[翻译] 两个人做一个多人连线游戏，Growtopia 的开发经验
原文：
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/SethRobinson/20130619/194666/Two_guys_made_an_MMO_The_Growtopia_Postmortem.php
翻译网志：https://wp.me/pBAPd-Au
游戏安卓商城：
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rtsoft.growtopia
游戏苹果商城：
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/growtopia/id590495115?mt=8
译案：Growtopia 是我目前负责维护的游戏．这个游戏仅仅开发了五到六个月就上市，而
且两位作者在地球两端开发当时从未亲自见过面．在双平台上都是百万下载的成绩且稳定
获利，自 2017 被 Ubisoft 买下，营收可以供应一个中型公司营运．
阅读他们的开发经验给予我很多启发．
Two guys made an MMO: The Growtopia Postmortem
by Seth Robinson on 06/19/13 10:26:00 pm Featured Blogs
两个人做一个多人连线游戏，Growtopia 的开发经验
（2013 年年中 Seth Robinson 撰写他们 2013 年初上市作品 Growtopia）
So, being the master of game marketing that I am, I've carefully been totally
silent here on my blog about my latest game, despite being released five
months ago.
作为游戏行销的专家，我一直没有谈论我在五个月前释出的作品．
The game now regularly hits 3,000 players online at once and has been
financially a huge success. (At least by my humble standards!) It's been a
top 1000 grossing US App Store game for the past four months and doing
similarly well on Android - all without being featured and zero paid
advertising.
这款目前容纳三千名玩家上线的作品得到了我认为财务上的成功．在持续四个月中进入苹
果及安卓商城上全美排行千名之内，而且没有被推荐也没有投注广告．
11-9-2014 Update: We've grown! We now regularly hit 40,000+ players online,
have 5+ million users and around 300K daily active users. 80+ million worlds
have been created by users.
2014 年的更新：现在已经成长到四万人可以同时上线，五百万个帐户而且每日三十万活
跃用户．累积有八千万个使用者创造的世界．
Today I'm finally sitting down to document how this project took shape as
well as the trials and tribulations.
现在我终于可以坐下来撰写关于这个专案如何产生中的试误过程．
September 8th, 2012: Six pictures
2012 年的九月，六张概念图
After my highly competitive multiplayer online game Tanked was more or less
finished, I began thinking aboutduct a new game. Something that would
capitalize on the networking client/server experience I'd gained but apply it
to a fresh idea with simpler controls that would be more accessible.
在我上一个多人竞争的线上游戏 Tanked 之后，我开始思考一个新游戏，这从我撰写连线
机制的经验而生，想把它扩展到一个更简单操控的点子上．
Despite Tanked being 3D, I decided to do the game in 2D - faster development
and we could target even very crappy mobile devices.
尽管前一个作品 Tanked 是三维，这次我决定做二维游戏．这样开发速度更快，而且可以
让更多普通手机游玩．
With Tanked, I felt my fatigue in "doing it all, alone" was the cause of my
non-existent marketing efforts (I've STILL never done a youtube video for
Tanked? REALLY?!?!), as well as reluctance to add the final layers of
polish. I needed a partner, someone to provide a mutual motivation as well
as handle the artistic needs of the project.
在做 Tanked 的时候我发觉自己做又没有市场营销帮忙令人疲倦（记得 Tanked 似乎没有
一个官方释出的影片）．尤其是在开发过程中的最后打磨阶段．我需要一个能够互相砥砺
又能提供美术素材的伙伴．
So with that in mind, I presented six mock-up screenshots to long-time IRC
pal and fellow indie, Mike Hommel, aka Hamumu to entice him to come aboard.
因此我把这六张概念图发给了我的朋友 Mike Hommel 也就是 Hamumu．并邀请他加入．
Here are the original shots (created using stolen sprite rips mostly) for
your viewing displeasure (I'm no artist!):
这就是这六张概念图．
[图左上：游戏大厅入口]
[图右上：游戏主要游玩区域包含地板，障碍物，及入口]
[图左中：游戏主要游玩的方式包含建造，交谈，以及拥有权的概念]
[图左中：游戏接口提示的方式包含建造范围，以及锁定范围]
[图左下：种植并给予玩家新物品的流程]
[图右下：玩家间互动甚至 PVP 的方式]
We changed and improved the ideas represented in these mockups over time, but
stayed focused on the general goals.
我们花了点时间改进了这些概念图的点子，但是仍坚持主要的目标．
He agreed to give it a shot. Like so many indie collaborations, I suspect he
was worried we'd never reach beta. Hell, me too!
他同意入伙，就像众多的独立伙伴一样，我猜他当时可能怀疑我们能不能做完．我其实也
有相同的担忧．
I think I predicted 4-6 months to finish it. This is usually where I would
chuckle at my foolish naivety and admit it took years longer than expected
but... not this time?!
我那时预测了四到六个月的开发期，以往的经验告诉我通常这样预估都会终结于超过一年
，但这次竟然没发生这种事情．
The reason things went so smoothly? Well, I guess probably because we had
very few "unknowns".
这次如此顺利的原因在于：开发中我们没有太多未知需要研究的地方．
In the past, we'd both already made 2d tile based platformers, collision
code, networked games, mysql based projects and websites, and done cross
platform development. Using my Proton SDK insured we could run on eight
platforms (nearly) out of the box.
在这之前，我们都已经做过二维平台游戏，也有了碰撞，网络，数据库，专案，网站，以
及跨平台的开发经验．使用 Proton 的函式库，我们能够释出几乎八个平台．
We figured the only real unknown was what our max player limit would be and
how things would scale up. I had guessed conservatively, 600 players online
would be our max. Luckily, I was wrong, the original server actually was
able to handle much more.
我们知道唯一的未知性来自于服务器能承载玩家同时上线的能力．我那时保守地猜大概六
百人是极限，幸运地，我猜错了．一开始的服务器可以承载更多人．
The above shot shows four instances running around in the same world. All
graphics are just DrawRects for now. The collision is incredibly simple and
as a result gives us very few problems later as we tweak it for special tiles
and items later. The game is written in C++ with GL/GLES.
上图是针对相同地图产生四个客户端的绘图结果，透过方格计算，碰撞其实无比简单，因
此省下了之后的很多麻烦．游戏是用 C++ 及 GL/GLES 写的．
I think one reason this project went so fast is I was able to fight the urge
to go overboard on everything like I usually do. There are no fancy 2d
physics. I mean hey, we're not making Limbo here. It would be overkill. I
think it helps that I had already done the box2d physics platformer thing in
a previous project so I didn't really feel like I had something to prove, if
that makes sense.
我认为能够这么快速释出的原因在于我急切地在任何方面抛弃掉负担．没有复杂的二维物
理．因为我们不是在做 Limbo 这种产品．那种碰撞对我们就是过度设计．我在之前专案
就已经把平台游戏方块碰撞的物理程式写好了．我不需要在这个专案证明什么．
I've never actually met Mike in person, he's in California and I'm in Japan.
But if anything, that probably helped - we work on the code base (he programs
too!) in (roughly) day/night shifts which help avoid svn code conflicts.
我从未面对面见过 Mike 本人，他人在加州，我在日本．但如果要找出一件加速效率的事
情的话，我猜是时差，因为两个人不会同时改程式，这样可以避免程式码版本控制的冲突
．
We use IRC and Google Docs to communicate - spreadsheets for tracking hours
and financial stuff, and the drawing board to share screenshots and ideas.
The best part is we have a full history of everything we've done, that's
where I'm getting most of the screenshots for this article!
我们使用即时通讯软件跟 Google 文件沟通．用试算表纪录财务，用绘图板来分享截图跟
点子．最棒的是我们纪录了整个开发历史，所以我才能现在给你们看这些截图．
[接口概念图：对话视窗，道具栏，基础控制]
接口开始于 Hamumu 的概念图
[接口截图：门，标示，对话，道具栏，以及锁定功能]
In roughly five weeks, the game looks pretty similar to its current form.
在五周后，游戏看起来已经很类似释出的结果．
November 30th, 2012: The game is stealth-released on Android as a free beta
after three months of development
在 2012 年十一月底：这个游戏经过开发数个月祕密地在安卓上外测．
We were unable to use the original name we wanted (Buildo) as someone else
was sort of already using it. After a VERY painful few days we finally agree
on Growtopia. I really couldn't get anything done during that period,
strange that stress of finding a game name could grind everything to a halt
like that. I was never totally satisfied with the name, but it's very
searchable so that's a perk. The domain name was taken so we had to live
with growtopiagame.com.
我们本打算用 Buildo 这个名称，但是这名称已经被用了．在一段非常痛苦的几天后我们
同意释出的名称就叫 Growtopia．那段时间我几乎无法做任何事，选个好名字让我们暂停
了所有开发．我并不完全满意于这个名字，但是在搜寻上有优势．所以网站的名称就决定
了．
IAP is disabled initially as we expected to reset the universe a few times.
(We ended up never having to do that)
开始外测的时候储值是暂时关闭的，因为我们认为应该服务器会重置好几次．但结果一次
也没有．
There were no "World Locks" yet, so people tended to clump together in little
towns, locking their areas with the smaller lock types.
那时还没有世界全锁的概念，所以人们挤在世界里面用小锁保护他们区域内的资产．
Despite the total stealth release (I didn't even mention the beta on my
website) the player base quickly grows. It's the perfect design for PR
slackers like us, very viral in nature due to the social aspects.
尽管在外测，玩家数目成长很快．这游戏因为社交的本质让我们在社交平台上宣传的很有
效．
January 9th, 2013: The game is released on iOS, and the word beta is removed
from the Google Play description
2013 年一月，游戏取消外测的字眼，然后同时发布在苹果商城．
The release! We get a boost from Touch Arcade, Pocket Gamer and IndieGames
who all post our teaser video. (we sent it to them and a few other sites,
that was pretty much it for our marketing campaign)
正式释出，Touch Arcade，Pocket Gamer，以及 IndieGames 都贴出我们寄出的的试玩影
片，正如我们的行销计画．
We stress out as we watch the users online grow. 200 users, 300 users.. 600
users online at once! Will the server die? We upgrade our server three
times in two weeks to handle the increase, wondering if after the initial
surge we'll need to go back to the cheaper one. Servint, our data center,
did a great job of quickly migrating us from server to server as needed.
我们担心的服务器承载上线随着玩家数目两百，三百，六百上升．我们在两周内升级了伺
服器三次，服务器供应商协助我们快速地移转资料．
Life after release, where we are now
发布之后，目前的状况
Like a newborn, we found the game screaming for our non-stop attention. We
find ourselves constantly putting out fires and dealing with issues. 600
hundred forum posts a day to read, hundreds of daily support emails.
就如同每一个新生，我们的游戏不断地在我们认为有必要时调整，必须常常处理线上问题
．每天有六万个论坛文章要读，每天几百封客户服务邮件．
There is no finish line, there is no "done" - we've basically worked full
time on the game since its release.
没有任何做完的迹象，释出后这游戏耗尽了我们所有的时间．
Our game has an extremely sensitive virtual economy that could be decimated
in only hours by a rampant bug.
我们的游戏有敏感的虚拟经济，错误持续几个小时都可能摧毁它．
A single server crash can cause an hour of lost work per player online. A
single day roll-back on a busy day now would mean instantly vaporizing SEVEN
HUMAN YEARS worth of effort.
服务器的当机，就会可能导致一个小时的纪录遗失．回溯则有可能会遗失六个人年的玩家
纪录．
These things weighed very heavily on me in the beginning. I had trouble
sleeping and would check the server throughout the night to make sure it was
still running correctly. After a while though, you sort of reach a certain
level of numbness/comfort with it all.
这些事情给我非常大的压力．甚至睡不着觉，熬夜查服务器．一段时间后才达到麻木或平
衡．
I guess I'll forgo the usual "what went right/wrong" and just illuminate the
most important/damaging events and how we dealt with them.
我猜我做的就是不要搞清楚每件事，试着只思考如何处理最重要的事．
Our first penis
玩家用地图画出我们游戏中的第一个老二
Well, we knew it had to happen. I appeared in their world and gave them five
minutes to remove it, but secretly I was sort of proud, it's sort of a
developer achievement to have someone miss-use your creative tools like this.
我早知道这一天会来，我跑去他们的地图叫他们五分钟之内清掉．但私底下我还蛮开心的
．玩家恶搞自己的游戏这是一种开发者的成就．
As our player count grew, we found our player discipline tools inadequate.
Over time we beefed them up.
玩家数目成长时，我发觉我们用来监控玩家纪律的工具明显不足，才在后来补上．
The problem with tape
游戏中的胶带这项功能
Instead of simply muting people, we thought it would be much cooler to
visually duct-tape their mouth shut. When they attempt to speak, only
muffled noises come out.
与其单纯的禁言，我们认为用一个胶带把玩家贴住更酷．当他们发言传讯的时候，游戏还
会发出杂音．
The end result wasn't what we expected. Being duct-taped quickly became the
goal. When players saw us, they'd mob us yelling obscenities, hoping to be
taped. We had to make a new rule: "If you try to get taped on purpose, we'll
just ban you" to keep it under control.
结果出乎预料，被禁言变成一项荣耀．当玩家看见开发者，他们会使尽全力谩骂，就是为
了希望被贴胶带．我们不得不立下规矩：如果有人故意被禁言，帐号会被停权．
The item duping
物品复制
Due to a bug a patch introduced, it became possible to log on with two
instances of the same player for a short while if you did it at EXACTLY the
perfect time. Within hours a group of Asian players had figured it out and
were duping like mad. I remember using google translate on Growtopia related
Korean message boards trying to figure out the method used.
在某一次更新的臭虫，透过一个准确的时间差，登入时可能会在短时间内产生两个人物的
实体．几个小时内，一群亚洲玩家就搞懂了怎么用，然后疯狂复制道具．我记得我还用了
翻译软件到韩国的讨论区搞懂他们到底是怎么做到的．
Knowing it was happening, but not understanding the modus operandi was VERY
stressful, we had to spy and watch them doing it. We figured it out and
patched the server. We hand deleted the ill-gotten gains as best we could
(we didn't want to roll back!), but it quickly becomes impossible to track as
items are traded. For a while, we had the server report anyone with > 100
world locks and we'd just assume they were holding duped items and punish the
account. Nowadays that wouldn't work because many legitimate players have
earned that much wealth through normal gameplay.
看着事情发生却不知道准确的步骤是压力山大，我们必须偷窥玩家怎么使用．当搞清楚之
后我们就更新服务器补上了这个漏洞．那些非法复制的道具都必须尽力删除（否则就要回
溯）．但是才发现追踪物件是一项不可能的任务．我们以前认为一个玩家拥有超过一百个
世界锁就是有问题的，但是现在有很多合法玩家已经拥有这种身价．
The bedrock bug
基石的臭虫
One day fairly early in Growtopia's lifetime (I think it was still in the
wide beta on android) we made a horrible mistake with user security levels
which let anybody destroy bedrock and white doors. (Normally a player can't
destroy these tiles, as means player can fall out of the world at the bottom,
and can't enter worlds the normal way)
在早期（甚至还是外测的时候）我们犯了一个让玩家可以打坏基石（地图下方边界）及入
口的错误．因为玩家可能会掉到地图边界下面无法正常回到地图．
Twenty minutes had passed before I'd noticed the frenzied broadcasts that
excitedly shared the bug - not only were people destroying normally
impenetrable blocks, those blocks were giving seeds, which would grow into
trees that would eventually yield more of the forbidden blocks, letting the
user place them!
二十分钟后，他们就已经疯狂地分享这个臭虫，臭虫不只让玩家摧毁这些地图块，这些地
图块被摧毁的时候还给予了不该被给予的种子，就可以产生那些玩家不被允许拥有及使用
的道具．
This bug really didn't cause too much damage, but we were running around
fixing holes in levels and replacing missing entrance doors for weeks. We
also added a filter that would remove those items from peoples inventories..
but I wouldn't be surprised if there is still a bedrock tree growing
somewhere out there and you do still see the occasional bedrock piece missing
from older worlds.
这个臭虫没有造成太大的伤害，但是我们还是用了几个礼拜来补洞补回那些被毁掉的世界
入口．但是如果任何一个世界还存在那些不应该存在的"基石树"及散落的"基石"物件，我
并不十分意外．
The IAP hackers - "Someone is giving away world locks"
内购骇客，有人在散发世界锁
Like most developers, I've grown used to the idea knowing that people are
pirating my games. I don't stress too much, it doesn't ruin the experience
of others for the most part.
跟众多开发者一样，我知道很多骇客会破解抄袭重置游戏，我没有太大压力，因为这并不
影响游戏的体验．
But if thousands of dollars worth of gems are stolen via fraudulent means, it
has a real impact on us as it is pumped into the game economy.
但是假如价值千万的道具被破解散布，就会对游戏经济造成重大打击．
We'd watch would-be thieves dump their contraband in remote locations. We'd
wait (invisibly) and see who came to pick it up, track down the persons main
hideout and ban them all. Eventually we upgraded our server to do full IAP
receipt checking, but life had a certain cops 'n robbers taste to it for a
while.
我们在他们散布道具的地方盯哨，等待那些来交易的人，追踪那些人去哪里然后把他们的
帐号停权．最后把检查内购收据的地方修正．感觉跟真实世界警察在做的事情一样．
We still have issues with stolen credit cards and chargebacks, but it's now
at manageable levels for the most part.
我们还有信用卡被盗刷跟退款的问题，但是都在可控制的范围内．
The Tapjoy hack
Tapjoy 漏洞
Tapjoy is a great way to let players watch a 20 second commercial, to buy
gems using their time, and only if they choose to. (They get 90 gems, we get
5 cents, or whatever) However, due to me using it wrong (similar to IAP, I
was using my code from previous single player games I worked on rather than
custom stuff with full server verification) it was very vulnerable to client
hacks, as illustrated in the image.
Tapjoy 是让玩家看广告，然后拿道具的方法．（玩家看二十秒，拿九十个宝石，开发者
分五分钱）然而因为使用方法的不正确（跟内购的问题差不多，没有服务器检验），这个
问题变成严重的客户端漏洞．
I wasted a lot of time writing code to detect hacks and such, when I should
have just re-implemented Tapjoy the correct way, which I eventually did
anyway. It now runs flawlessly.
我花了很多时间来侦测这些骇客行为，我应该直接把 Tapjoy 的部分重写才对，因为最后
还是真的重写了．现在终于运行正常．
Scamtopia
诈骗邦
The virtual economy made item trading and bartering very important. The
original release had no secure way to trade, only "drop trading". Naturally
scamming was prevalent. We told people "Never drop trade with people you
don't know!"
虚拟经济让交易跟以物易物变得无比重要，最初的版本没有安全交易，就只是丢在地上交
换．自然诈骗丛生，我们必须教育玩家，不要跟不认识的玩家用丢弃物品的功能来交易．
We introduced a robust trading system as quick as we could.
然后马上我们就尽速补上了一个交易系统．
The blueberry hack
蓝莓道具漏洞
Due to a server vulnerability, it was possible to hack a client to give you
unlimited blueberries. (Basically, when using it to eat, a special case
happened where it didn't check if you actually had any left)
因为服务器的缘故，曾经可以造成拿到无限制的蓝莓（基本上这道具用来吃的，我没检查
道具存量为零还可以使用）
We were perplexed why a certain group of players had so many blueberries, it
didn't make sense... someone eventually emailed us and explained the trick
and we quickly patched it. Thanks, sir.
我们那时很困惑为什么玩家有这么多的蓝莓，这太不合理，最终有人寄信告诉我们这招怎
么用．感谢您．
The wall hack
墙壁漏洞
It turns out the first thing that people do in a game like this is use a
memory scanning utility (a "trainer") to locate important memory addresses
(speed, X/Y position, etc) and modify them. We realized wall hacking would
be possible, but didn't think it was a big deal due to our lock/ownership
systems. (If someone gets into your locked area, it doesn't really matter,
the server wouldn't let them take anything)
玩家试图用那些内存破解工具来解析内存位置，然后修改游戏．我们一开始曾想到墙
壁的碰撞可能被破解，但没想到会严重掉影响到所有权的问题（玩家可以进入那些被其他
玩家锁定的区域）
However, players liked to drop items around their worlds, which presented
juicy targets for wall hackers. We quickly combated this with clever server
+ client hacks which worked pretty well, but in the end we removed all doubt
by adding full A* path finding on every single player movement. (this wasn't
possible for speed reasons until the V2 server upgrade.. more on that later)
因为玩家喜欢把东西丢在自己被锁定的世界里，导致穿墙这项漏洞变得值得攻击．我们赶
紧透过客户端及服务器端的更新补上这个漏洞，最终我们必须对玩家的移动加上搜寻演算
法，来确保玩家的移动是合法的．（不只是计算玩家速度的向量）
The black day - the rollback
最终还是得回溯
But it wasn't the hackers or credit card fraud that did the worst damage. It
was us!
信用卡漏洞并不是最严重的错误，回溯的错误是我们自己造成．
On February 23th our worst nightmare became a reality. We'd inadvertently
made some changes that caused certain very cheap items to give out a high
number of gems when "recycled", this created an infinite money loop. As
soon as it was noticed, someone "broadcasted" it which meant every single
person online knew how to earn unlimited gems. The entire economy was
trashed in only minutes.
二月时最严重的恶梦成真．我们不正确的做了某些改变导致某些便宜道具在回收的过程中
产出过多的宝石．这就造成了一个无限循环．一有人发现这个问题并广播出去，全世界就
知道了，直到每个线上玩家都知道怎么拿有无限的宝石．整个经济马上在几分钟内崩溃．
We had to roll back almost 24 hours worth. (We do automated backups daily..
and sometimes I do extra backups before a serious patch, but today I didn't
for some reason)
我们不得不回溯二十四小时．（我们有自动备份机制，有时候更新前还会有额外的备份，
但是那天我刚好没做）
That weekend was dubbed "Apology Weekend" and we worked quickly to add perks
and gems bonuses to try to make it up to the players. If you ever see a
"Rollback Plaque", it was earned by someone on that weekend. We wrote a
program to restore all gem purchases that had been wiped, with double the
gems.
所以那个周末变成道歉周，我们还为此加上了回溯专用的特色及奖励来补偿玩家．假如你
看到玩家拥有"回溯瘟疫"这项地图块，就代表某人曾经参与过这个事件．当天消费的玩家
获得双倍宝石退还．
This was a wake-up call to more seriously test things before patching. It's
tough trying to surprise your audience with something new (we're very
secretive) and yet wanting to properly test it. We now do have a fully
functional beta test server that we can route normal players into.
这件事情提醒我们在更新前做更仔细的测试．每次更新都要带来新东西又不能出问题实在
不简单．我们甚至因此架了一个外测服务器．
That day was easily the absolute worst for me personally. I'm happy to say
we haven't had another roll-back yet.
那一天是我个人最糟糕的一天，幸好没有再发生一次．
Too many users
承载上限
In mid April we hit 2,000 concurrent users on weekends and our server began
to buckle. Round trip to punch something could take a full second and people
were constantly being disconnected. We added live profiling support and
narrowed down the slow down to world creation and enet packet sorting.
四月中，我们达到两千人同时在线，服务器开始延迟．打击封包需要一秒才有回应．玩家
一直断线．那时加上了线上的效能测量机制，减缓了创造世界的速度，以及网络封包的排
序．
We decided I would write a "V2 server" upgrade in a separate svn branch that
would take advantage of multiple cores; it made no sense that our hardware
had 16 cores and 32 threads but our entire Growtopia server process was run
in a single thread.
那时我们已开始写第二版的服务器，让我们可以使用多核，硬件能够跑十六核及三十二执
行序，没道理服务器只能跑在一个执行序上．
Meanwhile, Mike would handle running active game and adding items and
preparing to move them over to the new server.
同时 Mike 会负责处理线上的问题，准备搬移服务器．
We had a lot riding on the V2 server, would it really solve our problems or
fail miserably? It's very difficult to fake 2,000 users, so we released a
client upgrade that could smoothly switch between the old server and the new
beta one.
第二版的服务器有很多风险，是否能真正的解决承载上限的问题？或变成一场灾难．为了
不要混淆使用者，我们释出了一个新版的客户端来区分服务器．
When things looked good, we just pushed a button and switched the real
database over to the new server, if it died, we could just switch them back.
Anyway, it worked beautifully and we haven't outgrown it yet.
结果很完美，按个按钮资料数据库资料就转移到新服务器上．如果失败我们还能够退回．
Here's how I explained it to users on our Facebook page: (it was actually
only a software change, we didn't change hardware. But this was the result
as far as latency and gameplay)
我在脸书上分享我们更换了服务器的图，但是实际上我们只有做软件更新，而不是硬件．
The freemium dilemma
免费游戏的困境
After railing against slimy abuses of the freemium model myself, I vowed to
do it 'right'. Here is what we did:
在对自己的免费模型检讨（连结： https://www.codedojo.com/?p=1251 ）之后，我倾向
做正确的事，以下就是我们的作法：
Only one soft currency, that can be earned in the game.
只有一个软性货币，而且可以在游戏中赚取．
No paywalls, you really can get every single thing in the game without buying
stuff. But more than that, the game is fun and works fine without paying - no
slogging along at a snail's pace and grinding required to do stuff.
没有一定得付钱的门槛，所有的东西都可以不用钱从游戏内拿到．这个游戏不用付钱就可
以玩得很开心．不需要极度农．
$10 is the biggest IAP.
最大的内购是十元美金
$30 limit per day limit to help situations like "my kid bought $500 of stuff
accidentally", as far as I know, no major mobile freemium companies do this,
but really, they all should! Actually, Apple should probably send a "ARE YOU
SURE? Click OK to allow more IAP in this game" type email after anybody
spends too much in a game to verify it wasn't a mistake or a kid.
每天三十美金上限来协助解决小孩子疯狂花家长的钱的问题．就我所知没有大公司做这件
事．他们应该都效仿，实际上苹果公司应该寄送通知信给花太多钱的帐户，来辨识是否事
误刷或非成年人的消费．
No annoying push messages, spamming, email sharing, etc
没有推播通知，垃圾信，分享要求．
No popups asking you to buy stuff. No pressure selling. Don't buy stuff, you
really don't have to.
没有跳出买东西讯息，没有压力．玩这游戏根本不需要内购．
The expensive status/vanity items don't have any special powers as compared
to the cheap items, they just look different, which in a situation with
hundreds of thousands of players to compare items with, is a real value, of
sorts. The rarity creates the value.
高价物品没有什么太过分的特殊能力，就是外观不同．价值来自于玩家互相比较．稀有度
产生价值．
We don't want whales, we want schools of tiny fish who will pop in a few
bucks now and then. If a customer ends up spending 5 cents an hour that
would be great, and I think a decent value.
薄利多销，一个小时一个玩家只付五分钱也很好．
We want to make enough to continue working on the game and adding
content/events instead of the normal "release and forget" model.
我只想要收获到能让我继续营运改版这个游戏，而不是以往释出后就可以不管了的经验．
A few times we saw someone making daily purchases that seemed strangely high
and emailed their Google purchasing account email directly to verify that
everything was ok. (We thought it might be a kid using a parents' device) I
don't think we ever got a reply. I think Apple and Google should be doing
the emailing really, they have more and better information than we do. We
will disable IAP on any account by request. (the option won't even show up in
the store in that case)
有几次我看到玩家有异常购买的情况我都会寄信问 Google 的购物帐户确认是否有问题．
（我们以为是未成年人误刷）而从未获得回应．我真的认为 Apple 与 Google 应该这样
做，他们有比我们更多的资讯．如果有这样的情况我们可以关闭游戏内的内购．（这个选
项在后台根本不存在）
I think overall we "did it fairly right", but I still have moral reservations
about this model and know that we're exploiting certain kinds of vulnerable
individuals due to the nature of open-ended purchases, even if you don't need
them. In a single player game I don't think it would ever be justified to
extract $100 in IAP, but in an MMO where we have players with 1,000+ hours
logged and who purchase presents for others, I think it isn't totally
unreasonable for an informed adult to spend that much.
整体上来说我们做得完全正确，在内购上我仍有一些道德的界线，我知道这个消费模型是
利用人的"购物"欲望，即使消费者并不需要那些东西．在单人游戏我不认为自玩家取得一
百美金是合理的．但是线上游戏的玩家可能会游玩超过一千小时，甚至会帮别人买东西，
我认为成年人只要知道自己花这么多钱，确实是可能的．
But what is the line?
界线在哪里
This is game where a kid can do a /broadcast and instantly be visited by
fifty or more REAL people hanging on his every word because a prize is going
to be given away. He or she can run any kind of game within Growtopia and
have complete control over these guests, ordering them around and banning at
will. I'm proud we created mechanics that allow something this amazing but
also humbled by the damage this power could do to someone vulnerable. My own
son (he's nine) has spent $40 of his own money in Growtopia over the 200+
hours he's played. He's given most of it away to his "friends".
这个游戏是让小孩子能够广播，拜访其他世界及真实朋友的世界来获取奖励．在
Growtopia 中有各种可以游玩的游戏．可以掌控对自己世界的所有权．我很自豪于创造了
这样的机制，让人可以在不伤害其他人的自由下游玩．我自己的小孩也花了他自己的零用
钱四十美金以及两百小时在这个游戏上．大部分都是跟他的朋友互动．
If he's learned a real friend doesn't require a World Lock, maybe it was a
worthy investment.
假如他学到真实的朋友并不需要一个世界锁来保护，那么这就是一个很值得的投资．
Giving away too much
还有更多要学习
A problem with our single currency is you can make around $3 of IAP per hour
farming in the game. Our richest player has never spent a dime, and has
$1000 usd worth of gems. I'm sort of proud of that on one hand, it
illustrates our game is REALLY free and not a trick. But on the other hand,
I don't know what he should spend his 1,000,000+ gems on. If we add a
100,000 gem "Vanity item" in the store, eight year olds are also going to be
pressured to use IAP to buy that essentially worthless item to keep up with
the Jones'. (Worthless as far as functionality, but .. well, the value as
trading power due to the rarity and cost is very real in a multiplayer
society like this one)
我们的单一货币（宝石）产生的问题是，每个小时可以农出三块美金等值的内购货币．我
们最有钱的玩家已经消费一千元等值的宝石但却未曾消费．我对此感到自豪．这代表这个
游戏可以是一个真正没有诡计的免费游戏．另一个角度来看，我不知道他要怎么花这一百
万个宝石．假如我们新增了一个高等物件值十万宝石，八岁小孩就会希望这个物件能够用
内购来买，来赶上他们的朋友进度．这些东西不存在功能性，只是因为稀有在多人游戏中
就产生价值．
It will be a challenge to figure all this out.
搞清楚这些事情就是一个挑战
Email support system woes
客户服务系统
Originally we handled support emails by replying and bcc'ing eachother. This
.. doesn't scale up very well. Eventually we setup with desk.com and now we
can give much better service. When a customer forgets to tell us his GrowID,
we can just look through his history and grab it.
一开始我们用邮件来做客户服务．在游戏变大的时候表现的不是很好．最后我们架设了
desk.com 来提供更佳的服务．客户回信忘记写帐户名称的时候我们还是能够从历史纪录
中取得．
The future
未来
It's not yet written, John!
未来还有无限可能．
All I know for sure is I chose the perfect person to collaborate with and our
combined efforts have definitely resulted in superpowers. Llike when spandex
wearing heroes stand close together they can shoot larger balls of
lightning. It's like that but totally different.
我所已知的部份是我选了一个最佳的伙伴来合作，我们的互补效果最好．就像故事中英雄
角色互相支持一样．
In the five months since Growtopia's release we've had 3.5 million+ worlds
created by nearly 400,000 users. Last Saturday we set the record with
65,000+ hours logged in a single day.
在这五个月随着 Growtopia 的释出，我们有了超过三百五十万个世界，四十万个玩家帐
户．上个周六登入的玩家有六万五千人．
I don't see any shortage of ways to improve the heart of Growtopia, which is
about giving useful tools to the player to let him or her be creative with
both strangers and friends; but each addition and tweak is now taking
increasingly long to test and safely deploy due to the size and scope of the
existing user base. We can't make any mistakes now, especially with huge
additions going in this weekend. No rollbacks.
我目前不知道扩充这个核心有什么缺陷，可能是给玩家更方便的工具来管理他的世界及访
客．但每个调整都会逐步增加测试及安全性的困难．一点容错空间都没有．特别是这个周
末又加了一堆东西．不要再回溯了．
-Seth
Growtopia was created by Seth A. Robinson and Mike Hommel.