Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Experimentation practice in indie game startups

Bjarnason, Elizabeth LU orcid ; Linåker, Johan LU orcid and Fagerholm, Fabian LU (2026) p.137-152
Abstract
Small independent (indie) game startups face fierce competition when developing games with limited time, budget, and resources. Continuously testing and experimenting with new ideas, features, and content is essential to validate and guide development toward a viable and successful game. Such continuous experimentation (CE) requires access to users and user data, which is often very limited in the early stages of development, both in general and in particular for indie game companies. We provide insights and recommendations on how to perform experimentation and game testing in pre-release stages of indie game development based on an exploratory interview survey with 10 independent game developers from different companies. We provide a... (More)
Small independent (indie) game startups face fierce competition when developing games with limited time, budget, and resources. Continuously testing and experimenting with new ideas, features, and content is essential to validate and guide development toward a viable and successful game. Such continuous experimentation (CE) requires access to users and user data, which is often very limited in the early stages of development, both in general and in particular for indie game companies. We provide insights and recommendations on how to perform experimentation and game testing in pre-release stages of indie game development based on an exploratory interview survey with 10 independent game developers from different companies. We provide a framework for CE that highlights key parts to consider when planning and implementing an experiment. Current practices for experimentation within indie game development are also described for the early development stages of ideation, preproduction, feature production, and content production. Our empirical findings offer insights and recommendations into how to conduct experiments during pre-release stages of game development, specifically for indie game companies. Other software startups, particularly those with a value proposition centred around interactive and satisfying user experiences, can also benefit from our research. (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
in press
subject
keywords
Game development, Continuous experimentation, User research, User data, Indie game company
host publication
Advances in software startups. : generative AI, product nngineering and business development - generative AI, product nngineering and business development
editor
Tripathi, Nirnaya ; Edison, Henry and Weng, Xiaofeng
pages
137 - 152
publisher
Springer Nature
ISBN
978-3-032-04294-1
978-3-032-04293-4
project
WASP Continuous Experimentation with Limited User Data
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bb0f9d6a-4660-43b5-a0bc-d1981efc6242
date added to LUP
2025-10-31 10:02:18
date last changed
2025-11-11 08:41:52
@inbook{bb0f9d6a-4660-43b5-a0bc-d1981efc6242,
  abstract     = {{Small independent (indie) game startups face fierce competition when developing games with limited time, budget, and resources. Continuously testing and experimenting with new ideas, features, and content is essential to validate and guide development toward a viable and successful game. Such continuous experimentation (CE) requires access to users and user data, which is often very limited in the early stages of development, both in general and in particular for indie game companies. We provide insights and recommendations on how to perform experimentation and game testing in pre-release stages of indie game development based on an exploratory interview survey with 10 independent game developers from different companies. We provide a framework for CE that highlights key parts to consider when planning and implementing an experiment. Current practices for experimentation within indie game development are also described for the early development stages of ideation, preproduction, feature production, and content production. Our empirical findings offer insights and recommendations into how to conduct experiments during pre-release stages of game development, specifically for indie game companies. Other software startups, particularly those with a value proposition centred around interactive and satisfying user experiences, can also benefit from our research.}},
  author       = {{Bjarnason, Elizabeth and Linåker, Johan and Fagerholm, Fabian}},
  booktitle    = {{Advances in software startups. : generative AI, product nngineering and business development}},
  editor       = {{Tripathi, Nirnaya and Edison, Henry and Weng, Xiaofeng}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-032-04294-1}},
  keywords     = {{Game development; Continuous experimentation; User research; User data; Indie game company}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{137--152}},
  publisher    = {{Springer Nature}},
  title        = {{Experimentation practice in indie game startups}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}