"You draw Me guess": To design games for people who don't play games

Yesterday, Omgpop Company announced, "You draw I guess" download volume has exceeded 50 million times. The Angry Bird (Twitter) has become the first game in the App Store and Android Market. Zynga, which acquired Omgpop, said yesterday that users had created more than 6 billion pictures since the game was released. On the day of release, the user created only 3 pieces per second, now reaching 3000 per second.

What kind of a game let people rush? And what makes a 1700 dollar game company founder Salted fish in his pocket? The answer to a series of questions will be found in the painting guessing game "You draw Me guess" (Draw something).

Put your imagination on the Rockets.

50 days ago, few people would have thought, "You draw me guess" this unconventional painting game will quickly sweep the mobile gaming market.

"It's a social game that requires you to work with friends." Choose from three alternative English words to draw a picture, send a friend guess what the word, guess to both of them have gold coins. Interestingly, your entire painting process can see each other, even if the painting is rotten, all let oneself and friends happy and happy and. "Yesterday 6 o'clock in the afternoon, Shi Jia, who was playing the game at Chongwen Gate, is giving a presentation to a young customer dressed in a professional outfit." With her narration, there are more and more people around.

Shijia remember very clearly, into the late March, "You draw I guess" suddenly on fire. "Although this is an English based game, but the players through their imagination to enhance the entertainment, bases full use." ”

Shijia gave reporters two examples: in the first picture, a pony uses its front hoof to lift a bloody chopper to a rooster. The author's answer was surprising: "Massage (massage)", is entirely borrowed "horse kill chicken" homophonic. In the second picture, a cat was painted, and an English word "King" was written next to it, the answer being the singer Elvis Presley. "It's so talented!" Shijia said that the game of painting and guessing the process of a lot of fun. As the guessing word is English, users can learn some English words by the way. "The key is the drawing process, like putting your imagination on a rocket." ”

Chinese version cannot press import

In fact, as a foreign language game, "You draw I guess" for the people still have a certain threshold: because it is a foreign application software, guess the word is also English, the user must have a certain amount of English vocabulary. If the system gives the English words to Chinese players is slightly uncommon, it will be very difficult to guess. In addition, this game does not support many people to guess words together, and the game both sides of the network requirements are very high. None of this can stop the enthusiasm of many players.

See the "You draw I guess" in the Chinese language gap, the domestic Chinese substitute product recently appeared "follow suit". April 1, Tencent launched the Chinese version of "You draw I guess"--"guess", in addition to replacing the language with Chinese, in other ways and "you draw me guess" very similar. However, the game online only a few hours, was Tencent closed.

At present, social networking sites such as Sina Weibo and Renren have launched similar page games on social platforms, and some software forums have also appeared in the Chinese version of "You draw my guess" mobile apps. However, because the computer page game will allow users to lose a part of the mobile space, at any time the freedom of entertainment, these imitation products are far less popular than this exotic goods.

Designing games for people who don't play games

Unlike many fans, the industry's focus on "You draw me guess" has continued to be high. The most important aspect of their attention is that the trend of the application products, to a certain extent, explains the future direction of online game development.

"You draw I guess" success, let Qihoo 360 chairman and CEO Zhou (Micro Bo) on Weibo issued such a sigh: success is accidental, if you have to say that successful experience on a: boil out. However, many professional analysts do not agree with Zhou's statement.

"This application is very enlightening to me, I think, the future of the Internet game's entrepreneurial direction should be to reduce the user's mechanical sense of the computer, all operations like the real, close to life." "Game software Surveyor Zhe said, when the birds are no longer crazy, when the ninja Cheguang fruit, when all heroes of the customs clearance are no longer difficult, the benign interaction between human relations has become a boundless treasure." In this application, there is no winning or losing or ranking in nature, but focus on cooperation, creativity and self-expression, and minimizing competitive relationships.

In Zhe's view, the biggest success of "You draw me guess" is that the Omgpop company is "making games for those who never install games on their phones and hoping to get a huge amount of users in this way." From the effect point of view, it is low-cost or even free strategy, let "you draw I guess" became Zynga's eyes, "I make you rich."

Extended Reading

A game to revive the near bankrupt enterprise

Omgpop, who became a star in the first night of the company, was not a gaming company at the start of the 2006, and turned to social gaming for 2009 years.

Before you draw my guess, the company's 30 games were defeated by Zynga, the game's king. Until the latter was acquired, the company's founder, Foreman, left only $1700 trillion, and two anonymous sources who worked in Omgpop, familiar with Omgpop's finances, said that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy last May, and that if it wasn't for the rapid popularity of "You Draw me," it would have gone bust.

However, the acclaimed "You draw I guess" made Omgpop a complete turnaround. March 22, Zynga officially announced a 180 million dollar acquisition of Omgpop, and spent about 30 million dollars on Omgpop employees to pay the retention bonus. The acquisition made founder Foreman very satisfied. In December 2010, Zynga purchased the crossword puzzle words with Friends for 50 million dollars. Zynga's valuation of you draw me guess is close to four times times the former.

As for the development of the game, the company's CEO Potter said that part of the game's originality stems from a small game played by his son: if a son and a friend throw a ball 100 times without landing, Porter will buy ice cream for two people as a reward, a draw, no competition, but full of fun.

On the day the game was released, Porter stared at the download counter. Within 24 hours, the game was downloaded 30,000 times, not surprisingly. However, the figure grew at a geometric level, breaking 1 million times after 10 days.

At present, "You draw I guess" has two versions, one needs to pay 1 dollars, the other is a free version containing ads, two versions can pay for additional features, which allows it to absorb hundreds of thousands of dollars a day income. "The app has no sign of slowing down," Porter says. "The bigger the player, the stronger it becomes." ”