The Business of Game Development

Making a “good game” is not good enough You are running a business, and have to treat it as such. Before you start making your game look at the current market and see which of your ideas fits the market’s demand best. Consider everything from genre, art style, and tone, to replayability and even the name of your game. Think about what is going to hook the players in. What are people going to remember? What are they going to talk or write articles about. What is going to make your game stand out from the crowd?

Hooks: Crypt of the Necrodancer The Name! An original core game mechanic Excellent soundtrack by a well known composer Art with personality A unique way to play the game Good, memorable trailers

Research your competition Play 10 - 20 games that are most like what you want to make. Analyze them and try to find why some were successful and others won’t. Don’t just look at what the game did, look at what the company did during development and marketing to make their game stand out from the rest. “If you are not confident in being able to explain why the hits hit and why the others did not, you shouldn't be confident about your game's chances either”

Find your space Look at the games that already exist in your space and what the players are looking for. Is your next great MOBA idea really going to steal players away from League and DOTA? Target genres that have audiences willing to play a large variety of games. Not ones dominated by a giant.

Look at where the money is When analysing the sales of similar games, don’t just look at the number of copies sold. Find out when and where they were sold and what price were they sold at? A game that may look to have done extremely well might have sold most of their copies at a drastically reduced price. Make sure you understand what the market was like when their games were released. Were they ahead of the curve and now a hundred clones and similar games occupy the once empty market? Use this information to inform you on what your budget should be. If you are going to have to spend more than the average game in your genre makes, you likely won’t come out ahead.

Promote your game This is an area where a lot of devs struggle. If people are going to buy your game, they’ll need to hear about it first. Use the convention circuit to find out who your audience is. Discover what it is that the players want from your game and if they are actually having fun with it. Don’t just listen to what they’re saying, watch what they’re doing in the game. Find out where they are most engaged and what areas need to be improved. Spend time on your trailer. Don’t just cobble something together last minute start thinking about it early on in your development cycle. A good trailer should be short and grab the player's attention early. No one is going to watch a lengthy trailer about a game they don’t care about by a company they’ve never heard of.

Establish a design that: Has great hooks Has a viable market Will be easy to promote You’re excited about You have the skills to make

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