Get to your vertical slice faster

It all starts with an idea. The more clearly you can express your vision, the greater your chances of getting approved for a prototype. No one wants to sign on for a game that they can’t imagine.

We can also get stuck thinking that more time = better quality. But sometimes more time can mean the polar opposite – a game gets so heavy and mired in minor details that the original vision is lost. Ensure that you have technical guidance and objective advice to keep you focused, but continue to flex those creative muscles.

There is a feeling of excitement and also pressure at this time. The team wants to create an MVP of their vision that’s playable enough to be fun. That also means choosing an engine and backend technology that enables agility.

Focusing on the theme or mood won’t fix a game that simply isn’t fun enough or has a poor game design. It’s ok to fail, here – let go and learn from your mistakes where you need to. It’s important to still give the game some flavor with artistic assets, sound design, and a solid gameplay loop.

The (first) moment of truth. This phase is usually short and swift. Small internal playtest groups of varying roles, levels, and experience will test the game very confidentially. They will document what they find fun, what they don’t like, what would be a great addition, and what they just didn’t understand. From here you either get greenlit, rejected, or receive feedback for improvement.