Target audience was my focus for the day, specifically I researched into what type of people play cooperative games, in terms of age, gender and personality. Using this research will then help me define a target audience for my own game, ensuring the design aspects of the game, such as aesthetics and mood, will appeal to that audience.
Research
All co-operative gamers are social gamers but not all social gamers are cooperative.
Definition
There is a clear difference between social and cooperative gamers, where social gamers relate more to social media or online gaming. Whereas co-operative games are about working together as a team and so are social, however they aren’t necessarily online or social media based.
Therefore I can’t simply look at the demographics of social gamers, I need to look specifically at cooperative gamers, as my whole game revolves around co-operation.
Local Co-op Demographics
Quantic Foundry
Scans of my annotations on the website
Refer to Research FOlder
What did I learn?
- Local co-op is more enjoyable than online co-op or competitive games
- Both genders nearly equal enjoy local co-op (closer than any other co-op/ competitive game)
- Co-op is enjoyed more with friends than strangers
- Co-op is popular with all ages, and doesn’t decline with age like competitive games. Age range is mostly even and stable
Why does this matter?
Local vs Online
Local co-op is more enjoyable than online co-op or competitive games.
Co-op is enjoyed more with friends than strangers
- Solidify along with my other research, that local co-op is the most enjoyable and so will fulfil my entertainment goal most successfully compared with co-op online.
Age Group
Co-op is popular with all ages, and doesn’t decline with age like competitive games. Age range is mostly even and stable
- Local co-op has a varied though even age group demographic. This has helped me to identify that there will be a wide age range for my game with no specific age to target. Therefore I need to ensure the game-play, difficulty and art style need appeals too all. Making me realise I can’t be extreme with my art style, as this may cause the game to not appeal to a certain audience, so I definitely need to think of this from a family friendly viewpoint.
gender
Both genders nearly equal enjoy local co-op (closer than any other co-op/ competitive game)
- Local co-op appeals to both male and female genders, practically equally. So I need to ensure the art style is gender neutral and will appeal to both, so I don’t cut out any part of my market.
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