And what is success anyway?
Success to me means that the product we created brings the right experience to the target audience thus generating enough revenue to keep working on that product.
Predicting if your game is going to be a hit is impossible unless you have a crystal ball, wear a point hat and can fly on a broom.
What's in a name?
The tools (that I used) are used to determine the innovation rate of the product itself so a better name for my system would be product innovation rate or product innovation index. Or maybe we can call it BOS index (blue ocean strategy index).
Blue Ocean Strategy created by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne is a new way of thinking, a new strategic mind-set that charts a bold new path to winning the future.
It challenges the tenets of competitive strategy and calls for a shift in focus from competing to creating new market space and hence making the competition irrelevant.
And so on...
I will show you how I used the six path framework, the tiers of non customers, 4 action framework, the strategy canvas (combined with the lenses of "the art of game design") and the BOI index.
Note that I did test my concept twice. One after the paper prototype and one at the end of the development because changes to the concept always happen. The results below are from the second test.
BOI index
Value |
Value |
average connect 4 |
average casual game |
4 in a blow |
Utility |
Is there exceptional utility? Are there compelling reasons to buy your offering? |
- |
- |
+ |
Price |
Is your price easily accessible to the mass of buyers? |
+ |
+ |
+ |
Cost |
Does your cost structure meet the target cost? |
+ |
? |
-/+ |
Adoption |
Have you addressed adoption hurdles up front? |
? |
? |
+ |
Lately I had a conversation with one of my brothers. He played less video games because he didn't like the ones that where in the market.
We both agreed that the games on the market always seemed the same as the ones before. That's why rocket league is so popular now. Finally something that feels different.
Looking at the other BOS tools and the experience our game gives us, I really think we made something new this time.
Price? Yes, for free-to-play and premium.
Well F2P is free and asking 3$ for a premium game is slightly above the average price on the mobile market.
Cost? Yes for the F2P version, no for the full premium version.
My budget could not cover everything I had in mind for our game. So I made a deal with monkube to build a basic F2P version (similar to crossy road) that could generate revenue. With the extra money we can keep working on the project to get the full premium version done. But that's only IF the game generates enough revenue.
Adoption? Yes.
I had none to little problem convincing or motivating my partners to work on the project.
Boardgames... You see that only the familiar games are doing well on the app stores. So I wonder, will board gamers play solo on their mobile phone or tablet?
Strategic Group: Look across strategic groups within industry
Casual and puzzle games are one of the most popular games on the mobile market. Board games are somewhat the least popular games. Making something that fits for both groups would be a homerun.
Buyer Group: Redefines the industry buyer group
Our premium version will do this well. The premium version focuses on the buyer, not the player.
The F2P version focuses on influencers. It's the same as in other games. Inviting friends etc. Nothing new.
Scope of Product or Service Offering: Looks across to complementary product and service offerings
What happens before and after the purchase? What do players need to play my game?
Since most families have a laptop, PC or mobile device, I see no problems here. The game engines made it easy to port your game from mobile to desktop or browser. Google, apple and facebook have made it easy to switch from device to device. Progress is saved on servers anyway.
Functional-emotional Orientation: Rethinks the functional-emotional orientation of its industry
In april this year, GIBiz published this post. I always wondered, are players that emotional buyers? The F2P version is the same as other games, but with the premium version we tried to take a more rational approach.
Time: Participates in shaping external trends over time
This is a big no, I think. Or are we gonna shape the F2P model with our rational selling strategy? Will my working method change the way indie developers design their game?
Only time will tell.
How I made this personas will be described in another blogpost.
So for now the current market and tier 1 are treated as one. Me, the board gamer. I love more tactical thinking and I love to be mentally challenged.
Tier 2 is my girlfriend. She is a casual gamer. Games need to be simple for her. Not that casual gamers are stupid. She doesn't want to go to 10 tutorials in order to know how the games works.
And tier 3? I'm guessing that these will be console gamers. Or people that have a psp or portable nintendo device.
Thanks to my survey I found quite a lot of similarities between these customer groups. But with all the theory and methodology, how can we test that our game focuses on these similarities?
Even if your testers belong to the target group and even if they liked your game, then you still won't be able to tell if your game is hitting the right audience.
Why? Because when testers are forced or asked to play your game, there is no guarantee that they will actually download and play your game in the "real world".
Soft-launch, kickstarter or launching the core gameplay on a smaller platform (like king does with royal games).
Eliminate |
Reduce |
Raise |
Create |
Music |
Graphics |
Storyline |
Monetization |
Multiplayer |
- |
Characters |
- |
The first reflexes designers have is to put as much features in the game as possible. So did I. I didn't erase anything.
But when I got to know the casual player I noticed that they (as do I) turn off the music of the game. Have you noticed that crossy road doesn't has music at all?
A second thing is that all casual gamers play solo. I, the board gamer, prefer to play team games like smite, WoW, LoL, ... But for a small game like 4 in a blow I'm happy with a solo campaign or solo missions. So we removed the multiplayer.
Reduce
With 4 in a blow, we went for convenience. So graphics had to be reduced to make the game load faster. Somehow Terry was able to put alot of elegance into the game, giving the game a separate style (compared to other board games). But I didn't count that as a creation because pixel art isn't new in the industry.
Raise
Compared to most board games (and also match 3 games) in the app stores, story and characters (of the premium version at least) would be way better. More playable characters with their background story. The stories are all explained in small storyboards and the stories should have a clear link to the game.
Create
By letting the player go through the selling loop every now and then, I think we really created a new monetization technique.
strategy canvas
And I'm also wondering how much impact this tool can have on a videogame. Of course you can always go on your gut and hope that it feels innovating / different enough.
What's the end score?
And how much does each tool weigh on the total score? I have the feeling that the non-customers, errc grid and the SC have a bigger impact on finding blue ocean.
Also, the result of my working methode hasn't been tested in the market yet. For now, my gut tells me this game concept has passed the test. Although I think I have better concepts waiting to processed.