头号玩家是腾讯_新玩家是增长之路

The last decade marked a major turning point for the video game industry, especially for indie developers. The very idea of being able to make a living on game development (outside of a major studio) has become a reality, and has opened the door for thousands of smaller studios worldwide.

吨 他过去的十年中标记为视频游戏行业的一个重大转折点，尤其是对独立开发者。 能够依靠游戏开发(主要工作室之外)为生的想法已经成为现实，并为全球成千上万的小型工作室打开了大门。

That newfound access — and the flood of developers who have walked through the door — has also raised important questions and concerns for these developers, not least of which being how to find players for their games. In this piece, I’m going to discuss a key lesson that major studios have learned but that indies are still struggling with: how to get new players interested in your game.

这种新发现的访问方式以及走过大门的大量开发人员，也给这些开发人员提出了重要的问题和关切，尤其是如何找到他们的游戏玩家。 在这篇文章中，我将讨论一些主要工作室已经学到的重要课程，但独立开发者仍在努力： 如何使新玩家对您的游戏感兴趣 。

认识你的新粉丝 (Meet your new fans)

A few months ago I did a piece that focused on the new player’s experience, but this time, I’m going to focus on exactly what this means for an indie developer.

几个月前，我做了一篇专注于新玩家体验的文章 ，但是这次，我将专注于这对独立开发人员的意义。

Indie development is not underground anymore thanks to digital stores and YouTuber and streamer culture. It’s never been easier for someone to show off a game they like, and you never know the impact that can have on your game sales.

得益于数字商店，YouTuber和流媒体文化，独立开发不再是地下活动。 有人炫耀自己喜欢的游戏从来没有像现在这样容易，而且您永远都不知道会对您的游戏销售产生影响。

This also means the spotlight is far more intense when it comes to issues or problems. You and your friends may love your game, but that doesn’t mean anything with regards to the greater market. I have seen games that had positive impressions locally, to only be blindsided by complaints and problems when the game was made available for sale.

这也意味着当涉及到问题时，聚光灯会更加强烈。 您和您的朋友可能喜欢您的游戏，但这对更大的市场而言并不意味着任何。 我见过一些在当地给人留下积极印象的游戏，但是当游戏发售时，抱怨和问题只会使他们视而不见。

Indie developers are now being put into the same position that massive studios are in when it comes to the consumer and making sure their game is approachable. I have lost count at this point of the number of indie games released with the following:

现在，独立开发人员的地位与大型工作室在消费者方面的地位相同，并确保他们的游戏平易近人。 在这一点上，我已经失去了发行以下独立游戏的数量：

• No in-game menus
  没有游戏菜单
• No control rebinding
  无控件重新绑定
• No instructions or tutorials
  没有说明或教程
• No attempt at hiding or repurposing stock assets
  没有试图隐藏或重新利用股票资产

There is a simple explanation for this.

有一个简单的解释。

发展限制 (Development constraints)

In a perfect world there would be no problems with production or funding for any video game, but for many indie developers, we know that’s not the case. It is already a challenge to make a game, let alone polishing it to perfection. Many indie developers know that their game is not going to be a mass-market success — it could be the genre, the implementation, or the concept in general.

在一个完美的世界中，任何视频游戏的生产或资金投入都不会有问题，但是对于许多独立开发者来说，事实并非如此。 制作游戏已经是一项挑战， 更不用说完善游戏了。 许多独立开发者都知道，他们的游戏不会在大众市场取得成功-可能是游戏的类型，实施或总体上是概念。

If you know that your game is already a niche experience, that means there is already a finite number of potential customers who are likely to buy it. As we all know from marketing 100: if you can keep costs down, you’ll earn more revenue. Speaking with veteran game developer Jeff Vogel, we discussed what it means to survive in the industry when working with a niche genre.

如果您知道自己的游戏已经是一种利基体验，则意味着已经有一定数量的潜在客户愿意购买它。 从市场营销100中我们都知道：如果您可以降低成本，您将获得更多收入。 在与资深游戏开发商Jeff Vogel交谈时 ，我们讨论了与利基流派合作在行业中生存的意义。

For indie developers making 2D platformers, they know their audience is well acquainted with platformer design, and there’s no need to explain that space bar or “A” would be the jump button. For smaller teams, it would be financially damaging to spend extra months doing further playtesting or trying to attract nonfans to your game.

对于制作2D平台游戏的独立开发人员，他们知道他们的观众非常熟悉平台游戏设计，因此无需解释空格键或“ A”就是跳转按钮。 对于较小的团队，花费额外的时间进行进一步的游戏测试或试图吸引非粉丝加入您的游戏可能会造成财务损失。

I have previously discussed the point that there is no such thing as a ‘perfect game’ — something that will appeal to everyone. In fact, great games tend to be born from a focus on a specific gameplay loop and style of play. So, if you’re building an experimental strategy game, there’s no reason to include extraneous elements that cater to action fans for example.

之前，我已经讨论过没有“完美游戏”之类的东西的问题，这种东西会吸引所有人 。 实际上，出色的游戏往往源于对特定游戏循环和游戏风格的关注。 因此，如果您要构建实验性策略游戏，则没有理由包括迎合动作迷的无关紧要的元素。

Having said that, let’s turn our attention towards the question of why the new player’s experience matters, even to the most niche titles — and how paying attention to this can help you grow as a designer.

话虽如此，让我们将注意力转向一个问题，即新玩家的体验为何如此重要，即使是最利基的冠军也是如此-以及如何专注于此可以帮助您成为设计师。

成功精简 (Successful streamlining)

Here’s a dirty little secret when it comes to success: complexity and difficulty are not as important as approachability. There are genres which have failed to capture wider audiences because it’s difficult to get into them as a new player. Here’s a great example: consider Sid Meier’s Civilization versus Europa Universalis. Why is the former so much more well known than the latter? The reason, in large part, is because the former has been designed to be as approachable as possible. It’s important for developers to not only pay attention to their hardened, hardcore fanbase, but to also pay attention to new (and potential) players.

在成功方面，这是一个肮脏的小秘密： 复杂性和困难并不像平易近人那么重要 。 有些类型未能吸引更广泛的受众，因为作为新玩家很难进入他们的视野。 这是一个很好的例子：考虑Sid Meier的《文明对阵Europa Universalis》 。 为什么前者比后者知名度更高？ 原因在很大程度上是因为前者被设计为尽可能平易近人。 对于开发人员而言，重要的是不仅要注意他们坚硬的，铁杆的粉丝群，而且还要注意新的(和潜在的)玩家。

User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design are critically important components when it comes to game development, and they are often key points of failure for indie developers. There’s a whole lot to unpack about UI and UX, of course — that’s probably a topic for another article.

用户界面(UI)和用户体验(UX)设计是游戏开发中至关重要的重要组成部分，它们通常是独立开发人员失败的关键点。 当然，还有很多关于UI和UX的内容-这可能是另一篇文章的主题。

It may sound counterintuitive to suggest that displaying and explaining your game systems in a way that’s easy for a lay audience to understand is important. But coming to grips with the pain points in your design (and knowing how to fix them) will make you a better designer. There are foundational elements to good game design — both universal and genre-specific — for developers to learn. In fact, making your game UX more friendly can improve the experience for existing fans as well (bear in mind that your game may have issues that your hardcore audience has simply accepted as a reality and hasn’t raised a fuss about — thus making them invisible to you).

建议以非专业人员容易理解的方式显示和解释游戏系统很重要，这听起来很违反直觉。 但是，掌握设计中的痛点(并知道如何解决它们)将使您成为更好的设计师。 优秀的游戏设计具有一些基本要素，包括通用性和体裁性，可供开发人员学习。 实际上，使游戏用户体验更加友好也可以改善现有粉丝的体验(请记住，您的游戏可能存在一些问题，这些问题您的硬核用户只是简单地接受为现实，而没有引起大惊小怪，因此使他们对您不可见)。

One way of potentially understanding gaps or flaws in game UX is to play poorly-reviewed games within a developer’s particular genre of interest. This can be one way to see what other developers may have missed from a UX point of view. Remember, there’s a huge difference between someone who is not a fan of a genre and someone who is not a fan of your take on a genre.

潜在地理解游戏UX中的差距或缺陷的一种方法是，在开发人员感兴趣的特定类型中玩评论不佳的游戏。 这可能是从UX角度查看其他开发人员可能错过的内容的一种方法。 请记住，还有谁不是一个流派 ，有人谁不是 你 对一个流派 的风扇 的风扇有人之间的巨大差异。

欢迎新玩家 (Welcoming new players)

Finally, it’s relevant to return to one of my favorite terms: playtesting. If you’re remotely concerned with earning money from your video game, then you’re going to need playtesters. Fans, newcomers, and everyone in between — the more, the better (bearing in mind your broader target audience, too).

最后，返回我最喜欢的术语之一是很重要的： playtesting 。 如果您担心从视频游戏中赚钱，那么您将需要测试者。 粉丝，新人以及介于两者之间的每个人-越多越好(也要考虑到更广泛的目标受众)。

No matter what kind of game you are making, you should never ignore new players if you’re going to grow as a developer (and if you’re going to maximize the commercial opportunities for your game). If you only listen to your hardcore fans, you’re likely to encourage an echo chamber effect — this blunts any opportunities you have to expand your audience, but it also doesn’t lead to you being a better developer.

无论您制作哪种游戏，如果您要发展成为一名开发人员(并且要最大程度地利用游戏的商业机会)，都不要忽略新玩家。 如果您只听取忠实的支持者的声音，那么您可能会鼓励回声室效果-这会使您扩大受众范围的任何机会变钝，但也并不能使您成为更好的开发人员。

There are many developers out there who wonder why their game didn’t take off even though some players (and perhaps they themselves) enjoyed it. But when I get my hands on these titles, I can often quickly identify basic flaws and design issues that might drive new players away from the experience.

有很多开发人员想知道为什么即使有些玩家(也许他们自己)喜欢它，他们的游戏还是没有腾飞。 但是当我掌握这些冠军头衔时，我通常可以Swift找出可能导致新玩家脱离体验的基本缺陷和设计问题。

If you’re not learning and improving as a developer and designer, then you’re not going to be able to effectively grow your fanbase and reach. I don’t believe there’s such thing as a niche genre per se — only niche examples of a genre.

如果您不以开发人员和设计师的身份学习和改进，那么您将无法有效地扩大粉丝群和影响力。 我不相信本身就存在小众流派，只有这种流派的小众例子 。

Readers, can you think of takes on otherwise impenetrable genres that managed to be approachable to new players?

读者，您能想到那些通俗易懂的新手类型吗？

If you enjoyed my post, consider joining the Game-Wisdom Discord channel. It’s open to everyone.

如果您喜欢我的文章，请考虑加入 Game-Wisdom Discord频道 。 它向所有人开放。