11 Video Game Survival Commandments

1. We're In the Entertainment Business not the Gaming business.Look at the content you play & create as Entertainment. The platform for distributing that entertainment is Games.

2.Build Your Design and Story to Break.

Every game design and story will be fall victim to multiple technical and production realities that will stress them to breaking point. Inevitably cuts will happen so get out on front of them (basically think one step ahead ~ contingency plans! ma friend)

3.Somebody Always Knows something you didn't.

Just when you think you know it all, someone proves you wrong!
Instead LEARN from everybody you work with.

4.Dialogue is the Tip of the Iceberg.

Throwing dialogue at a broken story never will fix the problem. Good dialogue and stories come from well conceived characters and dramatic situations.

5.You are only as Good as your Relationship with your Team.

All the Great ideas in the world are meaningless if no one wants to implement them  into a game or listen.

6.Be Willing too Kill your Babies.

Don't be precious with your ideas, or fall in love with one particular vision for your project, because it will almost, without fail, be the one on the chopping block...

7.Protect Your Vision

..but the flip side of killing your babies? If you lose your vision for a project, or lose what was meaningful about it that inspired you in the first place, then whats the point of doing it.

8.Make your Deliverables.

You are only as good as you contribute.

9.Don't Shine a Spotlight on a Turd.

Every Game will have its shortcomings..don't go out of your way to highlight them.

10.Choose Collaberation over Compromise. 

Collaborating gets you to the same place as compromise, without the negativity.

11.Making FUN should be FUN.

Your making Video games not digging ditches or brain surgery..ENJOY IT.




Reference: Above information are Quotes from the book "The Ultimate Guide To Video Game Writing and Design. by. Flint Dille and John Zurr Platten. Published in 2007
(Some quotes have been re-worded to make it simple for a wider audience to understand.)