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David Barnes
March 17th, 9:37am
2 comments
40 Copyright-Free Fan Niches -- And A Challenge
Everything that people love has a fan club online. It's not just big media franchises that have fans. Just about everything has some kind of following. And when something has a following, it has potential for fan games that act as a tribute to that thing.
To show what I mean, here's a list of 40 copy-right free fan niches. Many people happily invest time, effort, and money to express and indulge their love of these things. There's no reason they won't invest some of that time, effort, and money into playing a social game that helps them express and indulge their love even more.
All you need to do is pick the right niche for you, and develop a social game concept that enables players to express and indulge their love.
- Wine
- Tea
- Real ale
- Guitar
- Ukulele
- Fascism
- Socialism
- Anarchy
- Green energy
- Cooking
- Fine dining
- Tea pots
- Garden gnomes
- Cuddly toys
- Jam
- Baking
- Stamps
- Rock music
- Pop music
- Classical music
- Handbags
- Chess
- Soccer
- Cricket
- Piano
- Rugby
- Flowers
- Weddings
- Trains
- Sports cars
- Classic cars
- Photography
- Comic books
- Mystery novels
- World War II
- Ancient Rome
- Antiques
- Old buildings
- Painting
- Romance
It's not particularly hard to envisage social games that would fit any one of those fan niches, and these are only 40 off the top of my head. There are thousands of similar niches in the world out there.
You're much better targetting your social game at fans of stuff like this than tired video game themes like wizards, space ships, robots, zombies and so on. They'll been done to death already. But these other themes are often brand new virgin territory.
Mark my words, in a few years time there'll be social games based on every single one of these niches. If I'm wrong, I'll pay you 1,000,000 FBIndie dollars. And who knows what they'll be worth then?
And now, the challenge. Pick one of the fan niches above, or choose your own, and jot down a basic social game concept for that niche. You might find the 5 rules for niche fan games and 3 pillars of social game design useful as a starting point. Don't hold back! Post your fan game!
