I'm making a casual game on iOS platform. But I'm not sure Do the consumers like my game. How can I make a market test for my game?
2 Answers
That is a very nice question! I have been thinking about the same thing lately.
I don't know how are you doing your development. But you always need beta testers. If you don't have any. I would start there. Beta testers could give you great hints about your game. What is wrong / what is right / what should be changed. Beta testers are players as we all are. They know what entertains them. They will help you make the game better. In my opinion it is far better then releasing the game as ClassicThunder mentioned.
If you released the game as a demo. You could get very bad ratings and it would ruin your game awareness. Just because you want to test if public likes it.
If you have beta testers and / or you feel very confident about your game. You might want to release a preview of your game to Youtube and then post it to Reddit and such. It will take some time, but you will see just from the comments if the game is looking good or bad for potential customers. This is again to avoid bad ratings.
Then you might want to release a demo. But I would not recommend it.
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\$\begingroup\$ "How can I make a market test for my game?" Problem with beta testers is that they are not an adequate sampling of your potential customers. Also I never said anything about "releasing the game". I suggested releasing a demo which is usually a small subset of game-play representative of the entire game. If the demo is release before the full release feed back from actual customers can be taken into account and used to improve the final game. Also if the demo and game are released separately then there is not a bunch of bad ratings influencing the sames of the game if the demo goes poorly. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 18:32
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\$\begingroup\$ A question I would like to ask is where I can find beta testers. If you are talking about build your own community, I guess it might take longer than demo method would. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 5, 2012 at 23:15
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\$\begingroup\$ @Paul It is definitely longer than the demo method. But community can help you in so many ways. Well the best way to find beta testers is marketing. You must spread information about your beta test. For example start a youtube channel with preview of your game. Post it to Reddit. Or you might want to try a kickstarter.com "For 10$ you will get early acces and a full game." \$\endgroup\$– rojcykCommented Jan 9, 2012 at 12:09
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\$\begingroup\$ It's a great answer, but please, don't put a period after your conditional sentences. "If x, then y.", not: "If x. Then y." It's simply painful to read... But still a great answer, +1. \$\endgroup\$– jcoraCommented Mar 10, 2012 at 15:04
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\$\begingroup\$ @Bane I am sorry :/ I am not a native speaker and I got this habbit from my native language. \$\endgroup\$– rojcykCommented Mar 19, 2012 at 14:23
I've only done stuff with the WP7 market place but if apple allows it I would suggest releasing a free demo, posting a link to it at places such as Reddit's IndieGaming subreddit, and then seeing how the reviews go. Plus you can get direct feed back in the comments. Also no blow back in reputation if it doesn't go over well (No bad reviews sitting there forever keeping customers away).