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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesEvaluate a game idea’s innovation by naming the specific change it makes to play, comparing that change with relevant games, and testing the central claim in a small prototype. An unusual premise is not enough: the idea should enable different player choices, behaviors, or experiences. No universal score can certify originality, fun, or commercial potential.
Start with the specific change to play
Write the idea as a player-facing claim, not a broad pitch. Identify the rule, interaction, constraint, role, or combination of systems that changes what players do.
For example, “a new fantasy adventure” describes a setting. A more useful claim would explain a distinctive action or decision the player repeatedly faces, and how it differs from familiar play. This makes the idea concrete enough to compare and test.
Compare it with the right games
Choose a small, relevant set of comparison games based on genre, central mechanic, player fantasy, or intended experience. The goal is not to prove that no similar idea exists anywhere; it is to understand what your concept inherits and what it changes.
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#1 Best Overall
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| Compare | Questions to answer |
|---|---|
| Player and fantasy | Who is the intended player, and what role or fantasy does the game offer? |
| Core action or decision | What does the player repeatedly do or decide? |
| Rules and feedback | Which resources, constraints, rules, and feedback shape that action? |
| Resulting play | What dynamics emerge—such as cooperation, competition, risk, exploration, or improvisation? |
| Difference | What is shared with each comparison, what changes, and what new play does that change enable? |
This worksheet is a practical synthesis of design frameworks, not a published scoring rubric. Avoid turning it into an invented novelty score or treating a limited comparison as proof of global originality.
Trace mechanics into player experience
MDA—Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics—helps connect a game’s rules to the behavior and experience they produce. Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek presented it as a formal approach to understanding games across design, development, criticism, and technical research in 2004. In practical terms:
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- Mechanics: the rules and components.
- Dynamics: the patterns of behavior that emerge during play.
- Aesthetics: the experience the design seeks to evoke.
Ask whether the proposed change affects the dynamics and intended experience, rather than only the theme or presentation. Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek caution that “game components cannot be evaluated in vacuo, aside from their effects on a system behavior and player experience.” Read the MDA paper.
Consider how the ingredients work together
TOG—Technology, Ontology, Game Genre—is an innovation-oriented lens for exploring how a game’s technology, the world or assumptions it makes playable, and its genre interact. Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari and Hartmut Koenitz describe TOG as a way to expand designers’ palette of computational expression and facilitate innovation, including through teaching and professional prototyping. A combination can be distinctive even if some of its ingredients are familiar.
Rank #3
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Use TOG to ask what the combination makes possible, not to declare an idea original by formula. It is a design prompt, not a validated measure of novelty or commercial potential. Read the TOG paper.
Test the riskiest claim with a small prototype
Choose one uncertainty that could undermine the idea: perhaps the central mechanic does not create the intended trade-off, or players do not understand the promise. Build only enough to expose that uncertainty. A polished presentation can wait until you know whether the core interaction works.
Rank #4
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- State the design goal. Write down the choice, behavior, or feeling the prototype is meant to produce.
- Make the smallest playable version. Include only what players need to encounter the uncertain interaction.
- Let intended players try it. Observe their behavior before explaining the design.
- Compare what happened with the goal. Note what players did, what they understood, and where they became confused or frustrated.
- Revise and repeat. Change the design in response to what you observed, then check whether the intended behavior or experience is more evident.
MDA supports iterative playtesting and tuning against design goals. Applied game user research adapts social-science methods to evaluate and improve player experience, including usability and enjoyability. These methods can inform design decisions, but neither a single test nor a small qualitative study certifies innovation or predicts market demand. Microsoft Research’s chapter explains the role of user research in games: Applied User Research in Games.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Keep originality, experience, and market fit separate
- Originality: What is meaningfully different from relevant comparison games?
- Player experience: Do players understand and engage with the interaction as intended?
- Commercial fit: Is there evidence that the intended audience will buy or support it?
Evidence about one question does not settle the others. A familiar concept may have a distinctive execution; an unusual concept may fail to communicate or engage. Playtesting can reveal how people experience a prototype, but it does not by itself establish a market. If a game has both an entertainment purpose and another purpose, the SGDA framework offers a way to assess both; its application to research games does not make it a universal novelty metric for entertainment games. Read the SGDA framework paper.
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What a useful evaluation can—and cannot—tell you
A disciplined evaluation can show whether the idea has a specific, differentiating contribution; whether that contribution changes the play that results; and whether a prototype gives intended players the targeted experience. It cannot prove absolute originality from a limited set of comparisons, guarantee that the game will be fun for everyone, or establish that a market will buy it.
Those questions are common among developers considering whether to commit substantial time to an indie game, but public discussion of them is not controlled evidence about a concept’s potential. A public r/gamedev discussion illustrates the concerns without supplying a reliable prediction method.
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