When determining whether your game design is a viable idea, association is key.
It’s important to consider the information/decision flow of a board game sale. A prospective customer at a game store will first see the box cover on the shelf. If they’re intrigued by that cover, they’ll pick the box up and look at the box bottom. From there, if the gameplay looks interesting to them, they’ll add it to the list of possible purchases. If their interest outweighs their interest in other games (and there are a lot of factors that determine “interest” here), they’ll buy the game.
But unless they’re buying a game that they already know, that first step is almost always their reaction to the box cover. If the thematic subject matter is something they know nothing about, or have no interest in, then the possibility of converting that sale is almost completely gone. Association is an important metric that you can use to predict the viability of your game product.
Theme sells games, and if your theme connects to an audience, your game has a better shot than if it doesn’t. It’s why space games do better than sports games. Space is universal and abstract enough to appeal to a wider range than Baseball, which I love but has a smaller specific market. Choosing a unique theme is fun but also puts you at risk at alienating the game’s potential audience. There are exceptions in the market to this, but as I always say, the exceptions prove the rule. Good luck out there.
#boardgames #boardgamedesign
