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Pre-release experimentation in indie game development : an interview survey

Linåker, Johan LU orcid ; Bjarnason, Elizabeth LU orcid and Fagerholm, Fabian (2025) 15th International Conference on Software Business, ICSOB 2024 In Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing 539. p.293-308
Abstract
[Background] The game industry faces fierce competition and games are developed on short deadlines and tight budgets. Continuously testing and experimenting with new ideas and features is essential in validating and guiding development toward market viability and success. Such continuous experimentation (CE) requires user data, which is often limited in early development stages. This challenge is further exacerbated for independent (indie) game companies with limited resources. [Aim] We wanted to gain insights into CE practices in pre-release indie game development.

[Method] We performed an exploratory interview survey with 10 indie game developers from different companies and synthesised findings through an iterative coding... (More)
[Background] The game industry faces fierce competition and games are developed on short deadlines and tight budgets. Continuously testing and experimenting with new ideas and features is essential in validating and guiding development toward market viability and success. Such continuous experimentation (CE) requires user data, which is often limited in early development stages. This challenge is further exacerbated for independent (indie) game companies with limited resources. [Aim] We wanted to gain insights into CE practices in pre-release indie game development.

[Method] We performed an exploratory interview survey with 10 indie game developers from different companies and synthesised findings through an iterative coding process.

[Results] We present a CE framework for game development that highlights key parts to consider when planning and implementing an experiment and note that pre-release experimentation is centred on qualitative data. Time and resource constraints impose limits on the type and extent of experimentation and playtesting that indie companies can perform, e.g. due to limited access to participants, biases and representativeness of the target audience. [Conclusions] Our results outline challenges and practices for conducting experiments with limited user data in early stages of indie game development, and may be of value also for larger game companies, and for software intensive organisations in other industries. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Game development, Continuous experimentation, User research, User data, Indie game company
host publication
Software business : 15th International Conference, ICSOB 2024, Utrecht, The Netherlands, November 18–20, 2024, Proceedings - 15th International Conference, ICSOB 2024, Utrecht, The Netherlands, November 18–20, 2024, Proceedings
series title
Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
volume
539
pages
16 pages
publisher
Springer
conference name
15th International Conference on Software Business, ICSOB 2024
conference location
Utrecht, Netherlands
conference dates
2024-11-18 - 2024-11-20
ISSN
1865-1356
1865-1348
ISBN
978-3-031-85848-2
978-3-031-85849-9
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-85849-9_24
project
WASP Continuous Experimentation with Limited User Data
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2170fc3f-73ea-40af-ba54-b2ed9f66204c
date added to LUP
2024-11-25 09:13:28
date last changed
2025-06-06 03:05:48
@inproceedings{2170fc3f-73ea-40af-ba54-b2ed9f66204c,
  abstract     = {{[Background] The game industry faces fierce competition and games are developed on short deadlines and tight budgets. Continuously testing and experimenting with new ideas and features is essential in validating and guiding development toward market viability and success. Such continuous experimentation (CE) requires user data, which is often limited in early development stages. This challenge is further exacerbated for independent (indie) game companies with limited resources. [Aim] We wanted to gain insights into CE practices in pre-release indie game development. <br/><br/>[Method] We performed an exploratory interview survey with 10 indie game developers from different companies and synthesised findings through an iterative coding process. <br/><br/>[Results] We present a CE framework for game development that highlights key parts to consider when planning and implementing an experiment and note that pre-release experimentation is centred on qualitative data. Time and resource constraints impose limits on the type and extent of experimentation and playtesting that indie companies can perform, e.g. due to limited access to participants, biases and representativeness of the target audience. [Conclusions] Our results outline challenges and practices for conducting experiments with limited user data in early stages of indie game development, and may be of value also for larger game companies, and for software intensive organisations in other industries.}},
  author       = {{Linåker, Johan and Bjarnason, Elizabeth and Fagerholm, Fabian}},
  booktitle    = {{Software business : 15th International Conference, ICSOB 2024, Utrecht, The Netherlands, November 18–20, 2024, Proceedings}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-031-85848-2}},
  issn         = {{1865-1356}},
  keywords     = {{Game development; Continuous experimentation; User research; User data; Indie game company}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  pages        = {{293--308}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing}},
  title        = {{Pre-release experimentation in indie game development : an interview survey}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-85849-9_24}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/978-3-031-85849-9_24}},
  volume       = {{539}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}