Answering some basic questions about your audience and keeping them in mind throughout the game development process will help you develop a game that not only appeals to players’ interests but also keeps them engaged. This is crucial since your audience is ultimately the people who will determine whether or not your game is successful.

Age

Imagine you are developing two games: one for six year olds and another for twelve year olds. How different would these games look?

Different styles of games appeal to different age groups so the age of your audience will definitely have an impact on how you design your game. Younger players tend to expect different things from their video game experience than older players. For example, a complicated and action-packed role playing game would probably not appeal to first graders. On the other hand, a basic colour matching game might be too boring for 8th graders.

In order to learn more about age appropriate game design, check out the following links:

• Designing for Youth - Making Games for Players Under 14 - Extra Credits
• 3 tips on designing games for kids of different stages

Skill Level

Age is also related to skill level, which is something you should also take into consideration when developing your game (Fullerton, 2014). Take a moment to figure out which of the following categories your audience falls into so you can design a game that suits their skill level:

• Hard-core gamers (highly skilled)
• Average gamers (moderately skilled)
• Casual gamers (basic skill level)
• Non-gamers (very little skill) (Dunniway, 2015)

Younger players usually fall under the category of non-gamers or casual gamers as they possess the least amount of gaming skill and experience. A larger number of older players fall into the categories of average or hard-core gamers as they possess more skill and experience gaming. Not everyone in a particular age group falls into the same category but most children typically fall under the category of “casual gamers” (Dunniway, 2015).

Keep your audience’s skill level in mind as you design your game to ensure it is neither too difficult nor too easy to complete. Your game should be challenging enough to keep players interested but not so challenging that players feel it is impossible. The best way to ensure the difficulty of your game is appropriate is to get feedback from players during the playtesting process.

Interests and Motivations

In order to better understand what your audience enjoys when it comes to video games, take some time to figure out what kinds of games they usually play. Doing this will give you a better sense of the challenges and stories they enjoy. It will also help you understand what motivates them to play, which will help you determine what sorts of elements you should consider putting into your game.

Even if if you don’t know what types of video games your audience plays or they don’t play video games at all (non-gamers), you can still incorporate “motivating” elements into your game. According to Sherry (2013), people are motivated to play video games for a variety of reasons but some of the more common reasons are as follows:

• Social reasons: People want to interact with and make friends with other characters or players.
• Emotional reasons: People want to have fun and experience the satisfaction of achieving rewards (eg. a high score).
• Intellectual reasons: People want to feel challenged and have opportunities to be creative, compete, discover, and experience different identities.

When you’re developing your game, ask yourself which of these elements should be incorporated into your game. Will you include social elements like role playing? What sort of rewards will players receive for progressing through your game? Will players be competing with other characters or players? Incorporating some of these elements into your game can make your game much more interesting and engaging for your audience.

References

Dunniway, T. (2015). Designing Games for an Audience. Linked In. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/designing-games-audience-troy-dunniway

Fullerton, T. (2014). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Second Edition. Massachusetts: Elsevier Inc.

Sherry, J. L. (2013). The challenge of audience reception: A developmental model for educational game engagement. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2013(139), 11-20. 10.1002/cad.20027