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[Sinci1]

First of all, I have to apologize for making another forum post so soon after my other post  , hopefully you all don't mind, but anyway, I just couldn't stop thinking about this; a lot of people are saying that you need to know your games' target demographic before you start making/desiging the game, as it can influence the design of your game. Now I'm a bit confused on what counts as a target demographic, sometimes it seems like it's just the age, and sometimes it seems like you need to make an entire player profile [where you make a theoretical profile page for your target demographic], and also, even if that was clarified, I'm still not sure how to find what my game's target demographic is, so I'm asking you guys, how did you guys find your games' target demographic, and what are some tips you would give?

Thanks in advance!
 

[nova++]

I keep it simple. My target demographic is "people who like playing what I end up making"

Really though, IMO what you want your game to be is the important thing. If you build it, they will come, the slogan goes.

I'm certainly out of touch, though - my only experience in the "industry" was in a somewhat dysfunctional indie environment over 5 years ago. But, nonetheless... when I hear stuff about catering to target demographics and profiling your hypothetical end-user it starts sounding very silly and over-complicated, to me. And a bit clinical/corporate.

I feel that an audience should build around a game, wheras building a game around an audience often seems to start stifling creativity. Just my utterly inexperienced two cents. 

[ThemsAllTook]

I feel like this might ultimately boil down to more of a business question than a design question. I've noticed that when people give prescriptive advice about things like this, they tend to do it through the rather narrow lens of a particular business model. I'm always suspicious of the worldview of anyone who seems too certain about the advice they give.

That said, I feel like it might help you focus your design if you write down an answer to the question "who is this game for?". The answer could be something like "people who enjoy the things I enjoy", or "puzzle enthusiasts", or "children" if that's the sort of thing you want to make. Keeping this in mind might help avoid some kinds of missteps. For example, I played a platform game a little while ago that presented itself as a happy innocent romp through relatively safe environments for the entire first half of the game, then suddenly had a complete tone reversal in the middle, where the second half of the game included profanity, violent imagery, and a lot of other stuff that you'd never expect from its trailer and screenshots. Someone who bought it expecting the experience of the first half the whole way through would have a pretty bad time after the change in the middle. It felt like the game didn't really know who it was supposed to be for, since the two halves basically seemed like they were designed for a completely different audience.

(As an aside, I think this was all intentional on the author's part. While I respect making a bold artistic choice like this, I don't think it made for a very good time. You want your game to be a good time to play, right?)

In terms of pure game design, I feel like it might be more useful to write down a few guiding principles for the project. The target demographic then simply becomes "people who like to play the type of game that this describes". For example, I've written this down for the game I'm currently working on:

• Complete information
• No randomness
• Can't get stuck due to prior choices

This cuts out the type of player who wants a power fantasy, but attracts the sort who enjoys a pure test of mind.

I'm curious about the context where these discussions you've had are happening. Also, is your primary motivation artistic or financial? Would you rather make a comfortable living writing a game you don't really care for, or make no money from writing a game that really matters to you?

[Sinci1]

To NovaSilisko: That is quite an interesting take, and I do agree with you to a certain extent, it does seem
silly to me as well that you need to make a player profile and such, however, I do think that you need to have some
semblance of a target demographic, not just for marketing but for designing as well, however, that's just my
opinion, and also, thank you so much for contributing to the discussion :D I really appreciate it


To  ThemsAllTook : Yeah, I thought it might be a buisness thing and not a design thing, but I decided to ask
in design because I am going to use it for design at the moment, anyway, thanks for the tips! those are some really
good tips! So thanks. And the "discussion" is just me watching some game design videos, I haven't really had any
discussions about this, and I guess my main motives are artistic, and also garnering a loyal fanbase, but I would
like to earn enough money, more or less so that I can make more games in the future