Background

A particular gaming genre – known as otome games or visual novels – appears to be overlooked in the English-speaking, western market. Most existing games in this genre are from Japan and Korea and don’t translate well linguistically or culturally.

A research plan was developed to determine whether this hypothesis is correct, and if so, to learn more about the habits, interests and preferences of this audience as related to playing app-based games.

With the huge audiences for romantic fiction books and movies set in past eras and fanatasy or sci-fi settings, I hypothesize that there is a large and underserved audience for this game genre.

Research Goal

A research plan was developed to determine whether this hypothesis is correct, and if so, to learn more about the habits, interests and preferences of this audience as related to playing app-based games.

The research goal was to answer the following question:

Is there a large, underserved audience for the otome game genre (visual novel role playing games) in the English-speaking, western market?

Research Methods

Research methods were chosen based on our research goal, timeline and budget:

• Online Survey
  This method allowed us to get a large sample of data to determine whether our target users have behaviors and preferences. Screener questions screened out people who: 1) don’t play or buy games, 2) only like games that are fighting-based and 3) don’t like movies or books in at least one of the following genres: period drama, sci-fi, fantasy, romance.
• Competitive Product Interviews
  This method allowed us to gather qualitative data regarding the audience’s perception of the competitor’s game and their attitudes and preferences in relationship to it.

Two screeners were be used, one for the online survey and another for the competitive product interviews. This was done to ensure that the data we were collecting would be from people whose interests and gaming habits are compatible with the proposed game type.

Analysis and Findings

The data from the interviews was coded and analyzed using afinity diagramming, which shown patterns in game-playing habits, interests and genre preferences. The data from the survey filtered and compared demographic segments with respondents’ gaming attitudes and preferences, and matching them against the characteristics of our proposed game genre.

Analysis determined that there was a likely viable audience, and offered recommendations for next steps and for further testing to determine if this game type could be profitable.

Audience

Interests and Preferences