Why are we making games for an audience? Can’t we make games for ourselves?

What if a demographic group, for which we have so many trouble creating awesome games, would make games just for themselves? A female group of  game designers, artist and programmers that would create a game for just them – what would come out? As far as I know, this has never been tried before, I guess the game industry still remains a men’s world. But beside the female games discussion, what if a group of people that all love kite surfing would make a game to do just that? Or people with a dog fetish? Oh, I don’t want to think about that…

Anyway, if such group would make a game they love, a game in which they can share their love for the subject with others, where the fun of that group is transfered to any player, wouldn’t that be the ultimate hit? Hell yes!!!

I have a close to home example, one that shows that this theory can indeed apply. This years Global Game Jam, I participated with a team of which most members work or have worked at W!games, a game studio in Amsterdam. We all knew what it took to make a game and went into the project with the mindset to create a super awesome game. We threw in all the elements that the game we wanted to create would have and came to a concept really fast… All in all, it was the best process I had ever participated in, it went excellent. In the end, we had a game that was not far from the exact thing we had in mind and we all loved it. Because it was only created in 48 hours, we did not have the time to make it very accessible for other players, but after a few games, every player would get it and like it. Those players are the audience alike.

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