[MUD-Dev] Dilemmas in a (game) designer's life ?

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Shane Gough:

> It seems that every idea I want to experiment with winds up in my
> MUD design - which doesn't really help a release schedule.

I think part of the problem here is when we don't work through the
psychology of enjoyment and reward.  We could probably get a feeling
of reward from many points in the production pipeline.  Of course,
there are some parts of the pipeline that aren't rewarding, they're
just going to be gruntwork.  But still, we have a potential
flexibility for where we're going to get our sense of satisfaction?
Now, do most people ever think about that?  Do they sit down and say
"What about QA can I find rewarding?"  No.  So they do the most
obvious rewarding thing: brainstorming.  This loads up the front of
the pipe, creates additional things that "have to" be done.  It's a
disaster for scheduling.

Instead of being like a bunch of undisciplined children always
running from flower to flower as they brainstorm, we should be like
a bunch of undisciplined children always running from flower to
flower across the whole production pipeline.  Now, this may be
easier said than done, a waterfall model doesn't disappear simply
because you want it to.  But it bears thinking: *where* in your
process can you get satisfaction from?  Why does it always have to
be "let's do this!"

Dealing with the boring bits of course is simply going to take
discipline.  But if you're not ducking the issues by loading
yourself up with more brainstorming, it's possible that more stuff
will get done in a pleasant way and you'll have less overall need
for gird-your-loins discipline.

Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.

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