Wrong Is Worth More

Week 16 · December 10 · 50 minutes left

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

Nothing new.

Test the build. Fix what’s broken. Write the account.

This is the last day you build. Next week you show it.

47 left · What real studios do

For about twenty years, game studios wrote a look-back about games they shipped – under their own names, in a magazine anyone could read.

Two lists. What went right. What went wrong. About games people really played.

Key word

Look-back
Looking back at a finished game and writing down what went right, what went wrong, and what you would do differently. Real studios do it in public, about real games. The word the game industry uses is postmortem.

47 left · The rule that does the work

“Wrong” entries are worth more than “Right” entries.

I mean that literally. A true story about something that went wrong, and what you learned, is the best thing you will write all semester.

47 left · What you will write

What went right

5

For each one: what happened, and what you would do differently.

⭐ What went wrong

5

For each one: what happened, and what you would do differently.

3 + 3Grades 3–5 · out loud, I write
5 + 5Grades 6–9
5 + 5 + 1Grades 10–12 · one you could have seen coming

42 left · Spark Break · the last one

Open your Spark List. Cross off everything that got answered.
The rest is not homework. It is ideas for your next game.

40 left · Studio · final build

Final build. Final test. Final export.

  1. Play your game start to finishStart, win, lose. All three.
  2. Fix only what is brokenNothing new. A new thing can break an old thing.
  3. Export, and open your link on someone else’s deviceWorks on my machine is not shipped.
  4. Show me each spec workingI initial it on your contract. Today is the last day to build it.

40 left · Studio

Don’t tell me it works. Show me.
Broke something? Roll back. You cannot permanently ruin your game.
Three or more entries in your AI Failure Log? Check now, while you can still add one.

At 15 left, building stops and everyone writes.

15 left · The look-back, written

Write it down. Wrong first, if you like.

Keep this · Graded

Your look-back. Name and date on it. File it in your class folder.

It is a Foundation spec, F4. Nobody grades whether your game was good. We grade whether you can tell the truth about how it got made.

Example, grade 7 · the lighthouse game

RIGHTI drew the map on paper first, so I always knew where every lamp went. Differently: nothing. I would do it again.

WRONGI asked the AI to make the fog come in faster each level. It said it was done. The fog only sped up on level 1, and I did not find out for a week. Differently: press Preview right after every AI change, before I ask for the next one.

WRONGAfter the freeze I tried to add a boat. My restart button stopped working. Differently: put the boat on my cut list and keep what already works.

Write your own game’s story, not this one. Real and specific beats long.

15 left · Stuck on what to write?

What is one thing you would do differently if you started over?

Look in your folder. Your AI Failure Log, your bug log, and your cut list are full of “went wrong.”
Grades 10–12: pick one “went wrong” you could have seen coming. What was the sign you missed?

2 left · The last Spec Check

A spec that worked, and doesn’t anymore, has regressed.

  1. One last pencil mark on every spec✓ solid · ~ shaky · ✗ broken. These are the final marks.
  2. What regressed?Worked before, doesn’t now.
  3. What is still not yet?
  4. How many revision tokens are left?

Key word

Regression
When something that used to work stops working, because you changed something else. It is why every spec has to still work at the end.

2 left · What counts

A spec counts if it has my initials and a ✓ today.

You were not collecting badges. You were keeping promises. Keeping every one you made beats a long list with broken ones in it.

Before you leave

Look-back and My Game Contract filed in your class folder, and the folder back on the cart.

Got a bad answer from the AI today? That is a Failure Log entry. It goes in the folder too.

0 left · December 17

Next week you show it to people who did not watch you build it.

Part 1 · about a minute

Your game: what it’s called, what kind of game, what’s fun, one thing you’re proud of.

⭐ Part 2 · the one they remember

One honest story about something that went wrong, and what you did about it.