Eating Dessert First, and The Infinite Alpha Syndrome

Beware the "Infinite Alpha" syndrome. This is where the project for some reason or another never manages to progress from alpha to beta (or, more rarely, from beta to gold). Far too often, it goes like this: an alpha version is made, showing off something cool. Six months later, another alpha version is made that shows off something else cool, but completely different. When asked about the change, the developers say something like, "Yeah, the old code was good, but it was a bear to work with. This new code is much better, much faster, and much cleaner." In effect, the game gets repeatedly rewritten, each time getting "faster" and "cleaner" than the last iteration, but never getting any closer to finished.

A common cause of the Infinite Alpha syndrome is that too many developers "eat dessert first." That is, too many developers think that game development is all about implementing cool things; they don't realize that a significant chunk of time on each project needs to go to mundane (and less-tasty) things: in-game menus, saving/loading games, resource management, compatibility, scalability, etc. The game developers ignore these more healthy dishes and insist on eating dessert first.

There are quite of few facets of game development that are flat-out boring, technical, complex, and arduous, and these facets do just as much (or more) for the game as the "cool" technology. Don't let your development team fill up on the tasty desserts of game development without first eating the more bland (but essential) staples.

Burn Out