

Ask HN: Does MVP apply to Games? - EwanG

In most of the startup material I&#x27;ve read, there is a fairly constant drumbeat that you want to open your doors once you get your MVP (minimum viable product). I take a look at the current alpha version of my game (playable at http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nawegr.blogspot.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;project-gliese.html), and I wonder if I should setup a landing page to let folks preorder rather than continue to slave away and hope there will be enough buyers at the end to justify the time and investment. On the other hand, I have a hard time believing I could get $29.95 for what I have currently produced. Thoughts?
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jimfleming
The point of an MVP is to get the product in the hands of users as soon as
possible to test viability and garner feedback before going down a rabbit
trail that may not be successful. It isn't necessarily to start making money
from customers before the product is ready—although being willing to pay for
something in alpha is probably a good viability indicator its not the only
one.

Many games aren't treated like products but more like hobby or art projects.
This isn't a bad thing but it does mean an MVP isn't really necessary or
helpful. Many games do things that achieve the same results of an MVP:

1\. Screenshot Saturdays. This puts the idea in front of people even if the
thing is buggy, broken or just unplayable.

2\. Festivals. User testing during festivals was incredibly valuable and
helped us determine what attracted players to the booth, what they enjoyed
about the game, what was fun, what wasn't, etc. Here the game doesn't need to
be finished.

3\. Awards. Similar to festivals, an award can indicate that you're on the
right track. The inverse isn't necessarily true. Winning an award does not
equate to market viability.

4\. General social media, spreading the word and press. If someone is willing
to talk or write about your game that's a good sign.

5\. Steam's Greenlight: Will people vote for this?

6\. Steam's Early Access: Will people buy this before its finished?

7\. Kickstarter. A very time consuming and potentially expensive endeavor that
might work for MVP-like launches. Will people contribute money to the
possibility of this game existing?

The point of all of these is to get out there with the game as soon as
possible, even if its not ready, to test out the idea. Some require higher
levels of investment than others and make sense at different points in the
project.

Experience: we launched our first game earlier this year with success and
followed these where they made sense.

EDIT: Formatting

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macguyver
I haven't seen any successful MVPs out of games. What I have seen is gaming
studios developing very good products (Angry Birds, Kingdom Rush etc) and
releasing them for free, and then building a fan base to monetize off of it
via mobile sales, in-game sales and sponsorships. Even if you are a one-man
team, there are still others in your shoes that have done this successfully in
the past, such as Jay at zeebarf.com.

Bottom line is you will want people to know your work before they want to open
their wallets. Think of building a series of games, with the first few
installments as freebies. If your product is good enough, people will want
more, and then you can recoup the costs once you get traction.

If you want to get into the unity/flash gaming business, go to sites like
armorgames.com, kongregate, maxgames to see what the popular game producers
are doing. Look at their blogs to see their journey.

Based on playing your game so far, I'd say it's not ready for MVP. There are
too many high quality free games out there for free.

Good luck!

Feedback:

1: Consider adding a loader screen. Your unity is taking over two minutes to
load which is VERY long by browser game standards. Add a progress screen, show
something flashy to hold/keep people's attention.

2: It's unclear what the objective of the game is. There are no tutorials, no
HUD (heads up display), no context menu.

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minimaxir
In what market would you be charging $30 for an indie game?

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jimfleming
Many indie games on Steam sell for that much, though not much higher:
[http://store.steampowered.com/tag/en/Indie/](http://store.steampowered.com/tag/en/Indie/)

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jimsmart
Sure, 'many' do. Although it seems to be the exception rather than the norm —
at a rough guess (I only looked at ~15 out of 89 result pages), about one in
ten games have about that price, but it seems more than half of the games
tagged as Indie actually sell for under £10.

