FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
Defining Your Target Audience
Many game designers make the mistake of thinking that all players enjoy the same things that the designer enjoys, so the designer has only to examine his own experience to know how to make a game entertaining. This is dangerous hubris. We make video games to entertain an audience. You must think about who your audience is and what they like.
Unless you have been commissioned by a single individual, you design a game for a class of people, not for one person. At this early stage, you must think about your audience broadly, as a group of people that you hope will enjoy your game. One of the first questions a publisher will ask you is, "Who will buy this game?" Think carefully about the answer. What characteristics are your players likely to have in common? What things set them apart from other gamers? What challenges do they enjoy? More important, what challenges do they not enjoy? What interests them, bores them, frustrates them, excites them, frightens them, and offends them? Answer these questions, and keep the answers close at hand as you design your game.
THE PLAYER-CENTRIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE TARGET AUDIENCE
As Chapter 2 explained, the player-centric philosophy of game design requires that you think about how your design decisions affect a representative player's experience of the game. This approach ensures that your decisions serve the player's interests first, especially in the later stages of development when you are often tempted to make decisions based on cost or convenience.
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A game concept is not complete without a statement describing its intended audience.
Defining a target audience is not the same as player-centric design. You can apply the player-centric approach only after you have defined the target audience. You must begin by asking yourself the question, "Who am I trying to entertain?" Once you have that answer, you can use it to apply the player-centric approach to other design issues, asking yourself, "Does this feature entertain a representative player from my target audience?"
