從產品體驗的角度聊《迷失之地：亂鬥》是如何盈利的
從產品體驗的角度聊《迷失之地：亂鬥》是如何盈利的
原作者：Jon Jordan 譯者：Willow Wu
歡迎回到In-App Purchase Inspector，在這裡我們會以消費者的視角，定期測評一些F2P遊戲。
對於每一款遊戲，我們都要考慮IAP設計與遊戲的整體玩法以及meta體驗的契合程度。
這次我們要測評的是Frogmind的新遊戲《迷失之地：亂鬥》（Badland Brawl）。
競爭潛力
移動遊戲市場發展到這一階段，玩法創新已經成為了一個難以攻克的挑戰。
但是Frogmind公司新發行的《迷失之地：亂鬥》——一款包含了《憤怒的小鳥》物理彈射玩法、借鑑了MOBA遊戲勝利判定條件的PvP塔防遊戲似乎可以成為一個優秀挑戰者。
而且，Frogmin的前作《迷失之地》因為獨特的大氣效果獲得了眾多玩家的好評，Supercell也成為了他們的大股東。因此，你們可以期待《迷失之地：亂鬥》的整體制作水平以及使用者體驗一定是頂級的。
但是，In-App Purchase Inspector會深入到遊戲的留存策略以及盈利技巧。
Badland Brawl（from pocketgamer.biz）
遊戲的基本流程還是以角色，或者說是克隆人為核心。目前遊戲中有37個克隆人，每個人都有自己的屬性技能（質量、速度、軌跡），比如對不同目標所造成的傷害。因此，解鎖更多克隆人、不斷升級就是《迷失之地：亂鬥》的核心meta迴圈。
玩家需要通過收集克隆人對應的升級材料來實現進階，這就跟集換式卡牌遊戲或者是RPG遊戲很相似。每升一級都需要一定數量的材料。
不出所料，獲得材料的途徑主要就是開箱，也就是遊戲中的蛋——分為不同型別和稀有程度。
最普通的是兩個定時獎勵蛋Ground Eggs，每四個小時玩家就能從中得到兩個不同克隆人的材料，外加隨機數量的軟、硬貨幣（金幣和寶石）。
對戰勝利後獲得的獎勵會更加豐厚。和現今的其它F2P遊戲一樣，玩家最多可以儲存四個蛋，但是隻有一個會倒計時。
在遊戲過程中玩家可以收集齒輪。對戰勝利可獲得3個齒輪，就算輸了你也能獲得至多2個齒輪。10個齒輪可以開啟Gear Egg，就遊戲前期來說，它是包含最多獎勵的蛋了。
當你加入部落(Tribe，也就是遊戲的公會系統)後，你就能解鎖Tribe Egg，它跟Gear Egg類似，但是它跟群體玩家的利益掛鉤。更棒的是，你可以將克隆人素材贈予同部落的成員，或者你也可以發出請求。
好戲上演
看到現在，你們或許會覺得這遊戲聽起來並沒有什麼特別之處啊，都是標準配置。《迷失之地：亂鬥》的設計巧妙之處在於提供給玩家升級蛋的機會。
就比如說Ground Eggs，玩家可以通過觀看有獎廣告將蛋內的獎品增加一倍。而其它蛋則需要通過增加等待時間來升級。
事實上，你可以等計時器倒數完畢，然後再次疊加升級，比如從2x到4x，從4x到8x，或者從8x到12x。
玩家一次只能升級一個可開啟的蛋，但是你隨時都能使用硬貨幣立即升級或者是開啟某個蛋。然而，隨著級別的增加，所需的寶石數量也會增加。這是一種很有意思的做法，讓玩家自己決定他們想通過什麼樣的方式來獲得更多獎品。
除此之外，你可以進入遊戲商店，直接用寶石購買高價值的蛋，售價從3美元到30美元不等。商店中也會出現單次販售的禮包，一般是在玩家升級或者是進入到更高階的競技場時出現。
細節觀察
《迷失之地：亂鬥》中的另一處細節亮點在於對軟貨幣數量的嚴格把控。在很多F2P手遊中，系統會獎勵給玩家非常非常多的軟貨幣，這樣一來它們就變得沒有價值了。除非你打算把寶石轉換成金幣，不然大多數情況下玩家會發現手頭的金幣不足夠升級所有的克隆人。
但這並沒有真正影響遊戲玩法，因為你只能在一場戰鬥中使用8個克隆人，而且大多數玩家會選擇一個互補的角色組合，並專注於將它們升到最高階。
儘管如此，這也表明了Frogmind對遊戲平衡的關注：確保玩家只要玩遊戲就能得到某種方式的回報；同時也提供了一種能夠加速遊戲程序的巧妙方式：選擇等待或者是選擇花錢，多長/多少由玩家自己決定。
側重動作的遊戲玩法結合流暢的遊戲體驗，從各方面來看《迷失之地：亂鬥》不失為一款具有吸引力的優秀遊戲。
當然，遊戲是否能夠獲得商業方面的成功還很難說。發行後收穫了兩百萬的下載量，《迷失之地：亂鬥》已經開了個好頭。但是即使是這個水準的遊戲也不一定能在當下競爭如此激烈的市場中脫穎而出。
隨著Frogmind對遊戲進行持續優化、更新，接下來的幾周和幾個月將是至關重要的。
本文由遊戲邦編譯，轉載請註明來源，或諮詢微信zhengjintiao
Welcome to The In-App Purchase Inspector – our regular look at free-to-play mobile game monetisation from the consumer’s perspective.
In each instalment, we consider how well a developer has designed its in-app purchase retailing to work alongside the overall gameplay and metagame experience.
This time we’re looking at Frogmind’s Badland Brawl.
Could it be a contender?
At this stage of the mobile game sector, gameplay innovation is a difficult challenge to successfully overcome.
But Frogmind’s mash-up of Angry Birds-style trajectory physics with MOBA-inspired victory conditions as seen in its PVP-focused title Badland Brawl is as good an attempt as we’ve seen in recent years.
And, as you’d expect from a studio which made its reputation with the atmospheric Badland games and is now majority owned by Supercell, the overall level of polish and user experience is of the highest order.
Yet, the point of the In-App Purchase Inspector is to look deeper into the game’s retention and monetisation techniques.
In that context, the basic flow is focused on the game’s characters, or clones. Currently there are 37 clones, each of which has their own specific attributes in terms of physics (notably mass, speed and trajectory type) and stats such as the damage they inflict to different targets.
Hence unlocking more clones and upgrading the ones you already have is the game’s core metagame loop.
The mechanism for doing this is collecting each clone’s upgrade material, which works in a similar way to a trading card game or RPG character. A certain amount of material is required for each level upgrade.
As expected, this material is primarily gained by opening chests – called Eggs – of which there are various different types and rarities.
The most common are the two timed Ground Eggs, which gift material for two clones every four hours, plus random amounts of soft and hard currency, gold and gems respectively.
Much better, in terms of their rewards however, are the eggs you gain by winning brawls. As with most F2P games these days, you can have up to four of these stored at any time, although only one can be actively counting down.
Playing the game also sees you accumulating Gears. Each victory gets you three Gears, but even when losing you can earn up to two Gears. Get 10 Gears and you can open a Gear Egg, which at the start of the game provides the most rewards.
Finally when you join a Tribe (the game’s guild system), you gain access to the Tribe Egg, which works in a similar way to the Gear Egg, albeit on a communal basis. Neatly, you can also donate clone material to members of your Tribe and request them too.
It’s about time
This sort of setup is now standard, of course. Where Badland Brawl does somethin clever is providing the ability for you to enhance eggs (hence gaining better rewards).
In the case of the timed Ground Eggs, you can enhance them 2x by watching a rewarded video, but for the other eggs, enhancement is just a question of increasing the wait time.
In fact, you can stack the level of enhancement, say from 2x to 4x, to 4x to 8x, or 8x to 12x, by waiting for the timer to countdown to zero and then enhancing it again.
You can only enhance the one active egg at a time, but at any point you can spend hard currency to enhance and open any egg immediately. However, as the level of enhancement increases so does the number of gems required.
It’s an interesting way to give players more control in terms of how aggressively they want to spend to get better rewards.
Aside from such loops, you can at any point head into the store and spend gems directly to buy high value eggs, priced from $3 to $30. There are also the usual one-off retail bundles, typically triggered when your player account levels up or you upgrade to a higher arena.
Attention to detail
Another subtle refinement Badland Brawl implements is by tightly controlling the supply of soft currency. In many F2P mobile games, soft currency is often gifted in large amounts and quickly becomes worthless. In Badland Brawl, unless you’re converting gems to gold, you always have more clones to upgrade than gold to do so.
Significantly, this doesn’t really impact gameplay as you can only take eight clones into a brawl and quickly most players will choose a set which works together in a complementary fashion and focus on upgrading them to the max.
Nevertheless, this demonstrates the attention Frogmind has paid to Badland Brawl’s balance in terms of ensuring all play is rewarded in some manner, as well as providing a sophisticated way of either waiting a little or a lot, or spending a little or a lot to speed up progress.
Combined with action-heavy gameplay and a smooth overall user experience, the entire package is compelling on many levels.
Of course, whether this will translate to commercial success is less clear. With two million downloads at launch, Badland Brawl is off to a good start, but even games this polished can struggle to make an impact in such a competitive market.
In that context, as Frogmind continues to update and hone its game, the coming weeks and months will be crucial.（source： ofollow,noindex" target="_blank">pocketgamer.biz ）