USER RESEARCH
 

User Research

How to Research Your next Game's Target Audience for Free (gamedeveloper.com)

The enduring appeal of simulation games | GamesIndustry.biz

You'll never know how well your game will be received until it's launched. However, that doesn't mean that you can't make an educated guess on who your game will be more popular with. Before launching, even before designing, it helps to research into your target audience to gain a better understanding of what they want, their likes and dislikes, and so forth.

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The Lookalike Target Audience Research Method

By using data from other games that are similar in genre, art direction, or gameplay etc. to yours, you can gain a pretty good understanding of who your target audience is going to look like. This can be done in 3 steps:

1. Make a list of your game’s 3 biggest competitors

   • This involves matching your game to those with similar features or descriptions, such as genre or art direction​

2. Mine their audiences for demographics and interests, documenting the results along the way

   • Research what the audience's likes and dislikes are, what other products they engage with, and what behaviours they have​

     • Can use certain services like Google AdWords or SimilarWeb​

3. Note the overlap to find your game’s tentative target audience

   • Look for the similarities between the audiences of your selected games, and aim for those who fit into that description​

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Equilinox

Equilinox on Steam (steampowered.com)

The Steam page for Equilinox has many reviews which can offer insight into the interests and wants of the target demographic. 

• Want a calm and relaxing experience

• Enjoy nature and ecology

• Puzzle like mechanics (unlocking new and advanced creatures and plants)

• Strong gameplay loop

• Many people wanted a more grounded-in-reality experience

• Many people got through the main content quickly and got bored

  • Noted that some people set goals themselves​

• "Soothing"

• Family-friendly themes

• Lack of a fast-forward button

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The Sims 3

The Sims™ 3 on Steam (steampowered.com)

Many on Steam have argued that The Sims 3 is much better than its successor. I've looked through some of the top reviews to note what has made it a success among its demographic.

• The narrative content that can be created is a great appeal to players

• The community

  • Lots of mods and custom content created by players to play and experiment with​

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Slime Rancher

Slime Rancher on Steam (steampowered.com)

Slime Rancher is another life-sim which sees great popularity.

• Compelling gameplay loop

• Relaxing and chill

• Lots to do, but in short bursts rather than long play sessions

• Replayability an issue for some, needs to have challenge

• Slimes are adorable

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Review:

From what I've gathered from this research, the biggest aspect to these games seems to be the "relaxed" atmosphere, or the relaxing experience the game offers the players. This is something I have based my game concept around, which is good to note. Both Equilinox and Slime Rancher also have strong gameplay loops, and so I must make sure that my gameplay loop of collecting and breeding creatures is equally compelling. Another thing to note is how Equilinox appeared to be a mix of content from both reality, and imagination. I believe this confused some players, and so I will aim to stick to my idea of keeping my creatures largely fantastical, with loose basis on reality for the purpose of inspiring design.

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Empathy Map

10 Tips to Develop Better Empathy Maps | Adobe XD Ideas

An empathy map is used to better understand a user of a product. Rather than focusing on the product, the empathy map aims to shift the design so that it focuses on what the user might need, or how they behave. A typical empathy map will feature 4 quadrants to discuss:

• Say

  • What does the user say about the product. Ideally contains real information from real users. (In this case I have reviews)​

• Think

  • What is the user thinking when they interact with the product? What matters to them? (Again reviews)​

• Feel

  • What is the user feeling?​

• Do

  • What actions are the user taking?​

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My Empathy Map

• Say

  • *Exclamations of surprise*​

• Think

  • How can I find this creature/plant?​

  • What happens if I place a ... next to a ...?

• Feel

  • Relaxed​

  • Curious

  • Happy

  • Excited

• Do

  • Place different creatures/plants​

  • Explore environments

  • Build/decorate terrariums

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Potential User

To better target my game and surveys, I have created a potential user by identifying things in three main categories:​

• Identify the Activities the player will be doing

  • Functional: Specific tasks the user is trying to fulfil​

  • Social: Relate to all aspects of the user in a social environment

  • Personal/Emotional: Relate to personal fulfilment or an emotional state

• Any Concerns they might have when playing the game

  • Undesired Outcomes/Problems: May be functional, emotional, or ancillary(e.g. needing to go through a second party application)​

  • Obstacles: Things that might prevent the user from full participation

  • Risks: What might happen if the user picks the wrong solution

• Their Wants

  • Basic Gratification: The least the user can expect from the game​

  • Expectations: What the player expects from the game

  • Desires: What the player actively wants

  • Unexpected Wants: Wants the player doesn't realise they have

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Activities

• Functional

  • Play the game

  • Collect new creatures

  • Therapeutic

    • Take care of creatures​

    • Grow plants

    • Explore environments

    • Engage in nature

• Social

  • Show off to friends

  • Relax with others

  • View other's terrariums

• Personal/Emotional

  • Feel calm/relaxed

  • Feel curious

  • Feel happy

  • Feel excited

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Concerns

• Undesired Outcomes/Problems

  • The death of a creature may be upsetting

  • May get frustrated taking care of creatures

  • May grind to find a rarer creature

• Obstacles

  • May have a lack of time to play

• Risks

  • May be fun of for playing a simple game​

Wants

• Basic Gratification

  • Be able to collect interesting, fantastical creatures

  • Explore various biomes

  • Take care of creatures and watch them interact

• Expectations

  • Clean graphics(stylised?)

  • Interesting creature designs

• Desires

  • Build own terrariums

  • Show off their terrariums

  • Take photos/videos

• Unexpected Wants

  • ​Customisation and decoration of terrariums/base

  • Different "skins" for creatures

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Potential User

After identifying my potential user and some of their concerns and wants, I started to create a features list which would address what I came up with, and I mapped those features to the different activities the player would do, and their concerns and wants.