Decide, Then Lock

Week 13 · November 19 · 50 minutes left

  1. Spark
  2. Pre-production
  3. Production
  4. Playtest
  5. Polish starts today
  6. Ship
  7. Launch

Today your game moves into Polish.

Your game already exists. Last week, real players showed you what it does. Today you decide what happens to it next.

Key word

Polish
The part of making a game where you fix and improve what already exists. Bug fixing, balancing, making it clear.

48 left · Everything you still want

Write down everything you still want in your game. All of it.

Start with your playtest notes. They are in your folder.
Then add the rest – even the things you already know you can’t do.

One thing per line. Don’t sort yet.

48 left · Sort it

Now sort every line. That is your cut list.

Fix now

Broken, or confusing a player. This is next.

Nice to have

Good, but the game works without it.

Won’t do

You wanted it. You are choosing not to build it.

At least two things go in Won’t do.

Grades 3–5: two columns – doing it and not doing it. Grades 9–12: Must · Should · Could · Won’t, and be ready to defend one Won’t you really wanted.

Key word

Cut list
The list of things you decided not to build. You can’t fix everything, so you sort: Fix now · Nice to have · Won’t do. Writing it down makes cutting a decision, not a loss.

48 left · The one that hurts

Which cut hurts most?

And does that tell you something?

Won’t do is not failure. It is a decision you made and wrote down.

Keep this · Graded

Your cut list. Name and date on it. File it in your class folder.

It is the proof you decided, not just ran out of time. It is P2 on your contract if you picked it, and you will use it again on December 10.

Example cut list · a garden game

Your name · 11/19 FIX NOW
Watering sound plays twice
Player sticks on the fence NICE TO HAVE
Flowers sway in the wind WON’T DO
A second garden
A seed shop

Hurts most: the second garden. It was the part I was most excited about.

36 left · Our class AI rules, read out loud

You wrote these rules in October. You have lived with them for seven weeks.

Have you followed them?

Did you find a spot where a rule was wrong, or where you couldn’t tell if it applied?

36 left · Before you decide

Say the rule exactly, word for word. Then decide whether you followed it.

It is easy to remember a rule as something bigger and more convenient than what we wrote. So read it, don’t remember it.

A rule that never gets changed was never really holding anything up. We change ours today.

On your contract, I7: followed the class AI rules, and can name one moment it was hard.

26 left · Spark Break

Anything catch your eye that is not your game? Write it down, with the path.
Star it if you want to ask me. I come to you first.

24 left · Studio

Studio today is your Fix now column. Top line first.

  1. Pick the top line of Fix nowSay it to yourself: what am I doing first today?
  2. Fix it, then Preview itDon’t tell me it works. Show me.
  3. Broke something that used to work?Roll back first. Then fix. You cannot permanently ruin your game.

Nice to have waits. Won’t do stays won’t do. Starred a spark? I am coming to you first.

4 left · Spec Check

  1. Read your specs to yourselfYour contract is in your folder.
  2. Pencil each one: ✓ ~ ✗✓ solid · ~ shaky · ✗ broken
  3. Shaky or broken goes to the top of Fix nowFix before anything else.
  4. Bad answer from the AI today?That is a Failure Log entry.
Before you leave

Contract and cut list filed in your class folder, and the folder back on the cart.

Then eyes up here for one minute.

1 left · Feature freeze

Nothing new after today.

From here, you only fix, finish, and polish what already exists. That is a feature freeze, and you already decided, on paper, what stays on the other side of it.

The library stays open. But everything past Chapter 11 is next semester’s game, not this one.

Key word

Feature freeze
A date after which you don’t add anything new – you only fix. Real studios do this.

0 left · See you December 3

Two weeks of building left. Neither one is for new ideas.

Next time: a title screen, a way to restart, and the first ten seconds.

No class next week – it is Thanksgiving.