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A lot of people roll their eyes at the concept of market research in a creative field. They say it's a path that soulless moneymakers take to make clones of truly great art.
I disagree. I think market research is a vital early step towards improving your game's potential. If it's the term that makes you shudder, just call it what it is: playing more games.
For those of you looking for a more concrete reason to do market research now, consider this:
You’ll need to do market research in order to pitch to a publisher. All publisher submissions require a list of 2-5 comps (a comp is a game that's comparable to yours in playstyle, budget, and studio experience).
It’s most valuable to search comps at the beginning, when you can use them as inspiration to define your game’s identity.
A couple of great reasons to play more games! With that said, and you (hopefully) convinced, let’s dive into what makes a good comp.
What’s a Good Comp?
A good comp is a game released in the last five-ish years that’s comparable to yours in gameplay and scope.
The gameplay part of this definition is probably self-explanatory. Think about how you describe games to friends: “it’s like Mass Effect but you’re a squirrel” or “it’s like Slay the Spire meets Palworld.” We tend to describe things by comparison. When you’re pitching your game to a publisher, it helps them to have a starting point for your gameplay–in this case, your comps.
Scope is less self-explanatory. It means limiting your comps to games whose commercial success you expect to rival. You need to demonstrate that you have reasonable expectations.
Your small indie studio isn’t going to rival BioWare, even if your squirrels attempt a daring suicide mission a la Mass Effect 2. It’s really important to demonstrate your awareness of that. One publishing producer I've worked with cited outlandish comps as the number one reason he closes indie pitch decks. Why? He doesn't want to work with studios that don't understand the market, their team's potential, and most importantly their development capacity.
Publishers invest in ideas and games, but they also invest in people. They want to know they’re working with someone who understands the reality of the indie game market–that you’re more likely to make $100k than $1M. They’ll be working with you quite a lot, and they can’t have you wildly expanding scope in order to compete against the latest AAA hit. That’s a red flag investment, and in an industry where every investment’s risky, you need to present as safe as possible.
Otherwise, you just want to show that there’s a market for your game. By finding comparable, well-regarded indie games, you show that there are people out there looking to play your game.
On Indie Showstoppers
There’s another category to exclude, and you’ll probably like this one less. Indie showstoppers are independent games that have achieved massive commercial success. I mentioned Slay the Spire earlier–it's a great example. If you’re making a deckbuilder, you might be tempted to add Slay the Spire as a comp. Other indie showstoppers: Lethal Company, Stardew Valley, Valheim.
So you might be thinking “Great, I’ll add Valheim as a comp and show massive market potential AND stay within scope.” Well, yes and no. See–these games are the exception. You should treat yourself as the rule, not the exception.
I don’t say this to snuff out the fire of inspiration–maybe you are the exception. But unless you have a totally novel idea and a whole lot of luck, it’s way more likely you’re the rule. Any publisher you run into is going to assume you’re the rule, so you should present that way and show you're grounded in reality.
Keep in mind the subject we’re dealing with here: preparing your game for publisher pitch. Please, please, continue to believe your game’s unstoppable. Know privately that it’ll change the world. Just don’t trip the publisher red flags.
Finding Good Comps
Go out and find comparable games! You might not find your exact title out there (probably for the best), but you should find games developed by small studios that share gameplay elements with yours. If you’re developing a cooperative roguelike citybuilder, look for cooperative roguelikes–what do they do well? Look for roguelike citybuilders–what do they do well? Combine subgenres and search, search, search.

Gamalytic can help. It’s a gold mine of PC data. You can search for games by any combination of genres, sub-genres, and tags. It’ll also show you an estimate of copies sold, which helps you understand whether a game’s good comparison material (take these with a full tablespoon of salt). You’ll also see a "Class" category, which tells you the size of the studio.
Capturing Data
It’s dangerous to proceed without a template. Here's one I've developed.
You can fill it in with a list of 5-15 good game comps (remember: gameplay and scope). Ideally, 3-4 should stick out as phenomenal comps; if not, go back to the well. More is always better. Take special note of how the games did. Look at the reviews: what did they do well? What did they do poorly? You’ll learn a lot about your audience and your competition this way.
It’s no problem to include games that flopped. In fact, every publisher I’ve spoken to has suggested including a comp that didn’t achieve its intended success. That’s pretty counterintuitive for a sales pitch, but the point’s not to prove that the market’s 100% strong. The point is to show you’re a realist. I reiterate: one publishing producer cited outlandish comps as the number one reason he closes indie pitch decks.
Go ahead and add that AAA game that inspired you, or the indie showstopper that you reluctantly passed over. You can learn a lot from them, and it’s more than okay for them to inform your game’s direction (they just can’t be good comps™).
Now play the ones that interest you. Ideally, you’ll play all the closest comps and anything else you think will inspire you… but I’m not here to recommend you spend $200. Playing through comps will help you realize what it is you want your game to be–how you want it to be different, but also what you want to borrow and steal (don’t be ashamed–we stand on the shoulders of giants).
Congratulations: you've built a list of good comps (which checks both a pre-production and a post-production step–nice one). Now you know what the market for your game type looks like, and you’ve clarified your vision against other titles in your genre. Step one complete! Next, you'll establish the core principles that drive your game's design. Onwards to Creative Pillars.
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