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Lone Wolf Killers Part II: The Development Phase


Tunnel Vision

Developers are notorious for what's known as "tunnel vision." Tunnel vision is closely related to "Eating Dessert First" - someone has tunnel vision when they lack the ability to "see the big picture." For example, if, two weeks before your beta release date, your programmer is obsessed with getting 10% more frames out of the rendering pipeline, and is ignoring the fact that there's no enemies, weapons, or powerups in the game, he or she might be suffering from tunnel vision. He or she is concentrating on one very small and often pointless aspect of the project, and ignoring the stuff that really matters.

Prevent tunnel vision by keeping a big prioritized list of everything that has to be done. Continually ask yourself "Is there anything more important than what I'm working on right now?" If so, drop what you're doing and concentrate on it, instead.



Lack of Commitment


Contents
  Introduction
  Eating Dessert First
  Burn Out
  The Binge and Purge Syndrome
  Tunnel Vision
  Lack of Commitment
  Developers as Play Testers?
  Conclusion

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The Series
  The Design Phase
  The Development Phase