Video Games as a Marketing Technique Part 4: Pitfalls

February 19th, 2009 by John Rhea

Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules to making successful games. But, here are a few of the pitfalls to watch out for. Make sure you do a lot of testing, particularly in your target demographic because the last thing you want to do is create a game…

…that isn’t fun. Well, duh! Then, why make a game? No game designer ever sets out to make a game that’s as fun as watching linoleum curl, but it does happen. Sometimes, it’s from too many features, sometimes too few, sometimes it’s poor art direction, sometimes it’s a poor scoring system or recharge system, or saving system, or some minuscule, insignificant thing that annoys the heck out of the player.

Whatever takes them out of the game world or frustrates them as a side effect of playing the game (frustration as a direct result of game play i.e. “That Boss is so darn hard!” can be a good thing, in moderation) will kill the fun and your profits.

…that isn’t playable. If the controls to fire your weapon is “Press F1 while holding down X for one shot or V for rapid fire then hold down Y for normal bullets Q for hollow bullets and W for radio active bullets,” that would be enough – but, you probably also have to move while shooting. Make sure your controls are easy to use, intuitive, and if it will be played on the computer, easily reachable. The easier it is to play the more often people will do it, particularly for casual games. A higher end game will require a more sophisticated control system with more options, but ease of use is still the name of the game.

…that isn’t consistent. You should have a logical progression of levels, power ups, enemies, gameplay, etc. Each level should feel like a part of the larger game (unless you’re making something like WarioWare where moving around randomly from one mini-game to the next is the point).

Each level should be a slightly different with slightly more difficult variation of the level before or there should be a pattern/story progression to levels that vary wildly from the “normal” game play – e.g. every third level is a vehicle level or the last level on each “world” is a certain type while all the others are the same type of gameplay.

This will allow the player to get a feel for how the game works and enjoy mastering more difficult variations. Otherwise, it feels like you’re thrown into a room full of Sproogly Wishum. What the heck is that, you ask? I don’t know either and neither will the player.

…that’s too hard. If you make the game too hard no player will want to play it. If only 10% of players make it past the first level, then…90% of your audience isn’t engaged long enough to care about your game, let alone your product.

…that’s too easy. If even a two-year-old can play your game, twenty-five-year-olds won’t be engaged very long, unless you can somehow make it addictive. If your audience is two-year-olds, however, then you’re probably on the right track.

The first few levels should be fairly easy as people get a grasp on how the game works. The game should then increase in difficulty until only the most expert/time-devoted players can get past each level. Think of Tetris on the original NES (That’s Nintendo Entertainment System (TM) for you marketers who never had a childhood or had one before 1985.)

It had a very simple concept: make complete line. But, as the levels got higher and higher, the irregular blocks came faster and faster until most people could not flip the blocks fast enough and filled the screen to their geometric doom. (My personal best on the NES Tetris was 199 lines. Yes, I’m still proud of that. No, I don’t care how many you got on X implementation of it unless you beat me on the NES version, and then, I’ll probably cry.)

…who’s tone doesn’t fit the company or the audience. A Toddler game probably wouldn’t go over well for Rolex, nor would a Gothic Horror game be the next big thing for the over-50 set. So, make sure the tone both fits the company image you wish to portray and will be appealing to the audience you’re targeting.

…that’s one big advertisement. An advertisement in game form won’t win you any awards nor will it engender any goodwill from your clients. In fact, it’ll do more harm than good. Yes, there are companies that are testing in-game advertising but …

A. No one’s come up with a good model for it yet and B. Those marketers are building upon a gaming “infrastructure” that’s already in place. If you’re building that infrastructure, you don’t want to throw an advertisement at your house of cards. The whole thing will tumble down. You’ll have thrown money away AND angered a large percentage of those people who played your game and might have become new, loyal customers.

As you embark upon this brave new world, may you always remember one thing: you can lead a gamer to water, but you can’t make him take a shower, unless, maybe, you happen to be his mother. (Even then, it’s a crap shoot.)

In any case, Happy Gaming!

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