The things you should know before start game development | Crysberry
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The things you should know before start game development

Marketing, Technology

26 June 2019

Video games are one of the fastest growing IT markets in the world. This conclusion was reached by experts from several leading research companies. Thus, according to the analytical agency Newzoo (Newzoo’s 2017 Global Games Market Report), over the past five years, revenues from sales of games in the world have increased by 56%, or $ 70 billion, reaching a record high of $ 109 billion in 2017. According to forecasts, by 2020 the capitalization of the world video game market will be $ 128.5 billion (+ 15.2% compared to this year). Based on the presented data, we can draw the following conclusions. 

For the beginning, today the gaming market volume exceeds the income of the film industry, gradually catching up with the sports market, and the revenues of individual companies specializing in the development and sale of video games amount to billions of dollars.

Game development is like any skill in our life: you become better when you do something, fail, gain experience and improve your skills.

Starting the development of any game, you should analyze the existing ones, research the market, understand the needs of the players. After all, video games are a sort of art. And the art was created to impress and amaze others. Treat a game like any other piece of art.

How to create an unusual game?

To create something special, something that will sell and make a profit:

1. You must study the gaming market: articles, analyst reports, numbers, facts, opinions.

2. You need to find a balance between what people want and what you want to do. This will give you the opportunity to understand what people are playing now, what they are interested in and what exactly you can attract them to.

3. Use the advantages of the Internet to choose the most popular niche, look at the statistics and do the right conclusions. Many people have made attempts to create an amazing game and failed. The market analysis step is vital, because:

• you’ll find out what you can expect from creating a game;

• you’ll find the main difficulties you will encounter in the process of producing and introducing the game to the market.

Here are some of the most common platforms that have the information you need:

  • AppStore;
  • Play Market;
  • Steam;
  • Windows Store;
  • SteamSpy;
  • Kickstarter;
  • Patreon.

Such platforms are very useful because they provide an opportunity to look at the market as a whole. Is this game popular? Is it on the top queries?

I would like to speak in more detail about SteamSpy.

Steam Spy is regularly used by many developers to evaluate the success or failure of the game. Of course, the data are approximate but very informative. The program is based on an algorithm for evaluating user profiles. Steam Spy scans 1.6 million random profiles – less than half a percent of the total number of Steam profiles. Then the data is processed, extrapolated and sent to the site, where it can be used by anyone.

What do users do with SteamSpy?

  • They are looking for ideas;
  • Users check to need to add certain functions to the game or localize it for any country;
  • They look for games that can invest in. It happens more often than it seems;
  • They check the presence of competitors: similar games are aimed at the same audience. The easiest way to do this is by searching for multiple tags;
  • They check the size of the target audience (that is, the number of people who buy more than three games in the category of interest to you).

Learn more about this application here.

Kickstarter is one more great way to research the market. Go to the Kickstarter video game category and check out current projects. You can find a game that will repeat your idea as much as possible. It’s a good opportunity to look at your creation with your own eyes.

As in any industry, there are trends in the video game market. There was a time when at the peak there were games like Tower Defense, games at idle, 2048-like games, copies of Flappy Bird.

Read also: A complete guide to virtual reality game monetization

A short Video Gaming Industry Overview

The www.wepc.com team has kindly shared a list of the latest statistics and trends in the video game industry.

In a few words:

  •  According to forecasts, by 2020 the video game market will be more than 90 billion US dollars (BestTheNews, 2016);
  •  There are more than 2.5 billion players in the world. (European Mobile Gaming Market, 2016);
  • 80% of the total revenue of the video game industry at $ 36 billion in 2017 comes from software sales. (Entertainment Software Association, NPD Group, 2017);
  • The largest gaming market in 2017 was the Asia-Pacific region (51.2 billion US dollars) (NewZoo, 2017).

There is an incredible amount of games. But gamers are tired of the monotony. As usual, there comes a time when it gets boring, and the public demands a new look. Therefore, starting the development of a new game or a new genre, it is necessary to take into account the tastes and preferences of the masses. After all, you create a game for people, which means that people should choose it from thousands of similar games.

So, a brief conclusion

Starting to engage in any activity, it is necessary to make a statistical analysis of the market. For this, there are a huge number of applications and articles that need to be studied. In some moments, it is very useful.

We hope that this article will become your guide, make your work better, make the game more profitable. We do not in any way want to destroy the project of your dreams. But you should know what you are doing before you spend all your money and energy on it. This is just market research, and it will not tell you the whole truth. It just gives you a different point of view than yours.

It is accepted to learn from mistakes. So learn from the mistakes of others, avoid making your own.

l.sidorenko