Pascal
Luban
Game designer & creative director, freelance
28+ years of experience, serving game developers and publishers
My blog
Training the game designers of tomorrow (Part 4/5)
In the previous part of this series of publications devoted to the training of game and level designers, I explained why a game designer must integrate marketing considerations from the concept phase of a game. I continue today with two other marketing issues to keep in mind when developing a game concept.
Know your audience
When game designers develop a concept, their first reflex is to draw inspiration from their own tastes and desires. It’s human because the intensity of the emotions felt is a powerful spur. But we are not always representative of the audience our game is intended for. Developing a concept based on our tastes is dangerous; we don't make a game for ourselves, we develop it for an audience, an audience.
Identifying your audience and taking the time to get to know them are therefore good reflexes to have during the concept phase. The following case study is a good illustration of this.
Case study
A few years ago, I contributed as a game designer in the development of Wars and Battles, a portal offering several turn-based wargames, intended for digital tablets such as iPads. As part of the Battle Factory development team, I saw how the precise definition of the audience had an impact on the design of the game.
The targeted platform was the iPad because it offered almost no turn-based wargames. But which audience should we target: Traditional wargamers accustomed to complex turn-based simulations, or “digital” gamers who favored real-time games offering simpler mechanics?
Our choice fell towards traditional wargamers due to the expected widespread use of digital tablets. We therefore made design choices designed to meet their expectations: turn-based gameplay, care given to historical credibility, game mechanics directly inspired by those used in "paper" wargames, detailed description of the results of the battles, historical facts, choice of the most popular battles among wargamers such as the battle of Normandy.
But for gamers who discovered the game, we added a 3D viewing mode and animations for combat.
For fans, the game is no longer available in the App Store but can be found on Steam. Two battles are proposed: The Battle of Normandy and the Israeli-Arab War of 1973. Play them, they are real simulations but easy to learn and well-crafted.
Good practices
How to identify your audience and know their expectations? Here are some best practices.
Identify games similar to the one you plan to develop.
This is the simplest method, and accessible to everyone, to identify your audience. What if your game has no equivalent because it mixes two different gameplays? Assume that one of the two gameplays will always be more prevailing than the other. Then stick to that “dominant” gameplay.
Connect with gaming communities.
Once you have identified your reference game, go to the forums dealing with this game or genre. A simple method is to present yourself as a developer looking for player opinions. You should receive lots of responses. Sort through and identify contributors who seem to know your reference game well and who have the best analytical skills. You will then learn a lot about the “must-haves” and the mistakes to avoid.
When I designed the CTF-Tornado multiplayer map for Unreal Tournament 3's Extrem PhysX mod, I relied heavily on the gaming community to define key features of the map such as its main game mode, its size , the number of players and its topology. It was through the forums that I was able to do this.
A variation of the previous method is to organize focus groups.
Called focus group in English, this method is used by major publishers. While I was working on the multiplayer mode of Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory as lead level designer, Ubisoft conducted such focus groups to better understand the improvements to be made to our game.
A focus group is not an informal meeting; it is a codified method which requires the presence of a facilitator trained in this method. If the participants are well selected, that is, if they are representative of the target audience, and if the group discussion is properly conducted, you will learn a lot.
Watch Your Back – Know Your Competitors
How can I have any idea which games will compete with the one I'm working on since it will be released in a year or two?
The task seemed illusory. And yet, we can already get a good idea of the games that will be your direct competitors by identifying your competitors today. Indeed, games tend to have longer and longer lifespans. Publishers are pushing to develop games designed to keep their players for many years. If a game is a benchmark today, there's a good chance that game will still be around in one, two, or even three years. In addition, you can also bet that its developers will have taken advantage of the years to enrich it and therefore make it even more competitive.
To know your future competitors, start by identifying games already published, or which will soon be published, and which are likely to interest the same audience.
Why is it useful, when working on the concept of a game, to know your competitors?
There are basically two reasons.
First, we can get an idea of the density of its direct competitors, games that are similar to the one you plan to develop. If these competitors are numerous, this means that you will be hitting the mark in terms of audience but it also means that you absolutely must differentiate yourself with a good USP. But, on the contrary, if you have no competition, it can mean two things: Either you had a good intuition before the others, or the audience for your game is non-existent. Such an observation should prompt you to exercise caution.
The second reason to know your competition well is to better identify what your audience expects from this type of game: What functions are they popular with? What should the level of difficulty and rhythm construction be? How high are production values? What are the main complaints from players?
Case study
I worked, as game designer, on Alone In The Dark - The New Nightmare, the fourth opus in the series. Launched by Infogrames, this franchise marked the industry because it invented the premises of horror-survival games.
After the first three episodes, the series had gone dormant but the arrival of Resident Evil had reawakened Infogrames' ambitions. The latter entrusted the French studio Darkworks with relaunching the franchise.
As we thought about the concept of our game, we quickly asked ourselves the following question: Should we start with the mechanics that Alone In The Dark players were accustomed to or take inspiration from the model developed by Capcom?
We only had one competitor at the time, Resident Evil, but what a competitor! Capcom's title included many of the features that made the success of the first games published by Infogrames but modernized them and, above all, adapted them to the Playstation.
Resident Evil having become the new benchmark in terms of control and inventory management, we decided to take inspiration from it in order not to disturb players accustomed to the standards put in place by Capcom.
But, in order to differentiate ourselves, we placed emphasis on storytelling. Antoine Villette, one of the founders of Darkworks, wrote a scenario of rare quality at the time in video games. And in order to offer a USP, we built the scenario around two characters, each experiencing the adventure from their own point of view.
The analysis of our main competitor allowed us to limit the risks on the game system while differentiating ourselves from Resident Evil on a key aspect of its success: Narration.
The game was released on Playstation, PC and Dreamcast and sold more than two million copies, a very good performance for the time.
Best practices
Develop a competitive matrix.
This tool allows you to position your game project in relation to its competitors. In the example below, Sea Hunter is the game project; the other games are the identified competitors.
The axes are defined according to the most salient characteristics of the game genre. In the example above, these are the number of game modes and the level of complexity of the gameplay.
We can deduce that most of the competition offers a gaming experience for one player only, while Sea Hunter differentiates itself with its multiplayer mode. Additionally, compared to its closest competitor, WarGroove, Sea Hunter offers less complex gameplay. Its only real competitor is Her Majesty’s Ship.
In addition to this competitive analysis, identify one or two similar games and play them a lot.
The goal is not just to list the features offered and gameplay mechanics. The main objective is to identify what will bring pleasure to the player or, on the contrary, what will frustrate him. Don't focus on the mechanics; listen to your emotions!
To be continued …
In the last part of this series of publications dedicated to the training of future game designers, I will deal with the practice which is certainly the most relevant to guarantee the quality of a game. Those of you who know me know what I will speak; for the others, all you have to do is wait!
Photo credit: Poca Wander Stock
