We live in a great time for entertainment experiences. From board games to amusement parks to mobile apps there are an ever-increasing number of avenues for having fun. It’s a dream for consumers, but challenging for developers. With so many options, how do you make your product stand out amongst the crowd?
One common solution to this problem is to embrace an intellectual property. An Intellectual Property (or IP) is a work or invention that is the result of creativity to which one has rights and for which one may apply for a patent, copyright or trademark (Think: films, television show, novels and comic books.)
Game Designers embrace IPs because they have a proven track record for launching popular experiences. For example, when we look at some of the most popular mobile games of the last five years we see a veritable “who’s who” of intellectual properties - Marvel Comics, Star Wars, Pokemon, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Transformers, Kim Kardashian and more. But for every Pokemon Go there dozens of other IP-based experiences that do not succeed.
What separates the IP winners from the IP losers?
In this article I want to share some tips on how to use an IP to build a great product that your audience will love.
An IP can give you a huge advantage.
IP-based experiences can provide designers with a number of advantages in a crowded market. A popular IP can come with a dedicated, vocal fanbase that almost guarantees a certain number of installs or downloads. Combine this with the IP’s built-in name recognition effect on PR and marketing and it is easy to see why branded experiences have become so popular among developers.
An IP is able to cut through the noise and clutter and present a trusted, known identity to the user - this is important as consumers tend to purchase products and services from a known entity. According to market research group Invesp 59% of consumers prefer to purchase from brands they are familiar with (with 21% preferring to purchase from brands they “like”).
An IP has the potential to take a solid product and make it stand out from the crowd. And in a world where every player, guest and user must be fought for this advantage can be the difference between success and failure.
Not all IPs are equal.
But just because an IP can help a product stand out doesn’t mean that it will. Not all IPs are created equal.
One of the most IP-heavy experiences I have worked on is the mobile game Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff. Quest for Stuff is based on the immensely popular Family Guy television series and charges players with rebuilding a destroyed Quahog while collecting popular series characters and items. The IP’s popularity undoubtedly boosted download and install numbers for our game - cutting through the noise of the app store as previously mentioned.
And just as the Family Guy television series was constantly referencing popular culture, our game gave players the opportunity to collect characters and items from popular television shows, films and more. This gave us a HUGE amount of content to experiment with - we were in IP heaven! But with each new IP we had to ask a few questions:
Is this compatible with our main IP (Family Guy)? Does this fit into the style of our game? In terms of both humor and visual style?
Is this compelling to our players? Does this IP have a significant enough fanbase within the Family Guy fanbase to drive engagement?
Is this valuable to our players? Are they willing to invest time and money for this IP?
There are many IPs out there, but not all of them may help you meet your goals. In the case of Quest for Stuff we were diligent about choosing IPs that we felt would help us meet our goals (player joy, player engagement and monetization). Before choosing an IP to partner with understand your goals and how they may (or may not!) mesh.
Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff (which is based on the Family Guy intellectual property), regularly leverages other intellectual properties in it’s events.
Different IPs for Different Experience Types
Have you ever had a one-size-fits-all shirt that actually fit “all” sizes? Probably not. And just like that awkward shirt, not all IPs fit all types of experiences.
A good example of this can be found in mobile gaming. When we look at the the most successful mobile games based on IPs we typically find that they utilize television shows or comics books. Meanwhile games based on films have historically done poorly on mobile. Why? My suspicion is that the nature of serial storytelling in television and comic books simply matches better with the continuous flow of content needed for most long-term mobile games. Long-running games like The Simpsons: Tapped Out or Quest for Stuff have hundreds of hours of content to pull from, whereas a film only offer a few hours. And for large swaths of mobile gaming regular content updates are needed to sustain games.
But choosing an IP that matches the experience isn’t unique mobile games, rather it is something that all entertainment products do. Disney, who are masters at pairing story with experience, carefully match their IPs to a variety of park attraction types. For each ride and attraction the designers have identified their target audience and what IPs are likely to make magic that is appealing to that group. For example: they know it may be ill-advised to pair an intense thrill ride design with an IP aimed at preschoolers.
When considering an IP be sure to ask yourself “Does this IP fit my experience type?” and “Does this IP fit my target audience?”.
Know Your Stuff...Cuz Your Audience Will
The first professional game I worked on was a game about Tinkerbell and her fairy friends. And when I joined that design team my first task was to read and watch everything available source material about the Disney Fairies franchise to ensure our design fit within that larger universe. I read books, watched movies and took more notes on fairies than I did for some classes in graduate school. To this day I suspect that I know more about fairies than just about any 35 year-old man alive.
But why did I spend so much time reading and watching and studying and obsessing over the details? Because we knew that large parts of our target audience would be doing the same.
When you make an experience based on a popular IP you are hoping to leverage a group’s fandom and passion into success. That fan passion often comes with knowledge and understanding of the IP’s world. These fans will come with an expectation that designers and developers will respect their beloved IP and “get it right” - meaning they will know the characters, the relationships, the locations, the terminology and more. When developers “get it wrong”, it is not surprising that many fans become angry and will make that anger known.
Take the time to understand your IP and its fanbase. Remember: passionate fans can become your experience’s biggest advocates and ambassadors or they can be its loudest and most strident critics.
It still has to be fun!
You can have the most desirable intellectual property in the world, but if your experience isn’t fun it won’t make much difference. Many have tried to shoehorn popular IPs into an ill-fitting designs only to meet with disaster. Others have tried to present half-baked designs hoping an IP will disguise a poor process.
Players might initially notice your game because of an IP, but they will only stay if the experience is engaging and fun. To sustain an IP-based game long terms you must marry the IP with solid, player-focused design.
I’ve designed games, toys and amusement park attractions based on many popular intellectual properties. To learn more, click HERE.