This month we are discussing market research. You have a great game idea in your head, but what if nobody is interested in it? There are two possible choices:
a) You go ahead and implement your game idea. If lots of people want to buy your game, that’s an added bonus. If nobody buys your game, it’s OK. You’ve created a great game that you and your team members will play over and over.
b) You try to create something that has the potential to sell.
I’ll target the b) people in this article. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly OK to create any game, as long as you don’t necessarily expect to get some money for it. On the other hand, if you want to earn money by selling your game, you need to take some things into consideration.
1) First of all, you need to create something that people will want to buy. Now how can we know that in advance?
a) Visit the major game portals and see what they’re selling like hot cakes; those games will usually be on their main pages. What are some of these major game portals, I hear you asking? Here’s a quick, and yet comprehensive list I’ve compiled especially for you:
- MSN Games
- RealArcade
- Yahoo Games
- Big Fish Games
- Alawar Games
- Trygames
Now go to these websites and see what’s hot there – this will give you some pointers. Here’s a list with some of the most played games today, the 23rd of October 2009.
- Bejeweled 2
- Mah Jong
- Jigsaw
- TextTwist
- Scrabble Blast
- Bookworm
- Spades
- Bubble Town
- Campfire Legends
- Zuma’s Revenge
- Cake Mania
As you can guess, the list could be much bigger; here are the needed links, so that you can do your own research:
MSN Games
http://zone.msn.com/en-us/home
RealArcade
http://www.realarcade.com/topgames
Yahoo Games
http://games.yahoo.com/
Big Fish Games
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/top-100-game-downloads.html
Alawar Games
http://www.alawar.com/top50/
Trygames
http://www.trygames.com/
It’s obvious that you can easily create any of these games using GameStudio, but most of us are busy creating the next generation MMO while others are cashing in, right? Don’t forget to visit the major game portals in order to see what’s selling.
b) If you are a lazier person, you might want to check out the websites that assemble some of the sales stats for you. I’ve mentioned GameProducer’s website before, and it’s an excellent resource. Another good website is http://www.casualcharts.com/
c) Read famous game-related magazines such as PC Gamer, etc. See what games they review – it’s usually what most of the magazine readers will buy.
d) Visit big retail stores like Wal-Mart, etc. Check out what games they have in stock; if you notice that they’ve got 100 NFS copies, you’ll know that NFS is a hit.
e) Ask your friends, colleagues, etc what games they’re playing. Ask them why they like those games.
And there you have it; now, armed with these statistics, you know what game genre is successful today. Is there any room for innovation in a specific area? Maybe you can come up with a match-3 twist such as Puzzle Hero, in which your matching-3 abilities help you attack the monsters in a more efficient manner.
Think hard! This is THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENT (and you know that I hate caps) in the game design process. If you start with a poor idea, you will implement it and nobody will want to buy your game. And if you aren’t really excited about your game idea, don’t expect to see other people being too enthusiastic about it.
You could try and come up with a very innovative game concept, but this approach might not serve you too well. I’d say that it is much wiser to go with the flow and add a twist to a best seller. In fact, even tough I’m not a match-3 fan, I wish I would have come up with an idea like the one used in Puzzle Hero myself :)
2) It’s time to check out the competition. Who else is developing games like yours and are they successful at doing it? If you are trying to compete with BFG but the graphics that are used for your game aren’t as good as theirs, you’d better do something about it. Try to put yourself in your customers’ shoes; ask yourself this question: why would George buy my game instead of buying XYZ's game? What are my game’s unique selling points? If you plan to simply clone a BFG product, you’d better dump the idea right away – it won’t sell well.
3) You’ve got the game idea nailed? Then it’s time to create a quick game prototype and see how it is received by the others. Give the demo to your friends or (even better) upload it at the forum and get as much feedback as possible. Don’t get mad if the forum users don’t like your game – it’s a sign that you wouldn’t get too many customers in the real world, so better stop what you're doing and refine the concept or pursue another idea. Oh, and don’t get too excited if your girlfriend tells you that you’ve got a great game – her opinion isn’t too relevant.
4) Don’t forget that nobody can guarantee that your game will make a profit, even if you have the best concept, the best programmers, artists, and so on. Nevertheless, if you sprinkle enough innovation in the mix and follow other people’s recipe for success you'll minimize the chances to lose. In the end, do your best to create a great game no matter what; the others will notice that for sure.