Market Analysis
What type of Game are we?
The type of market we are trying to reach is typically called,the casual games market. These type of customers are more interested in what they can accomplish in 5-10 minutes then a more time consuming role.
Common features of casual games are:
* Extremely simple gameplay, like a puzzle game that can be played entirely using a one-button mouse or cellphone keypad
* Allowing gameplay in short bursts, during work breaks or, in the case of portable and cell phone games, on public transportation
* The ability to quickly reach a final stage, or continuous play with no need to save the game
* No plot or character, or simple ones with no bearing on the game's mechanics
* 2D, abstract graphics
* Some variant on a "try before you buy" business model
What is the growth forecast of this market?
There are many games companies already servicing this market, as it is a key stepping stone to other endeavours. Many companies who do well in this market go on to greater levels of game design/development. While this competition in this area is going to be difficult, our game will be focused towards an area that is perhaps more open to expansion then other places, the casual multi-player market. This is a growing area in game development one that is open to expansion and has a ready fan base.
The North American market for casual games is expected to grow from an estimated $281 million in sales this year (2006) to $1.15 billion in 2011, according to DFC. Globally, thanks to the popularity of these games in China and Korea, the market is already closing in on $1 billion in annual sales.
CNet News
Who are our audience?
According to the International game developers Association, typically the audience for the sort of action/shooting game we are making is a younger and more male audience. However what makes this different is that this is a casual multiplayer shooting game. Being a casual game, our audience is more specialized because of its casual/multiplayer aspect aspect. The IGDA reports that while the largest demographic for casual gamers is typically women, gradually the number of men playing casual games is increasing. As the number of men playing casual games increases, so will the need for games that more appeal to the male persona. Its this increasing market that we intend to capitalize on.
What about the future?
Although the original game is going to be made for the computer, after gaining a fan base to build on we see this game expanding into other medias such as mobile phones.
The mobile gaming industry is set to expand to $6.1 billion by 2010, rising at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27.2 percent from $1.8 billion in 2005
iSuppli forecasts.
Recent Pew Research studies show that cell phone owners want to do more with mobile technology, and game playing ranks high on the list. Wider deployment of 3G networks, additional investment from game publishers, and more powerful devices will all improve the mobile gaming experience. This is an increasingly popular market with games like UFO: Aftershock, Doom, Red Faction, Splinter Cell, Medal of Honour and many more entering this market for mobile phone entering the market we can expect this to be a ready market for new games and fun games.
Why will it sell?
Sand Auto war will be marketed for the casual gaming world. The term casual game is used to refer to a category of electronic or computer games targeted at a mass audience. Casual games usually have a few simple rules and an engaging game design, making it easy for a new player to begin playing the game in just minutes. They require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and there are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer.
Now casual gaming market grows in accelerated rate. Last year casual gaming market took moke then 50 million dollars in US. And this number will grow more then 70% annually. Sand Auto Wars will fit perfectly in such market and can capitalise in its 2d graphics, light wait and multiplayer game play.
Many casual gamers do not have powerful PCs or 3D cards and that area where Sand Auto Wars can be advertise. It uses light 2D graphics and can be played on system with very weak or old graphic accelerator. Good example of such marketing is World Of Warcraft and Everquest II. While Everquest II pushed their graphic to the limit, making game unplayable on middle-end systems and even high-end system struggle with over the top RAM use and loading time. While it made Everquest II look pretty on screenshots on official web page, it didnt look so good on user PC because they had to use it on very low setting. Not only Everquest lost good amount of targeted audience it also had a lot of problem with over complicated 3D system, which brought a lot of bugs, instability for the game and much longer development cycle. World Of Warcraft went other way and made they graphic simple but pretty and good looking. They centralise on simple effects, colourful textures and left out all fancy stuff out. Such act made sure that anybody with a half decent PC can play game and still get good looking picture with good frame rate. This made game accessible to much large audience.
Sand Auto War will use same principle. While using 2D graphics,
SaW will make sure that any PC user can download and play the game without any hassle over the fancy 3D graphics or updating their PC to get to minimum frame rate. This will make sure
SaW will be acceptable by very large target audience.
Sand Auto War will have simple but interesting game play and will be perfectly suited for casual gaming market. While game play will be a lot of fun and action, it will not require large amount of time and will use very simple control scheme. This will make sure that any player, with or without gaming experience can get into the game as soon as they start it up. Such feat will draw even large audience group from casual to hardcore gamers.
Another strong marketing point for the Sand Auto Wars it is multiply/online game play. One of the most successful games on the market today gets there by offering strong and interesting multiplayer components. For example MMORPG market is just one big multiplayer gaming section. Action genre, where Sand Auto War is, contains best sellers like Counter Strike, Battlefield, Unreal and etc. As much as it is fun to play against AI, it always much more fun to play with fellow humans. Sand Auto Wars delivers best components from online game play.
Sand Auto Wars is a car game with ability to destroy other player and this really good mixture for the marketing aspects. Car games or Racing Games is very favourable genre in gaming. It has such gains as GTA, Need for Speed, Test Drive, Flatout and many other successful titles. Add the ability to destroy you opponents and you get a perfect combination for the game play. Game like Carmageddon is true gaming classic and had very successful commercial run. The idea behind Sand Auto Wars is to fulfil player desire for fast speed chases and good old fashion destruction. Such environment can be appealing for audience of all ages.
Main marketing goal for the Saw Auto Wars is to have something for everybody. Fully capitalize on the casual gaming advantages and add fresh view on what casual game can deliver.
Business Plan
Funding: All of the funding needed for the project will be delivered by the publisher of the game. This include all development expenses, plus support for the game after its release, such as main server cost and game support. After the release of the game development team will receive %15-%20 from each copy sold by the publisher.
Delivery: Game will be sold over the internet from web pages such as www.directtodrive.com or software such as Steam. Since game size will be very limited it can be very easily obtained by anybody all over the globe and with any internet speed. By using such delivery system it will insure that one publisher can deliver game to user all around the globe without big investments into the printing of the hardcopy of the game and delivering it to the stores. Also no box means that user will not pay for the delivery and there is no change of CD/DVD damage. Also such scheme makes it much easier to advertise game and lead user straight to the means to buy game online.
Pricing: Such games like Sand Auto Wars can be priced around $10 to $20 per copy. In this price range, users will not look for outstanding graphics or giant and deep gameplay. Statistically it is best price range for the games, where customer will purchase game if it even slightly interested him, even only to look what game is all about. $10-$20 is still counted as a spare change for most of the people who shops online.
Investment return: Sand Auto Wars takes small investment to produce therefore it is very short time until all funding will be covered and game will bring in income. Even if game sells for the low price of $10 it will only take 15000 copies to cover all investments in development of the game.
Close future: After the release of the game, development team will closely monitor customer review and comment to create patches and fix any bugs found. Game will be update with some extra feature which might be request by the user base. Following two to five weeks after release team will try to polish the game and make it more appealing to the customer. During this time publisher will not need to fund the development as development team will be able to get needed financial support from the income from the sales of the game.
Far Future: After couple of month of sale of Sand Auto Wars team might decide to developed add-on or sequel to the game. At this stage a new funding agreement will be signed with a current or new publisher. As game is consists of online gameplay it is more likely that development of add-on will be the best option.