[MUD-Dev] Crunch time

[Damion Schubert]

From: Amanda Walker

>> I think Mark mentioned the biggest thing people are overlooking
>> when discussing game vs. application development: the elusive
>> nature of "fun".

> Replace "fun" by "sells," though, and it's very analogous.  Specs
> and testing only go so far outside the game world as well.  I'm
> sure most non-game developers have experienced "I know it's what
> we asked for, but it's not what we want" and "we need you to make
> this list of unplanned changes before we ship." This is what
> Extreme Programming and other attempts at "agile" development
> processes are aimed at--trying to manage the fact that what will
> make the customer happy often cannot be spec'd out in advance,
> simply because the customer doesn't know what they want.

> "Done" and "works right" are just as elusive as "fun."

Yes, but we have to do "Done" and "Works Right" on TOP of fun.
Also, those of us with external publishers have to deal with "Done",
"Works Right", "Fun" AND "Changing, unreasonable external requests
from the guys with the money".  Let me tell you, "Fun" is by far the
hardest to plan for up front, as it's quite common to implement a
system which is flawlessly implemented, intuitively interfaced,
exactly what the publisher asked for, and about as much fun as
watching paint dry.  Then, you have to redesign, rip out the unfun
bits, and correct any systems that were depending on that feature to
work the way you originally designed.

--d
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