1. Is the core interaction fun enough to carry the game for more than a few minutes?
This question is really important because the opening minutes are when a player decides whether the experience is worth continuing. If the central mechanic already feels dull at this stage, no additional content or polish will compensate for it, as most players will just stop playing it.
To investigate this, I plan to build a small playable prototype around the main mechanic and a minimal gameplay loop, with everything else stripped away so that the interaction itself can be evaluated in isolation.
The working hypothesis is that the mechanic will feel novel at first, but will likely require greater variation and stronger feedback to remain engaging past the first couple of minutes.
2. What is the central theme of the game?
This question is important because theme determines what the experience is fundamentally about, what kind of world it inhabits, and which mechanics feel like they belong within it. Without a well-defined theme, a game can come across as a collection of unrelated ideas rather than a unified experience.
To test this, a short concept document should be written covering the player’s role, the game world, and the central conflict or idea holding the design together.
The expectation is that this process will make it easier to identify which elements do/ do not belong and bring greater coherence to the overall design.
3. Does the difficulty progression feel motivating rather than discouraging?
Understanding whether the difficulty progression feels satisfying is important to keep players engaged. The goal is to find a balance where the game gradually becomes more challenging without adding so much pressure that players want to stop playing.
To test this, a tuning prototype will be constructed with several short segments that increase difficulty at different rates. We should pay attention to where players appear focused versus where they begin to disengage.
The initial version will likely escalate too quickly since we are focused on our own ideas, but over time we can observe how players adapt to the game and make adjustments accordingly.
