Fear & Iteration in Las Niche Markets

Fear and Iteration in Las Niche Markets

Hanging out at the usual joints for indie devs (gamasutra, gdc vault, casual connect, extra credits blah blah) will soon get you thinking like The Big Boys….King, Rovio, Blizzard blah blah. And loving every minute of it. All these great valid hip modern lean data driven viewpoints! You will be soaking up all this and more. It’s all a philosophy for life, valid for game development as much as anything is! Before you know it you’ll be pivoting your lunch, iterating your fridge layout, lean starting your household chores, localizing your mother in law, a-b testing your sock draw and analysing your co habitants Daily Toilet User Acquisition Retention Flush Rates, all like a pro. Early accessing the bar was a skill you already had anyway.

But there’s a but. If you are a passion driven dev, then you are not a Big Boy. And the Big Boys are not you. You don’t have many things they have. They don’t have a couple of things you do have.

For example, they have pinball machines in their offices. I have screaming babies where I live... work. There you go you see.

Fear

Most of them are also Big Market Boys and I have a Niche Market. This difference, in my humble opinion, changes absolutely spanking everything. IMHO. (Except nappies. It doesn’t change nappies. They need a responsible adult or at a push an independent game developer with occasional supra supervision. Anyways market differences don’t change nappies.)

Give one of these indie game devs a niche market and you transform this already half crazy person into a Fearless monster. Something that the Big Market Boys can never be. They wear the Emperor’s Clothes and they know it.

Meantime I am my own proof of my own niche market!

Iteration

What do they do if they are afraid of their idea? Well you introduce Science. You analyze, proceduralize, experiment in controlled ways. Because inside you know nothing. I unfortunately believe I know everything. So I am Fearless.

But I also like the Big Market Boys’ Science, it’s all so reasonable and logical. Yet mixing their science and my niche market and I get The Fear. What if it’s broccoli ice-cream?

You see something else they have, with their big markets, are customers to burn. Their whole approach is guinea pig the first thousand users. Canada and New Zealand have become hotspots for eSluts (English Spoken Language User Testing Specimens).

But my whole niche market would be those first few thousands users. I don’t want to burn my whole market!

What to do? Ignore The Science?

What do I think is going to happen anyway? I’m afraid of unleashing an unfinished project into a niche market that will get tested by the ‘early adopters’ who will make a negative first impression judgement that will be unlikely to reverse. Why review a bad decision? People don’t even have time to play the things they want to play. But they will re-state that negative impression in any forum/chat where the game crops up. For effective viral marketing in a niche market these vocal early adopters are vital.

So there is a no-win situation. You can’t wait to release the near perfect game because you need (their) feedback. You can’t release the far from perfect game because you need to offer positive experiences.

The only way round this to me, and all the other board members in the corner of my kids’ bedroom is “Tell’em it aint finished.”

Terminology & Presentation

This is it. But tell them what and how?

Just say that it is Alpha, Beta, Early Access etc. Hmm terminology. Would us fellow Gamasutra readers all agree on what exactly these terms mean? Go figure for the average player. He’s heard them, he’ll even say them, but does it really have a cognitive impact that will actually frame his experience of the game? So the language must be clear, player talk not dev talk. And it must have an impact.

Just have a big red text, or a pop-up disclaimer, or… Hmm presentation. So you think a neat little red text, possibly at 37.6 degrees, off the corner of your logo saying BETA will dissuade negativity and inspire hope eternal for a better future? I don’t. Or a pop-up…. Sorry tl:dr and closed with ninja like speed.

Make it Broken

But the more I think about it, the more I realised my core message to this core part of a small market is not ‘This game is good’ but ‘This game could be good’. This mindset has to frame their whole visit. It has to be unavoidable. Unavoidably not finished. It’s about emphasizing potential not functionality. I want it to have duff links, constant updates coming info, poor unreadable text. Show them a (pretend) mid development game with all its placeholders.

And this sweet, hopeful, subtle message has to be violently rammed down their throats like a fist from Mortal Kombat.

PROOF OF CONCEPT

Blah, blah, mbeh.. what did I actually finally PRODUCE?

My Case Study in Action

Game in Alpha: Football Tactics Simulator

Experience it at http://www.footballtacticssimulator.com/

Context

Genre

Football management games

Big Boys in Sector

Football Manager (Eidos) http://www.footballmanager.com/

Top Eleven (Nordeus) http://www.topeleven.com/

Niche Market

Tactically obsessed football manager game nerds

Thanks for your attention!