How many people will play games with anime's theme?

[Sweet Kungfuman]

If you see a puzzle mini game with a main character like this:
http://sweet-kungfuman.deviantart.com/

Picture with title 'Moon Bunny Oyoyo'

what will you do? Will you still play the game or decide that the game is not in your taste?

What I really want to know is: how many people will play games with anime's theme?

I'm not an English, so please forgive me for any mispelling or grammar.

I will really appreciate your feedback, thank you.

[Savant]

Anime is a pretty small market with hardly anyone buying DVDs, t-shirts, bed sheets, and wallpaper. I can't imagine there's any money to be made there.

Sarcasm aside, this isn't a good place to do feeble market research like this. You won't get useful results by polling a bunch of programmers and asking them if they'd play an anime puzzle game.

You either need to believe in your idea and do it - or don't. If you're sticking your toe in the water and are hesitant to dive in, that's probably your subconcious telling you it's a bad idea.

[Christian]

Animes style is known for its quality, isnt it?, well, if you bundle or ship a product with quality envolture, its interior will be judged by its exterior, i mean that the product will be judged by how it looks, if its looks of quality then everything in itself must be of quality!... BUT, its better to concentrate in the game design, nothing beats word of mouth and if you make a fun game, it will sell.

[PoV]

Anime/Manga rooted art styles aren't frowned upon, just there aren't many game with them in the casual space just yet. But for that matter visually, anything colorful and clean seems to work well. Compare your game graphic results against whats out there and big in the portals today (games.yahoo.com, realarcade.com, etc...). If it's as sharp looking, you're on the right track.

As for would I "OMG KAWAII ^_^" my way to the download link, no, not likely, but that's because I'm a developer, and not a consumer. There's certainly a significant crossover between Anime and Gaming, but as Christian pointed out, it's because of the perceived quality of something coming out of Japan. I suspect though, random outburts of Japanese text and otaku battle-cries would scare away the core causual game audience.

[AnthemAudio]

"..."

On the other hand

"..."

I can't think of the last puzzle game I played based purely on theme. I'm not a developer, I'm a freelance artist so I ride the hoary netherworld of suckling at both teats. In which case, I still wouldn't buy a puzzle game based on theme unless it were for someone else who I knew liked the theme.

"Hey, John likes monkeys! Let's buy him this monkey game! It's like Zuma but you shoot monkey skulls and asses!"

"Hey, Turner is always drawing women wrestling with tentacles, let's get him this Moon Bunny Oyoyo game!"

...are the scenarios I'm envisioning in which I might buy a puzzle game based purely on theme.

[whisperstorm]

Anime style games are one of my faves - and seem to be slowing making inroads in indie games:

http://www.viquagames.com/games/tommy/


I'd love to see a casual anime style rpg along the lines of Crescent Pale Mist:

http://classic-shikoukairo.jpn.org/data/source/game/cltc-0002/CrescentPaleMist_frame.html

[GREENhERMIT]

Hello :D

I've release my puzzle game that base on Anime style too

And now I can't sell it because my visitor almost from this forum. :p

.................................................. ............................................

In my opinion a lot of people love to play game that base on Anime style , especially if you have cute / smart / good looking character.

I'dont care to much about the art style , if that game is fun I'll play. :D


PS. I'm not English too :rolleyes:

[Sweet Kungfuman]

"..."

"Hey, John likes monkeys! Let's buy him this monkey game! It's like Zuma but you shoot monkey skulls and asses!"

"Hey, Turner is always drawing women wrestling with tentacles, let's get him this Moon Bunny Oyoyo game!"

...are the scenarios I'm envisioning in which I might buy a puzzle game based purely on theme.

Bwh! Hah! Ha! You have talents for envisioning things!

[Sweet Kungfuman]

Hello :D

I've release my puzzle game that base on Anime style too

And now I can't sell it because my visitor almost from this forum. :p



I don't know much about marketing, but maybe you could submit your games to:
http://www.gametunnel.com/

I think that they give award and money or something like that to people who create good games.

Trying to create 'Affiliates' is a good idea too. Good luck on your games!

[Sweet Kungfuman]

I agree with Christian and GREENhERMIT that game design is more important than theme. But just like Pov pointed out, I'm affraid about the possibility that some people will leave the game without trying it first.

Do you know indie game developer who create anime styled games and make a lot of money?

Duh ... I hope that the next president of U.S is an otaku ^_^

[GREENhERMIT]

I don't know much about marketing, but maybe you could submit your games to:
http://www.gametunnel.com/

I think that they give award and money or something like that to people who create good games.

Trying to create 'Affiliates' is a good idea too. Good luck on your games!

Thanks for your advice :D

I try to contact them a couple weeks ago but nothing was happen. :(

All ther best ( too )

[Fost]

The character art in Starscape is something we got tons of feedback on. (examples 1 (http://www.moonpod.com/graphic/secretgallery/starscape/owners/RinFubuki%5B800X600%5D.jpg)2 (http://www.moonpod.com/graphic/secretgallery/starscape/owners/JJ%5B800X600%5D.jpg))

Whilst it wasn't originally intended to be 'anime' - (it was a cel shade style I'd been thinking about for a while, more like technical drawing I suppose), having a character with spiky pink hair pretty much meant that was how it was perceived ;)

Anyway, to the point: it pretty much polarised people; there's no "yeah, that's ok", there's just : I hated that! or I loved that!
I'm also pretty sure that you can 'roughly' categorise those two into: people in the US hate it, everyone else loves it. Yeah, there's some cross-over, but if you want to go for the US market (and you'd be mad not to), then I really think 'realism' is vogue there. I've heard that said a lot in mainstream game development too.

Now- I have to admit, that doesn't really influence me :) but if you want to take the market research angle, then I'd go for a more realistic look or perhaps a pure cartoony 'fun' look (like a western cartoon) perhaps for casual games.

[Cartman]

In my opinion(and it's just that), I don't think Anime is a problem with the American Casual Gamer market. I think people who are not exposed to Anime will still like the characters as long as they aren't too exagerated in their design. When you get into wild characters with bunny ears, then I think you may be crossing a line. And you may loose the interest of some groups, however hard core Anime and Manga fans will love it. This is all based on an informal, in the office survey. :)

[amaranth]

I think Anime could be huge in the future. A great indicator is your local bookstore. In the last five years, I've seen the Anime story books become hugely popular at Borders and Barnes and Nobles books.

At my local Borders, the story books started on 1/4 of a rack. Now they have shelves and shelves dedicated to them. I bet there is a good chance that this attraction to anime books will trickle over into games.

[Genimo]

I agree - "anime" ranked #2 on Google's Zeitgeist (search trends) in Online Fun category in March, ahead of "sudoku" and "free games":

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist_monthly.html

[Sweet Kungfuman]

I agree - "anime" ranked #2 on Google's Zeitgeist (search trends) in Online Fun category in March, ahead of "sudoku" and "free games":

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist_monthly.html

Wuahhh!! That's so cool!!

I guess now I can continue being an anime artist with no worries ^_^.

Off course, my artwork has to many otaku souls on it, got to decrease it a little to match normal people taste ^_^