COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS RESEARCH

Wednesday, December 11th

While our research shows there is no game that comes too close to our concept, using parkour inspired movements to generate sounds, I chose a few competitive multiplayer games to see why and how they appeal to the target audience.

Competitive Analysis Research: Bio

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

What the game offers:

portable mode
42 characters to choose from
bigger tracks to accommodate up to 12 racers
character customization
inexperienced players help: smart steering and auto acceleration + better rewards, to close the gap between experienced and inexperienced
online and local (split screen) option
multiple play modes

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been clearly designed for playing with friends. It is much more engaging when you are in a room with your friends and you yell at them "I'm imprisoned, come get me out", then playing online. I like this and I think it's beautiful, the whole experience changes and people can spend quality time together. The fact that the game is helping inexperienced players is also very useful. This way, everyone gets to enjoy the game. I think we can use this in our game, if the second player, for example, can't catch up with the first one for whatever reasons.

Competitive Analysis Research: Video

Stikbold! Dodgeball Adventure

What the game offers:

frenetic multiplayer experience, long and arduous when played against computer
contains a funny narrative that takes the player from a stage to another (transition)
game play is derivative, the difficulty too low later in the game (playtime: 1-2 hours)
easy to learn, easy to master
boss fights to make it less repetitive
fast-paced, hazards/obstacles in the stages make it more engaging

"Simplicity is what is key in most multiplayer experiences as more people can approach the game."

This game resembles our game in a few ways. Both have a very simple concept, which allows for an engaging multiplayer experience. When designing our game, we as well thought about the fact that the game might get too repetitive. Perhaps we can use Stikbold as inspiration, although we don't want to limit the players in creating music/generating sounds, so we will have to pay attention to that - we don't want to interfere with their piece of music, but we want the game to be fun. Perhaps we could separate in two modes? Absolute freedom and Heavy gameplay?

Competitive Analysis Research: Video

StarWhal

What the game offers:

a chaotic, fast-paced environment
local multiplayer, or single-player for learning the controls and getting used to the game play
not easy to get a hand of the controls and master
character customization (costumes)
neon colours, hypnotising environment
players get easily frustrated before learning the controls, but it's worth after
the chaotic nature takes away from the repetitive character of the game
level based, the environment adds gameplay

In this game achieves the same reactions as we want our game to achieve: friends having fun and fighting (playfully) to win the game. Some frustration required. The game seems a bit chaotic when the players haven't learned the controls yet. We don't want our game to be chaotic or random, we want the players to know what they are doing. This way they can play a song if they want to, instead of just pressing random keys.

Competitive Analysis Research: Video

Towerfall Ascension

What the game offers:

multiple modes: Versus, Quest and Trials
4 character choices, each with own characteristics, unlock more as you go through
simple controls, but mastering the mechanics is harder as there are waves of enemies that will attack you constantly
the combat is immensely rewarding
different ways to surpass an obstacle/enemy, if you don't have any arrows
customisation: ammo types, slow motion, items
nice touch: variety of death animations, depending of the situation of the death

Towerfall Ascension is a fun local multiplayer, and it doesn't have an online multiplayer option. Again, the concept is pretty simple, and the controls are easy to understand. The game becomes fun when the players are against each other and are trying to eliminated themselves. There is no randomness here, however, the enemy waves do add a nice gameplay element that make the experience less repetitive. What I really like is the slow-motion victory replays. I think it's a great touch to remind of the experience after the rush has passed. This would be an interesting system to implement.

Competitive Analysis Research: Video

Crawl

What the game offers:

there is a fight at the beginning, and the one who wins will be the protagonist, the rest will be the enemies
stage based, if you, as the enemy, kill the protagonist, you will get to be the protagonist - loop
narrative driven, with a narrator commencing each stage
can select shape from multiple dark deities at the beginning of the game - character choice; the enemies have their own abilities
easy to learn controls
arcade aesthetic
boss fight together

This game is similar to ours in that the players take turns in being the 'protagonist'. Here, you have a human body, in our game, you compose music. This shows us that changing between the players doesn't have to be confusing, and they can easily get a sense of what is happening around them. In our game, however, the players are eventually working together in composing something, so we can consider the game co-op?

Competitive Analysis Research: Video

All these games are really fun to play, and have their own small touches that make the players enjoy the experience, but in none of them are the players creating something, or having the freedom to do whatever they want without being told to do something. In our game, the player can do nothing if they want to, or they can generate as many sounds as possible.

I think one challenge for us will be designing the controls so that the first player doesn't just press random keys to make random obstacles. The keys need to make sense. This will be hard to do, as there are only so many keys on a Switch controller.

Meanwhile, we can look at these games and learn from them, even if they are our 'competition'. We can look where they failed, and try to avoid doing that, and we can look where they shined and get inspiration from there.

Competitive Analysis Research: Bio

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS RESEARCH

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

​

What the game offers:

portable mode

42 characters to choose from

bigger tracks to accommodate up to 12 racers

character customization

inexperienced players help: smart steering and auto acceleration + better rewards, to close the gap between experienced and inexperienced

online and local (split screen) option

multiple play modes

​

Stikbold! Dodgeball Adventure

​

What the game offers:

frenetic multiplayer experience, long and arduous when played against computer

contains a funny narrative that takes the player from a stage to another (transition)

game play is derivative, the difficulty too low later in the game (playtime: 1-2 hours)

easy to learn, easy to master

boss fights to make it less repetitive

fast-paced, hazards/obstacles in the stages make it more engaging

​

"Simplicity is what is key in most multiplayer experiences as more people can approach the game."

​

StarWhal

​

What the game offers:

a chaotic, fast-paced environment

local multiplayer, or single-player for learning the controls and getting used to the game play

not easy to get a hand of the controls and master

character customization (costumes)

neon colours, hypnotising environment

players get easily frustrated before learning the controls, but it's worth after

the chaotic nature takes away from the repetitive character of the game

level based, the environment adds gameplay

​

Towerfall Ascension

​

What the game offers:

multiple modes: Versus, Quest and Trials

4 character choices, each with own characteristics, unlock more as you go through

simple controls, but mastering the mechanics is harder as there are waves of enemies that will attack you constantly

the combat is immensely rewarding

different ways to surpass an obstacle/enemy, if you don't have any arrows

customisation: ammo types, slow motion, items

nice touch: variety of death animations, depending of the situation of the death

​

Crawl

​

What the game offers:

there is a fight at the beginning, and the one who wins will be the protagonist, the rest will be the enemies

stage based, if you, as the enemy, kill the protagonist, you will get to be the protagonist - loop

narrative driven, with a narrator commencing each stage

can select shape from multiple dark deities at the beginning of the game - character choice; the enemies have their own abilities

easy to learn controls

arcade aesthetic

boss fight together

​

​

I think one challenge for us will be designing the controls so that the first player doesn't just press random keys to make random obstacles. The keys need to make sense. This will be hard to do, as there are only so many keys on a Switch controller.

​

Meanwhile, we can look at these games and learn from them, even if they are our 'competition'. We can look where they failed, and try to avoid doing that, and we can look where they shined and get inspiration from there.