Game Design proposal

Target audience

Core audience

For my game I believe that my core audience will be that of adults (20-40), that consider themselves

dedicated more serious gamers. Although because of the nature of the game I would assume the

audience would be male, due to the recent boost in female gamers I would assume a large chunk of my

audience could well be female. The reason I believe these type of gamers to be my core audience is

because firstly, the genre is a post-apocalyptic zombie survival (Amongst other subgenres) thus as soon

as the game is marketed will be compared to games such as dead rising and fallout. These games are

well established as great hardcore games as they require a lot of time to be invested to draw the best

out of the game. Due to the game being based on killing zombies it should be a hit with the younger

males who are used to games such as the aforementioned dead rising in which the main aim is to find

intuitive ways of killing the undead – although my game isn’t greatly focused on the actual killing of the

infected it does have large aspects of it which should draw that crowd. Furthermore the game play

should attract this particular audience as I have previously mentioned it takes a lot of hours invested in

the game to draw the best from it, games such as fallout which share the same audience take tens even

hundreds of hours to explore every corner of the game which although my game doesn’t have the scale

of freedom as fallout does it should still appeal to the gamer looking for a sense of freedom. For the

platform this game will be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC – all three of these gaming

platforms hold the adult gamers meaning I am aiming at the right platform. The most extreme gamers

will probably own more than one and prefer their PC thus I have made sure that I am releasing it to the

PC platform. For the semi-serious gamer I have chosen the PlayStation and Xbox as they hold a massive

market and provide the processing power to run my game. The game interface should attract my core

audience as it contains the usual type of interface, great graphics, pleasing sound (music, sound effects)

and great animations. This this also links with the platform as these platforms are the only ones to be

able to provide this level of interface. For a lot of the audience I have found that graphics is a major

selling point to any game so I have made sure that my game has the best photorealistic graphics

available to me. For the control mechanism I have chosen to go with the traditional controls of the

console/PC. The reason for this is that I find the other controls that I have explored to not be suited to

my game in the slightest – camera based controls like the Kinect do not appeal to the genre and play

style of my game. I think that my audience would much rather prefer to sit down and play their game in

the usual way, perhaps because it requires a lot less effort and they are able to play for a long period of

time without getting tired or fatigued. Also my core audience perhaps wouldn’t own such other devices

which need to be bought separately from the console, things like the Kinect and eye toy – these devices

are a lot more family orientated thus not appealing to them in the first place. Innovation-wise my game

does not hold anything new physically – within the game interface I will try to be as innovate as possible

to attract my audience and give it a breath of fresh air type feel, but also sticking with the conventions

that they know and love.

Secondary audience

For my secondary audience I believe that I will attract the younger audience, perhaps as young as 15/16

as they are just becoming interesting in games that require a lot of conviction. This is the reason I am

aiming to get my game rated as a 15, this opens up a much bigger secondary audience to my game as

there are a lot of young adults that own consoles that I think would enjoy my game. For example the

genre should also be able to pull the younger generation as it involves things that they already know of,

the main aspect being the ability to fight and kill zombies, most young gamers would have played games

like dead rising and Dead Island and would enjoyed being able to slay the undead. The only thing that I

worry will lose them is the long periods of time in which the game does not encounter the infected and

will sometimes be a lot of talking and backstory. As the younger gamers would prefer to get straight into

the action this could perhaps dis-interest them. Gameplay wise I do think this should attract my

secondary audience because of the ability to freely kill the infected with any weapon they seem fit

whether it’s a chair leg or a lead pipe. Also as the game can become rather fast paced at times this

should also draw the younger audience looking for some excitement within the game. As said with my

core audience, I have chosen the more serious gamer platforms not only for the core audience but a

massive amount of young gamers will own either a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360 not such much a PC as

they’re rather expensive and reserved only for the really serious gamers. Especially young males will

usually own at least one of these console or sometimes even both – the decision to release it to both

consoles is the fact that some younger generations tend to side with one console and deter the other

meaning I could possibly lose half of my audience instantly. Within the game interface I think my

secondary audience will find it attractive from the rewarding combat scenes of the games in which the

player has to fend of large groups of infected – there will be a smooth combat system similar to that of

assassin’s creed which should make the combat aspects very enjoyable. The Soundtrack to the game

should also add to the tone of the game along with the rewarding sounds of striking an undead to the

ground. For the control mechanism aspect I will again refer back to my core audience and state that

perhaps the secondary audience would not prefer to stand and play the game with a lot of physical

activity as they might get tired – where they differ from the core audience is that they perhaps might

own another type of controller like the Kinect as their games that they play could possibly use with the

Kinect. Where my innovation would draw the secondary audience would once again be the graphical

content which I display in my game, photorealistic effects should be enough to be able to attract the

younger generation looking for realism perhaps even more than my core audience.

Market

To analyse the market for my game I have chosen to analyse two other games on the same platform

which hold similarities to mine including genre. I will analyse their financial, critical and popular success

to determine the success I should expect to achieve when releasing my game. The games I have chosen

to analyse are:

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC: Dead Island

I have chosen to analyse Dead Island as my first game as it shares the same genre as mine. Although

were the game differs in the way it presents the character as this game is a first person view, mine is

third person. Financially Dead Island saw a favorable success – within its first week it had shipped over

one million copies of the game, and by the end of the next week sold up to 2 million copies to retailers.

It also held the number 1 spot in many global markets as well as being number 1 on the UK and French

Steam. I see this as very promising for my game as it shows a real need in the market for zombie survival

games, these stat’s re-assure that there is definitely a need for my game within my potential market.

Critically the game received mixed reviews, although mostly positive it did take a bit of a mauling from

critics when first released. Scoring an 80/100 on metacritic, 8.0 from the PlayStation magazine which

praised it for its outdoor environments and realistic combat. IGN gave the game a 8.0 whilst criticizing

the various glitches and bugs that the game contained but saying the pro’s where more than enough to

outweigh the con’s with great things like the atmosphere and the overall feel of the game. Overall most

reviews said the same thing, the game had plenty of bugs, texture issues and technical issues but most

agreed that the sheer scale, feel and atmosphere of the game where more than enough to keep them

playing to the end. I find it this rather encouraging for my game as it does mainly focus on the visual and

audio aspect of the game which should be pleasing to the eye/ear. This should then help create a great

atmosphere which seems to be how Dead Island captured its own market.

Overall I think this game was successful financially and critically. Although it was criticized for its bugs

and glitches, these sort of things can always be expected with open world games such as this one as it’s

extremely difficult to control every single part of the environment, especially physics-wise. The sales of

the game were a success and showed that there really is a market out there for my game and I can look

to achieve similar if not better success.

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC: Fallout 3

I have chosen to analyse Fallout 3 as my second game as it once again shares similarities with my genre

and play style. I have taken a lot of influence from this game and its sequel so I hope to achieve the

similar success financially and critically. Financially the game was a massive success; at the E3 expo the

game was awarded the fastest selling multi-platform RPG selling almost 5 million copies within its first

week. This is obviously a massive success which I hope to share with my game, once again this game also

showed a real want for the post-apocalyptic genre as this was its main selling point – boasting brilliant

graphics and open world play I definitely think this is one of its key aspects to its financial success.

Critically this game was praised by everything and everyone, creating buzz all around the world it was

rated a 93/100 from metacritic, 9/10 from GameSpot and a 9.6 from IGN. The game was praised for its

open-world design and its flexible character leveling system, but its most praised aspect was its intuitive

and innovative VATS system, a system within the game which slowed down oncoming foes to let the

player decide where to strike be it with a rifle or melee weapon – the game would then take control and

attack the enemy for them. The critical success followed with a number of awards being won such as

‘best game of E3 2007’, ‘Best RPG overall’ and ‘ultimate game of the year 2009’. If my game only shares

a fraction of this critical acclaim I would consider my game a success and hope to strive towards winning

similar awards for best in my genre and get high ratings from well-respected website such as IGN and

Metacritic.

Overall I think this game was massive success both critically and financially although like Dead Island

criticized for its bugs I once again emphasize the difficulty in controlling such things. The sales of the

game were outstanding and I would look to try and achieve the same amount of sales and critical hype

that this game created.

Comparing and Contrasting

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC: Dead Island

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC: Fallout 3

In this section I will compare and contrast these two games I have been analyzing with my own game to

see how it differs or is similar under the sub-headings of Generic Conventions, Playability, Addiction,

Audio Visual content and Innovative use of Technology.

Generic conventions

First of all I will compare and contrast the generic conventions of the two games I have analyzed with my

own. My game follows many generic conventions of its genre, being a post-apocalyptic zombie survival

means that it has to meet a few generic conventions. The first would be the design of the infected

themselves, although in my game they are referred to as infected rather than zombies they still follow

the same principle – being blood thirsty, mindless, undead ‘humans’ who once were normal until

contracting the disease via saliva or blood, the most effective way of doing so is through biting. In

comparison to Dead Island this also rings true, they are similar in effect as they also once were living

humans until bitten by what they also call ‘infected’. They are physically similar with lifeless faces, blood

dripping from their mouth but still human like as they were clothes and such. Where my game and Dead

Island contrast is the information of the infected, in Dead Island the main storyline of the game is to find

out how this happened and how to fix it whereas in mine there is no mention of the cause of the

infected except light references and there is no storyline involved in finding a permanent cure. This then

links in with fallout, as in fallout 3 the apocalypse is never actually fully discussed, although it is known

that it was caused my nuclear warfare because of the game being so far into the future it is considered

common knowledge and never really discussed. My game is also like this but instead of the cause being

considered common knowledge the characters instead do not have time to ponder the cause of it as

they are just trying to survive from day to day. Furthermore the way my game portrays the post-

apocalypse would compare to dead islands way of presenting its island, although you could categorize

dead island as more of an Apocalypse than a post-apocalypse it still shares the same features, for

example cars scattered around the road – buildings still in place but trashed. Whereas fallout’s portrayal

of the apocalypse is different due to the cause of the apocalypse, obviously the nuclear bombs have

whipped out most buildings or left them extremely delicate. Where my games compares similarly to

both games is the way it uses presents the survival of the characters. Both games collect weapons in

order to use them against opponents or zombies, but fallouts inventory system seems more similar to

my own as you are able to collect as much as the player likes until the weight limit is exceeded, on the

other hand Dead Island only lets the player store 6 different weapons at a time and has not a lot of use

of items outside of combat.

Playability

The playability of the two games I have chosen to compare is radically different. Fallout I see is a lot less

user friendly, I think this is because to be able to understand the game and game story you a need to be

able to sit down and play through it for at least a couple of hours. The problem I find with Fallout is that

you have to play it from start to finish within a few weeks, you cannot leave it for a month and then

come back and play a quick game as you would in other games – the reason for this is that you need to

know every aspect of the story and have to remember things in previous quests in order to understand

the story. On the other hand this helps for a more immersive experience if the player does decided to

dedicate a lot of time to it, knowing previous stories within the game gives the players a sense of

achievement in the way that they can recall on previous events within the game. Dead Island on the

other hand has the more ‘pick up and play’ feel to it, although it is slightly similar in the fact you have to

have an idea of what’s going on before you can play it, you are still able to switch it on a month later

and pick up where you left off without forgetting a great deal. But obviously this as the adverse effect of

not having a massively immersive story as fallout does. For my game I hope to find the balance between

the two – that way I can have an immersive experience but still allow the player to load the game up a

few weeks later and pick up from where they left off. The actual playability of the games are also rather

different, fallout for a start is a rather complicated game system to grasp, there are many buttons and

effects that all have different reactions. This then could seem daunting to new players but they do

eventually pick it up. Whereas Dead Island once again has the simplicity factor in which the player will

know within 5 minutes what all the functions are and can play the game with decent efficiency. My

game tends to swing towards the Dead Island type playability, in a way that it is rather easy to control

the character, fight off enemies and generally play through the game. The functions are simple enough

and can be grasped quickly. But I will also incorporate as many features as possible such as fallout to

make the gameplay more varied but try not to overcomplicate things to make its playability easier.

Addiction

Addiction is a rather hard subject to describe as there is no real single way to determine what’s addictive

and what isn’t due to the fact that everybody’s opinion is different. I would definitely say that out of the

two games I’m comparing that fallout 3 is the most addictive; there are a few reasons for this. Firstly is

the scale of the game, the map size is unparralled and is one of its main selling points, with many towns

and camps around the wasteland map, there are thousands of individual NPC’s (non-playable

Characters) and hundreds of quests to complete. This means that after the rather long and intriguing

there is still a lot more to do. This adds for more playing time making some of the perfectionist gamers

out there dedicated to getting every trophy/achievement within the game. Dead Island on the other

hand although does have a number of side quest, it is nowhere near the number of fallouts meaning

that after the main quest is finished there really isn’t much else to do within the game. This means that

although the game could be addicting through the main quest – its ability to keep players interested

after that is lacking. I would like to think my game could share some addiction aspects with that of

fallout 3, the reason for this is that there will be many side quests scattered around my game and

although it isn’t one big map, there are four large cities which could hold endless numbers of quests.

This will hopefully keep the player interested after the main quest line as they will still have the option

to go back to any city they please and explore it to its fullest capability. Furthermore the content of the

game in terms of items and weapons is a great aspect in what makes a game addictive, fallout utilizes

this well and makes sure that there is always a ‘better weapon’ out there somewhere. This means that

the player will always strive to upgrade their weapons or armor in order to kill the foe more effectively,

this is also similar to Dead Island to a lesser extent as you are always allowed to upgrade your weapon

by adding mods to it like a battery pack to give it an electric shock perk. My game will be once again

similar to fallout as it will have a great number of different weapons, armors and useful items designed

to make the game easier for the player.

Audio Visual content

Visually all games including my own are pleasing to the eye. The reason for this comes mainly from the

gaming communities never ending hunger for better graphics and physics. Because of this game

developers are always trying to get the best out of their games graphically by increasing the number of

polygons used in models, the photorealism of the water and so on, some games can gain popularity

solely on their graphical capabilities (see Crysis for example). The games I am comparing and contrasting

do not disappoint neither; fallout for example boasted a massive never ending terrain full of eye-

pleasing buildings and views. Everything is pretty including the VATS system which slowed things down

and when the foes are hit shoots massive bursts of blood into the air. This is one of the sections in which

Dead Island beats Fallout hands down – due to its setting dead island was given a chance to really push

the boundaries of graphics, by using bright blue water and green palm tree’s next to bright spewing

blood they’ve easily been able to exploit the bright contrast and play with the colour, this leads to a very

beautifully designed game. My game should be able to share these traits as it will focus heavily on

photorealistic graphics to be able to capture the player with its beautiful scenery along with the gore

and detail in the zombies. In terms of visual style Fallout and DI are on opposite ends of the spectrum,

fallout has rather realistic washed out look to it that gives the effect that the player really is in a post-

nuclear world where all the colour has been drained and all that’s left is different shades of gray.

Whereas Dead Island definitely exploits the islands blue water, golden sands and vibrant wildlife as a

way of showing off the contrast within the game – everything seems to be hyper realistic in a way that

everything’s more colorful than it really should be. The blood from the zombies is also bright red to give

it a stylized and more shocking effect. My game should compare more closely to fallouts visual style as I

want to focus a lot more of realism than stylistic and artistic looks. My game will feature washed out

colours but will also take use of dead islands bright blood to really get the effect that blood is significant

in the game.

The audio within the three games are all pretty similar in a way that they all set the tone perfectly.

Fallouts audio or lack of is slightly different than dead islands that sometime the player will catch

themselves walking through the wasteland with just the sound of wind whistling through the dead tree’s

– as the game does not use a backing soundtrack but instead uses radio’s. The radios in the game can be

switched on from the player’s device or in a town or bar which is playing in the background. The music

on the radio is usually old 60’s music which is upbeat but in an ironic way. The lack of soundtrack is

helpful to the game as it really does give the player a sense of silence and loneliness. Dead Island on the

other hand uses a number of low toned songs when the player is walking around the island, but when

the zombies start to attack the music quickly changes to more fast paced music in order to set the

tempo. This is effective in a way of speeding the game up and heightening the atmosphere to the game

but can be slightly annoying as you know the zombies are near when the music starts to play. My game

will compare more closely to Dead Islands as I will have most of the time a low somber soundtrack in the

background to add a sinister effect and also will put more fast paced soundtracks in place when the

game heightens in tension but will try to do it more smoothly than dead island to avoid the anticipation

of action that it creates.

Innovative use of Technology

As I have addressed a number of times through this unit, my game does not physically use any

innovative technology. This can also be said about the other games I am comparing, both do not use any

new form of controller or hardware – instead they opt for the traditional gameplay. Where they do use

innovation is within the game and how it runs. Fallout 3 has been a massive milestone for the gaming

community in the way that it opens up the gameplay and takes the word sandbox to the next level. The

developers of fallout have had to do innovative things in order to be able to display so much without

using loading screens. Dead Island on the other hand didn’t focus much on keeping everything on one

map but instead broke the island up into sections – this was one of the reasons dead island was

criticized in that the players didn’t like having to wait so long for a location to load. Instead they focused

more heavily on the graphic detail, the detail to most of the objects, NPC’s and zombies were

groundbreaking and was hailed for its attention to detail. Although I would consider this innovative I do

not think it would beat fallout if I had to pick a winner. In comparison my game also will try to use

innovative ways to be able to display large surroundings in great detail without having constant amounts

of loading screens. But I do think that you have to find a balance between great detail and large scale

maps – you cannot have both as the other two games have shown as the technology we have today

does not allow it.

Three reasons why my game should be produced

The first reason why my game should be produced is that there is a real want for apocalyptic and post-

apocalyptic. As said previously in the core and secondary audience section aswell as the market section

there is a real demand for post-apocalyptic media in the past few years. There could be many theories

for this but I think the most obvious is the impending doomsday date of 2012. I popular culture there

has been a long reoccurring scare that at the end of the year 2012 the world will end. So much so that all

types of different media has sprung up about it – blockbuster movies, hit songs and of course video

games. This is why I think my game should be produced, to cash in on the end of the world scare. Due to

a lot of people being worried about this, many theories of how the world will end have sprung up, one

being a disease outbreak – this has captured the imagination of the general public who are intrigued as

to how the world would look after an apocalypse, this is where my game comes in. My game will provide

them with a way of seeing what it’s like in a zombie apocalypse as well as giving them a great game to

play and enjoy.

The second reason I think my game should be produced is that it will push the genre further. Over the

past years this genre has not been the most popular and has been pushed aside by first person shooters

and war games. Now I think it is time that my game bring this genre into the limelight like fallout briefly

did. Although the zombie theory has been around for decades it hasn’t really made it big in the gaming

industry which is why I think my game should be produced, providing a breath of fresh air from the

constant FPS titles trying to compete with each other about multiplayer and bring the gaming

community back to the storyline of the game and the content. As said previously in the audience section

there are lot of hardcore gamers out there, these gamers usually do not like to participate with quickly

churned out games that are only there to make quick money, e.g. the Call of Duty Series. Instead they

would prefer to play a game that has been thought out and designed with the greatest of detail and is

aimed at them instead of the family audience or FPS audience which every game developer seems to

want to do in this day and age.

The third and final reason I think my game should be produced is the simple fact that it has the potential

to be greatly successful. If the game follows the same path that Fallout 3 and Dead Island did that I

described in the market section, I could see this game shipping millions of copies and hopefully winning

awards in its genre. A further reason I think this game could be successful links with the other two in the

fact that it will appeal to a large amount of people and if marketed well could attract a lot of hype

before it is even released. I think the game has the ability to impress critics with its storyline, gameplay

and scale meaning if it is rated highly then not only will it make money from its first couple of weeks in

which its hyped up but can also see steady sales as the game will be recommended by the critics and

other gamers.

Marketing Plan

Three aims of the marketing campaign

My first aim that I want to achieve is to create hype months before I intend to release the game. The

reason this is my first aim is that this is the first step in the marketing campaign to achieve my other two

aims. Creating hype in the video game industry is a very important part of the marketing campaign,

creating hype is a way of creating discussions about your game even before it is released – with game

sites and magazine talking about what will be featured and what players hope to see in the game. I will

create hype in a number of ways the first and most subtle is to release tiny bits of information, these

rumors then spread around the gaming community and create discussions and debates – these could be

rumors such as ‘the new infected game will feature 3D technology’. Even if the rumors are not true, they

help put the game into the limelight. Another way of creating hype is for people involved with the game

to interviews, this is the most popular way of creating hype as a developer will do an interview with a

game magazine such as the official Xbox 360 magazine and give them exclusive information about the

game. This will then excite readers and create ‘hype’. The final way I intend to create hype is with teaser

trailers – these are the most popular ways of hyping up a new game, a number of trailers will be

revealed months and weeks before the release date. The first trailer will show very little and is usually

30 seconds long with a few hints and sometimes even a lack of a date. The closer to the release date it

gets the more is revealed within the trailers, like game footage and so on.

My second aim within the marketing campaign is to market my game in specific areas to expose my

game to my core and secondary audience. To do this I have to advertise my game in specific places.

Although this seems similar to my first aim, this aim is intended to advertise the game to its core

audience, placing full page advertisements in gaming magazines would be the first logical step, perhaps

offering a free poster as a deal with the magazine, this should snare my core audience of hardcore

gamers who would probably have a subscription to these gaming magazines thus they have the

magazine delivered to the door weekly or monthly. It would also work for my secondary audience which

would probably also buy the magazine but perhaps not as often or not without some sort of incentive –

this is where the free poster could become effective. Furthermore I could advertise it using the internet,

another place where my core and secondary audience source their information from, putting

advertisements on websites such as IGN, GameSpot, Play.com, Game and so on. I could also create a

website that would link from these advertisements meaning it takes them from the gaming website to

my own. Finally the way I would capture my secondary audience is by TV advertisements, as my

secondary audience is young they should have access to TV and be a regular evening viewer – this

means I would put my advertisements around TV shows in which the audience for that show would also

share an interest in my game, a great example would be top gear.

My final marketing campaign aim is to reach maximum exposure a week before my game release. This

means that I must market my game to the best of my ability and try to show off my game anyway

possible. There are quite a few ways to do this, frequent TV advertisements – Skyrim and MW3 utilized

this with many different advertisements being played just before the release of the games. Another way

of doing this is billboards, Exclusives and competitions. This will help the success of my game as almost

everybody would have heard of it thus making it more likely for somebody to buy it, even if it wouldn’t

usually appeal to them. This is my most important aim of the three as it requires the most money and

work to pull off, it will also have the greatest effect but is not as effective if the other two aims are not

fulfilled, although if the other two aims do fail this could save the campaign as it will bring attention to

the game where the other aims have failed to do.

Name of Peer Section Recommendation

Lewis Adshead Marketing Take advantage of the end of the

world scare in 2012. This could

boost your sales massively if

marketed properly. Perhaps

change the date to 12.12.12 as it

will have a catchy effect to it.

Look at skyrim’s release date for

example.

Ashley Maman Aims Your first aim is to create hype, I

recommend that to do this

effectively a series of teaser

trailers and magazine features

would be sufficient enough to

create hype. The closer you get

to the release date the more

information you release, this

should generate interest.

Anthony Smith Aims Your second aim is to expose

your game to your core and

secondary audience. To do this

you must advertise the game in

specific areas – these areas could

include gaming websites like IGN

and Gamespot and gaming

magazines like XBOX 360

magazine.

Week Billboards Web Magazine other

1 First billboard will

appear, shows

barely anything.

Shows date of

release.

Website will be

similar to the

billboard showing

barely anything,

will have links to

pre-order.

No magazine

features yet.

n/a

2 Same billboards

are still up.

Interviews with

IGN about

features to be

included within

the game.

Further interviews

with XBOX 360

magazine and

official Play station

Magazine.

Teaser TV advert

appears, features

just 15-20

seconds.

3 New billboard

appears with more

info – large action

image and a funny

tagline.

Full trailer

released with

gameplay footage

and an overview

of the game (2

minutes long)

Competition in

magazines offering

free console

bundle along with

the game.

Full trailer also

released on

television and

cinema.

4 Out now billboard

advertising where

to purchase the

game.

Website opens up,

full page youtube

spread. Also on

IGN and

gamespot.

Further

competition and

giveaway, along

with reviews in

gaming magazines.

Trailer still being

aired at prime

time with a ‘out

now’ ending.

Three types of marketing within my campaign

Poster/Billboard

For this type of marketing I have chosen to create a poster that will be displayed on large billboards as

well as distributed to gamers via magazines. I have chosen to go for a minimalistic teaser type poster

with not a lot of information on it, this will then intrigue the viewer to follow up on the poster and try to

find out more. This means there has to be three aspects on the poster, the first being the name of the

game, which I will display rather minutely at the bottom right of the poster – this is so they have a name

to put to the poster that they have viewed, and can also search the name on the internet. The second

being the website – this is so that if they decide the poster looks interesting they can visit the website to

find out further information. And lastly is the date of release – this is for the gamers who already know

of its existence but is just enticing them pre-order it. I haven chosen to follow the marketing technique

billboard that is similar to Skyrim in which they put the date in large font in and keep everything else

small. This shows that the date is significant and is greatly anticipated.

Magazine feature

The next marketing technique I have chosen to utilize is the magazine feature. With this technique I will

release exclusive information to a magazine in exchange to them giving me a front page feature as well

as a double page spread on my upcoming game. The magazine should then have my game on their front

page along with an article. The article will include an interview with the developers, some screenshots

on what the game will look like, a competition to win an Xbox bundle along with the game and a tear

out poster for the reader to keep. The reason I have chosen this technique is that it fulfills one of my

aims to advertise to my core audience, I have done this by getting a large mention in a magazine that

they read and further by giving them a poster which could end up on their wall (a constant reminder of

the game). The second reason I have chosen to advertise in a gaming magazine is that it gives the

readers information about my game, and if done properly will interest them and get them excited for

the release of my game. I will also offer a pre-order bonus such as a unique weapon, this encourages the

readers pre-order the game meaning I will have figures of the release even before its released.

TV advertisement

The final marketing technique I will use is probably the most popular and the one that will be mostly

widespread. I will create a TV advertisement to broadcast on various different channels to advertise my

game. I will do a number of different advertisements, as said previously I will start with teaser trailers

which show very little of the game but are just to spark interest, I will then slowly release bigger trailers

with more in game footage. I will broadcast these advertisements in the evening time around shows

that my audiences have an interest in; the most predominant will be before and after top gear. This will

be effective as my core and secondary audience will most likely be watching this show thus I will expose

the game to them. The reason why I think the TV advertisement will be a great technique is that it is a

great way to get maximum exposure which was one of my aims.

This is my

poster/

billboard

This is the

end of the

TV

advertisem

ent

This is the

magazine

feature