next »

[vladimirsan]

Hey guys. I’m happy to be finally developing my first commercial game. I want to start with the right foot, so I decided to do a small survey to understand my players a little bit better. Here is what I came up with:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1sr6RbOmbTEXZ2lEZPAZxfhoO7CwdMx-mYjXvLrK9x4k/viewform

Since this is my first time doing this I wonder if there is anything you guys have to say about my survey. Also, if there is any tips on how to run a survey of this type, I would really love to hear them since  I’m trying to figure this out as I go along.

(You don’t have to fill the survey if you don’t want to. I currently marked all the questions as non-required so you can just hit continue if you want to.)

My main objectives with my survey are

• Better identify my target player as well as his/her likes and dislikes
• Test the appeal of my setting and general artwork style.
• Gather some very raw ideas about how the combat system I’m thinking will be perceived by users.
• Start to build my email list

Right now I’m thinking about asking people to fill the survey on facebook groups, reddit, and other random internet forums and communities. I might ask some pages to run the survey for me hoping I get some administrators to agree.

Any suggestions comments or ideas? 

Edit:
Also, if anyone wants to take at the results of my survey. I'm more than willing to write an article about it .

[bombjack]

Hi,

I just replied to the survey.
The survey could be a could idea but I think that you should concentrate on making you game stand out from the mass of other RPGs comming out every day.

I'm not sure that the survey will help on this ? Maybe I'm wrong.

Good luck for your project   

[denzgd]

I was looking at the questions, and one in particular stood out as difficult for me to answer. "How much do you think is a fair price for an indie RPG?" The only options were set amounts, and I think the answer is a bit more complex than that.

To me, this is relative to a number of variables. I think the sweet spot is $15. If you make a big-ass game, with crisp 3D graphics (or gorgeous 2D graphics), a compelling story, and plenty of side quests and extra content, I'm going to be much more comfortable shelling out much more than that. If your game looks and plays like it could have been made for the SNES, has little to do aside from the main story besides boring fetch quests, and requires copious amounts of grinding, there's no way I'd buy it for $15; however, if it sucks like that, but still has an interesting premise, and the storytelling is good, for $5 it would be easy to write it off as an impulse buy.

It's very much about context, for me.

[Vallar]

The survey is definitely a good idea as mention before. But there are a few things that are complicated more than rating on a scale.

For example as mentioned before the price. It depends on the size of the game, the replayability. How much gameplay and story is there. For example The Witcher series deserve the high price they have. Once you own the game (specially The Witcher 2) you essentially can go MONTHS playing the game and discovering new stuff.

Whereas Shadowrun Returns doesn't have the full scale of Skyrim or Kingdom of Alamur, they didn't price it as high as them (or so I recall).

When you mentioned vampires and what not... it was strange really. You could do an RPG with vampires or without. It doesn't matter. What matters is HOW you implement. You can make a game like Vampire the Masquerade and it becomes a success and you can make another one that is a flop (I seriously wish I could say Twilight is a flop >.<).

I think if I would make the survey I would put what I want to make and how it would look in the survey and see how people would react as right now the survey is too general/broad to yeild any data aside from people preferring the general idea/sense of a certain topic.

[RudyTheDev]

Surveys like this don't work because everyone wants something different. It's the old "customer doesn't know what s/he wants". Once your sample size is large enough you will have options averaged out. That's like asking people to rate the juice they prefer. You will end up with 60% like orange, 40% like apple, and 0% like cucumber juice. Will you pick the over-saturated orange and apple markets? Or will you mix a multi-fruit concoction that doesn't really satisfy any niche. There is a reason early design stages of good games are not presented to wide outside input.

[vladimirsan]

@bombjack. Thanks a lot This is my first time doing this so I'm not 100% sure either if this is going to help or not.

@denzgd & @Vallar I'll keep that in mind, and you are right. Context is a huge factor in every question that I should consider a little bit more before taking my answers as universal truths.

I'm going to make more tests and play-testing as time goes on . It is indeed...too general.

@RudyTheDev I see what your point. I'll keep that in mind in order to avoid trying to make a "bland" product. I'm basically coming here from the classical marketing idea of "know your customer" What would you recommend instead?