Comments on: Target Audience: Me (Part 1/2)

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:15:33 +0000

@Sargon: Agreed. I made business software for 9 years before making games and that certainly gave me a solid foundation in many things.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:18:22 +0000

@Sargon: Sorry that’s not really what I meant to say. I should have worded it differently. :)

I meant that you should target yourself… because it means you have the passion and drive to finish your projects. But at the same time you have to make sure your game isn’t so unique that not many other players would enjoy and buy it. If both conditions are TRUE, go ahead and “target yourself”.

There are lots of games where the designer made a really good game he loved and was passionate about – but in the end not enough people enjoyed it also.

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:14:46 +0000

You can’t really effectively make a game that’s fun for someone else… sure you can take ideas of what you think would be fun, but really you need to do what’s fun for you. And then hopefully the rest of the audience agrees!

By: Sargon

Sargon — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:54:12 +0000

Jake, I agree with you. For me, the main drive to make profit from my games is to be able to work on them full time. That is the dream. :)
But for now I have a “real job”, but I don’t think it’s crappy. It will just require a lot of time from me. Also, some jobs can benefit your knowledge and experience that are also good for game development, so it’s not all bad.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:21:47 +0000

I still think it’s possible to combine passion and profit, and then you will be able to do your “fun” job for longer instead of having to get a boring crappy job to pay the bills.

By: Lumooja

Lumooja — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:55:51 +0000

Forget about everything you ever did or thought. All what matters is what you like to do. Do it now. There will be always enough people to like what you do, no matter what you do.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:09:35 +0000

I dunno, the big gaming companies seem to target themselves as well. Why else would so many triple A games be the same genre?

By: Dexter Kofa

Dexter Kofa — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:40:08 +0000

Agreed Sargon

By: Sargon

Sargon — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:23:53 +0000

Oliver, I think most people have their own taste in games. There is no “normal” gamer and “weirdo” gamer.
From what you are saying, every game that gets 9 on gamespot a “normal” gamer must love to play. Which is far from reality.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:20:43 +0000

Hmm, if you are a gamer, you are part of your industry, thus targeting yourself makes you target other players who like what you like. So, if you’re not some kind of weirdo who enjoys games most other people don’t, you have targeted your target market. The question “How to reach them?” becomes “How did other marketers in that target market reach ME and how can I use those channels for my own marketing?”. Makes sense to me! ;)