时，人们总是会支支吾吾地说道：“我们总是站在巨人的肩膀上，这就是游戏产业中的发展趋势不是吗？”而听到诸如此类的回答总是会让我感到心寒。也正是持着这种态度才导致越来越多糟糕复制游戏的出现。没有人希望别人鼓励自己去复制游戏。这也不是什么理所当然的事情。就以桌面游戏来说，尽管《Dominion》是一款非常成功的科幻游戏，但是我们也未看到该游戏复制品的泛滥。我不知道是不是因为制作一款桌面游戏所需要的成本较少，还是这块领域的人们对于复制游戏持有不同见解。但是不论出于何种原因，事实就是他们无需面临此问题，而我们必须面临这个问题；并且这是一个非常严重的问题，如果未能得到合理解决，将会扼杀更多创新游戏的诞生。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，作者：Alex Wiltshire）
Triple Town fortunes
Author: Alex Wiltshire
The past month must have been frenetic for developer Spry Fox, especially regarding its hit puzzle game, Triple Town. From partnering with Playdom on Facebook to initiating legal proceedings against 6waves Lolapps for cloning it, and also releasing smartphone versions, this tiny indie studio has repeatedly been making big waves.
In the middle of it all, before heading to the lawyers but after launching on mobile, we spoke with CEO David Edery about his studio’s fortunes. Today we present the first part of our discussion, about the pernicious effects of cloning on indie creativity and the development of Triple Town’s Android and iOS versions.
Read the second part here, covering Spry Fox’s Playdom deal, why indies are crucial to gaming on social networks, and why Spry Fox won’t be developing for consoles any time soon.
How did you develop the mobile versions?
We hired a guy local to Seattle and it took about three months.
How have you fitted the mobile versions into continued development of the web versions?
They’re totally separate development teams. We have several people working on the web version, which is the more advanced version; we basically wanted to get the core game out on the mobile because so many people were asking for it. We figured we’d get it out as fast as we can and figure out, if we want to, how to connect them later. I’m not actually sure than connecting them is necessarily the best idea, but there’s certainly a lot of reasons why it’d be cool. We just have to figure that out in the long term.
Why not connect them? It seems surprising you don’t get your Facebook leaderboard in the mobile versions.
There’s a few different reasons. The major reason is just that it’d have taken us a lot longer. There are already quite a few clones of Triple Town on the market, so we didn’t want to wait any longer than we had to. The second reason is that one thing we’ve heard repeatedly from other developers is that if you require someone to sign into another service, even one as popular as Facebook, it tends to have a pretty big negative impact on your game’s uptake. We’re not interested in adding any barriers to entry.
Given the clones, did you feel rushed into making these mobile versions?
No, we took our time. We wanted to release something that was reasonably good. Even with a game as simple as Triple Town making sure every last little detail is the way it should be takes some time. We spent more time working on the mobile version than we did the original Flash version. And still we didn’t get it perfect, but some days I wonder if we took too much time.
That you should have rapidly iterated the mobile version?
Yes, but what can you do? It’s out now, hopefully people will love it.
Was there any point that you considered having the same version running on all platforms?
Honestly, it was just a matter of timing. Initially we thought we’d fully connect the mobile version to the existing online game’s back end and have it essentially the same game. And then we looked at how much longer that would take and that become a major concern. The thing that pushed us over the edge was other developers telling us that logins would lose us users. Really that was the clincher. We were getting emails and FB messages every day from fans, and on top of that the clones started coming out. And so far most people seem to be thrilled, even though it’s just a simple classic version of TT. I haven’t heard anyone asking why everything isn’t on there.
Where do you stand on the line between cloning and iterative development?
It’s really hard to say – it’s one of those you know it when you see it things. Here’s the thing – we don’t throw around the word ‘clone’ loosely. We’re talking about games that, at least when they’re launched had identical gameplay mechanics, the same store with the same items, sold for the same prices in the same quantities. You know what I mean? When you get a hint system that looks the same, appears in the same place on the board, the same animations in some cases, for example the way items pulse before they combine. When you see copying at that level it’s very hard not to feel it’s a clone. I don’t know if there’s an accepted definition out there, but let’s put it this way: for me, there’s one case in particular I don’t have to say it’s a clone or not. I’ll just point you towards four or five articles written by other people saying it’s Triple Town with snow.
You’re talking about Yeti Town, right?
In this case, yes. You don’t have to take my word for it. I tell people, I think it’s very similar but don’t ask me, go to the Gamezebo article on it, the games.com article and so on. They have some pretty choice quotes on it.
Triple Town is an easy game to clone because its rules and assets are simple. Does cloning make it dangerous for you as a developer to make such simple games?
Yeah. Let’s be blunt. Cloning has always been an issue but today it seems to happen faster than it’s ever happened before. There seem to be companies that have risen in the industry with cloning at the core of their business model as opposed to it being something that unfortunately happens sometimes.
Simple games like Triple Town? Yeah, you’re absolutely putting yourself at risk of being cloned if your game gets successful. This is something that’s happened to Spry Fox multiple times. It’s not hard to find clones of Steambirds, Triple Town – this is going to keep happening to us for as long as we keep making games of this complexity. But we love games of this complexity level, so we’re not going to stop making them. But the pressure means we may need to slow down – instead of releasing on one platform and six months or a year later on others, we should shoot straight for cross-platform. The copycats don’t give us time.
Cross-platform development from the off is a hard proposition for an indie.
Yup. It demands initial investment which means it’s that much harder to innovate, which means that many more developers are going to make the safe choice of being iterative instead of totally original. That’s really sad. It’s one of the things Danc [Spry Fox co-founder and designer Daniel Cook] and I really struggle with – on one hand when there’s a really egregious example of cloning everyone yells and shouts, and that’s great.
But that said, every time Danc and I bring up with subject with friends or in public, people are quick to start to equivocate, like, ‘Oh well, we’re all building on the shoulders of giants, and this is how things get done in this industry,’ and it makes me sad. It’s precisely that attitude that leads to the more egregious examples that we’re seeing. No one needs encouragement to copy. We don’t need to be encouraging that behaviour. And it’s not like it’s a given. If you look at the board game space, there’s not a hundred clones of Dominion floating around, even though it’s a fantastic and successful game. I don’t know if it’s simply because there’s a lot less money to be made in board games, or whether people in the industry simply have a different perspective and don’t go around apologising for copying. For whatever reason, they don’t have that problem and we do, and it is a serious problem and it is going to stop people from making original games.（Source:EDGE）
