The Cost of Getting It Wrong
Testing a game concept has historically been a process of educated guesses and expensive iterations. Audience misalignment is usually only discovered well into development or even post launch. This was the challenge faced by Ten Square Games when they set out to create a game in what they described as a “stagnant market space.”
The studio knew they needed to do something different. Instead of following the traditional path of creating another knockoff game, they decided to start with the player in mind. But what does that really mean? And how do you execute it effectively?
The Power of Early Psychological Validation
Ten Square Games’ experience provides a compelling answer. By partnering with Solsten to assess audiences in the strategy and RPG space using Navigator, they achieved real results:
- Development cycles twice as fast as usual
- Significantly fewer prototype iterations
- Clear team direction from the start
- Faster time to launch
How did they achieve this? The key was starting with deep psychological understanding of their target audience before writing a single line of code.
Real-World Success: Mainframe Industries’ Pax Dei
Perhaps no case better illustrates the power of psychological validation than Mainframe Industries’ development of Pax Dei, an ambitious sandbox MMO. Creating an open-world MMO is both ambitious and expensive, making early validation crucial.
Mainframe used Navigator to identify two key player personas that aligned perfectly with their vision for Pax Dei‘s. The results speak for themselves:
- 60% of participants in the first closed alpha testing belonged to their primary target persona
- Another 20% fell into their second most valuable player segment
- Strong early community generation
- Clear product-market fit indicators
What’s particularly noteworthy is how this understanding shaped their development priorities. Recognizing the importance of “social experience” for their target audience, they focused on creating game mechanics that promoted collaboration, building, and collection.
The Small Studio Advantage
You might think this level of audience understanding is only available to larger studios, but Dead Monkey Studios proves otherwise. When faced with a decision about whether their game Aurora 7 should include co-op multiplayer, they turned to psychological data for answers.
“I like to think about the creative and design process for video games as if it’s in a stage of alchemy,” said CEO Oliver Perez. “Solsten is the key tool to make the process move towards chemistry — to be more of a science and less guesswork.”
The ‘How to Test Your Concept’ Framework
1. Start Before Development
The most successful studios in our case studies, like Ten Square Games and Mainframe Industries, begin psychological validation before writing any code. This process involves:
Identify Your Core Audience
- Map out games that share elements with your concept
- Study player motivations across similar genres
- Look for underserved psychological needs in the market
As demonstrated by Mainframe Industries with Pax Dei, this early work helps identify specific player personas that align with your game’s vision. For them, understanding the importance of social experiences led to early design decisions around collaboration and community building.
Psychological Profile Development
- Document your audience’s key motivators
- Map psychological traits to potential game features
- Create clear persona documents for team alignment
Ten Square Games used this approach to define their user journey from initial hook through long-term commitment, with each element strategically chosen to maximize audience resonance.
2. Test Core Assumptions
Dead Monkey Studios provides an excellent example of how to test core assumptions. When deciding whether to include co-op multiplayer in Aurora 7, they:
Feature Validation Process
- Identified key psychological traits of their target audience
- Mapped these traits to specific multiplayer features
- Validated assumptions about player interaction preferences
- Used data to make the co-op decision with confidence
Art Style and Theme Testing
Ten Square Games demonstrates the importance of validating visual elements:
- Examined art style preferences across user personas
- Identified consistent visual elements that resonated with target players
- Incorporated unexpected elements that appealed to their most valuable personas
- Tested with actual representatives of their target audience
3. Iterate Based on Data
Voodoo Games’ experience with *Plantopia* shows how to effectively iterate using psychological insights:
Early Stage Iteration
- Monitor initial player responses
- Identify misalignments between design and player psychology
- Make rapid adjustments based on psychological data
- Test changes with target persona representatives
Continuous Refinement
- Track engagement metrics against psychological profiles
- Adjust features based on player motivation data
- Maintain alignment with core psychological needs
- Plan future features based on validated psychological insights
4. Measure Success
Mobilityware’s experience with Monopoly Solitaire provides a framework for measuring validation success:
Key Performance Indicators
- Track CPI against genre averages (they achieved 70-80% lower)
- Monitor retention metrics (they maintained >60% D3 retention)
- Measure engagement with psychologically-aligned features
- Compare performance across different player personas
Long-term Validation
- Assess sustained performance (their CPIs remained 20-25% lower after 10 months)
- Monitor player satisfaction metrics
- Track feature engagement over time
- Measure community growth and health
What Really Matters? Going Beyond Demographics
The success of games like Monopoly Solitaire shows why psychological understanding trumps demographics. By deeply understanding their audience before development, Mobilityware achieved:
- 70-80% lower CPIs than the rest of the Solitaire space at launch
- CPIs remaining 20-25% lower than genre average 10 months after launch
- Greater than 60% D3 retention
The New Standard in Game Validation
If games are to truly thrive in this competitive reality, simple demographic targeting is no longer viable. Studios that understand their players’ psychological profiles, motivations, and desires are seeing dramatic improvements in development efficiency and market success.
As demonstrated by cases ranging from major studios like Supercell to smaller teams like Dead Monkey Studios, psychological validation isn’t just about reducing risk — it’s about creating better games that truly resonate with their intended audience.
Ready to learn more about how to implement psychological validation in your game development process?
