Hi there!
Chris here with my third Marketing blog post. Today I’ll be referencing a blog post by David Sirlin, professionnal game designer/balancer. Sirlin is well-known for his involvement in balancing popular games such as the Street Fighter series and for producing fun, BALANCED card games and board games. He is also known for his acclaimed book “Playing to Win” in which he analyzes the different types of gamers and their mentality of gameplay (A most interesting read which you can find online for free here).
As a passive gamer I am not an expert on game design but as an aspiring Marketing student I am highly intrigued at the way in which Sirlin markets his games. Take a look at his blog post here.
Pay attention to the way in which Sirlin describes his games. In particular, I noted the following:
“Yomi is a card game that captures the essence of fighting games such as Street Fighter […] The decks resemble poker decks, and that makes them pretty easy to learn […] The game focuses on the mind-games that happen in high level play in real fighting games, but extracted into a turn-based form so you don’t need any dexterity.”
In this paragraph Sirlin is pitching his card game Yomi to individuals who have often wanted to play high-level fighting games but lacked the dexterity and practice to go competitive. He segments these “passive” gamers into their own segement and actively targets them by positioning his game as one of the MOST balanced card games in the WORLD that can simulate a fighting game (I could go on for ages regarding this point, but I’ll let it rest). Sirlin indirectly (and directly) references other games in his post, further positioning himself by pointing out the weakness of other games and capitalizing on his game’s balance. He also capitalizes on big game names such as Starcraft and Dominion, comparing the advantages of each game with his own. By doing so, not only does Sirlin attract the specific target of geeks who crave balance in game design, but piques the interest of those who play these games and want something fresh.
A few leaving quotes from Sirlin’s post:
On Puzzle Strike:“You build your deck as you play, so it’s the same genre of game as Dominion in case you’ve heard of that, except it’s far more interactive and suited for tournament play”
“We have […] leaderboards, ranked and unraked matches, and the ability to save replays and watch other people’s replays. Even League of Legends didn’t launch with that, ha!”
“Those years spent on balancing ensure that you can play them for years and still find them strategically interesting. There’s a growing competitive scene and frequent online tournaments, so join in! (Casual fun is also allowed!)”
