THE MOBILE GAMES MARKET

In order to understand our target audience and to begin User-centred design, It will be useful to look into the market of mobile and puzzle gaming.

WHY?

I will use this research to narrow down our target audience to a specific group of people, making it easier to design in line with a specific demographic however, not cancelling out any potential consumers.

A rule of design is designing with a purpose and with a specific audience in mind, otherwise what is the point? Everything must have a purpose, including our design for Anima Mundi. Everything must be unique to the game and exist with a purpose.

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

• Who are our target audience?

• What is the demographic of mobile/puzzle gaming?

• Who are most likely to play Anima Mundi?

• What will our target audience be most interested in?

• Why are they playing Anima Mundi/why would they want to?

• Why does Anima Mundi appeal to this audience?

• What is our purpose?

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

I will begin by looking into the statistics for puzzle/mobile gaming in order to understand the kind of demographic we are working with.

"MOBILE GAME MARKET TRENDS 2020"

RESEARCH LINK: https://www.dotcominfoway.com/blog/infographic-mobile-game-market-trends-2020/

"The mobile gaming industry is growing at an exponential rate"

"Mobile games now account for 51% of global revenue in the gaming industry followed by console games (25%) and PC games (24%)".

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT TRENDS IN MOBILE GAMING?

• Cloud gaming

• Augmented Reality

• Cross-platform

• Blockchain-based

• Hyper Casual Games

• Competitive multiplayer

WHAT ARE THE TOP GENRES USERS PLAY?

• Puzzle (57.29%)

• Arcade (55.60%)

• Action (34.75%)

• Adventure (15.51%)

'Key monetisation methods' - This is something to take note of, taking into account methods to gain income while users play the game such as In-App Ads, Rewarded Ads, In game Brand Placements and In-App Purchases. If we were to take Anima Mundi further these are the kind of things we would consider when it comes to generating income once the game is put on the market.

EVALUATION -

From this I can see that puzzle gaming is the top form of mobile gaming as well as hyper casual games. Anima Mundi is a casual puzzle based game focusing on more visuals than intense gameplay so I'd categorise our game as a 'casual mobile puzzle game'.

"MOBILE GAMING DEMOGRAPHICS"

RESEARCH LINK: https://www.mmaglobal.com/research/myth-busting-mobile-gaming-demographics

It's stated that the increased accessibility of mobiles/smartphones and tablets have had a huge impact on the growth of mobile gaming. Devices like these provide people with a casual form of gaming and has introduced gaming to those that wouldn't necessarily consider themselves gamers.

"The mobile gaming audience is made up of women"

"An average gaming session for women lasts 25% longer than for men".

These statistics show that women are most likely to play a wider variety of games whereas men find their favourites and stand by them. Here are the most popular games played by both men and women:

This diagram presents that women also spend longer playing games than men and will have more gaming sessions in one day. Anima Mundi is a casual puzzle game however with the number of regions and basing this on the narrative, it's more likely to be a longer game similar to Playdead's Inside, than a shorter game like Tetris.

AGE DISTRIBUTION

Although we do not aim to target our game to any specific age group, it's good to know for reference and to understand who Anima Mundi will appeal to the most.

"Parents are more likely to be gamers than their children" - I found this statement entertaining but scarily true.

My age group (16-24) represents "14.2% of mobile gamers".

"61% of gamers were parents with children living in the same household"

These statistics show that the younger generation and their parents are most likely to play mobile games. The largest age group representing mobile gamers are 30% of 25-34 year olds.

We do not aim to narrow down our target audience to one specific group but this is an interesting statistic to consider!

EVALUATION:

Here's my evaluation of my market research for mobile/puzzle games.

The majority of the mobile gaming industry is made up of female gamers around the age of 25. However, men and the younger generation are not opposed to this form of gaming. Casual puzzle games is the most popular genre of mobile gaming and female users tend to spend longer playing these games compared to men.

In terms of Anima Mundi, as a team we aim to focus on the visuals of the game as well as providing players with casual gameplay. The game consists of a series of puzzles which we are to design ourselves, and players must complete them in order to progress to the next region.

With this research in mind, it's obvious that if we were to create a 'persona' for a user of Anima Mundi, they would be a female in either their late teens or mid 20's. As well as this, the length of the game would be fairly longer than an average puzzle game and therefore will appeal to users who prefer to spend longer on more immersive games that require thought/focus.

HOW WILL I USE THIS?

Being aware of this research, I now have a clearer understanding of the kind of market we are targeting Anima Mundi towards. Using this research I can design in line with a specific demographic which will result in design choices and essentially developing the game to appeal to them. This will influence the design of the puzzle interactions taking place in the environment as well as the visual appeal of the game.

EXISTING GAME REVIEWS

I have looked into games similar to the summary of Anima Mundi and have looked at the reviews to analyse the most important features of these games:

Playdead's INSIDE - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/playdeads-inside/id1201642309

"Hunted and alone, a boy finds himself drawn into the center of a dark project".

An Adventure/Puzzle based game where players begin in the middle of a forest on the run to avoid being caught and killed. Although the narrative is a little morbid, the visuals are what appeal the most.

PUBLIC REVIEWS FROM THE APP STORE:

• "Gorgeous art and animations, devious puzzle design and a pitch-black sense of humour"

• "So immaculately designed"

• "Almost feels suitable for display in an art museum"

• "Beautifully rendered"

• "Good graphics and sound"

• "Unique environments"

• "Puzzles are fun to solve"

• "Intriguing story/feel"

• "Very short for a $7 game"

• "Stunning artwork and great gameplay"

• "Insane attention to detail"

REFLECTION -

Most of the reviews on the app store begin with praising Playdead's 'stunning artwork' and 'gorgeous designs'. This shows that users appreciate the process of creating stunning visuals and aesthetics as well as great gameplay. This portrays that the art/visuals in-game do have an impact on the user and play a huge part in their overall experience. This is something we as a team will focus on and treat as our top priority. I am also blown away by Playdead's incredible visuals and with such simple interactions, combined has achieved a very successful game and touched many hearts.

From this I have learned that good quality visuals and audio are just as important as interactive elements in games similar to Inside and Anima Mundi.

WENJIA by Veewo Games - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wenjia/id1459071445

"a 2D platform game with puzzle-solving elements. Players can freely travel between two realms (the material world and the energy world), each of them with different challenges and obstacles. Players must utilize both realms’ mechanisms to reach their final goal"

Wenjia has a similar approach as Anima Mundi. As you (a cat) progress, the environment around you changes and provides players with a series of obstacles along the way.

PUBLIC REVIEWS FROM THE APP STORE:

• "Graphics are smooth and settings are beautiful"

• "Amazingly beautiful platformer!"

• "Controllers are flawless"

• "Music is really good"

• "Story was quite short"

• "Beautiful game"

• "Captivating - from the music to the graphics and storyline. Definitely worth buying!"

• "Fantastic graphics, controls and soundtrack"

REFLECTION:

From these reviews It gives me the impression that the simpler the controls, the better. Users seem to prefer simple controls, fascinating gameplay and mind-blowing aesthetics, as this is what appeals the most. I would agree with this because if a game isn't aesthetically pleasing, I won't be interested! According to the reviews and playing Wenjia myself, it's purely focused on the beautiful visuals and stunning soundtrack. These are two things that contribute to achieving immersiveness in games and Wenjia has done this really well. The attention to detail, smooth animations and use of parallax scrolling contribute to this and formed a feel-good, pretty looking game. The gameplay is basic and involves jumping to collect items and traversing the environment which is similar to Anima Mundi. We also are incorporating basic interactive puzzles alongside engaging visuals and achieving immersion through the use of sound.

HOW WILL I USE THIS?

I have understood that the most important features from a similar genre of games are visuals, sound and basic/explanatory gameplay. The visuals of a game could be beautiful yet the gameplay be complex and frustrating, however in Anima Mundi we will focus on achieving balance, with intricate puzzle interactions and to appear just as beautiful. We will also be incorporating the use of sound in our game, by uniquely composing the soundtrack and using sound effects to represent the nature in the environment.

As Sound Designer, during later stages of the project I will be documenting my research and work week by week which can be found here: Sound Design via Main Menu.