How do you test a game idea before spending money?
By 9th House Games ·
Build only the core loop, then put it in front of strangers before you build anything else. A short gameplay video in a small ad campaign tells you what an install costs, and publishers publish the bar to compare it with: Supersonic under $0.35, Unity under $0.30.
None of this needs a studio. If you have a game idea and a small budget, this is the order we would do it in.
1. Write the game on one page
What the player does in one second, how a level is won, how it is lost, and what a five-minute session looks like. If you cannot fill the page, the idea is not ready to build. This step is our own advice, and costs nothing.
2. Build a slice, not a game
One mechanic that works and a handful of levels. For scale, GameTactics sells a prototype that is a core loop and 10 levels with the ad SDKs wired in (GameTactics, opened 27 Oct 2026). You can make a rougher one yourself with a free engine, or hire a freelancer for it. What a prototype costs has the numbers.
3. Cut a 15 to 30 second video
Screen-record the slice. The video is what the ad test will show, so the first two seconds should show the satisfying thing, not a logo.
4. Find out what an install costs
Run the video as a small ad campaign and read the cost per install. The published bars are Supersonic's under $0.35 (Supersonic, 2020) and Unity's under $0.30 (Unity, 2024). Both are old-ish and from companies that sell something, so treat them as a rough line, not a verdict. We have no source for how much ad money makes a CPI reading reliable, and we are not going to guess one. Some publishers will run this test for you, as Supersonic says it does after you submit a game through its form.
5. Check that people come back
A low CPI means people tapped install. It does not mean they liked the game. Put the slice in front of real players and see how many open it again the next day. Unity's guide gives 38% or more on Android as the day-1 target. Ask players what they would tell a friend, and write it down.
If it is going to Google Play
For personal developer accounts created after 13 November 2023, Google requires a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in continuously for 14 days before you can publish to production (Google Play's help page on testing requirements, opened 27 Oct 2026). That test checks your build on real phones. It does not tell you whether the game is a good idea, so do it as well as steps 4 and 5, not instead of them.
What this does not cover
A game can pass every step and still lose money later on ads or monetisation. We do not have data on that, so this page stays out of it.
Sources
- Supersonic, the holy triangle of marketability, retention and monetization (opened 27 Oct 2026)
- Unity, growing hyper-casual games (opened 27 Oct 2026)
- Google Play Console help, testing requirements for new personal accounts (opened 27 Oct 2026)
- GameTactics, hyper-casual game development (opened 27 Oct 2026)
How this page was made. Every number on this page is read from the page linked next to it, opened on 27 Oct 2026. The steps are our own advice, not research. The first draft was written with AI help.
9th House Games is the games studio of 9th House in Bengaluru, run by Rohan Kulkarni. We turn a game idea into a playable test build. If you have a game idea, send it to us.