Targeting the Casual Gamer in the Wireless World
Your company Chakra Interactive is based in India. How do you see this affect your position in the global market place? Do you see any particular geographical region as providing the greatest customer base?
Mobile phones have a large potential customer base worldwide, the highest for any platform today--over 500 million users. The market is not restricted to any geographical region. When you develop a game - you can access the global market - as mobile phones have penetrated all over the globe.
When developing games for mobile phones, how do you see the target audience?
You must keep in mind that your target audience is NOT hardcore gamers (like PC gamers, GameBoy and other consoles). They are the guys and girls who have 5 minutes to 10 minutes to spare. Also, the guys and girls who travel by train for 30 minutes and more but have nothing to do - and have a mobile phone in hand.
Why do you think a hardcore gamer might play games on a phone and do you see any way that they might be enticed into the mobile game world?
Most likely it's because they cannot afford the Gameboy and its expensive games. This has not yet been exploited by many companies. You have to think of building multiplayer games that last for 5 to 10 minutes.. and are easy to play.
Do you see the limiting controls on most of today's phones as a deterrent to new gamers?
I agree the controls are a BIG issue - the fact that you can't press 2 buttons at the same time. So, when you develop games - make sure you develop games that don't require fast response times with more than one key. One key quick response / precise timing is ok, but it gets dirty when you have to press many keys successively fast.
What advantages do wireless games have in attracting the casual gamer?
One big advantage of wireless games is that they can be downloaded OTA [over the air –ed.] and don't require cartridges and manufacturing costs like other games do. Of course this also has an apparent disadvantage - you can't get a free demo version to play - try before you buy. This is going to hurt the industry in the long run - especially because some operators are allowing sub-standard games into their database and consumers are going to feel cheated because they downloaded the "nice sounding, recognized character license game" that fell flat. A solution to this is to allow the customer the ability to download a free level BEFORE buying the full version. They can actually buy a game on the installment plan: "pay as you go" such as in
1. Pay for each level only.
2. Pay for time based purchase
3. Pay for number of times you play
4. Pay for full version if you want.
Through micro-payments the casual gamer gets over the hurdle of making a big investment on a game they may not like, but in the end are making incremental investments that will get them hooked if the levels/episodes etc. give them entertainment value.
Bio: Vishal received his Math & Computer Science Bachelor of Arts degree from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA in 1993. He has been actively involved in setting up several businesses since then including ValuePay.com, WebWorksIndia and Studio 2000. He has over 15 years experience in Graphic Design, Software Development and Online Marketing. Vishal has authored two popular books namely "The Third Eye" and "Internet Marketing from A2Z".