Final Major project: Pawel Dobosz
Idea Generation
Idea Generation
Idea Generation
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music, video games, or academics in any medium.
Audience in games
The audience for battle royale games has really risen in 2017 with playerunknown's Battlegrounds at the top of steam sales in 2017. This is something that has gotten a lot of attention even in 2019 two years after release with a lot of over battle royales like Fortnite, Apex Legends following those steps. It seems like a battle royale is the best option to earn cash and get a lot of attention from gamers. But I think this trend will fall soon because it has been at the top for about two years which is a long time for the genre to stand up like that. I think the reason for this is because the games are multiplayer which makes the game more interesting and also very competitive. Also, nearly every battle royale is an Esport which means that it is taken seriously in the gaming world with big prize pools that some people might never see or imagine. Like Fortnite's world cup which will have a thirty million prize pools for the players that are attending this event which is a lot of money for a game which is supposed to bring some entertainment into your day. But now in 2019 games are taken more seriously and not just a game that is supposed to be fun. As for over games on this list, there is counter strike which is a multiplayer shooter with a passionate audience and it is also an Esport. As we move down the list we can see that there is a lot of multiplayer games which may suggest that Multiplayer games are the best at earning cash and also gaining a large audience. Which turns a game into an Esport. As we can see There is not a lot of single player games on this list. I can count them on my one hand which makes me feel that single player games are not worth making. But on the over hand, I think that single player games are the best games out there with rich stories and tales which can be taken at a slow pace with no competition only AI which is mostly easy. As I am looking at the over chart I can see that The United States are the most popular place for games to be sold at and also played. Right behind it is Russia and the rest of Europe. Most developers are situated in The United States which makes it easier for them to distribute and also there is a lot of people living there.
Statistics
There are 14 companies that develop games in the US on the first page which means that a lot of companies set their game development there because of how educated there are in games or because it is the best place to set up a company so most people can work on site. The closest country on this page was Japan with 4 which is also a large place for gaming and Esport. All of this connects with the geographic graph earlier where I checked on the most played places in the world and the US was on top but the anomaly was Japan which only had 1.63% of players playing paid games. This might not mean anything because the rest could be playing free to play games which are popular in Japan. All of this data is based on this page which is only a small part of a large list that goes on and on so some of my analysis might be incorrect because of the small sample.
Link to the page with the companies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_developers
Target audience Profile
A target audience profile is a graph that looks at the players playing a certain game and analyses the players habits and also what they focus on while playing a game as an example I used a game called Candy Crush which is a very popular game that can be played on a phone which most people have on them in 2019. Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play match-three puzzle video game released by King on April 12, 2012, for Facebook; other versions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game Candy Crush. Usually, your goal in Candy Crush Saga is to clear as many rows and columns as possible in as few moves as possible. You can clear candy pieces from the board by lining up three (or more) in a row, which is accomplished by swapping pieces of candy in order to create three of a kind. As we can see by the graph the biggest thing in the game is completion which may suggest that the completion side of things is very in depth or it is very advanced with the level design.
Target audience Profile meaning: A target audience profile is simply a specific group of customers most likely to respond positively to your promotions, products, and services. Often, your target audience analysis will be based on specific factors like location, age, income.
A template for a Target audience Profile
http://www.kaszas.ca/wp-content/uploads/Target-Audience-Profile-Template.pdf
Target audience Profile in my game concept
Overall I will not be making a game in this project but I do have an idea of what the game would look like if I ever made it but I am focusing on my character for this project so my target audience might not be correct because I need to make it up.
Target audience Profile in my game concept
Gender: My game is no focused around any Gender so I think it might be 50/50 But the problem with that would be that the main character (Wildcard) is a Male and cannot be changed during the game or the concept that I am making so that percentage might change if a female wanted to play as a female character. So overall I think that the game will have more Males playing it than females but that is just a prediction that might be true or not.
Age: My general age that I am aiming at is teenagers that are 16+ But this might be changed because it has no content that would be inappropriate for children. This could also be made for adults that like games or concept art.
My concept art will be focused on design and character with bits of the story feeding into the character design like the Rift Sword which will be connected to Wildcard. There will also be accents of playing cards and small references on the character that are connected to the story like the signature on his clothes or the symbol of light on his chest.
My character is just a small part of the main game that could be created someday but I will be fully focusing on my main character which will be a concept.
If it was a game I would...
Main Platform that the game would be released on: PC
Made by: Pawel Dobosz and a small team of friends or developers if I was to create it.
Where would it be sold and how: It would be sold on steam for about £10 because I feel that it is enough for me to sell enough to keep developing the game also it would bring more people to my game because it costs less than any over games that would be of this standard because I would never release a game unfinished or bugged because it would drop the price of the game and also reduce the player base. I wish it matched over developers that sell their game for more in means of quality than quantity.
Who would be playing the game: My game would be mostly focused around teenagers but I am open to suggestions to change it a bit to make it match children also or adults but with no inappropriate content.
This chart confirms my theory that PC is the best platform to release games on because it is the most popular platform from this chart but the problem with that might be that a lot of PC gamers are older than 15 which breaks my target of appealing to children because a lot of children play on consoles which are easier to use based on the controls considering PC is much more harder to use based on controls this is as a result of PC having a mouse and a keyboard which is harder to use especially for younger children. This means that I must focus on teenagers more than children based on this chart.
As can be seen by these charts the PC platform is the largest platform in the world with the biggest casual audience in the world and also the biggest core percentage of gamers that buy everything that is on the market outstanding consoles and any mobile device out there. This just shows that the biggest platform for games and other stuff like the internet this is because it does not limit the player with graphic and performance issues as consoles and allows smooth browsing of the internet for business stuff and other things that don't mean games while consoles limit the user with only the gaming aspect of it and a rusty browser which is uncomfortable to use. As the graph on the right shows the most popular age is from 18 to 35 years of age. Following behind by 1% is under 18 years of age which is children but this chart does not show how many of them play on consoles or PC's so I can not say which one is most popular on the platform. Something surprising about this graph that 23% of players are 50 or older which is something I did not suspect. This just shows how forward we are with technology and that even older people like games which is amazing.
As for my Concept art/game, it will be a story based game with parkour elements added to it. This would be implemented by jumping on platforms and other props that would be placed around the level. This could interest an older audience because of the story element but also it could bring some younger people to play it because it would be an escape game which a lot of children like and would enjoy.
Most of the market is focused around battle royales and looter shooters so this could be refreshing for the gaming community if it ever seen the light of day. Games like Fortnite, PUBG, Apex Legends are getting boring with the same basic mechanics which we have been seen for the past two years. I guess they are all different with there gameplay like Fortnite adding building which was something different and seemed like Minecraft in a battle royale setting which was something refreshing in 2017 but they are still battle royales which are something that has been here for two or more years and it gets boring because every company wants to add a battle royale mode into there games like Blacksite in counter strike it was not needed and nobody wanted it even if it was good it was still a battle royale which is in every game but not only is the market for battle royales saturated but also the looter shooter environment is in trouble with the release of Anthem and The Division 2 which are both looter shooter games where the player has to kill and loot enemies to get better loot/Items. This market is also saturated and needs something new to break the theme because both of these genres are saturated and they need to be reduced. This is the worst and the best time to release a game because a lot of gamers are looking for something new something innovative that will bring something new to the table that can stop the trend of battle royale games and looter shooters. If I was to make a game I would make a story based game that interacts with the player but will not have choices that don't matter to the story. If I added choices they would have to matter and have an impact to the story like Detroit become human where every choice changes the story and how people see you as a player.
PEGI Ratings and their meanings
The body responsible for applying UK PEGI ratings is the VSC Rating Board. Essentially, the PEGI rating on a game confirms that it contains content suitable for a certain age group and above. So a 7-rated game is suitable for everyone who is seven or older, while an 18-rated game is deemed suitable for adults only.
PEGI 3
The content of games with a PEGI 3 rating is considered suitable for all age groups. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to frighten young children. A very mild form of violence (in a comical context or a childlike setting) is acceptable. No bad language should be heard.
PEGI 7
Game content with scenes or sounds that can possibly frightening to younger children should fall in this category. Very mild forms of violence (implied, non-detailed, or non-realistic violence) are acceptable for a game with a PEGI 7 rating.
PEGI 12
Video games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters would fall in this age category. Sexual innuendo or sexual posturing can be present, while any bad language in this category must be mild. Gambling as it is normally carried out in real life in casinos or gambling halls can also be present (e.g. card games that in real life would be played for money).
PEGI 16
This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. The use of bad language in games with a PEGI 16 rating can be more extreme, while games of chance, and the use of tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs can also be present.
PEGI 18
The adult classification is applied when the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence, apparently motiveless killing, or violence towards defenceless characters. The glamorisation of the use of illegal drugs and explicit sexual activity should also fall into this age category.
I will have to consider my audience by the PEGI ratings because I am thinking of a PEGI 7 or 12 because of the behavior of the main character who is a thief that steals from people so it might be inappropriate for a certain audience. I will consider it before making the final decision.
Another thing to consider is the other PEGI Ratings which consist of Fear, Drugs and other things that might disturb a user or player while playing a game. In my game, the only thing I could give it would be violence because Wildcard would have to fight the beast which is violence.
Film and movies are also PEGI Rated on the same basis as games. I used the official PEGI website to get this information.
Link to the website: https://pegi.info/
In the end, I decided to give my game a PEGI 12 because of the violence that would be shown between Wildcard and the beast. I don't think that my game would be anything else than violence but maybe It might have Gambling since he is a thief so he might gamble but it does not say in the story or the game that he gambles so it just a thing that I think of then I think of a thief.