Making commercially viable games

Liam Esler
Aug 8, 2017 · 5 min read

So you want to make a commercially viable game. Great! That’s awesome! First, throw out all of your ideas. In the bin. Yes, all of them. Now that you’ve got a terrifyingly white screen, think about your gamedev experience. What have you done before? What are your talents?

Let’s say you’ve got a really unique 2D illustrative art-style, and you once worked on a point-and-click game in college. What’s the point-and-click genre like at the moment? Do some research. What games have been successful recently? Any indies?

Start to make a spreadsheet or database and record information about these games. Be specific, and detailed! Name. Sales figures. Genre, key differentiators, key marketing messaging, tag-lines. Anything that seems relevant. Discard anything made by a well-known name, that’s part of an existing IP (universe), or has money behind it. Discard Triple-A and Triple-I (Or alternatively: include them, but mark them as different. It means they have additional variables in their success.)

Use SteamSpy. Use news articles. Build a database of research on games similar to what you might make in that genre. You don’t necessarily need to play the games (though it can help), as this is more about marketability and commercial viability.

Look at unsuccessful games and research them too. Try to work out why they weren’t successful. You might be surprised! GDC and conference post-mortems, Gamasutra articles, all of this is super useful. Take notes! Learn whatever you can. Only look at games from the past year or two — what’s current.

Next, look at what’s being developed right now. Scour through news sites! Document these too. Why are they being covered? What’s interesting about them? What’s unique? Why are people excited?

Try to find upwards of 30 examples. Document them pretty thoroughly. What did they do? Why do you think they worked/didn’t?

Yes, this takes time. But it’s vital to understand the genre and field you’re potentially making a game for, because… drumroll… RESEARCH IS KEY. You need to know that there’s an audience for your game before you ever make it. In fact, the best way is to make a game FOR an audience. There are lots of different ways to do this, and lots of different ideas on how! The excellent @klicktock makes games for named proxy-players representing a target market. @PikPokGames also uses well-defined profiles.

There are many different ways of segmenting a target audience, but the key is to have something to make decisions with.

Now that you’ve got a grasp of where the genre currently is, you need to look at audiences. TIME FOR MORE RESEARCH. Look up ‘market segmentation,’ ’behavioural segmentation’, ‘game audience profiles’. I know this is boring. Yes, it’s important. No, you can’t skim articles. Read a bunch. Read books. Understand as much as you can.

Spend time on each game you documented trying to work out who their audiences were. Each will be different!

This next step is probably the most important in evaluating whether you might be able to make a commercially viable game in this genre. Pick a few case studies. A couple of successes, a couple of middling cases, a couple of failures. How did they REACH their audiences? This is much harder to find out. But you know what — you might be able to cheat: Ask them! Email or tweet them. Ask if they might mind having a chat or answer a few questions. Keep them short and sweet. Don’t waste their time.

If you can’t reach them personally or they’re unwilling, time to roll up your sleeves. Open Google News. Type in your case study. How many (actual) results are there? Write down headlines, key quotes. Why did the press cover it? What was interesting?

Not a lot of press coverage? Interesting. What about YouTube? Streamers? What about forums, fan-sites, Reddit? Social media? Work out how they got the word out. How did they find their audience? Pay close attention. Are you able to do that, do you think?

This will take time. A lot of time. Days, weeks, potentially even months. BUT IT’S WORTH IT. You need to understand this stuff.

Now that you’ve done all that. Do you think you can make a game in this genre, to the same level of polish or better as other successful games? Play with a few concepts, brainstorm some ideas. Keep in mind this genre and audience you’ve been researching. Can you specify an audience, make something interesting for them that will appeal to them, and then find ways to reach them?

Make up some pretend headlines now. Do you think people will click on them? Why? What’s interesting about them?

NOW. With all of this in mind. Are any of your ideas worth exploring? Rate them based on what you now know. Is there a market for them? Can you make something that will stand out, but be familiar enough, exciting enough, to capture the attention of this audience?

No? Damn. Is it that your skill-level isn’t in the field you’re exploring? Focus on a different skill, or find collaborators who solve that! Is it that similar games just aren’t selling well right now? Maybe look at a different genre where your skills might apply.

If you think you’ve got something, awesome. Iterate on it a few times. Start showing it to friends and talking about it. Find someone in your target audience and run it by them — just a verbal pitch or a picture. How do they react? What’s interesting to them?

Some people find success by making things they love, and focusing wholly on their own experience. Most people don’t. Create a product for a specific audience, put your love into that game, pour your heart and soul into it — you might have a chance.

Want an example of this done really well? Look at @dreamdaddygame. They picked a niche, underserved market. They made it accessible, they made it wonderfully human and smart. They did their research, they knew their field, and they paid attention.

Look at overall trends in media. What’s working? What’s not? Gritty reboots are done — optimism is in. Wonder Woman, @dreamdaddygame. Pay attention to what’s going on around you, everywhere. Pop culture, movies, television, streaming services. Know your landscape.

Marketing is crucial for any indie. Understanding how audiences work, how to segment the market and reach specific people is very important.

If you’re making games that won’t sell and you don’t understand why, try the above. The WORST that can happen? You’ll learn things!

Making money in games is hard, whether you’re an indie or not. That’s just the way it is. But by learning to understand audiences and marketing, you give yourself the best chance for success.

This is one of MANY potential routes to success, but I’d argue it’s one of the more reliable routes. Alternatively: hire a marketer!

AND REMEMBER: Your market isn’t all straight white guys, so don’t make your game look like this.

Positively blinding.

This has been your likely bi-weekly rant by your games business enthusiast. Tune in for more!

Now go follow @jasonimms. He just started an exciting QA consultancy, @TheMachineQA and helped edit this thread! ❤

Also big thanks to @XanderPakzad and @gritfish for their comments, suggestions and edits. FOLLOW THEM TOO.

Check out the original Twitter thread this article is based on here!

Liam Esler

Written by

Game developer, business and entrepreneurial enthusiast, dorky gay.

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