SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis

A Life in the Day

                The game that my group and I are designing is a game that takes place during mainly the high school years. Our game is designed to teach teenagers and younger about drugs and alcohol. The game will teach them about drugs and alcohol without telling them that this is bad or good for their choices. It will teach them about how the choices they made earlier in the game effect the outcome of the game in the long run. The game is designed so it can be played multiple times in order to learn from the past mistakes. This game will be used by schools, therapists, and other forms that people maybe need.

Internal SWOT:

·         Strength

Ø  We will focus on the players connection to the NPC’s

Ø  Multiple different paths to take have other outcomes

Ø  Easy to understand stat shield that will show the players interests

Ø  Episodes that split up different times throughout the year and proceed the story

Our strengths are that we have a deeper connection with our players due to the fact that they don’t have an avatar. We believe that our players will get more into the game and make wise choices to get the ultimate outcome. Also an engaging and interesting to teach teenagers about drugs and alcohol.

·         Weaknesses

Ø  Our game is not much of a free roam type game

Ø  It doesn’t have a multiplayer form like some other games

Ø  Is very heavy in narrative

Ø  Has a very unappealing aspect for teenagers

Our game has a few minor weaknesses which can be overlooked, after all this game is designed for learning purposes. It is very heavily narrative driven which maybe unappealing to some but may also pose a good way to bring up other ideas if needed.

External SWOT:

·         Opportunities

Ø  As this game is designed to be played for learning purposes could be used by teachers it will be most likely used during school

Ø  Will be coming out in a time when drugs and alcohol are now a major part of high school

The game will be given to therapist and teachers as a learning tool. It will help teach kids how to properly be around drugs and alcohol without being afraid of them. But it will also show the consequences of doing them as well.

·         Threats

Ø  A threat to our game would be dating sims

I looked up as much as I could for this game, and I could not find any type of game that seemed to teach about drugs and alcohol. However, if I was to name one threat that we would have it would have to be a dating sim. Dating Sims have very complex characters in which you can form relationships with and in some cases get really creepy really fast. The only difference in games is that out game will have no dating.

Hatoful Boyfriend

                The other game that I chose to do the analysis on was Hatoful boyfriend the pigeon dating simulator. This is one of the only games that I could find that seemed to fit the style and narrative we wanted.

Internal SWOT:

·         Strength

Ø  It’s a humorous idea that seems to play well into the many dating sims bringing up new ideas that set it apart

Ø  Very well developed characters

No matter how you look at it the game has almost a charm that can catch anyone’s attention. It stands so far apart and is set in an entirely different world which sets this cute adorable story even more adorable.   

·         Weaknesses

Ø  The game is just strange in itself setting some small things off that make it rather weird

So in the game you are the only human attending an all bird school where you are trying to have inter-species love and hijinks. It also is very narrative driven so that maybe rather upsetting to some players but again they are birds. Yah, this game is weird.

External SWOT:

·         Opportunities

Ø  Well known for being silly

Ø  Has extremely positive reviews on steam

Ø  Everyone who has played it refers it to others

The game has many different versions from what I’ve seen making it just that more interesting compared to others. It may be considered silly but every that has played it loves it and they want others to try and play it.

·         Threats

Ø  Other dating sims

For this game other dating Sims may not be an issue due to the fact that the game stands out so well against others. It brings up the ideas of taking a game that has been known to be rather serious and turn it into something rather silly and enjoyable.

Spore vs Client's vision

The game that I wrote about in my first blog was Spore, I believe that some of the mechanics that make the game fun are the ability to have a skill tree and advancing the game throughout time.

 You can adapt the character to how you want them to behave. Each character that you create as the player has the ability to be either much nicer than other creatures or perhaps a monster that runs around killing the others. This specific mechanic makes the game also replayable because you have the ability to change your creature again and again. This makes the game a lot more enjoyable when you are playing because it makes it just that much more fun because you could be a calm relaxed character in the beginning. Then as time goes on you can change to a character that of a monster as they go around and destroy other creatures and tribes as you go on. This aspect of game will be rather hard for our client’s wishes because it is more of an RPG type of style while he wants a more choice and effect type game.

However it can began tweaked enough to allow certain types of perks for a character. Let’s say that the client’s character if they do something correct and they get good grades on an exam or class, they get a perk that allows them to do homework faster. Or perhaps your character starts to drink, you get a perk that makes it easier hide your drunkenness from other characters.

Another good feature of the game is how it advances through time. In Spore time advances through the game your character changes. You first start out as a cell and move up to an actual land creature before eventually creating a tribe of your species. It’s an interesting mechanism that works well in the game. It is similar to leveling a character in a regular RPG type game, although in Spore it changes the age. Such as you were in city stage and then suddenly you create a spaceship. You are then moving onto space stage which changes the whole game idea. However I do see it as hard to actually combine it with our client’s vision. It will be hard to put this in the vision, but it isn’t impossible.

An idea to incorporate leveling and changing of stages would be actually going from 5^th grade to 6^th. Your friends can change and so can the goals that your character wants to accomplish. Maybe your character can even change their look a little bit as well as gain a certain ability. It’s not impossible to do but it most certain won’t be easy.

Those are the ideas that I have for our client’s vision and the few I have gained throughout playing other games. I feel like each of these are doable but are not going to be done because after all this is just a slice of a game. 

Spore

                Spore is a game where you start out as an organism, and you have to decide the characters life style. Depending up on the person’s choice, the characters can be either an herbivore, a carnivore or an omnivore.  This choice drastically changes how the game will play out, because once you evolve past the cell stage there is no way to change your characters attributes. Let’s say we start out as an herbivore you can only access a third of the items which doesn’t allow you to change the character.

                As an herbivore you can only access items that allow you to befriend enemies there is no way to change this unless you do something so drastic that it forces a change. After the animal stage you move onto a tribal stage, which allows you to create a tribe of your own people. The way you play the game can drastically impact your growing civilization which is more of an incentive to do well by your people.

                It’s a fun game that I believe is hard to replicate but it brings a whole new element to an avatar like game.