Formative evaluation of instructional materials may not be time efficient or cost effective. Scriven's definition of formative evaluation, used in this paper, applies to the assessment and refinement of instructional materials still under development. Implementation of formative evaluation techniques does not seem to yield significant improvement in learner performance after the first draft stage. Formative evaluation is difficult to validate and lacks generalizability. A simulation game, Return on Investment (ROI), was developed to assess the effectiveness of formative evaluation procedures. The formative evaluation model developed to revise the game was determined to be inadequate because no significant difference in learner performance was produced by the two versions of ROI. This was a further indication that the utility of formative evaluation as an instructional development technique is questionable. (DWH)