CHAPTER 24

DRIVING TO THE FINISH

by Mike McShaffry

At some point in your project, you begin to realize that you’re a lot closer to the end than the beginning. While the calendar tells no lies about this, somehow your workload seems to increase exponentially. For every task that goes final, two or three seem to take its place. For a time, you and the team can take the added work with gusto—but after this drags on for a few weeks or months, everyone becomes exhausted. It’s about that time the boss walks in and tells everyone another work weekend is ahead. Does this sound familiar?

This phenomenon is pretty common in many project-oriented businesses, but games are especially susceptible because there’s something games are required to deliver that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Games have to be fun.