For game designers it is very important to understand who the audience they're producing to, it's important because knowing this information will allow for them to create it for those specific audience, because if you were to release a game without a specific target audience then whats most likely going to happen is that only a few thousand people are going to purchase and play the game while thousands may be a big number it might not be enough to fund any more releases meaning you'll just be wasting a huge amount of money. To get a better understanding of how the industry specifies its target audience for a game I analyzed two games which is Just Dance 2014 and The Last of Us.
I broke my analysis into six different terms; Genre, Content, Construction, Narrative conventions, Common codes and modes of address.
Just dance 2014
Genre
The few genres and sub-genres that Just Dance 2014 falls into is Rhythm, Simulation, Fitness, Entertainment and Illuminating.
Content
The game is eye-catching due to the bright neon colors that they display while the players mimic the moves being thrown at them through the TV screen. Games like Just Dance, that are bright and illuminating tend to attract a lot of people towards it because of the fact that its bright and colorful it gives off positive and happy vibes while it is being played by the players. I think that Just Dance's target audience are for everyone, the reason being is that is that it doesn't present any kind of sexual content and doesn't display any kind of drugs or/and alcohol.
Construction
The game makes the player mimic and execute the dance moves that are being demonstrated by the just dance mascots shown on the screen. Because it is a dancing simulator it encourages people to get and be more active.
The game is quite shallow but it is also at the same time very interactive because of the fact that the player has to mimic the dance moves that the game is displaying.
Narrative conventions
In these kinds of games, the player would expect to see a lot of player to game interaction as it should because it falls under the rhythm genre along with simulation and entertainment. Competitiveness should also be expected between the players from trying to beat each others scores.
With just dance you can choose the sweat levels, the higher the sweat level you choose, the more frequent moves will be shown on screen. There is also a mode which shows a specific amount of calories you can lose when doing the whole dance sequence.
Common codes
The common codes that just dance has with the last of us is that they have multiple mode options meaning you don't have to play the same thing over and over again. Other common codes they have is that they are both popular and quite trendy which means that they both have something that their audiences can relate to.
Modes of address
The way that just dance talks to it's audience or players is by basically indirectly telling them how to move their body by displaying funky and colorful mascots on the screen.
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