Lecture
Targeting demographics is a key aspect of designing games, and as such I am glad to have a weekly lecture dedicated solely to that field of development. As always, I wrote lots of notes to refer back to in the future.
It was sobering to see how every stage of game development, from designers, through to publishers and audiences, is impacted by the targeting of particular audiences. For us designers in particular, we must use what we know about our target audience to make our games from an informed perspective that will satisfy them with a quality product, and therefore achieve sales targets. For these reasons, it is vital that we learn as much as we can about our audiences.
GDD work
While the knowledge gained from this week’s topic was still fresh in my mind, I decided to expand on the ‘market viability’ chapter of my design document. Now that I know how crucial the understanding of a target market is to success, I felt that it needed more discussion.
I started by fleshing out my key selling points as these are elements that can make or break a game concept for publishers. By clearly outlining these unique aspects of the game, I was also able to better understand the niche that my game will be creating in the market. It has been a long time since the era of open world extreme sports titles such as the Skate 3 (2010), and Tony Hawk’s Underground (2003) series and demand in online communities is ever increasing. Slam City Skates aims to recapture that magic, being appealing to old fans while modernising the formula enough to appeal to newer generations. The focus on roller skating rather than skateboarding adds a further unique spin on the idea.
Next, I broke my demographic down to be far more specific. Starting by stating their typical age and platform of choice, I went on to define their player types in reference to Bartle’s taxonomy. Following that, in an attempt to be even more specific, I wrote up some player personas. When used correctly, tools such as this help developers to better understand who exactly it is that they are developing their product for. It is recommended to frequently evaluate your player experience against these personas so that projects are kept on track.
Individual challenge
This week’s individual challenge was deceptively difficult, requiring us to apply the DDR (1998) mat to five new contexts unrelated to dancing. Initially this seemed like an easy task, but once considering the awkward arrangement of the pads and the limit of only four inputs, I quickly got stumped. It wasn’t until I considered gamification of non-gaming tasks that I was able to come up with my ideas.
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1. Fitness Tetris
A regular game of Tetris where the pieces are moved side-to-side with the left and right arrows. They can be rotated with the up and down arrows. This would be great for gamers who are wanting to improve their fitness.
2. Accessibility controller for platformers
A controller which gives players with limited or no movement in their hands and arms the ability to interact with platformers. The left and right buttons would move the character in their corresponding direction, while the up button would make them jump, and the down button would make them attack.
3. Immersive hiking
With an accompanying VR headset, users would be able to go on immersive walks through tranquil, awe-inspiring scenery, using the directional buttons to move. This would be particularly appealing to people in built-up areas or busy workers who don’t have much time to explore nature. It could also be a tool fitted in offices to combat the stress workers may be experiencing.
4. Dance-Dance Recall!
Similar to the Brain Academy games and Bop-It, this would be used to improve memory and concentration skills. A speaker will sound out a sequence of inputs, for instance “Left, left, up, right, down, up”, and the player would then have to recall the inputs and carry them out. Each turn the sequence get more complex and difficult to remember. A high-score system could also be implemented. This could be useful for older people in their 60s/70s who are looking to keep their brain sharp.
5. Dance-Dance Reaction!
Similar to the above, but testing reaction times rather than memory and concentration. Players will wait for a randomised amount of time for the speaker to sound out a single input, after which they have to press the button as quickly as possible. This is repeated a number of times until you are given your average reaction speed. This could be a fun way for people who’s jobs are centered around quick responses (such as driving or the military) to improve their reaction times.
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Hard to be original and identify any niches
Looking through the lens of gamified fitness – fitness tetris.
Iron designer challenge
The group challenge required us to conceptualise an educational MMO aimed at children with no violence.
We started by looking at examples of other social games aimed at children, namely Club Penguin (2005), and Moshi Monsters (2008). It was evident that both titles utilised a cartoon styling with colourful visuals. They were also centred largely around minigames and home decorating. Finally, and most importantly, we noted that they employ a limited form of communication between players, so as to safeguard children. These were all elements we ended up incorporating into our final design.
Our game concept, titled ‘Science Odyssey’, was to be a science-focused educational MMO. Players make expeditions to various habitats in order to retrieve samples and photographs to be taken back to their home base – the lab. This lab can be customised in a large variety of ways, with players being able to choose theming, decorations, and pets.
Quests would be given by a variety of famous scientists from throughout history, each teaching children something about influential players in scientific fields. These quests would see taking part in mini-games that teach players fundamentals of science, e.g. circuit puzzles, test tube combinations, focusing microscopes, etc.
Players can choose to go on expeditions with others and help fellow scientists further their scientific studies. Communication will be made through emotes, with many of these being references to famous scientists (Edison’s lightbulb idea, Newton’s falling apple, etc.)
As children have typically short attention spans, we made effort to make sure that our core loop was very brief. We wanted something new and exciting to happen at least every thirty seconds. This could be a new emote, a puzzle, a social interaction, or obtaining new decorations for your lab.
Further reading
I read through the recommended article on GameIndustry.biz about how to market games (Staff 2020). I found the recommendation of choosing your marketing methods in alignment with your game useful. If the game looks great as a GIF then sharing it to Twitter would be a great idea as it will catch people’s attention and hopefully be shared around quickly. On the other hand, if you are making a niche simulation game, it might be more wise to take the marketing to specialist forums such as a Subreddit, in which you can get much needed exposure to people who are enthusiastic about what you are making. The article also emphasised the importance of targeting to a specific audience and not deviating or spreading your marketing efforts too thinly.
References
Club Penguin. 2005. Rocketsnail Games, Disney Canada Inc.
Dance Dance Revolution. 1998. Konami, Konami.
GamesIndustry Staff. 2020. ‘How to market your video game and find your target audience’. Gamesindustry.biz [online]. Available at: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-03-01-how-to-market-your-game [accessed 13 November 2021].
Moshi Monsters. 2008. Mind Candy, Activision.
Skate 3. 2010. EA Black Box, Electronic Arts.
Tony Hawk’s Underground. 2003. Neversoft, Activision.