Most game developers know that sharing an early prototype of their Next Big Thing™ with friends and fellow devs is usually a good move. It's a great way to iron out bugs, gather ideas and start moving in the right direction. It's also incredibly encouraging to receive positive feedback early on — as long as your audience doesn't consist of the sort of people who foam at the mouth and start gnawing at every half-arsed pixel push you make.

A problem that I frequently see, however, is the tendency of some people to release stuff a little too early: they'll assume that people like me are either (a) bereft of any purpose in life aside from playing undercooked prototypes or (b) absolute gaming gods who can adapt to obscure situations and experiences at the drop of a hat.

I now speak to you, dear reader, as an ordinary man. I'm not a professional playtester and I don't get paid in any way to look at people's work. I'm just some game enthusiast who likes to help fellow devs with their projects. Quite frankly, that's the perfect set of qualifications right there. A lot of people who test your game will be average blokes like me: developers who can exercise a reasonable amount of patience, sensitivity and respect when they play through an early release.

But I say reasonable for a reason. As a game developer it is inappropriate — nay, selfish! — to expect that testers will bend over backwards for you, or plough through a release that has no guidance, structure or gaming value. Remember that when people try out your game release, they're doing you a favour. This isn't to say that they'll hold you to it, or that they're doing their work with any reluctance — I personally take great delight in seeing new projects and helping fellow community members shape their art. I do, however, think that any self-respecting dev owes it to their audience to add some important components here and there to avoid making the test process a chore or — worse still — a waste of time.

No matter how early in development your game may be, here's a few "minimum requirements" that your first release could do with adhering to: