Build the core loop

Your goal this session is not a finished game. It's a game you can play, however rough.

Movement plus one rule plus a score is enough to be playable. No sounds, no menu, no decoration.

The reason is simple: until you can play it, you're guessing about whether it's any fun. Playable early means you find out early — while there's still time to change it.

Every game has a core loop — the cycle the player repeats:

Move → avoid something → score → repeat.

In a maze: move, avoid walls, get closer to the exit. In a dodger: move, dodge, survive a bit longer.

Build that cycle first and nothing else. If the core loop is fun, the game is fun and everything else is decoration. If the core loop is boring, no amount of polish will rescue it — and that's worth finding out on day one rather than day five.