Research

1. Research
Ellie Warmingham

2. Existing Product
Cat Bird -
iOS/Android Release
Trailer - YouTube
Raiyumi (2017) Cat Bird
Cat Bird was created by Raiyumi and is mostly set in a forest area,
sometimes underground. The lighting and background is usually
quite dark, indicating that’s it’s night-time. The camera is looking
straight forward, facing the character. The game uses natural colours
like greens, browns and blues and has a pixel-like font to match the
theme. The main character’s design and story within the game is very
appealing. It’s simple but effective and includes a bunch of mini
obstacle courses to keep you entertained. Females aged 8-18 might
be more interested than males aged 8-18 because of the games style.

3. Existing Product
Owlboy Release
Trailer - YouTube D-Pad Studio (2016) Owlboy
Owlboy was created by D-Pad Studio and is set in a natural, fantasy
world surrounded by trees and floating platforms. The background
is bright and cheerful the game has a colourful yet simple colour
pallet. Bright blue, green and pink makes it look interesting and
vibrant. The edges of the game are darker, letting you focus more
on the character’s movements as Owlboy guides you through his
own story. His design is meant to represent an owl, his cloak
looking like owl wings. Females and males aged 10-20 can enjoy
this because of the story and the characters designs.

4. Existing Product
Celeste – Nintendo
Switch Trailer -
YouTube
Matt Makes Games (2018) Celeste
Celeste was made by Matt Makes Games and takes place on a
mountain, following the main character Madeline with her journey.
Madeline travels through multiple different areas. Some of them
are dark and dangerous while others are bright and colourful.
Celeste has a fair amount of colour added into the game, including
pinks, purples, reds, blues, yellows etc. The lighting in the
background illuminates the places that Madeline visits, the
darkness surrounding her making it easier for her to stand out.

5. Existing Product
https://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=31btzOVjOTc
Nintendo (1985) Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. was made in 1985 and involved a little
character called Mario who travelled through a vibrant
blue, green and red world. In the game, you can collect
coins and overcome different obstacles. Mario wears red
dungarees and hat along with ang with a moustache.

6. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have?
• All of them are platformers and require you to complete a
series of obstacles to get to the end. They’re all pixel like
games, also.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your
on work?
• The layouts for each of the individual games can help me
decide my own and give me inspiration. They all have their
own colour palette and style, but it helps me to be more
creative with the colours and design with so many different
styles to look through

7. Questionnaire Analysis
Survey Monkey Link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q
86S6CC

8. Audience research
• Observation: 80% of the audience is 15-18 while the rest are over 25.
• What this says about my audience: The audience is mostly younger people
which suggests they are more interested in games than people who are a
lot older.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I can advertise my game to
a younger audience to gain more attention.

9. Audience research
• Observation: There is a even amount of females and males (50%).
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that both females
and males are interested in video games.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I can make a game
that appeals to all genders by the use of characters, game design
etc.

10. Audience research
• Observation: 30% liked adventure and story games while another
30% liked romance and FIFA games. 10% liked simulation games.
• What this says about my audience: Majority of people here
preferred adventure and story games.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My game can focus
on being an adventure and story game.

11. Audience research
• Observation: 70% of the audience preferred a mix of dark, pale and bright
colours.
• What this says about my audience: The audience likes to have a multiple
different colours from the options above rather than one set of colours.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I can use a different set of
colours on each new level of my game.

12. Audience research
• Observation: 66% of the audience preferred humans, 22% animals and
11% for fantasy creatures.
• What this says about my audience: Most people liked to have human
characters in a game rather than animals or fantasy creatures.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I can use human characters
within my game.

13. Audience research
• Observation: 40% wanted a special ability, 30% for a trophy, 20% for
coins and 10% for a different character.
• What this says about my audience: Majority of the audience
wanted to have a special ability as a reward.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: When completing a
level in my game, you can gain a special ability.

14. Audience research
• Observation: 30% preferred the mountains or a city and 20% preferred a
forest or an open field.
• What this says about my audience: The audience likes to be in the city or
in the mountains.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My game could be set in a
city for some levels and then switch to the mountains later on.

15. Audience research
• Observation: 30% of the audience likes the sunrise while 20% likes the
middle of the day, afternoon and evening. Only 10% likes midnight.
• What this says about my audience: Most of the audience prefers the start
of the day.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My game could be set
around sunrise.

16. Audience research
• Observation: 30% likes Animal Crossing, 20% likes Minecraft, and
10% likes Zelda, Fortnite, Mario kart, Super Mario Bros. and FIFA.
• What this says about my audience: Majority of the audience likes
Animal Crossing.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My game can be a
fairly easy-going adventure/story game.

17. Audience research
• Observation: 70% preferred to have music and sound effects while
playing a game. Only 30% liked to have sound effects.
• What this says about my audience: My audience likes to have
background music and sound effects while they play a game.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I can include both
music and sound effects in my game.

18. Interviews

19. Interview 1
• Question 1: What sort of games do you like to play and why?
Example puzzles games, adventure etc.
• Question 2: What do you prefer to play on? Why? Example
Xbox, PC etc.
• Question 3: Do you prefer a game to be in a day or night
setting?
• Question 4: What type of game setting do you like? Example
natural (forest, mountains), fantasy (world made of sweets,
ice cream) etc.
• Question 5: What kind of weather would you like a game to
have? Windy, rainy, sunny? Why do you prefer?

20. Interview 1 answers
• Question 1: Traditional games: Intellectually challenging
(Cluedo, Monopoly), Strategy games (Drafts, chess),
Competitive games (snakes and ladders). Digital games:
Competitive games (Mario kart, Wii), Experiential (Sky), Skill
based games (Wii).
• Question 2: PC because it’s easier to navigate the keyboard
and it’s a bigger screen.
• Question 3: I would prefer day for better clarity.
• Question 4: I prefer fantasy games because it enhances the
experiential quality of the game.
• Question 5: Sunny because it’s easier to focus on the action
and to navigate appropriately.

21. Interview 1
• Observation: Audience 1 likes strategy,
challenging, competitive and skill based games
which are mostly fantasy orientated. They prefer
the game to be set in the day time and the
weather to be sunny.
• What this says about my audience: My audience
is interested in fantasy games which have bright
colours and are easy to navigate.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
This audience likes competitive and skill based
games which is similar to my game.

22. Interview 2
• Question 1: What sort of games do you like to play and why?
Example puzzles games, adventure etc.
• Question 2: What do you prefer to play on? Why? Example
Xbox, PC etc.
• Question 3: Do you prefer a game to be in a day or night
setting?
• Question 4: What type of game setting do you like? Example
natural (forest, mountains), fantasy (world made of sweets,
ice cream) etc.
• Question 5: What kind of weather would you like a game to
have? Windy, rainy, sunny? Why do you prefer it?

23. Interview 2
• Question 1: I like story games where you can play characters and you can
create your own world, for example Animal Crossing. I also like puzzle
games because they exercise your brain and they are good for problem
solving in real life and there just good fun.
• Question 2: I prefer to play on my phone or Nintendo switch. I like playing
on the switch because the graphics are good and there’s a good variety of
games. My phone is very portable so I can play games anywhere.
• Question 3: A game set in the day can be better because I can see better
and I don’t mind the night but if I had to choose I would overall prefer a
game to be set in the day time. It’s easier to see, better graphics and it’s a
lot more friendly and has brighter colours.
• Question 4: I like to play more natural/real world type of games because I
like rivers and mountains more rather than fantasy games.
• Question 5: I prefer to have a game to have sunny weather because it’s
more feel-good but with an exception of snowy weather because I love to
see everything covered in snow in games, especially if there’s no snow
outside.

24. Interview 2
• Observation: Audience 2 likes story game where you
can play as different characters and puzzle games. They
prefer a game to be set in the day and have a more
natural environment. Sunny or even snowy weather in
games is preferred.
• What this says about my audience: My audience likes
to have a natural setting with bright colours and a calm
and friendly environment.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My
game is set in natural areas with different characters
and sunny weather which would definitely appeal
more to this audience.

25. Audience Profile
Category Demographic Content to appeal to this audience
Age Range
Primary: 13-18
Secondary: 19-30+
• I will make a game that doesn’t include a lot of violence
and bad language so it’s appropriate for younger
audiences. I can include characters that people can relate
to.
• I will make sure that any dialogue or language used
makes sense to an older audience and doesn’t contain
slang or inappropriate language.
Gender
Primary: All genders • I will aim to make my game appeal to all genders, not
just one by making different characters that you can
choose from so everyone can play who they most
like/relate to.
Psychographic
Primary: Gamers
Secondary: Game
developers
• This game can appeal to people who like to play games,
specifically pixel/platformer games with a variety of
obstacles and characters
• Other game developers could seek inspiration for their
own game and try testing out games made by others to
gain ideas.
Social Status
Primary: Working class
Secondary: Middle class
• If I were to sell my game, I could sell it at a lower price to
gain more costumers and make sure that it is good
quality and well written to boost peoples interest.

26. Research Evaluation

27. Research Evaluation
• Give an overview of how you conducted your research.
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each method
– Product Research
• It helped me to understand the topic more and learn information I didn’t know
before. The different colour palettes and styles let me gain inspiration. Although it
was difficult to find games that were similar to what I wanted to do.
– Questionnaires
• It allows me to collect data from people which I can use to help create my own
game. It can be easier to settle on ideas, going by what the most popular opinion is
amongst the audience. Sometimes I will get a very mixed answer on certain
questions, making it hard to narrow it down to just one or two main answers.
– Interviews
• It’s good to get extra information with answers and have a more detailed explanation on why
they prefer something. It helps me to have a better understanding so I can have a game that
appeals to more people. Some people might have completely different opinions on things
which can end up barely relating to my game and not give me very useful information.

28. Research Evaluation
– What sort of a response did you get?
I got a fairly mixed response from everyone for a lot of the questions. Luckily
most of the questions had one or two outstanding answers to help me decide on
certain aspects for my game.
– How did you distribute your survey? Give an advantage and a disadvantage
• It was fairly easy to gain responses from people within a short amount of time by
sending out a digital survey, although you sometimes won’t get a helpful answer
from some of the questions. You also can’t get a very in depth explanation from a
survey alone, hence sometimes an interview can be more helpful and informative.