One of the hardest aspects of managing game development is prioritization. And nowhere is prioritization more difficult than in the earliest days of a project. If you don’t know what your game is, how the hell are you supposed to prioritize the work? I’ve struggled with this problem in the past and eventually ended up stealing a solution from the start-up world in the form of something I like to call “critical mechanics.”
![A picture of interconnected gears because critical mechanics are interrelated and stuff.](https://i0.wp.com/www.breakingthewheel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Critial-Mechanics.png?resize=880%2C475&ssl=1)