[jeremyjh]

This is all very true and relevant, yet still its also true that we see lots of stories from founders regretting that they never established market fit before sinking years into development. This is probably the pattern for 90% of indie game developers, but it crops up in other contexts as well. Once they finally know they are at the end of that road to nowhere, they do have regrets, and they have had other ideas in the meantime that they did not pursue because they were dedicated to the current project.

All this aside, I have a side-project, and I'm not looking for any validation of it, just classic "build it and they will come" type thinking.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Is it possible to do indie game dev without building something and throwing it out there?

Small games seem like a market where it's nearly impossible to know what's going to sell ahead of time, because buyers don't know what they want until they see it. Or until a lot of people are telling them it's the Next New Thing.

It's relatively easy to research a market where you're offering a practical solution to a real problem. But entertainment markets - including direct sales of games, music, art, "influencers", and so on - are as much about trend, fashion, and some element of randomness, as about the core features of the product.

Big Game Devs and Entertainment Companies know this, which is why they repeat the same hits over and over, and spend a fortune on direct advertising and influence.

They still get it wrong sometimes, but slightly less often than solo devs.

[Darmani]

Prototype. Make a pen-and-paper version, pantomime the game, tell the story -- do something to test the game's excitement power before building it.

http://www.pathsensitive.com/2015/10/the-prototype-stereotyp...

[king_phil]

Not sure if angry birds would have made a great pen & paper game ;-)

[wastedhours]

Nope, but a box of Jenga and some small stuffed toys would suffice ;) (And actually, my brother and I played a paper version of Worms when we were kids - with the map drawn in pen, and our movements and attacks plotted in pencil - was fun)

[darkerside]

Adding to that, there is an entertainment component to almost everything these days. People like Turbo Tax because it makes it easier, and a little bit closer to fun, to do your taxes.