Game studios rarely approve a large production from a pitch alone. They reduce uncertainty in stages: refine the vision, build a prototype or proof of concept, examine market and delivery questions, test a playable draft with people, and use a production-like vertical slice to decide whether the team is ready to scale up. Each stage answers a different question, and none is a guaranteed prediction of commercial success.
Why studios test concepts before full production
A full game production commits substantial staff time, technology, outsourcing, marketing coordination and schedule capacity. At the concept stage, however, the team may not yet know whether the central interaction is enjoyable, whether the intended audience understands it, whether the project can be shipped with available tools, or whether the budget can absorb surprises.
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Early testing is therefore a sequence of risk-reduction questions rather than one pass/fail exam. A creative team first asks what the game is. Designers and engineers then make enough of that idea tangible to discover problems that a document or pitch cannot reveal. Producers and business decision-makers examine market potential and delivery plans. Intended players provide evidence about the experience itself. Finally, a more complete slice of the game tests whether the team understands how to produce it at scale.
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Ubisoft describes this progression in its official creative-process account. That page documents Ubisoft’s practice, not a mandatory industry standard, but it illustrates why studios separate concept validation from production readiness.
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Stage 1: explore and refine the vision
Before a studio builds a substantial game, it may keep the idea in an iterative preconception phase. Ubisoft says teams can take risks, try and fail, test and refine their vision until it is mature enough to enter conception. The practical implication is that early work is expected to change. A weak result is useful if it reveals which assumption needs to be discarded or revised before more resources are committed.
What teams do in preconception
- State the player fantasy and the main interaction in plain language.
- Identify the assumptions that must be true for the idea to work, such as a control scheme, audience motivation or technical requirement.
- Try small experiments instead of building the entire game.
- Research the subject matter and immerse the team in the world or activity being represented.
- Record what was learned, what changed and which questions remain unanswered.
The goal is not to polish a pitch deck. It is to find a coherent direction that can survive contact with play. A concept may be reshaped several times before the core team believes it is clear enough to define more formally.
Conception turns an idea into a testable proposition
In Ubisoft’s description, conception is where a core team defines and solidifies the vision. Teams may conduct research and create prototypes or proofs of concept during this phase. The distinction matters: a prototype is an experiment around an idea, while a proof of concept demonstrates that a particular design or technical premise can work. Neither should be presented as a finished game.
At this point, the team should be able to explain what the player does repeatedly, why that activity is compelling, what differentiates the game and which parts are still uncertain. If the answer changes after every experiment, the project is still exploring rather than ready for a production commitment.
Stage 2: make the core experience tangible
Written descriptions hide timing, controls, feedback and difficulty. A playable build exposes them. The appropriate build depends on the question being asked, so studios should not treat every early build as a vertical slice.
| Method | Question it answers | Primary evaluators | Evidence produced | How production-like it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype | Can a specific mechanic, interaction or structure work in play? | Core team and relevant specialists | Observations about feel, rules, pacing or technical feasibility | Usually narrow and experimental; not a complete representation of the game |
| Proof of concept | Can a risky creative or technical premise be demonstrated at all? | Team members and decision-makers | A demonstration that supports or weakens a key assumption | Focused on the risk being tested rather than broad content |
| First playable | What does a draft of the core experience feel like when assembled? | Team members exploring the work in progress | Discoveries about the central loop, integration and unfinished areas | More integrated than an isolated experiment, but still an early draft |
| Vertical slice | Is the team ready to move from preproduction into production? | Internal decision-makers and, where appropriate, external audiences | Evidence about the game and the team’s ability to make it | Production-like enough to represent intended quality and process |
Ubisoft places prototypes and proofs of concept in conception and separately describes a first-playable build during preproduction. That first playable lets team members test and explore a work-in-progress draft of the core experience. Keeping these milestones distinct prevents a studio from mistaking a clever mechanic test for evidence that an entire production pipeline is ready.
What makes an early build useful
A useful prototype has a stated question and a deliberately limited scope. If the question is whether a traversal mechanic feels controllable, the build needs representative movement, camera behavior and feedback, not a large amount of decorative content. If the question is whether a narrative premise is understandable, the test must expose the premise in context rather than rely on a verbal explanation from its creator.
Teams should document the build’s purpose, what is intentionally missing, what was observed and what decision follows. This record prevents a successful experiment from being overinterpreted. A prototype can prove that one interaction is possible while leaving progression, content volume, accessibility, performance or production tooling unresolved.
Stage 3: examine market potential and delivery risk
A game can be enjoyable in a prototype and still be a poor production bet. Ubisoft says its concept kickoff considers both market potential and plans for shipping the final product. Those are decision questions, not a claim that a studio can forecast sales precisely.
Commercial questions
- Who is the intended audience, and what need, fantasy or habit does the game serve?
- Is the proposition understandable without extensive explanation?
- What makes the game meaningfully distinct from alternatives the audience already has?
- Does the expected scope fit the audience, platform and release context being considered?
Operational questions
- Can the team build the required technology, content and online or offline systems with available capabilities?
- Which assumptions could create schedule or budget shocks?
- Can the budget remain flexible if development reveals a necessary change?
- What shipping plan, platform requirements and dependencies must be resolved?
A 2016 GDC session by Adam Saltsman of Finji, “Deciding What to Make: A Greenlight Process for Commercial Indies”, frames greenlighting around commercial risk, the possibility of development surprises and budget flexibility. The session description presents these as questions for hedging risk, not as a quantified forecasting model or a guarantee of success.
Market screening and production-readiness testing should remain separate in the decision record. Market potential asks whether making and selling the game is sensible for the intended audience and business context. Production readiness asks whether this team has demonstrated a credible way to make it. Strong evidence on one question does not automatically answer the other.
Stage 4: use playtesting to gather player evidence
Developers can become attached to their own solutions and unconsciously explain confusing parts to observers. Structured playtesting puts the build in front of people who must understand it through the game itself. GDC’s description of Graham McAllister’s in-house playtesting session says the methods are intended to reduce biased opinion and provide evidence for key design decisions in both AAA and indie development.
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What a concept playtest can reveal
- Whether players notice and understand the intended goal.
- Where controls, feedback or instructions create avoidable friction.
- Whether the central loop produces the expected emotion or motivation.
- Which moments cause confusion, boredom or premature quitting.
- How different players interpret the same mechanic or premise.
The test should be tied to a decision. For example, the team may compare two onboarding approaches, investigate why players abandon a loop, or observe whether a new rule is discoverable without coaching. Notes, recordings, task outcomes and player explanations can provide stronger evidence than a meeting in which the loudest opinion wins.
Why playtesting is not a guarantee
Playtest findings are evidence about the people, build, context and questions included in that test. They are not a promise of market performance. A small or poorly matched participant group can miss important reactions, and a prototype may omit the progression, art direction, social context or technical conditions that shape the final experience.
A 2021 survey by Cristiano Politowski, Fabio Petrillo and Yann-Gäel Guéhéneuc, “A Survey of Video Game Testing”, reports that developers rely heavily on manual playtesting and tester expertise. It also emphasizes that game types vary and that testing methods do not generalize uniformly. The survey reviews game testing broadly, rather than offering a universal concept-validation protocol.
A practical playtest loop
- Write the design decision and the behavior that would support each option.
- Choose participants who resemble the intended audience for that question, and state any limits on that choice.
- Give participants the minimum instructions necessary; excessive coaching can hide usability problems.
- Observe behavior and collect comments without arguing for the design.
- Separate observations from interpretations, then decide what to change, retest or leave unresolved.
Stage 5: use a vertical slice as a production-readiness gate
A vertical slice is a representative, playable section built across the relevant disciplines and systems. It is not simply a longer prototype. Its purpose is to show both the game the studio intends to make and the way the team intends to make it.
In the 2015 GDC session “The Vertical Slice Challenge,” Greg Donovan of Volition describes the vertical slice as a tool for deciding whether a team is ready to move from preproduction into production. The session description says the slice should serve internal and external goals and demonstrate that the team understands the game and how to produce it.
What the slice should make visible
- The intended quality bar for the representative experience.
- How design, engineering, art, audio, narrative and other disciplines integrate.
- Whether the tools and processes can support the proposed content.
- Which parts of the production plan remain unproven.
- Whether the team can estimate and repeat the work rather than complete one exceptional demonstration.
Ubisoft separately describes preproduction as a stage for developing and evaluating tools and processes for upcoming production. That makes the slice a readiness gate, not merely a marketing demo. If the team can create one compelling room only through heroic improvisation, the result may expose a production problem rather than justify scaling up.
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Internal and external goals can differ
Internal stakeholders may need evidence about scope, workflow, staffing and technology. External viewers may need to understand the game’s identity and quality. A slice designed only to impress an outside audience can conceal repeatability problems; a purely technical test may fail to communicate why the game matters. The decision should state which audience each part of the slice serves and what conclusion is justified by the evidence.
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The following sequence keeps each test focused on its own decision. A studio may loop backward when evidence exposes a weak assumption; the stages are iterative rather than a rigid waterfall.
- Frame the vision. Describe the player, fantasy, central loop and assumptions that need testing.
- Explore cheaply and narrowly. Run prototypes, research and proofs of concept against the riskiest assumptions.
- Define the concept. Consolidate what has been learned into a coherent vision and identify unresolved commercial and delivery questions.
- Assemble a first playable. Integrate enough of the core experience for the team to explore the loop in context.
- Test with players. Gather behavioral evidence for specific design decisions and revise the experience.
- Review market and shipping logic. Examine audience, differentiation, scope, budget flexibility, platform needs and delivery dependencies.
- Build a vertical slice. Demonstrate the intended quality and the production process across the disciplines that will scale.
- Make the commitment decision. Proceed, narrow the scope, return to preproduction, pause or stop, based on the questions the evidence can actually answer.
There is no published universal threshold in the cited material for how many playtests, what score or what slice size should trigger approval. The responsible decision is therefore explicit about evidence and uncertainty instead of hiding them behind a single greenlight number.
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Mistaking polish for validation
A polished trailer or art sample can communicate tone while revealing little about the repeatable player experience or production process. Pair presentation material with a playable test of the central loop and a record of what remains unproven.
Calling every playable build a vertical slice
An isolated mechanic test and a first playable answer narrower questions than a production-readiness slice. Label the build by its purpose, scope and audience so decision-makers do not infer evidence it was never designed to provide.
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When team members explain what players should notice, they can erase the very confusion the test is meant to reveal. Use neutral instructions, observe first and separate raw observations from design opinions.
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Using market enthusiasm as proof of feasibility
Positive reactions to a premise do not establish that the team can build the required content, tools or technology. Keep market potential, shipping plans and production capability as distinct lines in the decision record.
Generalizing from one game type
Testing methods suitable for a short puzzle game may not transfer directly to a multiplayer service, role-playing game or narrative adventure. The survey literature emphasizes this variation, so adapt the method to the game’s structure and state what the test cannot cover.
Failing to define a decision before testing
If a team collects comments without deciding what would change, every result can be rationalized after the fact. Write the question, the evidence that would alter the plan and the next action before running the test.
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Studios can make later reviews clearer by keeping one concise record for each milestone:
- The hypothesis or decision being tested.
- The build, audience and conditions used.
- Observed behavior and technical findings, separated from interpretation.
- Assumptions confirmed, weakened or still unknown.
- Implications for scope, staffing, tools, schedule and budget flexibility.
- The next experiment, production task or stop decision.
This structure makes uncertainty visible. It also prevents a successful prototype from being treated as proof of commercial demand or a positive playtest from being treated as proof that the production pipeline will scale.
What the evidence does—and does not—establish
The cited sources support a staged model: iterative refinement, prototypes and proofs of concept, a first playable, market and shipping questions, playtesting, and a vertical slice that can gate the move into production. They do not establish one industry-wide formula, a universal success rate, a standard number of participants or a predictive accuracy figure.
Ubisoft’s process is an official description of one major publisher’s approach. The GDC pages describe sessions by practitioners from Finji, Volition and Player Research, offering useful decision frameworks and aims rather than mandated standards. The 2021 survey covers video-game testing broadly and cautions against assuming that one method fits every game. Readers should therefore treat the stages as a disciplined way to ask better questions, not as a guarantee that a greenlit game will succeed.
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Bottom line for a studio deciding whether to proceed
Commit to full production only after the evidence matches the decision. Use prototypes and proofs of concept to challenge the idea, a first playable to explore the assembled core experience, playtests to replace internal certainty with observed player behavior, and market and delivery reviews to expose commercial and operational risk. Then use a vertical slice to verify that the team can make the intended game—not merely demonstrate one impressive moment. The strongest greenlight is not the one with the most enthusiasm; it is the one that states what has been demonstrated, what remains uncertain and why the next level of investment is justified.
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