Here's how you can grasp the target audience in the gaming industry.

When trying to market to the gaming audience, you've got to understand their experiences. It is that shared experience that creates a community, much more than their demography. You have to be about what you talk about. It is very difficult to understand a specific gaming audience if you've never played the game that binds that community together. Great creative marketing should always come from deep qualitative player insights. Remember, it is never "build it and they will come". It is always; ask them what they want and build that.

You need to know your player base inside out! Start by conducting market research to understand demographic details, preferences, and gaming habits. You can use tools like Sensor Tower & Data.ai to do it, you can also use these tools to analyze competitors' games and see who their audiences are. Start a DISCORD channel and chat with your community to gather direct feedback. Play the games that your target audience loves to understand their tastes. Use Firebase or Singular analytics to track player behavior and preferences. Do this ALL THE TIME! and Continuously to refine your understanding based on feedback and data to keep your games aligned with what your audience wants.

Always remember, you can't make a game for everyone. Someone that plays cozy games like Animal Crossing might not want to play Dark Souls. Find your niche, and cater your game to the players that love that niche. Start with "Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?" Breakdown your user persona, and research what those players enjoy.

Get involved in the communities you are making games for. Even if it's just lurking in forums, spend time understanding what these players like and what makes them tick. You can do all the research you want, but nothing tells you more about how to appeal to players than spending time with them and finding the common threads in their consumption habits.

Following market movement can get your game a lot of 'steam', no pun intended. Look at what's trending on Twitch, Youtube, Steam, and plenty of other platforms. Content Warning took inspiration from Lethal Company, and Lethal Company took inspiration from Phasmophobia. They also mostly shared user personas, creating a successful and diverse genre of games. There is always room for more new games in a genre, but some are definitely more saturated than others. Just remember, if you're are making a MOBA, it better bring something unique to the table if you League of Legends players to try it.

Yes, creating a community is crucial to engaging your player audience. Don’t forget to build this community around your studio as a whole. If you succeed in creating a strong community, chances are that if members like one of your games, they'll likely enjoy the next one you release. Staying connected to this audience is key. Ensure you truly understand what they liked about your first game and remain faithful to those elements while keeping them engaged with your studio's progress.

UX is all about intuition and comfort. Does your player know where to go to find what they want? When designing UX, always develop a user persona, and do market research. If there's a flow that's already comfortable and being used by that persona, utilize it. See the spread of the TikTok scroll format across Youtube and Instagram as a great example.

We use a data-driven approach to deciding where to spend influencer marketing budget. It's important to identify influencers that hit DIFFERENT audiences rather than spending money on duplicative work, and think about the audience rather than just the influencer. While some influencers may have large reach, ask yourself if that reach is likely to actually convert to game sales, or are you just a fan of their content?

Even if your team is small, you need to do *something*! Over 10k games are released on Steam annually, so visibility is crucial. Make sure you're posting consistently on your social media channels. Craft a compelling and brief elevator pitch. Update your storefront copy to cover all the key elements of your game and include relevant keywords. Optimize your game's tag in the Steam backend so your game is recommended to the right people. And most importantly, don't just market to game developers! Make sure you're reaching normal gamers, too!