The whole category in one page.
THE MOMENT-TO-MOMENT ACTIVITY IS THE GAME
Build it as grey boxes and play it hundreds of times. If it is not enjoyable there, no amount of art, story or content will save it.
SCOPE IS WHAT KILLS PROJECTS
Finishing takes roughly as long again as reaching playable, and most of that work is unglamorous. Small and finished beats ambitious and abandoned, every time.
PROTOTYPES ANSWER A QUESTION AND ARE THEN DISCARDED
Keep the knowledge, not the code. Effort creates attachment, which is exactly what must be resisted.
NEVER TRUST THE CLIENT, AND NEVER ASSUME A CONSTANT FRAME RATE
Two rules that between them prevent a large proportion of the technical failures in games.
WATCH PLAYTESTS IN SILENCE
Any explanation you give is one the released game cannot give. Players reliably identify problems and unreliably identify solutions.
PROFILE ON THE WEAKEST DEVICE YOU SUPPORT, AND TEST SUSTAINED PLAY
Development machines conceal every performance problem, and mobile throttles thermally after minutes.
MARKETING CANNOT BE LEFT UNTIL RELEASE
Awareness takes months to build. Being interesting to watch matters more than any campaign, because that is how games are discovered now.
