Play as if shipping tomorrow. This is the final stress test before polish week.
Shipping means stable, understandable, and complete within scope. Today each child plays 10 uninterrupted minutes. Parent observes silently. No touching code during play. This is not testing — this is rehearsing.
- 10 uninterrupted minutes per child.
- No touching code during play.
- Parent observes silently.
- Write observations afterward, not during.
Can a new player understand:
- What to do?
- What risk is?
- How to progress?
- Explore works
- Encounters trigger correctly
- Boss unlock works
- Banking resets risk
- Loss resets unbanked XP
- Tiers change correctly
- Deeper Manhattan accessible after unlock
- Jobs generate correctly
- Builds complete
- Debt applies interest
- Car unlock works
- Second block accessible only with Car
- Tiers gate properly
- Bankruptcy resets correctly
Both games are playable from start to finish. No game-breaking bugs.
Fix only bugs and clarity issues. No new mechanics. No new art. No new features. Period.
Sneaking in new features during "bug fixes" — a bug fix restores intended behavior. Adding behavior is a feature, not a fix.
Not playing the full 10 minutes — many bugs only appear after sustained play. Short sessions miss them.
Helping during the playtest — the parent should be silent. If the child is confused, that confusion is data.
Fixing cosmetic issues instead of functional bugs — prioritize things that break gameplay over things that look wrong.
Ask both children at the end: "If we had to present this tomorrow, would you be proud?" If the answer is "yes but I want to add..." — that's the scope discipline working. "But" comes after "yes."