Michael Cowden faced a dilemma. He and his team had been working for months on a mobile game called Outrun the 80s. Then a friend in marketing suggested a different name — Super 80s World.

Not bad, Mike thought. But is it better than Outrun the 80s?

He asked his friends. He asked his family. But, as he later told us, “the problem with this method is that they aren’t necessarily the target audience or the most likely to be honest with you.”

So Mike turned to PickFu. He polled 50 people and asked, “Which mobile game sounds like more fun?”

Super 80s World won, but only by a narrow margin. What was surprising, however, was what the people who voted in favor said in the comments.

“It reminds me of Mario.”

“I love the 80s and Super 80s World sounds more exciting.”

“I don’t like A because it makes it sound like you are trying to run away from the 80s, and that was my childhood! I like the B title because it celebrates the fun 1980s.”

As Mike wrote later on the Super 80s World blog, “I could immediately tell that Super 80s World communicated the game concept much better. The folks that liked that name got what the game was about and, more importantly, wanted to play it!”

Since then, Mike has continued to turn to PickFu for help in answering key questions about the game. For example, he tested two logo concepts, and what became the game’s logo won overwhelmingly:

He also tested concepts for game characters:

He even tested questions like, “Based on the donation levels on this Kickstarter page, would you be willing to donate?” and “For ‘Episode 1’ of a Mobile Platformer Game (like Mario Bros), does 3 worlds and 30 levels sounds like… too many / too few,” and “Which of the following animations feels more natural for the play of the game?”

“Being able to answer a key business question for $50 is a no-brainer,” Mike told us. “As soon as I saw that this service was available at a reasonable price, I was sold. You can’t make key business decisions in a vacuum or an echo chamber. PickFu is a very cost-effective way of getting immediate user feedback.”

Super 80s World is now live. Check it out here to follow along and see what other exciting turns the game takes!

Learn More:Mobile app developers use PickFu to optimize app icons, app store screenshots, and in-app UX and creatives, by polling audiences like mobile gamers, iPhone users, and by app store spend.

Also published on Medium.