Test Your Game Early. The Agile Way That Really Works

I learned the hard way that in game development, testing early can save you months of wasted work. At first, I was excited and created menus with fancy transitions, smooth animations, fade-ins and fade-outs, level selectors, and state machines that handled pausing and resuming perfectly depending on which menu was open. I even built over 50 levels with different elements.

And then I threw it all away.

Why? Because the core game itself wasn’t good enough for my audience. The gameplay, the most important part, did not hit the mark. I had spent months polishing something players never even saw, because they quit before they could experience my fancy menus.

The lesson? Give players a minimum viable product (MVP) as soon as possible to find out if the idea really works before sinking too much time into it. If it clicks, great. If not, pivot early.

What You Think Is Obvious Might Not Be

I designed a simple control scheme, a one-click mechanic that I thought was easy to understand and use. But during play-testing, I realized I was wrong. The main character moves continuously, and clicking the screen will make the her jump and attack if in mid-air.

Players were confused about why the character moved as it did, and many gave up within 10 seconds. Ten seconds! It might sound like nothing, but that’s all the time you have to grab someone’s attention in today’s world.

The first minute of gameplay is crucial. If players are confused for even a few seconds, they will leave.

The inspiration I got for the game was Super Mario Run, which think is a great game with easy controls. Trying out different controls early can help me understand which controls are easy to grasp for players.

All players have different level of skills and experience from playing games. My target audience are players from Crazy Games and Poki, two popular online game publishers. It's therefore important I curate the game accordingly.

Make a Decision Early: Improve or Discard

I worked on my first game for almost three months before play-testing. When I finally tested it, the results hit hard. To get accepted on Poki, the game needed an average playtime of 3 minutes. My game scored just 1 minute and 12 seconds.

I made changes, simplified controls, sped up loading, but after a couple more weeks of trying, the best I could do was 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Not good enough. I submitted it to Crazy Games, and they gave the same feedback, players didn’t stay long enough.

Sometimes you have to be honest and realize when it’s time to scrap a project (or put it on hold) and start fresh.

Know Your Audience and Pick the Right Genre

Platforms like Poki and Crazy Games have millions of players daily, but that doesn’t mean every niche game will find its audience there.

I love platformers, but they’re not the most popular genre on those platforms, even if the platformer is a casual game. I built something I wanted to play, not what the audience wanted.

Look at what’s popular with your audience. Find the genres dominating the charts and create a game that fits that demand, while adding your own twist. Study the existing games on the platform you want to publish on.

The Power of a Bare-Bones MVP

After my game failed, I started a smaller project, an idle clicker hybrid. I built a prototype in one week. No fancy UI or extra features, just the core mechanic.

I tested it early, got feedback, and iterated quickly. The average playtime for my first play test of 500 players was 1 minute and 28 seconds. I got almost the same average play time for a game I worked on for a week, compared to the one I worked on for 3 months.

Because I started small, I could make adjustments in days instead of weeks. I spotted problems early, like the game being too small on mobile screens, players getting bored quickly, or confusion over controls. Now I had real data guiding my next steps.

Reuse What You Can

Even though my first game didn’t work out, not everything was wasted. I reused code, UI components, animations. Everything that worked well I added to the next project with minimal effort.

Building a personal toolbox like this saves time on future games.

My Agile Approach to Solo Game Development

You may have heard of Scrum or Agile. I take inspiration from them but don’t follow the rules strictly.

I keep a backlog of tasks, break them down into pieces I can finish in a day, and iterate almost daily. I’m not afraid to discard features or even entire projects if the data shows they’re not working.

My goal is simple: create a game with over 3 minutes of average playtime on Poki. I don’t do fixed sprints; instead, I focus on fast iteration and flexibility.

Game studios doing Agile should adopt the same mindset: don’t blindly follow process rules, adapt whatever works, and ditch what doesn’t. That’s a bigger topic for another day, but the key is to always remember why you’re using Agile in the first place.

Final Thoughts

Game development is a hobby for me now. I only have a few hours a day to work on it. That makes scope, focus, and testing early even more important. One day, I want to do this full time, so I need a sustainable plan.

By testing early, keeping things small, and staying agile, I’ve saved myself months of frustration. Failure isn’t fun, but each failed game teaches you something and moves you closer to success.

If there’s one thing to remember from my story, it’s this: Don’t wait three months to find out if your game works. Find out in three days.

If you want to play my first game or have ideas on how to improve it, let me know. I’m open to picking it up again with fresh eyes.

• Have you ever scrapped a project? What did you learn?

Your Feedback

Do you have some good suggestions for my game? Here's the game I put on hold because it didn't perform well enough on Poki. Play the game here and let me know what I can fix to improve it.

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Happy coding, and may your games be a hit! 🎯