A Framework for Choosing What to Finish
2025-09-25
by Noctric
Exposé:
It might sound stupid but the first thing I want to say is that you need to make a GOOD game. People will feel a non-professional made game instantly. Whether its in terms of art, gameplay or literally marketing (such as how the steam/itch.io page is setup). Without a good game everything which I will talk about won't work.
Pre-Production:
Pre-production is important, because if your game doesn't have a market, it most likely isn't worth it to produce and will only be wasted time.
So how do you find out if your game has a market?
Luckily a website called "games-stats.com" exists. You can check games based on steam-tags and what revenue median the games with the tags made. Sadly the website has a pro model - which is 18 Euros. You need to subscribe to its Patreon.
With pro you can insert a revenue span, which you would call a success, and you probably want to filter only the last 2-3 years, since the games industry is always involving.
Now you have a list of competitors, which you can research. You NEED to at least match the quality of EVERY single asset on that list. So from art to gameplay, marketing beats to community building. Analyse how the pages are setup and make a PureRef or Miro board of it. Document it somehow.
Prototyping:
One of the best things you can do is prototyping. Do a quick prototype which takes about 48-72 hours to complete (can be a few days more, depending on your skill level). I would recommend doing it during a game jam. Its restrictions and theme can give you great ideas and boost creativity.
Why do I recommend joining a game jam for prototyping?
First you're basically stuck with releasing it on a time schedule, which you can't influence. You can't procrastinate or have the feeling of "its not finished yet".
Second you have validation (which is extremely important and on which I will go more in depth soon). You get ratings and direct feedback in form of comments on your itch.io page. If you're lucky you might even win, and get promotion that way.
Quick Tips for Game Jams:
I recommend the Ludum Dare (Held 2-3x per year) and the Game Makers Tool Kit Game Jam. If its hosted on Itch.io match the following criteria: Have a good thumbnail (capsule art), insert gifs as screenshots (they are the preview when hovering above the game) & most importantly: make a freaking WebGL build. Otherwise no one will play your game. I learned it the hard way...
So now to the important bit: Validation. I honour the following to "Rene Habermann", a brilliant game developer from Bippinbits. Primarily known for Dome Keeper and PVKK.
The first validation can be the game jam I talked earlier about. If you took that approach I recommend spending a few weeks to polish that game jam game and eliminate every friction the player might have. Such as bad UI, bugs, no Tutorial etc. Also spend time in upgrading the art. Rene Habermann calls it a "Core Fancy", which basically is the core game, which looks fancy and has no friction. It is different from a vertical slice, since a vertical slice should (Imo) be feature complete.
Re-release that Core Fancy on Itch.io with a different page. Also you could think about trying to post a little bit of short form content on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Don't be disappointed if the short form content doesn't work, some games just don't work well on social media. But please make sure your game looks fancy.
Now look at the reaction of the people on the internet. Did it get any traction? How were the reactions of the users? You basically want to check if a lot of people interacted with the game itself. Even if its negative its a good thing. As long as its interaction, its good. Especially well are comments such as: Will there be a steam release? Please add the feature XY. etc.
If that worked or didn't work you have two options: Kill it, or push it on Steam as a second validation source. It depends on how much money you have on your bank account and how much you believe in the project. Also try to be honest about yourself, whether or not it really is in a polished state that it even had the chance to get interaction.
I however wouldn't recommend instantly releasing a Steam Demo as a validation point. Steam events work too. You might want to spend more time on the demo. Especially keep in mind that you want to have an even BETTER demo than your Core Fancy. Playtest along the way to a steam demo. You've got people you can write, who already played our itch demo. Or you have a community & friends already. Keep in mind you want people that are BRUTALLY honest who playtest the game.
Depending on how well that does you can once again think about killing the game. Another option would be to to think about the scope of the game. Does the game have 10k wishlists? Maybe don't create a scope which takes 2 years to complete. Stick to a scope which takes 6months-1year. If you -for some reason- have 200k wishlists. Congratulations. You can probably spend 2-3years if you want to.
Further validation points could be the announcement of the game. If that one pops off. Or the game popping off on social media because YouTubers or Streamers caught wind of the game and now loads of people wishlist it once again.
To not fuck up in the process Rene also analysed three types of games which failed:
Type 1: Undesired
A game that releases that no one wants.
The steam stats basically show low wishlists from the get go (below 5k) and there haven't been any spikes. It probably was never validated. Or the developers didn't listen to the validation.
Type 2: Misaligned
One of the sadder ones. The base they had were good, but the developers took a wrong turn.
At first glance the stats (wishlists) looked good. And the release also does okay, but after the launch, the stats flatline. The cause can either be that the developers didn't listen to the community (your players are the kings), or the advertisement of the game wasn't accurate enough. This can also happen if you always playtest with the same playergroup, since they start to be a hardcore fanbase, which probably isn't the best feedback, since that feedback makes the game unapproachable for new players.
Type 3: Overdeveloped
The game was set up for success, every checkbox was ticked but the production of the game was too inflated. Either it never gets full finished, or the production value is too high to get more cash than the game cost to make.
This can happen when the production didn't have constraints, the gamedev is too volatile or insecure or you simply overspent on art. A simulator game for example doesn't need realistic graphics.