How can you align game development goals with business and marketing strategy?

Understanding your target market is absolutely crucial when developing a game. It's not just about creating a fun and engaging game; it's about creating a game that people want to play. This statement highlights the importance of thorough research and analysis, which can't be overstated. It's the foundation upon which successful game development is built. By delving into your potential players' behaviors, preferences, and expectations, you can tailor your game to meet their needs and stand out in a competitive market. It's a recipe for a game that resonates with your audience and has a better chance of success.

Before starting to take your target market into consideration, what should be thought of in Phase -1 (it's not a typo. it's even below Phase 0), is to know the Zeitgeist, The spirit of Time. What will touch people's hearts? People take this issue to technical Marketing terms such as Trends, Situation Analysis, STP, etc. It is so simple: you have to know what will be a heart-catching story and how the spirit of time can assist you in your KPIs, etc. Zeitgeist is like the "force majeure" behind the energy you put into the game. Take game as in "Mind Game" for the very first step...

As with any project or endeavor, the PDSA Cycle or the Deming Wheel is an excellent tool to help you systematically analyze the project. It is a continuous circular process that allows you to test and re-test your idea before launching. You (a) Plan-assess the market, gather and evaluate the data. (b) Do-execute your findings. (c) Study-you study the results for gaps, inefficiencies or variations, then perform adjustments or corrective measures. (d) Act- implement on a smaller scale. If your goals have been met using a smaller scale, then you are good to go. If not, perform the PDSA Cycle again.

In game development, identifying your audience's preferences is vital. Use Google Trends to spot market interests, SurveyMonkey for player feedback, and SimilarWeb for competitor insights. This research shapes your game's design, ensuring features and style meet user expectations. A clear value proposition and a unique selling point (USP) distinguish your game. Aligning development with these insights ensures market relevance and player satisfaction.

Business and marketing strategy is a major requirement to ensure any business success to align this with a game development then we needs to know the type of game involved and whats the vision behind the development of the game because every business is driven by a vision

Methodically speaking, every goal should be SMART. But in designing a game, in selling the same, you are making a product for a generation way different from yourselves. They tend to go with the flow and my suggestion is to set the goals in this field not based on facts and figures merely, but on "getting the length of the gamer shoes"... Look at "The Last of Us"... Our World is full of zombies (figuratively speaking), so why not take the matter to an imaginative world and let each and every one of us fight the zombies, which cannot be beaten in real life (simply because you might not realize the innate zombies living around you). Get the length of the shoes, put yourself in gamers' shoes, and stick to the zeitgeist...

In game development, planning your scope is crucial. Use project/resource management tools (Jira, Zoho Sprints, Monday, etc..) to create Gantt charts for scheduling and tracking milestones. These tools allow for prioritizing features and content aligned with your goals and market needs while considering budget, time, and team limits. Effective scope management ensures your game's most vital aspects are polished and meet audience expectations within your project's constraints.

For me personally, this is a very fun stage of our process. Seeing how things are doing vs how you thought they would do. You see surprises and get validation for decisions. You also see failures. You get to use this data that you highlighted earlier as your success metrics to iterate and continuously work to achieve success. At early release points, I think looking at your main KPIs daily, weekly, and monthly are needed. Work to implement small changes to try and quickly see if they adjust the metrics you are aiming for. Don't wait months to make small changes.

If we already understand the target market of our game, we should address the following issues: 1- Define Specific Goals: Set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) 2- Monetization Strategy: Select an appropriate monetization model such as in-app purchases, subscription, ads etc 3- Marketing Plan: Create a marketing plan that covers pre-launch, launch and post-launch 4- Community Building: Create a community by using forums, social media and gaming platforms 5- Budgeting: Make appropriate resource allocation decisions by balancing development, marketing, and operational expenditures We can align our game development goals with our business and marketing strategy by combining these techniques.

The following steps can be taken to achieve this alignment: 1) Define the target audience, 2) Create a game design document to be used as a blueprint for the entire team with as much details as possible. 3) Develop a marketing plan at the early stages. 4) Collaborate with business and marketing teams at all times, 5) Monitor progress very frequently to help manage and forecast the success.