2d手机游戏开发_我的手机游戏如何在2周内获得365K应用商店下载（以及为什么我退出独立游戏开发公司…...

2d手机游戏开发

by William Kwan

关冠伟

我的手机游戏如何在2周内获得365K应用商店下载(以及为什么以后我退出独立游戏开发者) (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.

我不是一个成功的游戏开发商。 我最受欢迎的游戏Frantic Architect ，在从App Store移除之前，只有410,678次免费安装。 与“ 飞扬的鸟”或“ 2048”之类的东西相比没有什么了。

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.

但是我当时21岁，在游戏领域具有非常规但受人尊敬的背景，并且我自己花费了很少的精力就制作了这款游戏。 这看起来像是我作为独立游戏开发人员的职业生涯的完美起点。

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问世以来已经一年半了。 科技的发展日新月异，我不会花很多时间思考废弃的企业。 但是，现在浏览App Store，我发现休闲手机游戏开发人员以我当时使用的相同策略获得了成功。 我怀疑它是否还会继续工作多年，但是目前它确实可以，而且它非常简单(并不是说很容易)。

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.

您甚至不需要我有几年的游戏编程和设计经验。 如果您的目标是快速开发移动应用程序，而不在乎它是什么类型的应用程序，并且想通过一种可复制的方法来快速获取大量用户而又不花大钱在广告上，那么休闲移动游戏的利基市场就是为了你。

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

我对重复实验没有兴趣，因为我认为这是一种糟糕的商业模式。 也许你可以证明我错了。

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.

我从大学宿舍的床上滑下来，检查了Skype。 我的游戏已在一周前提交给Apple审核，我知道它可以随时发布。 我当时在多伦多，我的产品经理在巴黎，所以我养成了醒来时要大量信息的习惯。

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.

我记得曾经读过一些祝贺性消息，称我的游戏在Apple的全球推广下得到了认可。 我打开iPad并打开了App Store。 果然，《 疯狂的建筑师》被评为最佳新游戏。

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

几天后，我可以访问分析了。 第四天是我最好的一天，有58,486次下载。

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.

到两周时，下载量已经急剧下降。 我并不感到失望，因为我并不期望这么多的用户开始。 在我从事/拖延游戏开发的6个月中，除了我从当时最成功的休闲手机游戏发行商之一获得合同的事实之外，我几乎没有得到任何进展的迹象， BulkyPix。

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

但是，鉴于下载数量，我对广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.

这是第一个警钟，使我怀疑我是否应该继续这样做。 发行时最初的流量高峰远不足以产生宜居的收入，我不想不断推出新内容来保持游戏的吸引力，因为我认为游戏一开始就不是很好。 更重要的是，我什至不知道播放器需要什么样的内容。

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.

我的第一批用户通过App Store功能发现了有关该游戏的信息，这导致该游戏在100多个国家/地区排名最高，从而获得了更多的下载量。 但是我不知道这些人是谁，或者为什么他们对我的游戏感兴趣。 据我所知，他们只是偶然下载了它，因为它在他们的面前。

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.

事实证明，我的游戏不是摇钱树，这是一件好事，因为几个月后，BulkyPix宣布破产，而我却一分钱也没有得到。 我当时很生气，但这不是我离开独立游戏的原因。 我需要产生可靠的收入，但是我从其他游戏中无耻复制的方法存在缺陷。

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.

整个策略取决于使您的游戏成为Apple或Google的特色。 如果将休闲游戏发布在Internet上的随机位置上，它将不会在每月发布的成千上万种其他游戏中脱颖而出。

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).

为了获得关注，您需要联系他们的编辑团队。 您可以尝试发送大量电子邮件和LinkedIn连接，以尝试找到内部联系人来宣传您的游戏(我从未做过，但我想这很值得一试)，但是大多数顶级休闲手机游戏开发商所做的就是宣传他们的游戏。游戏给知名发行商。 这些发行商会定期与Apple和Google编辑团队会面，并亲自向您推荐您的游戏。 如果您的游戏像我的游戏一样平庸(我认为您的游戏并没有更好，或者您不是在制作休闲手机游戏)，那么他们的联系和声誉是您在商店首页上获得梦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.

为了将您的游戏推向发行商，您需要向他们推荐一款既适合他们的产品组合又具有独特卖点的游戏。 如果他们接受您的游戏，他们将处理所有业务，以换取IP收入和所有权的很大一部分，而您只是专注于使游戏变得更好。

The overall strategy can be broken down into 5 steps:

总体策略可以分为5个步骤：

1. 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上的热门排行榜和特色游戏，寻找难以构建的游戏。 在我撰写本文时，主要候选人将是Fire Up之类的游戏！ 和灌篮高手 。

2. 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.
   查找那些游戏背后的发行商，并寻找与许多不同开发商合作过的发行商。 在他们的游戏组合中寻找模式。 通常，它们都具有较短的游戏时长和简单的机制。 这些发行商之间的接受程度并没有太大差异，因此，如果其中一个发行人喜欢您的游戏，那么就有机会也有其他发行人也喜欢它。
3. 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。 除了核心游戏循环外，不要编写任何代码，并保持图形简单。 只要您拥有一个独特的卖点，就可以剥离其他游戏。 这通常是一种机制，但是如果您具有艺术才华，也可以通过一种有趣的方式来修饰现有的游戏概念。
4. 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.
   将可玩的版本发送给您之前研究过的所有发行商。 保持电子邮件简短。 描述一个卖点不需要多用一句话。
5. 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.
   签订合同并完成游戏。 您可能还必须制作销售材料，例如广告和说明。 请特别注意您需要提交给Apple和Google的图形。

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.

我的前三场比赛被普遍拒绝，但这只是几百个小时的工作损失，如果我不爱上前两场比赛并继续在其中添加功能，我本可以减少到几十个小时尽管我也向每位发布者都忽略了它们/将它们传递给了我。 不要那样做 快速报废您拒绝的游戏并减轻损失。 休闲手机游戏应该易于制作，因此从头开始通常比在无聊或折断的设计上迭代要快。

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.

当我说您的出版商将处理业务事务时，是指他们将最大程度地发挥您的特色。 您可能会认为还有其他可以帮助您进行营销的途径。 有，但主要涉及将销售材料发送到许多与游戏和技术相关的新闻/评论/社交媒体网站。 如果您的游戏是另一款休闲手机游戏，影响不大。 为了大致了解这一点，Google Play版本的Frantic Architect仅下载了3,817次。 它被提交到了与iOS版本相同的网站(我不知道所有这些网站是什么，但是如果您使用Google游戏，可以找到很多这些网站)。 它只是没有在Google Play上出现。

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.

根据我的研究，似乎有帮助的是发行商产品组合中不同游戏之间的交叉促销。 基本上，您无需为广告花费大量资金，而可以免费从发布者拥有的其他游戏中获得广告。 我没有Frantic Architect下载源的数据，但我怀疑BulkyPix是否曾为我这样做。 当我签订合同时忽视这一点是一个错误，但这并不能阻止游戏的灭亡。

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?

如果我不得不描述为什么制作休闲手机游戏是一种愚蠢的赚钱方式，我可以将其与运行热狗架相提并论。 它具有千篇一律的商业模式，即使食物很糟糕，顾客也因为它的快速和便捷而来。 高端独立游戏开发商就像餐馆老板一样，他们提供美味佳肴，但由于存在同样多的竞争而难以赚钱。 无论您经营的是餐厅还是热狗摊，当有很多其他地方可以去时，您如何说服某人他们需要来吃您的食物？

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?

当然，少数几个将成为成功的热狗摊位和餐馆的佼佼者。 但是，为什么不选择竞争较少的市场，而您却可以在其中向客户简洁地解释为什么他们应该购买您的产品，而不是含糊其词的乐趣和满足感呢？

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.

我仍然喜欢游戏。 我在他们身上长大，一生可能会成为游戏玩家。 但是，如果我要制作另一款游戏，就不会将其视为公司。

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.

我对经营公司一无所知。 自Frantic Architect以来，我已经放弃了其他多个项目，所以我什至都不认为这是一个特别痛苦的失败。 但是我不认为这是由于运气或更多的努力所致， 我目前的企业是一家生存手工游戏的游戏服务器提供商， 有望在下个月超过Frantic Architect的总收入，但拥有数百名用户，而不是数十万，并且自一个半月前推出以来一直稳定增长。 我明白了为什么人们需要我的服务，我可以相应地收费，并且我可以改进它，而不必大胆猜测要做什么。

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顶部的应用程序，却错误地认为它们是最成功的。 但是，目标客户比随机客户更有价值，而且了解目标客户的企业是值得向他们学习的企业，即使他们没有受到关注。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-my-mobile-game-got-365k-app-store-downloads-in-2-weeks-and-why-i-quit-indie-game-dev-a3ebd1fa3229/

2d手机游戏开发