E151: Why Players Judge Your Game by Its Worst Part
Show notes
Learn to apply Agile to Game Dev: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/agilefundamentals
Is your game building on solid foundations or building on mud?
Building a game from scratch is brutally difficult, and game developers often debate how much to invest in genre fundamentals versus chasing new, shiny innovations during early pre-production. While some push for an ultra-lean approach to reach the experimental phase faster, skipping or rushing core genre foundations creates an unstable prototype, misleads early player validation, and forces massive, costly technical rewrites later in development.
In this second installment of our ongoing episode series with Leif, Leif and Ben dissect why mastering "minimum lovable" genre foundations early is essential for setting up innovation, shielding player credibility, and maintaining team momentum.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- What genre foundations are and why they act as the essential Legos for game design
- Why lean genre fundamentals take on profoundly more risk than building them up front
- How shoddy technical and gameplay foundations create a massive tax on new ideas
- When to stop iterating on a genre fundamental using the "not distracting" quality razor
- What separates a minimum viable product from a minimum lovable experience
- Why early player feedback can be deeply flawed if core fundamentals are janky
- How small teams can tackle genre fundamentals efficiently without overstaffing
- How game development leaders can balance humility and direction when guiding subject matter experts
If you're a leader in game dev who wants to de-risk early pre-production and build games on rock-solid fundamentals before chasing new ideas, this episode is for you!
🔗Connect with Leif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leif-johansen-52139141/
🔗 Watch the first install of this series here: https://youtu.be/woOMalag9MA
Connect with us:
🔗Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@buildingbettergames
If you want help leading teams and studios to better games players love, you can reach me at: [email protected]
#GameDev #GameDesign #GameProduction #IndieDev #PreProduction