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Tip, for games, movies, novels, plays, whatever creative product you're making:
You WILL have a primary audience. Know this audience.
You WILL have a primary audience. Know this audience.
Knowing your primary audience will help you decide on the best distribution platform, your marketing strategy, and also help publishers/funding bodies see that you know what you're doing. Claiming broad appeal just makes it look like your vision is unclear (or privileged)
A primary audience or target market may not drive the creative product's vision (though it can!), but it can be the mediator between the vision and the nitty-gritty creative decisions - informing the art style, dialogue style, game mechanics, point of view, tone, pacing, etc.
At the heart of every creative decision you make, you can ask yourself:
Who am I making this for, and what is the experience I want them to have?
Who am I making this for, and what is the experience I want them to have?
This was drilled into me when I studied Multimedia Design at university. We had to make our own brief docs based on a high-level concept/brief. We had to ask questions and gather information - including who the target market would be, so that we could design for them.
Time and again, I've found myself in situations where vision holders have been stuck and lost in their decision making because they couldn't, or didn't want to, define a primary target market. They couldn't even choose a competitor/comparison title.
Unique is great, but if no one knows about your unique thing because they never find it offered to them near things that they also like, then no one will be able to like it. You won't find your audience, and your audience won't find you.
I'm not saying that you should choose a target market and then make something specifically for them (although this may happen to you in your professional career!), but once you have a vision, it helps to think about who you expect would really love your game/film/novel.
Having a niche market is great! They may be under-serviced, and your artistic vision might appeal to them and win you lifelong fans who will be dying for the next thing you create. And, by having an idea of who these fans could be, you will know where you could find them.
All in all: have fun, be inspired, express yourself, create! But remember that this is an exchange between you and an audience, so speak to them. See them in your mind's eye, put their persona down on paper, visit their stomping grounds, and make sure they'll be able to listen.
If you've got this far and are keen to hear more, please spare ~30mins to watch this excellent talk on "Strategic Design"
