Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FiGuRe 5.4
These games were designed for a demographic of young girls: the graphics
are brightly colored, and the objects the player interacts with the most are painted to look
more 3D and invite the young player to touch them.
After you've conducted your research and work begins on creating the graph-
ics, you may want to show the work to people in your demographic. If you're
able to, at an early phase in design and production, expose the work to your
audience. Locate family and friends who fit your demographic, or reach out to
your potential players through a website where you post art or small, playable
sections of the game, and ask for feedback. This will allow the project to become
more player-centered.
Quite a few of the larger gaming companies like Electronic Arts (EA) and
Blizzard allow their players access to beta versions of upcoming releases to get
feedback before the game goes to market. This is known as
user-centered design
and gathers useful information through beta testing and focus groups.
Some portals, like Big Fish Games, offer a service that lets you submit your
game to them, in progress, and they will provide a review. This is a good service
to take advantage of, particularly if your goal is to market your game through a
portal (see Chapter 10, “Distribution and Marketing”). Portals that offer reviews
base their comments on knowledge they acquire about how your demographic
has responded to similar games. The portals tend to be honest about their
assessment because they make their money by marketing these games and
establishing good relations with the indy game companies.
In short, when you consider the design for your game and look to the demo-
graphic to be targeted, doing research on your own is essential. Look at games
that were designed for the same gamers you want to design for. Third-party
researchers like ESA and the IDGA will provide you with critical information on
how to find games to study and how large the demographic is.
Player-centered
means you involve
players in the design
and production
process whenever
feasible.
