*Planted: Dec 2024 | Last Tended: Dec 2024* There are many ways that all developers, but particularly [[🌿 What Game Directors do|Game Directors]], try to visualize or frame the game development process for a team. Here are some that I've personally used or know that others have used. ##### Game development as a game of Civ A game dev team is like an early civilization in *Sid Meier's Civilization*: you have a scout, and most of the map is unknown. Your scout's job is to go out and make unknown map squares visible so you can see where the resources and the hazards are. Your scout doesn't typically go in one straight line, but instead fleshes out the map surrounding the nexus, showing the closest opportunities. And you'll usually have several scouts going in different directions. Sometimes you'll encounter a barbarian camp that you're not prepared to fight yet, so you pull back and go in a different direction. ##### Writing a book This metaphor is that an author doesn't write the entire book linearly from start to finish -- instead they'll usually start at a really exciting place, and then they have to jump around to find the parts that support that really fun premise. And then they'll go back and redo parts that they've done, or even cut out parts entirely. ##### Path to a Lighthouse This analogy is that game development is like finding a route to a lighthouse: the lighthouse is in the distance, but the game is not the lighthouse -- it's the path you took to find the lighthouse. *Sources:* - [[chats with friends - game metaphors]]