Food for thought: Responding to "Your target audience doesn't exist"

[reltats]

Read this article, its great stuff. Your target audience doesn't exist

 

Unnecessary intro

 

So as a good few people here probably realized I'm trying to write a big (probably too much so) document up on the F2P model in the hopes that BCS and the community can find a good balance that allows them to make more then enough money to be hugely successful and to not scare off players with feeling "pay to win" or having too many "paywalls". Out my being a lead fingered fool, I hit that damn post button. posting a topic I had put little thought or time into, but it's still great to see all the discussion around the topic already and fills me with the hope that BCS is already taking some notes on how their audience feels. What does this have to do with this topic, well so far the data I've looked at has been wildly inconsistent. But today I remember this great article I read awhile back and may be the answer I've been trying to find. However the impact of this on the business model can be saved for the business model thread, this thread is to discuss in much broader terms of design choices. As a side note: I will not respond to anything inside this spoiler on the forums here, if you really want to discuss this part of thread I'm logged into the Victory Belles Discord every night I'm home

 

So the gist of this article can be summed up simply: The most successful games are not products in a market, They are the creators of their own market.

 

Something I want to make very clear, very quickly, is that this is not saying victory belles is wrong to be a ship girls game like kantai colllection. But what it is saying is that Victory Belles need to be more just the KanColle of the west. I feel I can best make this point is by looking at the FPS genre and its three leaders (at least in recognition) Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Counter Strike. I doubt there are too many people who would try to argue that these games are not exceedingly similar, however each brings it own things to the table And creates it's own culture. Call of Duty offers small maps and tight controls requiring a quick response in order to come out on top, whereas battlefield often has larger maps that more reward those observant of the flow of battle (I'm not really what counter strike offers other then shity anti hack, not at all a fan).

 

​So its clear multiple games can exist in the same genre while creating their own markets, Their own culture. yes there will be overlap, but the reason markets like the FPS and MOBA are so hard to get into is that so few companies approach it as trying to carve out a market and a culture of their own, and instead try to muscle in on those already establish. Quote: "It’s not enough to just offer a superior product with better marketing and brand recognition to convince players to switch...". This means Victory Belles should not be another game in the ship girls market, but rather it should create the Victory Belles market in the ship girls genre. Victory Belles is going to be plagued by its comparisons to Kancolle (hell I can't even help from doing it here) and what's going to be more important then anything is going for Victory Belles to be designed and marketed as a game that, even if more similar than different, must make itself distinguished from Kancolle. Victory Belles has already done itself a huge favor by making its art style distinguishable from Kancolle and I wish to give huge props to your art director a huge thumbs up for that.

 

I would be so bold as to say this is even more important then the business model I'm so concerned about

 

[Zodiark]

Well, I can agree with what you're saying. We don't want this to be like a clone of Kantai, and from what we've seen in just that trailer alone, it won't be. The art alone is a major difference, but there's also the fact VB (Victory Belles) has a storyline, where as Kantai is just grind and that's it. As I see it, VB'd already making a headway for it's own market. This point, we just need to give it more exposure, and I feel like it would blast off.

[Pataponvideo]

Instead of being the clone trying to become the original make your own path Victory Belle, don't become a game people will refer to you as the KanColle clone of the west. Become something so grand that people will have to acknowledge that your not a KanColle Clone but a game called Victory Belle.

[Legate of Mineta]

reltats;

 

Now that's an interesting article! But for me, personally, we're so different that there isn't much of a chance of really being compared. Superficially, perhaps- shipgirls are in common, but I think you all have seen enough systems now to know that we're actually a different kind of game.

 

Or...so *I* think!

[reltats]

@legate of Mineta

 

Happy you thought so and even happier to hear that you guys are making a game all your own! Admittedly I've only watched the Kancolle anime, so I'm not very familiar with the game. Maybe it was a bit of a hair trigger response to post this, but I feel this kind of philosophy is more than worth talking about.

[ArcticuKitsu]

Looks like people overlooked this, even though I made note of it recently.

 

http://academagia.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=3219

 

Ya, it's already different that it's more of an 'Arpeggio of Blue Steel' using some KanColle assets for the 'Mental Models', plus elements of 'Civilization 1-5' games. I guess it could be considered KanColle-Victory at Sea-Arpeggio-Civilizaiton game

 

It now has its own market now, which is sweet. Best to be as unique as Silent Hunter 3 also, yet nobody bothered to make a 'Euro Truck Simulator 2' type warship game borrowing from Silent Hunter 3. World of Warships doesn't count, yet it does touch on that sweet spot. Someone actually has to get off their rear ends to make a proper open-world, exploration, & free-exploring game similar to Silent Hunter 3. KanColle Arcade is trying that

 

 

Now, if someone could tap into this you shall command the market nicely. More so if it's KanColle or Victory Belles in an open world