Usage of MVP techniques in game development processes: Example of hyper-casual mobile games

While the interest in mobile games today increases the growth rate of the game market, the global game market, which was 175 billion in 2020, is expected to increase to approximately 365 billion dollars by 2025. Due to this competitive environment, small and medium-sized mobile game companies develop products before entering the production process without being completely sure whether the games they will produce will hold up in the market. Product development methodologies need to be adapted to the scope, size, complexity of a project and to the changing needs of start- ups. However, there is a lack of guidance on how software start-ups can adapt their processes to product development methodology. Start-ups carry out experimental studies in the field of problem-solving. This often results in the launch of a product that differs greatly from the original idea. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is used to communicate the technical detail and business idea often seen in early stage startups. As a rapid prototype, the MVP is more important than the idealization stage, as it strikes the balance between realistic and futuristic design. When they develop their products without using MVP techniques, they are too late to test the interest of users. This late feedback can put small and medium mobile game studios in a difficult position financially. In this study, these game studios will use MVP techniques to test users' interest in the game concept and game mechanics before they go to the market, how they can get feedback from users at an earlier stage, how they can change the in- game mechanics or game concept with this feedback, and most importantly, how they can develop their games more cost-effectively. aims to provide benefits by marketing and attracting users to its games. Within the scope of this study, a decision algorithm has been developed for the implementation of the MVP procedure in the publishing process of a game. With the developed algorithm, the performances of the hyper-casual game samples regarding the killing and survival situations were evaluated. As a result of the evaluation, it will be beneficial for the algorithm to be used by hyper-casual game developers with high performance.