Using Sonar
Sonar lives at sonar.hypercade.io. This guide walks you through login, creating a new analysis, and reading your report.
Logging in
Go to sonar.hypercade.io and enter your email. We’ll send you a one-time code. Check your inbox, copy the code, and log in.
Sonar uses Cloudflare Access, which means no passwords. Email OTP is your authentication. If you don’t receive a code within a minute, check your spam folder or request a new code.
Dashboard
After login, you see a list of all intelligence reports you’ve requested. Each report shows:
- Game title
- Comp titles you provided
- Report status (analyzing, ready, or error)
- Date created
Click a report to view the full analysis.
Creating a new analysis
Click “New Analysis” and fill in:
- Game title - the name of your game in development
- Comp titles - 2-3 existing games closest to yours in tone, mechanics, or audience
That’s all Sonar needs. Click “Analyze” and Sonar will scan the 8 platforms for communities discussing your comps and begin building your intelligence profile.
Most analyses complete within a few hours. You’ll see a status indicator in the dashboard. We’ll also email you when your report is ready.
Reading your report
Your intelligence report is organized from highest-impact findings to detailed reference:
Audience Breakdown (top section)
You see platform distribution: what percentage of your target audience hangs out on Reddit vs YouTube vs Twitter, etc. Use this to decide where to focus your seeding effort.
Sentiment & Engagement
A summary of the mood around your comp titles. Are fans excited, critical, or lukewarm? How active are the communities?
Key Creators
The YouTube creators, Twitch streamers, and community leaders discussing your comps. If you’re considering creator early access, start here. These are the voices that move your target audience.
Risk Flags
Anything you should know about:
- Dormant accounts - the community is more bot than human
- Sentiment drift - interest in your comps is cooling
- Consolidation - discussion has shifted to one platform from many
Risk flags don’t mean “don’t target these fans.” They mean “understand the risks before you invest.”
Comp Recommendations
Sonar may suggest comps you didn’t consider. These are games with high audience overlap to your target. Worth investigating.
Community Rankings
This is the seeding playbook. A ranked list of subreddits, Discord servers, YouTube channels, and other communities, ordered by relevance and reachability.
Spend your early access invites and PR energy on the top 10-15. These are where your highest-impact seeding happens.
Game Design Brief
What your target audience cares about, based on what they’re discussing in comp communities. Motivations, preferred features, tone preferences, and any misalignment between what you’re building and what this audience wants.
Use this section to sanity-check your design. If the brief says your target players care about narrative depth but you’re building a fast-paced arcade game, that’s a signal to either re-examine your audience positioning or lean into what makes your game different.
Questions about your report?
Email [email protected] with:
- Your game title
- Specific sections you’d like clarification on
We can walk you through the findings or discuss strategy around what you’re seeing.
Data refresh
Reports are a snapshot at the time of creation. Sonar updates daily, so communities and sentiment change over time. Request a new analysis any time you want the latest data. Most studios refresh their analysis 2-3 times during development.
Next steps
Use your Sonar report to:
- Prioritize your early access list - invite key creators and community leaders identified in the report
- Plan your seeding timeline - target top communities first, expand to secondary communities as you get closer to launch
- Validate your game’s audience positioning - does your design match what this audience wants?
- Inform your marketing creative - use the motivation and sentiment data to shape your trailers and messaging