Looking at the Current Market

After having a short talk with one of my tutors about my two idea. I decided that the better idea was the pet monsters idea. Before I go too deeply into the production of the design document, I want to make sure that there is a market out there for my game.

I first looked for Tamagotchi-esque games. The first one I found was iFluff Pets for the iPhone. After looking around on the net, I found no reviews or ratings of iFluff whatsoever. This in itself shows that the game has done nothing significant or unique. The game takes on a very "cute'n'cuddly" visual style and is clearly aimed at children. The game's layout (from pictures) also looks very uninteresting and nothing new is done with the gameplay.

iFluff shows a definite aim towards small children with it's bright, simple and colourful design and interface.

 When I tried searching for an app made by Tamagotchi I found Tamagotchi: 'Round the World which uses none of the features used by the original Tamgotchi devices. The game got reviews on the app store website like "Crap. Nothin like a tamogotchi and is not worth the money." from Eddie Leonard and "Nothing like a real tamagotchi! bloody silly game and expensive too." from mogsmmm. 
The closest app I found to the original Tamagotchi was the iGotchi. Although this game does allow you to care for and look after the creature, whilst taking on a less brightly coloured visual style, it does not have the creature change at all. This leaves you with very little to keep the player's interest.

After looking at the current market, it seems pretty obvious to me that there is very little in the way of virtual pet games, let alone virtual pet games made to a decent standard. Although, in terms of audience, I will be aiming for an older age group than any of these, which are aimed primarly at children. I want my audience to be early teens to young adults. I will be looking at games that aim for this same audience.