Introduction
Have you already conducted early user testing for your new game? Perhaps you've shown your concept to a few enthusiasts or sought advice from expert developers. This might surprise you: one of the most pivotal steps in game development is validating your game idea. It's not just a step that investors want to hear about, but an actual strategic move to learn valuable information about where your game is heading before it gets there. The success of your game relies on how well it resonates with your target audience. Let's walk through the essential steps to effectively validate your game idea.
Understanding Your Market and Audience
The first step in validating your game idea is to thoroughly understand who you're creating the game for. Begin with market research and competitor analysis to grasp the demographics, preferences, and gaming habits of your potential players. This knowledge is not just about identifying your audience but also about understanding the current market trends and popular genres.
Alongside this, crafting a clear value proposition for your game is crucial. Your value proposition should briefly articulate what makes your game unique and why it appeals to your target audience. It's the cornerstone of your game's identity in a crowded market. User testing the value proposition early on with the desired target audience can be beneficial, as more often than not: your team won´t know everything that is out there or currently in development. You benefit from understanding both today´s situation as well as the past successes and failures in the genre, and what caused them. Ask around from players, don´t just keep it all in your bubble.
Prototyping and Feedback
Once you have a solid understanding of your market and audience, it's time to bring your game idea to life with a prototype. This could range from a simple sketch to actual game demo. The key is to use this prototype to gather direct feedback from your target audience.
You can for example: host user testing sessions, conduct surveys, and organize interviews or focus groups to collect a range of perspectives. Additionally, tapping into the power of community feedback and social media engagement on platforms relevant specifically to your game genre can provide more informal yet valuable insights. These platforms offer a direct line to potential players and can be a goldmine for early reactions and suggestions for improvement.
Refinement and more Validation
With feedback in hand, the next step is to analyze and iterate on your prototype. This phase is all about refining your game based on the insights you've gathered. Consider organizing the feedback data to prioritize changes and align your game more closely with player expectations.
There are a few other validatition efforts that can also be beneficial. For example: launching a crowdfunding campaign or showcasing your game at conventions or festivals. These can serve both as additional sources of feedback and help to seek wider market interest.
Tip: If you release something cool on platforms like itch.io or social media, have a funnel ready to capture any viral attention you might receive. A few examples of what you could do: creating a Steam page where people can add your game to their wishlist, opening a discord for people to join or collecting emails so you can notify potential customers when your game goes on sale.
Advanced Testing and Analysis
If you're in a position to release an early version of your game, leverage data analytics and A/B testing to fine-tune various game elements. This approach allows you to track player interactions and preferences in real-time. Don´t settle for only tracking general things like DAU or Retention, go deep into the player interactions and find the answers you are seeking to boost your numbers and get your players into flow state.
Additionally, seeking influencer feedback can provide in-depth insights your players or experts without the everyday objective of creating engaging content may lack. Just make sure the influencers´ audience aligns with your game´s target market.
User Testing Case Study
One concrete example of User Testing success: Our client AMGI´s game, My Pet Hooligan (currently in pre-alpha early access on Epic Games), was in their first playable prototypes. Before Private User Testing with XPFIRST, they had a value proposition in the big picture for their multiplayer social action game with stunning high quality aesthetics and likeable IP and goofy cartoony theme. However, it wasn't fully clear this early in the development, what actual gameplay mechanics would make the game stand out in a very competitive market for the player segment choosing their games mostly based on mechanics.
As AMGI'S Game Director states in his testimonial about working with XPFIRST, our user testing broadened their game´s general player appeal. What you don´t know yet, is that the user testing also revealed a significant demand to double down on skateboarding mechanics of the game early on.
Players thought those were fun, but should still go even deeper! Iterating on the feedback and suggestions from the first user tests, the team made the skateboard mechanics more versatile, more in-depth, added animations and improved the skateboard´s usability.
Months later, their community of players has completely fallen in love with the skateboarding and in their first small free-for-all tournament, they had 7000 concurrent viewers on Twitch and got a lot of love for the fast paced action the skateboards enabled. Sparking both influencer and player interest for the future of their game´s development.
Conclusion
Validating a game idea is a process that encompasses understanding your audience, conducting user testing, and being receptive to feedback. By following these steps, you can boost your game's appeal and ensure it meets the expectations of your target audience.
Are you ready to transform your game idea into a success story?
