Presentation

Market Research Analysis

Overtime I have gathered much research of many different variety's including: Research into existing Products, Competitor analysis and Secondary research. As part of my research into existing products I looked into 5 games and what makes them successful. All 5 of the games are aimed at teenagers, and considering they are some of the hottest games on the market they must be doing something right. Both COD, Assassins Creed and GTA are very violent games however they portray it in different ways: COD is a FPS game meaning the player feels fully submersed in the game and as if it is them shooting others where as GTA and Assassins Creed are most commonly TPS however GTA does now offer a FPS cameral angle. The fact GTA and Assassins Creed is most commonly played in TPS it offers the gamer a different experience and helps them feel submersed in the game as the actions that they are in control of on the screen maybe be very far from what they imagine in real life so being in control of someone else carrying out them actions will help them relate to the game more. Both are extremely successful and both appeal to their target audiences. One way these games appeal to their target audience is representation of the characters; both GTA and COD are very male dominant games in the sense that most if not all the main protagonists are a stereotypical Alfa male character meaning they are strong confident and skilled, this helps them appeal to their target audience as it maybe someone the player relates to or aspires to be like. Assassins Creed and Mirrors edge are more appropriate as they are dressed for the occasions they are at for example Ezio from Assassins Creed has a long coat on and hardly any skin showing meaning he is suited for his role as a assassin making the game more appealing to the target audience as it is more realistic. I conducted market research into existing products, I purposely selected games with the same target audience so I could fully understand their current options and created a game based on the gaps currently in the market, for example I would not look at games marketed at 5-12 year olds as my findings would not be relevant to the game I'm going to create therefore it would be a waste of time. My market research was very reliable as it came directly from me, when carrying out my own research I can make sure I am non-bias by playing all the games in the same conditions for the same length of time, this means my conscience is settled as I know I have solid primary research that I carried out which I can use to compare with the secondary research I found to consolidate and find differences. I could have improved this my then double checking the difference I found when comparing and looking into them in more detail which would mean my data had no flaws what so ever however I do feel as they were quite small it would not have impacted to quality of the game majorly.

Competitor analysis is another from of research I carried out. All three of the games I looked into were from the genre of Action Adventure so it was interesting to see what made them appeal to others. GTA offered many social aspects allowing the players to invite friends into their lobbies and play games such as Team Death Matches (TDM) together, Borderlands 3 offers many interactive features and many different ways the character can travel round the map some more creative than others. Finally Tomb Raider, Borderlands and GTA are all extremely interactive games which I feel is key to appealing to the target audience especially within the genre of action adventure. Much like my current market research I played the games myself ensuring I had a set of non-bias results leaving me with good data that I could use to compare to others again making this research very reliable. When carrying this research out again next time I will look at more games of the same genre making my results a lot broader so I can find more similarities I can include in my game.

Secondary research is looking into other peoples research that they have already conducted, it allows me to gather an opinion aside from my own research. With secondary research I can have a point of reference to compare my research to to find similarities and differences. A book that I looked at was "Games and Narrative" from this I looked at the structure of the game and the methodology used when playing it. This will help me plan my game in a neat and organised structure however, I could have improved this by carrying out some more audience research before planning to see if they preferred this structure.  Through my research reliability is key, Secondary research is not as reliable as primary research I conducted as I have no way of showing they took the same precautions as I did meaning it could have been done with a lack of attention, while ensuring my primary research was as reliable as I could make it there could still be room for improvement by checking the source I got it from was a trusted and well known blogger or web page creator for example. I feel I could have improved my secondary research by getting more sources as a whole and looking into weather they contain many similarities or differences, I did not do this, this time round due to time limitations.

Questionaire Charts

Competitor Analysis

This is some game footage from GTA 5, it shows multiple screen shots of players fulfilling activates at various points within the game. The top image shows two players mid way through a mission. here we can see they are both well equipped with weapons, there is blood on the floor and they are running, there are also big objects they can hide behind and other players on the map, this shows the action in this action and adventure game. The fact they have weapons and the layout of the map looks like this suggests they are probably in a game mode within the game possibly a team death match, this is very interactive as it relies on the players thought processes and actions to determine the outcome.  

This is an online team deathmatch where the players are playing against each other to get the most kills on the opposing team determining the winner with the highest score. This is great multiplayer features I would like to include in my game.

This is a mission within story mode, as you can see the character Michael is involved in heavy combat. I very much like the setting in this location, I will try to incorporated a dirty abandon building in my game.

This is an online heist, the players are parachuting onto a boat. I very much like the freedom of being able to do mostly whatever you want whenever you want especially something adventurous as skydiving, I will try to make many activities as accessible in my game.

These two images were taken from general gameplay, the character franklin is aiming a gun at cervillians in the game. This is very odd to do when playing as in real life this would be illegal, this added an element of excitement when playing and made me want to play on, I will try and incorporate this in my game.

This was another inamge taken within a task online, as you can see a player is dangling from the areoplane wing. Again this is more action that wouldn't take place in real life so brings that element of excitement, I would like to add features like this into my game.

Borderlands 3 is an action, role-playing, first-person shooter video game set in a space western/science fantasy location. The objective of the game is to travel to a different planet to the steal their vault. The player must complete mini quests and adventures before completing the game. This games is very interactive as you can see, the player is in control of 3 characters, the player must also control where the character moves and what weapons they use. As you can see from the images below there are many ways for the character to travel around the map again meaning the choice of travel the character uses is dependant on the players input, another interactive feature of this game.

I like the look of this gun, it is well suited to its environment, I will ensure all assets in my games do this. I also like the abnormal colouring however, this would not suit the style of my game.

I very much like the aiming style here as it still gives you a good view of your surroundings while aiming. I would like to incorporate a feature like this into my game to make it easier for the player.

I find the lasers here very appealing and think my target audience, on some level i would like to include these but maybe laser sights to keep it realistic.

All of these images were taken at different stages of general combat within borderlands. While some features were very appealing to me I feel the combat style is very un realistic and therefore, would not include it in my game.

Tomb Raider is another action adventure game, the main protagonist is Lara Croft. She must navigate through unfamiliar environments to get the treasure hidden somewhere within the game. There are many moves such as running, climbing, jumping and swinging which she must perform to get thought the environments, all of these are controlled by the player much like all the other games I have researched. Overall I have found that action adventure games are very dependant on the player when it comes to the movements and actions of the character, I feel this genre in particular relies on a lot of player interaction to achieve objectives.

I like the rustic appeal in this shot of the game, I think it is realistic and the hanging debris brings the element of outside into the cave to show the player is not detached. I also like the low level lighting showing they are not relying on electricity, I would like to try and include this in my game, maybe in the derelict building I spoke about from GTA.

I especially like the subtitles here, the yellow really makes them standout. I will include subtitles. When text appears on the screen I will ensure it pops out as much as this so the player can see it clearly.

All of the colours like in and I especially the subtle hints of red every now and then. I will try and match colours subtlety like this.

All these images were taken from a mission in the game Tomb Raider, as you can see she is using a fire torch so she can see, there is a lot of action in a cave with water, fire and a lot of debris to use and avoid.

Here is my competitor analysis, here explains games within the action adventure, much like the research into existing products, I played the game then analysed them. As far as research goes i find this reliable as it came from me first hand after I played them. This research would be more reliable if I had a team that condcuted it as it would have elimanted any personal bias from myself. I very much like the online features seen in GTA's online missions, I will try and incorporate this into my game. I also like the dirty unclean look from tomb raiders cave, at some point I will make sure there is a location in my game with low lighting and scattered debris to bring some erie excitement to the game. Finally, I like the aiming styles when looking down the guns from borderlands, I will try and incorporate this into my game.The benefits of this kind of research is that it allows me to see two things: 1) What my competitors are doing so that I can see what they do well and use that for inspiration. 2) I can look for holes in their products and think of ways to out do them.