How to ideate in the hypercasual games space

As the hyper-casual mobile games market expands there has been a flow of original games, and of unoriginal, copycat products trying to squeeze into the market.

Speaking at PGC Digital, Sunday Games game lead André Noller explains how to ideate for a hypercasual game and avoid the risk of becoming another dead-end copycat.

First, analysing the market that you wish to ideate in, such as a certain genre of hyper-casual game is important. By analysing trending themes or mechanics, you can systematically explore original variations of these trends, however, beware of straying too far from your intended audience. Remember that if a similar idea has been tested before, ideating in a different direction to stand out from the competition. 

Considering the audience and how they will interpret the idea in comparison to the competition’s games is the next step. Consumers will see a lot of ads for similar games so they need to understand and recognise what is novel about your idea when compared to competitors.

The goal for ideation is to profit from the market but not “drown in the red ocean” and to differentiate enough to stand out and create a “blue ocean“.  Entering a red ocean is to compete in an existing market with the same product to try and beat the competition and capture more of the demand. A blue ocean is where you would create a new market with a different product which can make the competition irrelevant. You do not have to create a completely new hyper casual submarket, but a novel idea within an existing submarket.

The hypercasual market is often cyclical as when consumers first see a product they have a “caveman brain” and are hesitant of a new experience and are likely to skip the game.

However, once additional games featuring similar mechanics appear users will become interested but after seeing it often they crave novelty. Once the limits of novelty are reached consumers become disinterested in the submarket and the cycle repeats itself.

Nothing is impossible in the hypercasual games space and through correct ideation you can create the next hypercasual hit.

Source: pocketgamer.biz