the big 5 questions
I’m really enjoying the process of working with Startup game developers and new indies, as an advisor!
It’s never a one-way conversation; ideas form and reform and everyone walks away a bit smarter than before.
This week I talked with a developer with a long history in tech, think FAANG, who wants to build their own game. Now, there are a million questions that need to get asked but as a starting point, I recommended they answer what I call the Big 5.
Here they are:
1. Do you understand your player intimately?
2. Is it a unique, compelling idea that captivates them?
3. How do you get in front of players?
4. How does money come in?
5. Where does the money go?
1. Do you understand your player intimately?
Answering this gives you a lot of context in terms of positioning.
It tells you who your competition is, who is playing them, where they are playing, how long they play and where else they spend precious attention.
It gives insight into what the player expects from the experience or ones like it, what mechanics will feel familiar/intuitive and where you can challenge or innovate on those expectations.
Direction in terms of aesthetic, accessibility, localization, scope…. all of which will have real impact on timelines, manpower and cost.
Accessibility will also have legal ramifications while will be much cheaper to address early in production VS late cycle, which can often balloon to 100X in cost.
Compromises on content will have to be made depending on region too. Better to know sooner, VS when changes will have compounding effects on your schedule and content.
Do they value solo VS group gaming; if so, are they competitive VS cooperative. Do they play as themselves, or prefer anonymity. These questions will impact the form your game takes.
2. Is it a unique, compelling idea that captivates them?
This is your reality check: Is your big idea actually interesting to the people you’re building for?
Is it worth saying?“Good” is the floor. Different is the goal. Innovation is nice, but invention makes you special.
Not convinced? Ask the developers behind all the Call of Duty killers how that’s going.
Answering this also points to:
Your engine.
The kind of art director you need.
Whether you need cloud services like AWS.
If Kickstarter is viable.
Is it multiplayer? Session-based? Is there persistent progression or AI? These are expensive decisions to make midstream.
Is the timing right? Are you chasing a trend? Be honest about the saturation in your genre.
3. How do you get in front of players?
Your distribution strategy has massive implications on:
Revenue share (Steam, Xbox, App Store, etc.)
Technical constraints (build differences, compliance)
Marketing strategy (ads, influencers, booths, demos)
Are you sharing your revenue with Publishers? Will you be buying ads? Paying influencers? These are all choices that are directly related to giving your game an actual chance at life.
Exceptions will happen obviously, like Pal World, making $500 Million (about 8 Million copies), but we can agree they did the rock and roll thing with by adding what players desperately wanted. Not guns, automation and base building. It was about allowing expression outside of Pokemon’s very controlled mechanics.
Will you do early access? Closed betas? User testing? You’re going to need builds in various stages of polish for this. Your timeline isn’t ship day… Its often several quarters before.
Will you give away copies for review? Will you host parties or sponsor booths at conferences… yeah. Complicated.
4. How does money come in?
Are you looking for investment? Is the a VC firm? A publisher? Competition for their dollars are stiff.
Peer to peer is still a thing. Star Citizen has made a staggering almost $800 Million … but requires entirely different collaterals than a pitch deck.
This will inform how you can further monetize; Microtransactions might work on mobile, but will find harder footing on platforms where players buy upfront.
In game monetization will be scrutiny, and in game currencies might be a thing of the past. The implication is that familiar strategies of paying for soft-currencies as part of game design may no longer be an option.
This will inform how you can further monetize:
Microtransactions might still work on mobile, but they’ll find harder footing on platforms where players buy upfront. In-game monetization is under scrutiny, and in-game currencies might be on their way out. That means familiar strategies like paying for soft currency as part of the core loop.
5. Where Does the Money Go?
“Spend money to make money,” right?
There’s no shortage of places to spend it. Ideally, you want to minimize surprises. Every creative decision carries costs: specialist talent, software licenses, loan repayments, wages, sponsorships, QA and research services… the list goes on.
Notice something?
Only one of those is about the game’s creative direction.
That’s because your concept is only as strong as the foundation it’s built on. Start with shaky footing—say, a poor understanding of your players and every downstream decision becomes a gamble. If you can’t clearly articulate who you’re building for and how you’re meeting their expectations, you’ll have a hard time convincing anyone to back you.
There’s no way to predict every unknown but that doesn’t mean every surprise carries the same weight. Some unpredictability leads to interesting breakthroughs. Others derail your entire production.
Having worked at small to mid-size startups, my philosophy is this: take the kind of risks that lead to useful revelations. Post-pandemic, we’ve all learned that comets can crash into our lives at any time, figuratively speaking. You can’t prevent chaos, but you can plan for resilience.
This Thing You’re Making Has to Matter.
Whether by intent or sheer luck, your game has to mean something to a whole lot of people if it’s going to survive. Genres are saturated. AAA studios are cannibalizing each other’s best ideas.
That’s a huge opportunity for anyone bold enough to take creative swings. But don’t forget: you’re in the business of shipping units.
In my time as a consultant and external developer, I’ve seen experienced teams fall into the same trap—building purely for the joy of building. It’s the same reason designers can’t just make what they want to play anymore. Not if the goal is to ship.
Pressure Test These First.
If you’re building a game, start by pressure-testing these five foundational areas:
Who’s the player?
What’s the vision?
Where’s the risk?
How does it make money?
Where does the money go?
Get these mostly right early on, and a lot of other decisions get easier. Skip them, and you risk building on sand.
Timing Is Everything
You’ll always have more questions than answers. The trick is knowing when to answer which ones.
Ask the right question at the wrong time, and it can cost you. Like debating accessibility a week before launch. Or deciding whether to invest in community feedback after vertical slice. These aren’t just feature decisions. They can be existential.
Start with the big five.
