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作者：Brian Peterson

《Flappy Bird》于2013年5月24日在iOS平臺發布，上線三天后在美國應用榜單排名迅速下滑。

但在2014年1月17日以來，該游戲躍升至美國iOS游戲及應用兩個榜單雙雙登頂。

它在榜單上的杰出表現令我想到了許多問題：這就是大型廣告營銷的結果嗎？PR活動會產生名人效應，以及影響熱門應用網站的評價嗎？它適時地獲得了蘋果的推薦？這款簡單的游戲如何在默默無聞中脫穎而出？所以我決定深入研究這款游戲，找到它的成功因素。

Game Over screen(from huffingtonpost)

口頭傳播

《Flappy Bird》是一款非常簡單同時又極具難度的跑酷游戲。其中不含任何IAP盈利機制，只有一些條幅廣告。玩家在游戲中只能做一件事情，即點觸屏幕拍打。這一點人人都懂，并且玩家所需投入的時間也非常少。這種簡潔性極易令其獲得推薦，同時又降低了大家首次嘗試游戲所需投入的時間門檻。

游戲的主菜單有一個“為應用打分”的按鈕。《Flappy Birds》目前平均得分是4.0顆星，總共獲得了24萬544次打分。這是《Candy Crush Saga》所獲得的評價次數的一半左右。這款游戲在過去2個月中就收獲了諸多評價，可謂是個相當了不起的成績。這表明人們真的很喜歡討論這款游戲。在Twitter上關于這款游戲的討論次數更是證實了這一點：本周的某一分鐘內，我就算出有361條推文提到了“Flappy Bird”這個字眼。與之相比，“Candy Crush”僅出現12次，“Clash of Clans”出現頻率為3次。許多玩家針對這款游戲發表了搞笑的評論，并在Twitter上分享這些內容，從而產生出更多評論和更多與之有關的推文。

社交分享

在《Flappy Bird》的Game Over屏幕上，你可以點擊“分享”，用“Oh My God！我在#flapflap中贏了5分！！！”這種格式來發布自己的分數。

這個分享提示并不是獨立的窗口，而是位于重玩按鈕旁邊的按鈕。你可以忽略它，直到擊敗自己的史上最高分為止，因為此時這一按鈕才會成為最重要的元素。人們樂于分享自己得到的2分，因為這很有趣，而其他人分享自己得到的20分是因為這花了他們很多時間，這兩者都是因為驕傲而公開分享這一信息。

這款游戲所引發的關注和抓狂在玩家之間創造了不少有趣的個人經歷：

“我向這款游戲尖叫了”

“要跟著音樂節拍玩《Flappy Bird》真是太困難了”

“我是因為《Flappy Bird》很滑稽才會遇到這么多人，哈哈”

多數推文分享的內容是關于這款游戲頻頻出現Game Over畫面這種令人抓狂的感覺，其中也不乏臟話。這種情緒化分享體驗可以創造強大的社區，盡管該游戲沒有任何官方社區支持（游戲邦注：它沒有官方網站、Facebook或Twitter帳號）。

我們可以從這款游戲中學到什么經驗？更重要的是，我們能否從中獲得學習？

《Flappy Bird》在榜單登頂有許多運氣元素。該游戲自去年7月份以來一直在澳大利亞榜單底端徘徊，直到12月份才在全球范圍內一飛沖天。我無法查明到底是哪條推文或哪篇文章成就了它，它直到最近才獲得應用商店推薦。這款游戲剛出道時也并沒有立即躋身榜單前列，這就可以排除它采用大規模廣告營銷手段的嫌疑。這正是我為何將口頭傳播廣告視為其成功因素的原因。

除了在自己的游戲上下功夫之外，我們沒有其他控制玩家行為的方法，但為了鼓勵玩家討論你的游戲，還需牢記以下理念：

即時簡潔性

要在短暫的數秒內呈現可玩性，便于人們將自己的手機拿給好友試玩新游戲。沒有人希望讓自己的好友去試玩教程。該游戲的簡潔性還證實手機游戲玩家并不一定需要大量的內容，只需富有吸引力的玩法即可。

有意義的分享

濫用“分享”成就的提示并不是有意義的行為，可能會導致玩家久而久之地忽略這種提示。玩家通常不會無緣無故地討論一款游戲，無論是在首天還是第5天玩游戲，都要給予他們討論游戲的理由。

清晰、即時和公平的挑戰

在玩《Flappy Bird》的頭幾秒中，每名新玩家都會失敗并因此而Game Over。他們選擇繼續玩游戲，因為他們清楚自己為什么會失敗，以及需要改進的方向。這種清晰度著實極令人上癮，因為成功看似觸手可及，盡管要成功還需要不斷訓練技能。（本文為游戲邦/gamerboom.com編譯，拒絕任何不保留版權的轉載，如需轉載請聯系：游戲邦）

What is Flappy Bird, and how did it get to be #1?

by Brian Peterson

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.

The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Released for iOS on May 24, 2013, Flappy Bird dropped off of the US app charts 3 days after its launch.

Since January 17, it’s been the #1 game and #1 overall app on the US iOS charts.

After seeing its lofty place on the charts, I had so many questions: Was this the result of a big advertising campaign? Did PR efforts result in celebrity endorsements and reviews on top app sites? Was it a well-timed featured promotion from Apple? How did this simple game come out of nowhere and take over the app store charts? I decided to look into the game more and find out what made it so engaging.

Word of Mouth

Flappy Bird is a very simple and very difficult endless runner game. There are no in-app purchases – just some banner ads. There’s only one thing you can do in the game: tap to flap. Everyone can understand it, and the time investment needed for a single game is minimal. This simplicity makes it very easy to recommend, and it lowers the time-investment required to try the game for the first time.

There’s a “rate this app” button on the main menu. Flappy Bird currently has a 4.0 rating, with 240,544 total ratings. This is around half the number of ratings that Candy Crush Saga has. This is amazing, considering almost all of these reviews came in the past 2 months. The high number of reviews in such a short time suggests that people really love talking about this game. The volume of tweets talking about the game confirms this: in a single minute this week, I counted 361 tweets containing the phrase “Flappy Bird”. In comparison, “Candy Crush” had 12, and “Clash of Clans” had 3. Many players are writing comical reviews for the game and sharing them on Twitter, generating even more reviews and more tweets about the game.

Social Sharing

On Flappy Bird’s Game Over screen, you can click “Share” to post your score in the following format:
“OMG! I scored 5 pts in #flapflap!!! -> http://itunes.apple.com/app/id642099621”

The share prompt isn’t in a separate window; it’s just a small button next to the replay button. You can easily ignore it until you beat your all-time high score, at which point this button becomes the most important thing in the entire world. People are sharing high scores of 2 because it’s funny, while others share high scores of 20 because it took them hours, both because they’re proud and because they think it’s funny to admit that publicly.

The focus and frustration caused by the game create personal stories that are shared by its players:

“I’m screaming at the game”

“It’s so hard to play flappy bird to songs with good beats omg”

“The amount of people I’ve ran into or almost ran into because flappy bird is ridiculous haha”

Most of the tweets about this game share the frustration of the game’s frequent Game Overs, and are usually accompanied by a lot of profanity. Sharing emotional experiences in this way creates a strong community, even though the game lacks any official community efforts, like an official website, Facebook, or Twitter account.

What can be learned from this game? More importantly, can we learn from this game?

There’s a lot of luck involved in Flappy Bird’s rise to the top of the charts. The game hovered around the bottom of the Australian charts since July before exploding in popularity worldwide in December. I couldn’t pinpoint any specific tweet or article that could be credited for its success, and the game was not featured in the app store until yesterday. The game did not immediately shoot up the charts, which most likely rules out a big advertising push. This is why I credit word-of-mouth advertising with its success.

We can only exert so much control over our players’ actions outside of our games, but here are a few ideas to keep in mind for encouraging players to talk about your games:

Immediate Simplicity

Being playable in mere seconds makes it very easy for someone to hand their phone to a friend to try a new game. Nobody wants to make their friend play a tutorial. The game’s simplicity also proves that players on mobile do not necessarily require a ton of content – just engaging gameplay.

Meaningful Sharing

Overusing “share” prompts for accomplishments that are not meaningful can train players to ignore these prompts in the future. Players should also have a reason to talk about the game, whether it’s their first day playing or their fifth.

Clear, Immediate, and Fair Challenge

Within the first few seconds of playing Flappy Bird, every new player will fail and get a Game Over. They choose to continue playing because they have a clear idea of why they failed and what they need to do to succeed. This clarity is so addictive because success seems very attainable, even though the skill needed to succeed requires practice.

If you have any additional insight into Flappy Bird’s success, post a reply in the comments below!（source：gamasutra）

http://world.kankanews.com/w/2014-02-08/0014184038.shtml

Brian Peterson 2014-02-09 00:45:31