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How To Avoid Development Hell
Key insights
6 takeaways- 01Development hell is primarily driven by feature creep and the unnecessary complication of core mechanics, often stemming from a developer's fear that their game is too simple to resonate with audiences.
- 02Unnecessary features significantly inflate production costs, as evidenced by one developer who wasted approximately $75,000—half of their $150,000 budget—on scrapped content that never made it into the final game.
- 03The 'trinity hook' framework acts as a rigid filter for decision-making by requiring all features to directly support a mechanical hook, a story hook, or a sensory hook.
- 04Any proposed feature that does not explicitly enhance one of the three core pillars of the trinity hook should be discarded to prevent bloat and maintain a disciplined production process.
- 05Developers should avoid relying on personal intuition and ego-driven design, as they often lack the necessary objectivity to evaluate their own work effectively.
- 06Prioritizing external feedback from team members and the target audience is the most effective strategy for refining a game's focus and reducing development timelines.
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Transcript
Your game doesn't have to take forever. In fact, with what I'm about to share with you, you really should be pumping out a game per year. But most developers, including myself, we typically end up in what's called development hell. Constantly making changes, adding useless features and mechanics, and focusing on things that really don't matter. See, in development hell, by the end of your game's creation, you've really made two games. One that was cut and the other that made the cut. Here's the thing. Smart people simplify. Idiots like myself, we complicate things. Personally, you can stick me into that idiot category. My first game, Pinstripe, took 5 years to make because I was constantly over complicating things. Most people call these over complications feature creep. My next game, Never Song, took 3 years because of feature creep. Now, I'm on my third commercial release, which is called Twisted Tower. And by the way, you can wishlist it below. And it's taken 2 years. Even still, my current games go through a ton of feature creep.
In fact, the game has cost over $150,000 to make, and perhaps half of that cost was just over complications. Feature creep, things that we later scrapped. For example, we spent a week building a labyrinth hall system that constantly changed based on the player's position. Sure, this is a cool idea in theory, but the problem is we didn't dedicate enough time or resources to make this truly integral to the game. It was just feature creep, and it was all because we were just inspired by this game called My House. Another example is when I decided mini games were necessary for my game, Pinstripe. Instead of just wrapping up the production of the game, I threw a wrench in the entire thing and spent months creating mini games like Spot the Difference Games and Flappy Bird. Sure, they made it to the gold master of the game, but honestly, they were completely unnecessary. Okay, so that's the problem, right? But why exactly do developers like me have this problem of feature creep? So, game developers like me and my 3D artist, we
love our games so much that frankly sometimes we get a little scared. Scared that our game is too small or too simple or that nobody's going to understand the core game mechanics or that mechanics just aren't fun. For example, my game Never Song started as a super simplistic, cozy platformer with beautiful music and abstract themes. But because I was scared that I wasn't going to make enough money to live on, I spent 3 months building an exhausting skateboarding level that was a chore to play. I eventually scrapped the whole thing, and that was all because I was just scared of the launch. So, courageous people, frankly, they know how to keep things simple. Simple people live fearlessly because they're willing to bet on a few things about themselves or about their games that they really truly believe in. Okay. So, how exactly do you find that super simple focus for your game and stick to that one thing? Well, this focus is called a hook. Most game developers try and find that singular mechanical hook that makes
their game unique. Kind of like Portal. The mechanical hook is shooting portals and the whole game is about that thing. Smart game developers make this single thing the entire focus of the game. Every decision they make is determined by whether or not it complements the hook. The problem with sticking with a hook is that in my opinion, it's just a bit too simple. The gamble here is pretty risky. If your hook is shooting portals, then you're golden. That's awesome. But if your hook is peeling oranges and you make everything in your game about peeling oranges, your game will probably flop. So I tend to focus on what I call the trinity hook. The trinity hook is actually three hooks. It includes a mechanical hook, a story hook, and what I'm going to call a sensory hook, and that's just the art or the audio. So for example, my game Twisted Tower, it has a trinity hook. The trinity hook is the mechanical hook
of paving your own path up this changing twisting tower. The sensory hook, that's the visual and the audio is basically the game's Bioshock. And finally, the story hook is well, it's Willy Wonka but horrifying. So, for the last couple years of development, I've been unsure which part of the Trinity hook is the most effective. But I do know one thing. Every decision I make in the game's development is checked against the Trinity hook. If it doesn't complement the Trinity, I'll refuse to do it. It's just a waste of time. It's just feature creep. For example, should I add a poker miniame to Twisted Tower? Are there any hooks that correlate to this poker miniame? No, so I'm not going to do it. What about an NPC dog? Sure, that's fun and that's cool, but does it complement the pathing system in the Twisted Tower? Not really. So, I'm not going to put it in there. We've still got a problem. Can
you even trust yourself to put together a super cool trinity hook? The answer is probably not. I mean, sure, you can come up with a bunch, but parsing which elements of the Trinity Hook are actually cool is more often than not just a roll of the dice based purely on your gut. As a game developer, most of the time you just can't trust your gut. I know that I can't. That's because you're either your worst critic or your biggest fan. You're never going to be as balanced in your opinion about your game as your own players. You're probably going to hate your game and constantly change everything, or you're going to be stubborn about every little useless mechanic you spent months needlessly creating. But even film directors eventually cut out a bunch of fat from their films. The cutting of fat is the shedding of the ego. After all, the extra stuff you crammed into your game is probably a result of your pride. And by the way, don't forget pride can be a negative trait, like hating or loathing yourself or your game. I mean, come on. Do you really think that you're worth
that much negative energy? Or pride can be a positive trait, like thinking your game is going to change the world. And every single decision to cut or remove something is like removing an amendment to the Constitution. Take it easy. Again, you're not that special. So, if you can't trust your gut about which hooks are actually valuable, an audience is your solution. If you have an audience on social media, listen to them. They'll tell you what's cool, and it's likely you'll eventually find out that they were right. And if you have team members, listen to them, too. My team's 3D artist, Felipe, offers brilliant feedback to my ideas that sometimes I don't understand, but eventually after I stubbornly pursue my idea first, I actually come back to accept his. Now, once you have a firm idea of your Trinity hook based on the opinion of your audience or your team, focusing on that Trinity hook and focusing on what matters for your game
is so much easier. And ultimately, you're going to spend way less time in development hell. All right, guys.
Summary
Development hell is a pervasive issue in game design, often characterized by feature creep and the unnecessary complication of core mechanics. Developers frequently fall into this trap due to a fear that their games are too simple or will fail to resonate with audiences. This anxiety leads to the inclusion of extraneous elements—such as unneeded mini-games or complex systems—that inflate production costs and extend development timelines. For instance, one developer noted that approximately half of a $150,000 budget was wasted on scrapped features that did not contribute to the final product.
To combat this, developers should adopt a focused framework known as the trinity hook. This approach requires balancing three distinct pillars: a mechanical hook, a story hook, and a sensory hook (art and audio). By establishing these three elements, developers create a rigid filter for decision-making. Any proposed feature that does not directly support or enhance these core hooks is discarded as unnecessary bloat. This methodology shifts the focus from subjective, ego-driven additions to a disciplined, goal-oriented production process.
Because developers often lack the objectivity to evaluate their own work, relying on personal intuition is discouraged. Instead, the most effective strategy for refining a game’s focus is to solicit and act upon feedback from team members and the target audience. By shedding the ego and prioritizing external validation over internal pride, developers can streamline production, reduce development time, and avoid the pitfalls of over-complication. Ultimately, success lies in the courage to keep designs simple and the discipline to remain committed to a clearly defined vision.
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