The 4 Fundamental steps to design a video game to beat the competition

In the previous article, we explored the importance of the concept of positioning for the development of a successful video game. We saw that by positioning, we don’t mean occupying a free space in the market, but actually occupying an unoccupied position in the minds of players.

Today we will look in more detail at positioning, and how to apply it to your video game or software house. This is a complex concept, which requires years of research and study. However, I hope these articles will help you form a clear idea about the most important marketing concept, which is unfortunately still overlooked by the majority of video game companies (and by other players in the industry).

If you haven’t read the first two articles of this series, go back and read them before continuing; this way, you won’t get lost trying to understand what I’ll be saying next.

The greatest obstacle between your video game and its success is not quality, but discoverability.

Originality, unique mechanics, and good graphics are no longer enough to convince players to buy or invest in your game. These aspects now have to confront a new variable: the target audience.

Who is your target audience? A target audience is a group of players with well-defined characteristics in common. Every game category (or genre) has its own target audience. Candy Crush, for example, has a target audience that is different from God of War’s. Your game may have original and innovative mechanics, and better graphics than Red Dead Redemption 2 or Cyberpunk 2077. But the question is:

Are your game’s characteristics perceived as positively relevant by your target audience, or not?

If these features are not positively relevant, then they are mere artifices you added to the game, following your own creativity or the trend of the moment. They often bring more damage than good.

For such reasons, if you want to develop a successful video game today, you must take the following steps:

Step 1: Define the category of your video game

Does your game fit into an existing category?

For example, is it a platform game or a Match-3? Or have you invented a new category? The latter would be the best choice.

Why is PUBG successful? Because it created a new category: Battle Royale games.

Why are Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls successful? Because they defined a new category: Souls-like games.

Why is Temple Run successful? Because it popularised a new category: Endless Runner games.

Why is Minecraft successful? Because it introduced a new category: Sandbox games.

Step 2: Determine your target audience

Who is your ideal player? What other games do they play? Is your target player a woman? A man? A child? Do they work from home or in an office? Are they single or in a relationship?

You have to learn to build what is called a Persona.

Step 3: Once you have determined your target players, you then must understand them

An Indian proverb says that you cannot understand someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes. It’s good advice.

What are the problems your target players may have? Why do they prefer to play one game rather than another? What do they like?

To find these answers, you have to start reading online magazines, forums, and comments on Facebook groups. You should also attend fairs and events where you are likely to find your target players and get to know them in person. These are good examples of how to gather information about your ideal player.

The purpose of undertaking such demanding research work is to figure out how to differentiate yourself from the competition and how to convince your target audience to play your game instead of another. As Dan Kennedy said in his book, The Ultimate Sales Letter:

“The goal is understanding. To persuade someone, to motivate someone, to sell someone, you really need to understand that person.”

Step 4: Study Competitors

Your positioning and strategy will depend on what the competition allows you to do. If they have entered the mind of your ideal/target player before you, then they have already conquered a good chunk of the market. They now have an advantage.

The analysis of competition is a complex task that requires a great amount of time. For this reason, you must keep away from publishers, especially when they claim they can do everything, like:

• Social Media Growth
• Digital Marketing
• PR
• Launching Campaigns
• Events
• Social and Community Management
• and so on…

Today the competition in the video game industry is so tough that these agencies should have an expert specialist in each of the above services.

Let’s pretend they actually do have them. To tell you the truth, no top-level professional can offer their services based simply on future royalties, or for less than £50,000. The margins just aren’t there. What they will ask back for their costs (including all their networking expenses) would undermine an already fragile initial capital.

If you really want to study competition using a precise, effective, and useful method, there are only two possibilities:

1. Roll up your sleeves and commit yourself to study (for at least a certain number of years) until you understand the theory of marketing and are able to apply the techniques that lay the basis of brand positioning in the video game industry.
2. Entrust a serious professional specialised in brand positioning for the video game industry to prepare a correct positioning strategy for your video game.

If you don’t have the budget to hire top-tier consultants, my Substack newsletter is your unfair advantage. Every year, I invest thousands of pounds learning brand positioning from global experts, and I’ve adapted those lessons to the video game world. I don’t sugarcoat things, I share what works, because without positioning your game doesn’t stand a chance.

I am myself a video game developer, and one of my objectives is to fight against those who sell snake oil to developers, shoving the risks of the business venture onto them alone, draining them like milk cows. In the 21st century, the need for a publisher to distribute a successful video game is no longer necessary. If you have designed your video game following the rules of positioning, you don’t need publishers, you don’t need to pay them loads of money in royalties or cash.

Let’s take Minecraft as an example.

Minecraft entered Beta in 2011. At Beta’s launch, it sold over a million copies in less than a month without the services of a publisher. Minecraft has never been commercially publicised, but only through word of mouth and a few (unpaid) mentions in media such as Penny Arcade.

In April 2011, four months after its launch, its estimated revenues were around €23 million.

What is the reason for such success? Minecraft introduced the category of sandbox games, which did not exist until that moment.

Such is the power of brand positioning.

Only after having gathered enough information about your target player, and understanding in depth how they live, discovering their deepest fears and dreams, then, and only then, can you start elaborating your positioning.

Thus, you will need to know:

• What happens in the mind of your target player?
• Based on what the competition allows you to do, how can you act?

Want to know the 3 reasons why positioning is your only weapon for reviving the sales of your game and avoiding your company’s bankruptcy? I break them down in detail on my Substack. Continue reading the full article here.