Every first game starts small in your head and then quietly grows. Scope is just the work you've promised to finish, and keeping it small is how you actually ship. A finishable first game is one verb: one action, a visible result, and a reason to try again. Around that loop you need the shell a stranger needs: a way to start, a way to lose, and a way to quit.
I work this way on Tingbase, a 3v3 hero shooter I'm building in Unity 6 and C# (Steam app 4086630). It's already bigger than a one-verb toy, but the rule didn't change: one loop, three roles (Tank, Healer, DPS) that share it, and a store page I can point at.
Write the sentence, then write what is out
Put the game in one sentence: who does the verb, where, and how a try ends. If the description needs a second page, it's still two games.
Then sort every feature into four buckets:
- Must: what the game can't start, end or be understood without. Usually the verb, the fail state, and what those two need.
- Should: useful, and the first thing cut when hours run short.
- Could: the idea you're excited about.
- Won't: the decision you write down so you don't argue it again in month four.
Write the cut order while you're calm, so when a week runs behind you just read the next line. Reopen a cut only with evidence (a playtest note, a timed piece that proved the list wrong), never with a 1 a.m. mood.
Time one piece before you time the game
Guessing the whole game from enthusiasm is how the list lies. Build one representative piece in plain shapes. If the grey boxes aren't fun, painting them won't rescue them.
Then write down how long that piece took. Your real estimate is that time, multiplied by the number of pieces, plus the work around them: menus, saving, testing, and whatever you promised for release. List every asset the finished version still needs (art, animation, sound, UI, music), give each a time that includes polish, and trim until the total fits the hours you actually have.
The content multiplier
Once the verb works, you repeat something: more rooms, more waves, more heroes on the same rules. For Tingbase that's modes and roles around one shooter loop. A multiplier is only cheap when the pipeline exists. The first room teaches you the verb; the fifth tells you whether art, collision and spawns still take the time you wrote down. If not, cut rooms before you add a second verb to fill the week.
MVP first, then one polished piece
These are two different questions, and I used to mash them together:
- MVP: the ugliest version that still has the loop. Colored boxes, a beep, one fail, a restart. It asks: is this fun at all?
- One polished piece: a chunk with final art, sound and UI. It asks: how long does finished content really take? Use that number for the rest of the list.
Before both, prove the build path: a blank project that launches outside the editor.
Decide what survives a loss
The fail state decides your data. A run that resets to a clean room is one job. A local high score is another. Unlocks, story flags and permanent upgrades are more jobs, each saved, loaded and tested. "It saves" can mean three different games, so write down the one you mean. Same for platforms: one PC, one player, offline is a test you can run tonight. Accounts, matchmaking and cloud saves are a later project.
The store page is scope too
A store listing, an installable build, an age rating, a trailer, and a tutorial for every system you add are all hours. If the game goes on Steam, the page is a Must just like the quit button.
The calendar is a poor boss
Published advice ranges from two weeks to nine months or more for a first game. That disagreement is the warning: the number of weeks isn't the test, the timed piece against your available hours is. Give each milestone one testable outcome ("the loop plays", "the level is complete"), and when a deadline gets close, cut a feature, not a test pass.
New ideas wait on the later list
Crafting, a day-night cycle, a friend who can join: each sounds like an afternoon, but brings art, UI, edge cases, saves, balance and a tutorial. Write the idea on a later list the hour you have it, review that list only at a point you already scheduled, and let it in only if it serves the original verb.
The first game is finished when a stranger can start it, lose, and try again, and you can still describe it in the original sentence. The later list is the start of the next one.
This post first appeared on yuvalgg.com. Read the full guide on yuvalgg.com, with the sources I used and a quick check on what to do with a feature you want to add. If you already have a prototype, here's what a vertical slice is and how I scope one.
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