The Customer Development framework was developed by Steve Blank as part of the Lean Startup methodology. It is typically the middle step of the process (preceded by Business Model Design and followed by Agile Engineering).
Following this process allows companies to understand the market needs and come up with multiple potential solutions. From there, the process calls out the assumptions behind the various hypotheses (operating under the assumption that the company is starting with no facts prior to this exercise) and then validating those assumptions. After delivering an MVP, begin continual reevaluation to ensure the solution is optimized to deliver value and achieve the business’s goals.
Customer development goals
After the closed beta test, we have formed hypotheses that are important to explore before the global release.
The key objectives for the CustDev were:
1.An in-depth study of the target audience.
Our game is unique and completely new to the mobile market, so we didn’t fully understand the portrait of a typical player.
It was very important for us to study who our players are, what their age is and what kind of communication would suit them best.
2.Analysis of player familiarity behaviour.
During the analysis of metrics after the closed beta test, we saw players leaving the game at the tutorial phase. From this, it is obvious that players do not fully understand how to play the game.
To improve learning, it was important for us to see live how the player is introduced to informal mechanics for the mobile market and how they try to play.
3.Understanding the game’s key issues.
The game has unconventional intuition and mechanics, so it was important to analyse how players perform movements during the game, how the constructed recognition system behaves on different devices, and what additional challenges players face.
4.The answer to the question “how interesting the game is”.
Before releasing a unique but experimental product, it is very important to understand whether the product will be of interest to the audience and whether players will enjoy the planned activities.
Who participated in the CustDev?
Respondents were selected using a screening form. Requirements were set out for the selection:
1. Respondent did not take part in the CBT and does not know anything about our project;
2. Age: from 10 to 50;
3. Regions of residence: Europe, USA, CIS, Africa, Latin America or Asia;
4. Different kind of relationship with games:
- Played / plays rhythm games (Dance Dance Revolution, Beat Saber, Just Dance, etc.);
- Plays a variety of games, but no experience with rhythm games;
- Plays casual / hypercausal / puzzle games (related genres);
- Does not play games at all
5. Different nature of relationship with dance:
- Professionally engaged / engaged in dance
- Attended / attends dance classes
- Dances for himself
- Passionate about dance (watches shows, follows bloggers, etc.)
- Is involved in sport, but not dance
- Does not dance/sport at all
A total of 210 completed application forms were processed from which 15 persons were selected:
▫️ 47% of men and 53% of women;
▫️ 40% of teenagers (10–17 years old), 33% of young people (18–25), 27% of adults (25+);
▫️ Relationship with games:
- 13% do not play games at all;
- 27% play games of similar genres on a regular basis;
- 33% have played and/or are familiar with reference games;
- The remainder are regular players of multi-format games.
▫️ Relationship to dance:
- 1 professional dancer;
- 20% are involved in sport;
- 33% are not interested in dancing at all;
- The rest are into dance for themselves / at amateur level.
How was the CustDev conducted?
CustDev was held in 2 stages:
1. Online meeting according to a script:
- Respondent joins the call at the appointed time;
- The team gets to know the respondent, clarifies their gaming experience, attitudes towards dance themes and music;
- A playtest is given;
- As a result of the playtest, the team asks questions and the respondent shares his/her impressions of the game.
2. Offline completion of a final form with questions about:
- Interests;
- Graphics;
- Music;
- Tutorial;
- Gameplay.
During the playtest, the GD and marketing team fixed the key stages:
1.Tutorial:
- How quickly a player understands the principle of gameplay;
- How quickly the player understands how and when to make moves;
- How to make moves.
2.Level 1:
- Has the player memorised the moves from the game;
- How difficult the level is;
- How does he/she continue to make the moves.
3.Level 2:
- How the player reacts to the increased difficulty;
- How many attempts he/she makes to pass level;
- How quickly the player gets tired;
- When decides to end the game.
4.Movement icons:
- Checks if the player has memorized the movement icons from the game;
- Suggests alternative icon variations to choose from
In addition to this, we also registered:
- What emotions the player is experiencing;
- What questions are asked (and at what point);
- What are the difficulties.
Average time for each online meeting: about 40 minutes.
What have we got?
Interests
▫️ Music
71% of respondents listen to music every day and only 1 noted that he does not listen to music at all.
Music genre distribution:
The most interesting genres were Rock, Hip-Hop and Pop.
Among the performers featured were:
- Travis Scott
- Blackpink
- Beyonce
- BTS
- Eminem
- Monstercat
- 50 cent
- Imagine Dragons
- Rihanna
- Sam Smith
- Chris Brown
- Davido
- Taylor Swift
- Bruno Mars
▫️ Cinema/TV shows
50% watch movies/series several times a week and 21% do not watch anything at all.
Distribution of interests by genre:
The most interesting genres were Comedies, Action, Dramas and Thrillers.
Among the film titles noted were:
- Harry Potter
- I robot
- Shazam
- Suicide Squad
- Venom
- Inception
- 2001 Space Odyssey
- Transformers
Among the series:
- Rick & Morty
- Friends
- Game of Thrones
- Money Heist
▫️ Hobbies
Tag cloud by noted interests:
- Games
- Videos
- Documentary movies
- Books
- Friends
- Music
- Walking
- Drawing
- Sports
- Clubs
- Dancing
- Singing
- Football
- Piano
- Swimming
- Basketball
- TikTok
- Family
- Internet
▫️ Sports
Only 29% of respondents are actively involved in sport, the rest are either moderately or low in physical activity.
Among the sports mentioned were:
- Swimming
- Running
- Yoga
- Gym
- Boxing
- Basketball
- Volleyball
- Laser tag
- Football
- Walking
▫️ Dances
21% do not dance at all, 36% describe themselves as amateurs and 2 people dance at an advanced level.
Online meeting results
▫️ Emotions
Most of the respondents were genuinely positive. Most of them smiled at the “Perfect-movements”.
Many of them danced to the music as they played.
Absolutely all respondents said that they really enjoyed the game and would like to continue. They were especially pleased that the closed version of the game could be kept for themselves.
Interesting fact
One of the children (10 years old) was scolded by his mother before the СustDev and he was clearly not in the mood: he was reluctant and very single-mindedly answering questions, looking at the floor, picking at his clothes.
But after a while the game completely distracted him from the situation with his mother: his mood was noticeably higher, he started joking and fooling around.
▫️ Tutorial
- Only 3 people did not understand at all what was to be done in the game. 2 of them just scrolled through the onboarding screens without paying any attention to it.
- 1 girl had an interesting solution: she put her phone on the table and decided that she had to stand in front of the screen so that the phone camera could read her movements.
After the playtest she was asked why she decided that, she said that she played a lot of Just Dance, so she expected something similar from the game. - The other 3 people had difficulties with the first movement: they did not immediately understand when to move.
But only 1 had to be told what to do. The others, after a few mistakes, figured it out on their own. - Many people had problems with recognition steps forward / backward
- Some people had problems with jumps — they didn’t do it sharply enough and/or high enough, slightly lifting on toes
- The teenagers were the fastest to deal with the controls in the game.
▫️ 1st Level
- After 2 meetings, it was decided that the level should be simplified.
It became a little more complicated than the tutorial, but it was still easy. - After that, 100% of the players passed the level.
- Many players had to be told to make their movements sharper so that they could be read more accurately.
▫️ 2nd Level
- Most liked this particular track: C’mon & Dance Ritmi
- 100% of the players didn’t succeed from the 1st time, but kept on playing and trying to pass it. The increased difficulty definitely added to the excitement.
- Each player started looking for a strategy to pass the level, for example:
-Some cleared the space around them;
-Some began to make moves differently;
-Someone planned from which point in the room to start playing, so that there would be enough space; - In this level, players began to notice that the game did not read some movements.
- Most got angry when a foul occurred. Most were pissed off that the movements were not being properly registered.
- Teenagers spent the most time trying to complete the level: more than 15 attempts!
▫️ Movement icons
- About 50% of the players said that after the tutorial they started to get confused about the movements. Most of all it was about forward/backward steps and jumps/squats.
- The votes were divided roughly equally between options 3 and 4.
3 because they are fundamentally different from the rest of the arrows, 4 because there are signatures:
▫️ General impressions of the game
- Absolutely everyone commented that the game was unique.
- For some of the younger and older players the game reminded Dance Dance Revolution.
- Everyone liked the idea of character customisation. One player said he would like to dress up his avatar as a popular personality (e.g. Travis Scott).
- Most supported the idea of having PvP/competitions within the game.
- Most often selected a female character.
- Teenagers are very excited about having “boxes” within the game.
Results of the offline application form
▫️ Overall about the game
On average, respondents gave the game a score of 8.57 / 10!
What do the players think of the name “Ritmi”:
- 60% think it’s unusual;
- 80% find it memorable;
- 93% — easy to pronounce.
All respondents associate the name with music AND dance.
About the game itself:
- Absolutely all respondents would like to play the game with friends and would recommend it to their friends;
- 67% of respondents would like the game to be F2P;
- 53% would play Ritmi for hours;
- only 2 respondents would quickly get bored with the game (13%).
How respondents perceived the game:
▫️ Graphics and visuals
On average, players rated it:
Game graphics at 9.29 / 10 points.
Characters at 7.67 / 10 points.
71% quickly remembered all the movement icons, but some encountered some visual problems during the game:
- 36% were confused by some of the movement icons;
- 29% found the movement icons confusing;
- 29% found the movement icons to be flying too fast;
- 29% also noticed that Avatar did not move in rhythm with the music;
- only 1 person noted that there were too many icons in the game scene.
How respondents perceived the graphics in the game:
How respondents perceived the characters (Avatars) in the game:
How respondents perceived the user interface in the game:
Interesting facts
Many players indicated that they would love to customise their character and/or environment in the game.
One player commented that the graphics reminded him of the movie “Nerve”.
▫️ Music
On average, respondents rated the music in the game at 6.57 / 10!
At the same time:
- 64% of players would like to add their favourite tracks to the game;
- 57% would like to play on popular tracks;
- 29% of respondents have tracks stuck in their head for a long time and they would love to add tracks from the game to their playlist;
- 1 player thought he had heard the tracks somewhere before.
How respondents perceived the music in the game:
Top 5 music genres that players would like to hear in the game:
- Rock
- Electronic
- Hip Hop
- Rap, Pop
- K-pop, Funk
▫️ Gameplay
The gameplay received an average score of 8 / 10 points for its interest.
Tutorial
The clarity of the tutorial was rated 4.1 / 5 by players.
At the same time:
- 85% said that they memorised all the movement icons;
- 64% found the tutorial to be optimal in terms of time and not too boring;
- 57% of players were able to execute all of the moves in 1 time;
- 43% found the tutorial difficult.
Gameplay
As the gameplay progressed:
- 93% had fun when they played;
- 86% had a desire to try again after 1 attempt;
- 79% said they felt physically challenged by the game;
- 71% felt they danced while playing the game and 79% felt they played a sport;
- 64% of people definitely had the impression that the movement icons activated to the beat of the music;
- 57% understood at what point they had to start moving in order to activate the movement icons.
Movement Icons
Favourite game moves for respondents:
- Arm shakes;
- Jumps, Squats and Pivots;
As the most disliked movements, players most frequently mentioned: Steps (64%).
Levels
The difficulty of the levels was rated by the players at 6.43 / 10 points.
Which, according to the players, most often influenced their loss:
- 71% — did not recognise the movements well;
- 50% realised that they made moves too late and 45% realised that they made them too early;
- 36% did not understand how to play;
- 27% thought the game was laggy;
- 18% reported low health
- and only 1 person was physically tired
- 57% of players still continued to play until they made it to the end of the level.
Interesting facts
A lot of people commented that they want to interact with friends within the game, compete or play in co-op, etc.
Most participants commented that the game is very memorable because of its unique motion recognition mechanics.
2 players would like the levels to retain text hints over the moves, like in the tutorial.
1 noted that he shakes his phone too much during the shake, making him unable to see the next moves.
▫️ Technical component
71% of players had the game working perfectly!
Top problems that players noted:
- 50% — poor motion recognition;
- 21% — recognition did not work at all on the phone;
A couple of players mentioned that the game file was too big.
Summary and insights
In general about CustDev
CustDev went GOOD and SUCCESSFUL!
- People like the game! Regardless of age, interest or gaming experience.
- The game is unusual! It generates a lot of interest and excitement, and people want to play.
- All participants noted that the game is stylish, fashionable and trendy!
- The game causes a lot of fun and positive emotions!
- It’s easy to understand! It is easy to learn to play, despite its non-formal mechanics!
- The game has great viral potential! All respondents would like to play with friends and/or tell friends about the game.
Challenges and solutions
- Reworking the tutorial — need to be more in-depth and as clear as possible.
- Reworking the movement icons — need to hit the jump and crouch shapes. Consider ideas with captions for all movements.
- Improving movement recognition — need more accuracy for steps
- Music content expansion — the game needs popular and recognisable tracks!
Primary ways of developing the project
PvP mode — first priority for development in the near future.
Viral mechanics and socialization — second priority.
Customisation — our key focus for the project.
Outro
The Ritmi team would like to thank everyone who took part in the research for their interest in the game!
We would like to note that this is not the last study, so if you don’t want to miss the next activities, subscribe to our social networks.
We will also be very happy to see any suggestions and feedback that you can leave on our discord server!
🌐Ritmi links: https://linktr.ee/ritmi.app
