Post

@joe.inkle.co

Jet lagged 2:30am thought: "Vertical slice" has always been a flawed concept, and the clue was in the name the whole time: you can't have a slice until you've baked the whole damn cake.

12/6/26, 1:28 am22 reposts107 likes

Sam Barlow 🔥

@mrsambarlow.bsky.social

12 June

In fact building a single slice of a cake is 10X harder than building a cake! The HORIZONTAL SLICE though, that makes sense and is how we roll.

Joseph Humfrey

@joe.inkle.co

12 June

At the risk of starting a serious discussion, what does a horizontal slice look like for you?

Sam Barlow 🔥

@mrsambarlow.bsky.social

12 June

Whole game, all the structure there but missing visual polish and content and polish in general - equivalent to an outline or treatment in movies

Sam Barlow 🔥

@mrsambarlow.bsky.social

12 June

Cannot be played by players meaningfully but game dev can use it to confirm the overall plans work/tweak them and from there out it’s just painting between the lines

Adriaan

@adriaan.games

12 June

maybe…. the full game layout with only placeholders for everything, including menus and levels and hints of content. the point is that you can complete it, not that it is any good?