r2-46 - The Big Top

The big top!

Concept – To make your own ring master character and an award winning circus, e.g. no animal cruelty, having the best acts, keeping the grounds clean, having the right ticket price, not overcrowding. Keeping the acts happy, not going bankrupt/ making a decent profit. To win the game you have to receive the golden award for your circus.

Console – The big top would be a PC game available on C-D rom and download, to be compatible with all computer types.

Profile typical gamer – The typical gamer for the big top would be children aged 8-15 who have a creative interest, the game is not gender specific, although girls are more likely to play. This game would be aimed at the casual gamer as its not addictive and you can save your game so you can dip in and out of your circus, making parents more likely to wan there child to play.

Price – The game would be sold at £15-£20.

Marketing Strategy  - We would aim to sell the CD rom version of the game in lots (if not all) of well known gaming shops, such as: GAME, Game station, Hmv, Curry’s, PC world etc. Also it would be stocked in the Supermarkets such as Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s and more; This is because our target audience of younger children are more likely to be with their parents in the supermarket, as a casual gamer, as opposed to a gaming shop like a hardcore gamer. However it would still be stocked in the game shops mentioned above, to market to a wider audience.  

The downloadable version of the game would have its own website, also called “the big top”. Here you could sample the game for an hour, before deciding to follow a simple download procedure, which adds the game to your applications. Downloading the game online would be slightly cheaper than buying it in the shops, more likely to retail around £10 - £15. As well as being available on its own website, “The big top!” would also be downloadable from sites such as itunes, Play.com and Amazon. If the customer wanted the disc, they could still purchase it on sites mentioned above, such as Amazon and Play.com, with a free delivery.

Adverts for the game would be posted on social networking sites, targeting those gamers who are already playing games on such sites, eg. FarmVille on Facebook. Many posters around shops it is stocked in to let the customer know it is in stock. Adverts on TV would simulate an exciting part of the game being played, not necessarily Game footage. These adverts would be shown on daytime channels targeting younger children, eg. Citv around 4 o’clock, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney channel.  Similar adverts to that on social networking sites would be present on itunes etc and a link to its own website will appear high up the list on the search engines when anything to do with PC games is typed in. 

Game Play

First we played Grand Theft Auto, where you are the criminal running round high jacking cars. I think this is aimed at hardcore gamers, as it would take quite a lot of practice to get good at it. Also a slightly older audience with the violent content. We played it on the xbox 360 and the controller was easy enough, except the steering was a bit too sensitive and it is not always clear what you need to do.

Bully - In this game you are the bully, out to break as many rules as possible. There are also missions you can complete but it was difficult to find out what these were. We played it on a ps2 and this was easy to control. This would be target at slightly older teenagers, as there is quite a high violence content.

Red Dead Redemption - You are the bounty hunter in this game and there are missions to complete, in order to avoid capture. The controls for the ps3 were difficult to use as there were too many functions for each button, also the map is unclear as to where you are meant to be. The target audience would most likely be males aged 16 - 30 because again there is a high violent content.

Time Splitters Tomb - This multi player game was really frustrating as there was only so much shooting you could do, and you had little control over the movement of your player. There were too many options on the controllers and no instructions. This was played on the Game Cube and would be targeted probably at hardcore gamers as it takes lots of practice.

Mario - This game would be aimed at younger children, with  much more colourful and child friendly graphics without violence. There are again missions and coins to collect, but it is not always clear as to what to do. Also there were lots of options for controlling Mario (you) and this was not made clear, so i often ended up going round in circles.


My favourite game was the bully game, as this was easiest to understand what you had to do, without reading the booklet. Also there were constant reminders with the controls which was helpful and the interaction between characters made it funny.

Just Dance Research

Just Dance is a music video game developed and published by Ubisoft for the Wii. Developed in the headquarters of Ubisoft Entertainment: Montreuil - sous - Bois. Ubisoft Paris, the french independent video game developer, founded in 1986 is now as of 2008 the 3rd largest independent video game publisher and developer in Europe and the 4th in America. They have studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 28 countries. 
On November 27, 2009, they released their new game "Just Dance" for the Nintendo Wii on an optical read only laser disc. This means it can only be played on the Wii, no other consoles. 
This media convergence uses the classic Wii controller and the players must mimic all the moves of the silhouette dancer on screen. They earn points depending on which moves they perform and how well. 
There are a few different modes available to go with the 32 tracks:

Duet Mode. Created for more interaction and role playing between players.

Dance Battle Mode. This mode will let you play with up to 8 players in a pass the Wii-mote style. Individual scores will count towards the overall result of the team. 

Party Mode. The Just for fun mode!  For all the dance fans, it’s as simple as that, you just play as much non-stop music as you want.

Just Sweat Mode. Exercise and have fun at the same time! The Just Sweat Meter measure's how much energy you are actually putting into the  dancing and it also includes the option  to define daily and weekly objectives for your dancing sessions to track your progress.

Just Dance received mixed to negative reviews from critics, with an average rating of 49/100 on review aggregator website Metacritic. The game was criticized for having no unlockable features, songs, or dancers and no progression. The controls and grading system have been criticized as "sloppy", with the detection of player movements being substandard.

However, in terms of sales, Just Dance performed strongly, becoming Ubisoft's most successful Wii release ever. Despite the poor critical reception, the game was the fastest selling third-party Wii game ever, selling two million in its first four months. Ubisoft described the sales performance as "overwhelming". As of December 2010, Just Dance had sold 4.3 million worldwide, making it the second-highest selling Wii game from a third-party publisher behind Ubisoft's sequel, Just Dance 2.

As a result of the popularity, Ubisoft have released more Just Dance titles to appeal to a wider audience. To date the entire lineup of Just Dance titles – Just Dance, Just Dance 2 and Just Dance Kids  - have sold more than an estimated ten million units worldwide. Also the Just Dance, Michael Jackson: The Experience has surpassed two million units sold.