Game flavors as a Marketing tool?

GaranasGaranas Member Posts: 86
edited November -1 in Business and Marketing Theory
What i mean is to publish a game multiple times with different genres, graphics, sounds and maybe a bit changed gameplay. So instead of 1 game, you publish say 5 games.

This can be a viable market tool to target different key groups. For example i would play a SciFi style game, but would not play the same game with a fantasy look. If used right you should not be in competition with your other games, because you targeted your audience well enough so one group would not be interested in the other.

What is your experience with this kind of strategy?

Comments

  • jb15jb15 Member Posts: 602
    That's essentially what a lot of doodle destroy type games are like--for instance, there's lines remover, blocks destroyer, doodle destroy all by the same dev.
  • zombieaddictzombieaddict Member Posts: 213
    the games that follow your original would probably get pegged as clones so would probably not fair aswell as the original game submitted
  • GaranasGaranas Member Posts: 86
    @uptimistik

    maybe you are getting something wrong her. glu.com - one of the biggest players in the market is using exactly that strategy to get to different target groups. and i´m pretty sure you have heard of products like coke light, coke zero, vanilla coke, cherry coke. so relax, ok

    as a side note: coca cola has 3500+ brands world wide!

    @jb15
    interessting, thx, i will have a look at them

    @zombieaddict
    i´m not so sure about that. if it´s a good game, and the different genres make sense that it should be obvious why there are multiple versions.
  • zombieaddictzombieaddict Member Posts: 213
    just depends on how much (or little) you plan on changing it.. if the game is good. and people like it. why not just work on the sequel
  • GaranasGaranas Member Posts: 86
    @jb15

    oh, nice one! that´s kind of what i´m talking about. well "kind off". see "Zombie Drop" by the GS guys (i think) seems to be very close to "doodle destroy" in gameplay. But i would not have played "doodle destroy" because i don´t like the name or the optics. "zombie drop" on the other hand looks pretty cool, and i love zombie movies. that´s really interesting!
  • GaranasGaranas Member Posts: 86
    @zombieaddict

    because people are different. not all people that like Starbucks also like McCafe - it´s both coffee, but it´s very different.

    Look at this:


    and than at this:


    that are the same games with different genres and totally different target groups

    by the way: imho gun bros is a very cool and addictive game, while men vs. machine sucks. the reason for this is that they changed the game play somewhat to the worse.
  • CaptFinnCaptFinn Member Posts: 1,828
    I see your point man. you do what you think best benefits you. Its a Dog eat Dog world out there. Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs wouldnt be where they are today if they listened to everyone who told them to go another route. If it works for coca cola and kanomi....it might work for you .
  • gyroscopegyroscope I am here.Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 6,598
    Requested thread title change.

    -- bump --

    ----------------------------------------------
    http://davidgriffinapps.co.uk/

    ""You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike." - Zork        temp domain http://spidergriffin.wix.com/alphaghostapps

  • BlackbirdStudiosBlackbirdStudios Member Posts: 493
    uptimistik said:
    Geez the Appstore is full of crap as it is. Just focus on building a portfolio of quality work. Stop the get rich quick tactics. All it does is make it harder for the people who put in serious effort and time to build their app to get any notice.

    +1
    Garanas said:
    @uptimistik

    maybe you are getting something wrong her. glu.com - one of the biggest players in the market is using exactly that strategy to get to different target groups. and i´m pretty sure you have heard of products like coke light, coke zero, vanilla coke, cherry coke. so relax, ok

    as a side note: coca cola has 3500+ brands world wide!

    But if coke had an app (which it might already) it would only be 1 app. You are trying to compare food and beverage with iPhone apps. They aren't the same.

    The problem with using the same style repeatedly is that it gets old. People don't like paying extra to play the same game over and over. By the way, the glu games are free. That is the only reason this strategy semi-works for them.

    Don't publish the same game over and over again. uptimistik is right, the app store is full of a lot of crap. And if you use this strategy, you'll just get thrown into the pile.

    Make new and unique games = (a chance at) success, but thats better than no chance at all.
  • eXtraTurnGameseXtraTurnGames Member Posts: 70
    Personally, I like fantasy but don't like science fiction too much. So I might buy a fantasy version of a game but not the sci-fi version.

    But in your Glu games example, those are both sci-fi shooter games. A slight change of style isn't enough to justify a separate game in my opinion. There should be a really large change in style.

    It should be like cherry coke and coke, not cherry coke and black cherry coke.
Sign In or Register to comment.

© Vanilla Keystone Theme 2024