Spirit Farer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price: \u00a324.99<\/p>\n\n\n\n Platforms: PC, PS4\/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch<\/p>\n\n\n\n Team size: 33 people<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developers: Thunder Lotus Games<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steam description: Spiritfarer\u00ae is a cozy management game about dying. As ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and release them into the afterlife. The Spiritfarer Farewell Edition includes the heartwarming base game and three major content updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Positive review: <\/strong>“Spiritfarer is a beautiful and fantastic game, lovely and heart-wrenching and fun from start to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The art is gorgeous, the gameplay loop is very enticing and enjoyable, and the characters and their stories are excellently written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this is a wonderful game, it also centers around themes of loss, grief, fulfillment, and letting go. I recommend it to just about everyone, but take care of yourself and keep in mind that it’s very emotional.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Negative review: <\/strong>“This game is opposite of “relaxing”. I bought it because it promised a rich story and interesting characters. What I got is a horrible, mind-numbing, endless grindfest lasting several dozen daunting hours with tiny bits of incoherent and disjointed story hidden in it. There are emotional moments of course, I will remember Stanley for a while, but they completely fade into the background.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Who is this game made for?:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Celeste<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price: \u00a316.75<\/p>\n\n\n\n Platforms: PC, Xbox, PS4\/5, Nintendo Switch<\/p>\n\n\n\n Team size: 5-10 people<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developer: Matt Makes Games<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steam description:<\/strong> Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight platformer from the creators of TowerFall. Brave hundreds of hand-crafted challenges, uncover devious secrets, and piece together the mystery of the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Positive review:<\/strong> “One my favorite 2d platformers of all time. You can’t find anything better than this with a precision 2d platformer like this. I could gush endlessly about this game. It does everything right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do think this game should be studied in how to do difficulty in other games by other devs. It’s done in a way that is approachable to novice players and doesn’t harm the enjoyment from expert players. It’s such a hard game but the way the difficulty is designed means you will not be going through a billion rooms just to get back to where you died. Your respawn time after dying is almost instant and allows you to get right back into it with no downtime. Once you clear a room you’ve cleared it for good. To this day no other platformer has done difficulty better than this one has.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Negative<\/strong> review<\/strong>: ” have super mixed feelings about this game. I love the music, and multiple art styles employed, and I even like the writing. Initially I was 100% on board with the actual gameplay, but the difficulty curves up FAST. I saw it through to the end, but a lot of the time it was just frustrating and not at all fun. It definitely feels like it was playtested by speedrunners and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously this isn’t a universal experience, and most people have less reservations about it than I do. If you want a relaxing game, this is not it, despite its appearances. Dark Souls is like computer golf in comparison. If we had a more nuanced system I would rate it something other than “No”, but chances people who are seeing this are specifically looking for negative reviews to read.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Who is this game made for?:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Official age rating: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Game content with scenes or sounds that can possibly be frightening to younger children should fall in this category. Very mild forms of violence (implied, non-detailed, or non-realistic violence) are acceptable for a game with a PEGI 7 rating. ” (PEGI, 2017)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Hollow Knight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price: \u00a312.79<\/p>\n\n\n\n Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS<\/p>\n\n\n\n Team size: 3 core devs<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developer: Team Cherry<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steam description:<\/strong> Forge your own path in Hollow Knight! An epic action adventure through a vast ruined kingdom of insects and heroes. Explore twisting caverns, battle tainted creatures and befriend bizarre bugs, all in a classic, hand-drawn 2D style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Positive review:<\/strong> “This is one of the best “modern” games I’ve played on Steam. I would not go as far as to say it “redefined” the Metroidvania-style genre entirely, but I think it definitely helped bring it to a new audience. Some parts of the game I will admit are more difficult than they should be, and it took me a long time to figure out some things, but overall very amazing game. Not perfect, but I would recommend it to anyone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Negative review:<\/strong> “Just wasn’t for me. I’m an incredibly story driven player, even in rouge\/soul-like games. In Hades (for example), I still enjoyed the endless fighting and minimal story because there was a sense of direction, completing a quest, understanding the way you’re trying to disentangle the lore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Hollow Knight, there is no direction, just explore endlessly and maybe stumble across the main quest. You won’t even know what the main quest is until halfway through, because the NPC’s will barely talk to you. If this sounds like something you would enjoy, please go right ahead, but for me it wasn’t. I can handle a level of boredom that comes from an exploration game, but (for me!!) there needs to be payoff in the form of cathartic story direction, which Hollow Knight does not have.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Who is this game made for?:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Official age rating:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My personal opinions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I had played this game over a year ago. I found it too hard for me and the self improvement loops made me frustrated, so I dropped it. However, I have many great things to say about this game from a visual stand point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the aspects I love about this game is the stylistic choice to have everything hand drawn and animated. Additionally, the asset have clean outlines and softer shapes to make characters pop out from the background. I also like the gloomy atmosphere paired with the soundtrack in certain areas of the map, this really ties scenes together and makes the player fully immersed into the journey. Another thing to note is that, some areas don’t share the same assets but it still sticks to the same visual style. Despite the dark aesthetic, it still remains visible for the player which makes it crucial for gameplay. Details such as the SFX, whether that be rain, ash or particles in the distance, set the world making it feel alive. On the topic of SFX, combat effects are clear and don’t get in the way of the player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price: \u00a312.79<\/p>\n\n\n\n Platforms: PC, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PS<\/p>\n\n\n\n Team size: 20 people<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developer: Nomada Studio<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steam description: “Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality.:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Positive review: <\/strong>“A beautiful game, without dialogue but with a beautiful message. The game teaches about loss, the different stages of grief, and overcoming it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final scene of the protagonist kissing her mother’s statue and walking towards the light almost made me cry. After her entire journey, she finally overcame depression, grief, and the loss of her mother, and now she moves forward on to her new journey!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I highly recommend it, don’t waste time, buy it and encounter a beautiful game with a beautiful message!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Negative review:<\/strong> “GRIS is a game that is very dependent on interpretation; there is no apparent plot and extremely dull gameplay, and hence, for me, it was very boring; to the extent that I just could not keep my eyes open. My poor experience is due to the fact that I was not able to resonate with the message the devs were trying to tell. To me, it played like an interactive screensaver, looking at colours and sliding down lines. It looked nice, but that’s all I can praise it for. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. If you prefer a straightforward narrative, this game is not for you, as it was not for me. Definitely a very niche game and one I would not recommend to most!”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Official age rating:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My personal opinions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I played this game over a year ago and picked it up again. I couldn’t complete it however as I’m still missing some aspects of the game that would make me advance. I still have many great things to say about this game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The main aspect of the game that made me want to play it (aside from the sale price,) was the watercolour aesthetics and its phenomenal storytelling through its colours. This game depicts grief through the game play and environment. The stages of grief are as follows: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Each stage in this game has game play mechanics that compliment the stages of grief. For example, in denial, Gris is slow to start walking and there will be strong winds that will try to push you back. It is also in this stage you receive a skill called “heavy”. This ability makes it hard for winds to push you. Additionally in the depression stage, Gris is granted the ability to swim in water. I also want to note that I find the depression stage to be one of the most visually stunning in the game. The blue hues and ocean theme throughout this level had me captivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This pie chart shows the ages of players globally. The biggest slice goes to ages 18-34, following is the age group under 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This chart shows the popularity in what platforms to use when playing games. The most popular platform to us is PC, however, as mobile games are more accessible, it’s slowly becoming more popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This chart shows the ages and genders of players worldwide with the most active users being from the ages 16-24 then decreases in activity. The gender is a lot more balanced to the stereotypical male dominated gaming space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following chart has been made with ChatGPT AI<\/strong> – there were no existing tables with information specifically regarding age and gender in the 2D platforming market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This graph shows the age and gender statistics in the 2D platformer space, with the most engagement in the age groups 18-24 and starts to decrease across age groups older. This also suggests that 2D platformers appeal to the male audience in comparison to female and non-binary. However, it’s important to note that this graph is an ESTIMATE<\/strong> based on the industry demographics.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n After looking at some of these games, I have realised that I still need to have a conversation with my teammate in regards to what our target market would be. But based on what I think, the game that we are going to make will appeal to people who love island and ocean theme, a culture that doesn’t have much western media output, and platformer games in general. As for the age rating, for now I assume it would be a PEGI 7 as we haven’t had much talks of what threats would be in each island .<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After I talked briefly to E-Jay about the game and overall core concept, I went to do some market based research to figure out the age range for our game. In this section, I will be looking at similar platformer games on steam and looking at the reviews both negative and positive. The following games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phase-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/pv2g23-yr3\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/12\/image-61-1024x576.png\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMarket statistics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThoughts and takeaways:<\/mark><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n