Unit 72 Assignment 2 Market Research

Stimulus

I will be working to a brief which will tell me what is needed to do and when it needs to be done by.
The brief tells me to come up with a preliminary idea for a new game and design it using the correct
documents. For this assignment I will be joining with Saga and I will be using the Sonic characters. I
have taken inspiration from games like Tetris, Bejewelled, Candy Crush and Bubble Shooter.

Genre

Sport is a genre that simulates the practise of

sports. Most sports have been recreated with a
game, including team sports, track and field,
extreme sports and combat sports. This is a
very popular genre of game because people
enjoy the competitiveness of it. A number of
game series feature the names and
characteristics of real teams and players, and
are updated annually to reflect real-world
changes. Sports involve competitions and use such physical capabilities as strength, stamina, speed,
balance, and dexterity. In sports games, there is a clear winner and loser, strict rules and scores.

Adventure games are usually run by characters that are

protagonists. The story is usually very interactive with a lot
or exploration and puzzle solving. Many adventure games
are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story
and character makes multi-player design difficult.

Action games is
a busy genre. It
emphasizes
physical
challenges. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as
fighting games, shooter games and platform games
which are widely considered the most important action
games, though some real-time strategy games are also
considered to be action games. This always includes, health or lives, a score, and attack moves.

Simulation is a genre that closely matches or mirrors

the real thing. Usually, there ae no goals. Well-known
examples are war games, business games, and role play
simulation. Sports, Life simulation and Construction
and management simulation are popular subgenres
when it comes to
making to it life like.

Strategy looks at a
players skilful thinking and planning. It emphasizes strategic,
tactical, and sometimes logistical challenges. They are generally
categorized into four sub-types, depending on whether the game is turn-based and whether the game
focuses on strategy or tactics. In most strategy video games, the player is given a godlike view of the
game world, and indirectly controls game units under their command

Puzzle games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of

puzzles can test many problem-solving skills including
logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word
completion. The player may have unlimited time or
attempts to solve a puzzle, or there may be simple
puzzles made difficult by having to complete them in
real-time. There is a large variety of puzzle games. Some
feed to the player a random assortment of blocks or
pieces that they must organize in the correct manner,
such as Tetris, Klax and Lumines. Others present a game
board or pieces and challenge the player to solve the puzzle by achieving a goal (Bomberman, The
Incredible Machine).

Role play or RPG is a game that the player takes on the role of the character. Role-playing video games
typically rely on a highly developed story and setting,
which is divided into a number of quests. Players control
one or several characters by issuing commands, which
are performed by the character at an effectiveness
determined by that character's numeric attributes.
Often these attributes increase each time a character
gains a level, and a character's level goes up each time
the player accumulates a certain amount of experience.

Management is a subgenre for strategy games. It is based around

fast real time tasks. They are usually limited in time, and their
resources limit the speed at which they can serve the requests. As
a game progresses, the player usually has a possibility to upgrade
their available resources by spending the earned rewards.

Educational games are designed to teach and help people to learn

about certain subjects. They are usually made for the use of school
kids for primary and high schools. Interactive
play teaches us goals, rules, adaptation,
problem solving, interaction, all represented as
a story. They satisfy our fundamental need to
learn by providing enjoyment, passionate
involvement, structure, motivation, ego
gratification, adrenaline, creativity, social
interaction and emotion in the game itself while
the learning takes place.

Viral marketing is a technique on the internet which is a website that doesnt necessarily make a game
but has a mini game on their website that keeps you entertained.

Market Research
My target audience will be male or female from the age 17 upwards. I think this target is appropriate
as 17 year olds will have grown up with sonic. Also because the game is a puzzle, strategy game it
wouldnt be appropriate for younger people as they wouldnt understand it.

There are two types of games that are similar in the market. the first would be anything sonic as mine
is also a sonic game. Fortunately, the Sonic games arent a threat to my game as I am working with
Saga as a franchise. However, big games such as Bejewelled and Candy Crush are a big competition. I
will have to make the game as best as I can so that it will stand above the other games and will be
more popular. I will have to make it look professional, it will have to be hard enough to want to do it
but not too hard that it is impossible to complete. There will be lots of levels already open then when
finished more levels will unlock.

Target Platform

Desktop Computers are one of the first platforms to have

games on. To control the game, you use the certain keys on
the keyboard (arrow keys if you are right handed or wasd if
left handed, these are usually used to move around). These
games can be bought online and downloaded or bought on
a CD in a shop, usually, the shop bought CDs have to be
downloaded onto the computer and will not work if the CD
is not still in the device.

Console games are the most popular now-a-days. With big

consoles on the market like Xbox One, PlayStation 4,
Nintendo 3DS XL and many more makes it easy to sell their
games over different platforms. The console is connected to
the TV which projects the visual from the console onto the
TV. To play it on a console you must buy the game in disc
form from a shop. The CD case should show what console it
can be used for. A disc made to be played on an Xbox will not
play on a PlayStation, therefore, if you wanted the game on both consoles then you would have to
buy the game twice.

Mobile Devices also have games on them. To get a

game on your phone it must be capable to run that
particular game. Most popular is the iPhone and
the app store. To get a game in an iPhone, you
need to go into the app store and choose the game
you want, click download and it will appear on the
home screen, it will not download if you have
insufficient funds for an app that costs money or if you dont have enough memory to keep it on your
phone.
Television games are very unpopular and not very well known. It is
more of an older thing. If there were a lot of adverts coming up, then
some would include a game. It could pop up in a corner of the screen
saying Press the red button now, you would press it and it would
come to a page with a game on it, you would probably use the arrow
buttons to control it.

Online games are also

popular. There are lots of
websites that are made up of lots of different games from
different companies. Some are websites dedicated to just
one game. Some examples of games sites are Friv or
CoolMathGames or MousBreaker. Others dedicated to one
game would Agar.oi or Slither.oi.

Ideas

I have made a brainstorm to show my ideas for developing my game. I made 5 parts to it, the first was
name ideas. My thoughts were Sonic Pop, Sonic Bubble,
Sonic Bubble Smash, Sonic Bubble Pop, Sonic Sling Shot
and Sonic Shoot. I chose to use Sonic Pop as it is catchy
and it is really quirky. The second part was the logo fonts,
I tried 8 different fonts; AR BLANCA, AR DESTINE, AR
JULIAN, Impact, Kristen ITC, Segoe UI Black, Tempus Sans
ITC and AR CHRISTY. I may not be able to use any of these
fonts as they may not work in Photoshop. I will probably
end up using a font from DaFont.com. I really like number
2 and number 8. The third part is the genre of the game,
such as puzzle, action, adventure, strategy, simulation and more. The genre for my game will be a mix
of puzzle and strategy. The next one is ideas for characters; Sonic, Tails, Amy, Shadow, Knuckles and
Rouge. You can pick the character to play with for each level and each character will have a certain
specialty that gives a bonus that makes it easier. The last one is the goals and rewards, I think they
could maybe have a trophy or medal room, which could pop up when they achieve it or maybe swipe
onto the screen then off again. They will not know what the trophies are until they get them.

visual style

I created a moodboard so that I can

see all the ideas in a visual way. There
were 5 sections to it. The first is colour
scheme. There are 6 different colour
palettes, the first palette is made up
of reds, the second is purples and
blues, the third is purples, yellows and
greens, the forth is reds and greens,
the fifth is red yellow, green and
purple, and the last is made up of
greens. Here are some ideas for the
colours. I like the purple one as it all works together. I also like the green one because it would stand
out. I think I may use a blue palette though as Sonics colours are blue. The second is font size, I showed
sizes from 12 to 36. The third was fonts. I tried 8 different fonts; AR BLANCA, AR DESTINE, AR JULIAN,
Impact, Kristen ITC, Segoe UI Black, Tempus Sans ITC and AR CHRISTY. I may not be able to use any of
these fonts as they may not work in Photoshop. I will probably end up using a font from DaFont.com.
I really like number 2 and number 8. The forth is background ideas, I looked at 6 different backgrounds
and I like the forth one. The last section was images. These are ideas for the creatures you have to
beat in the game.

I have made storyboards of the characters that you can play as, the characters to beat and the
background behind it all.