Game development is a perilous business.

Or is it?

We believe we must suffer for our work. Faced with obstacles, we embrace corporate "magic": the idea that bruising overtime will be repaid with success. We are blind, and so we suffer anxiety. We seek relief. Suffering is an easy transaction. We offer sixty-, eighty-, and even hundred-hour work weeks. We lash ourselves to the wooden stake and ignite our own self-immolation. Because we believe. Because we think there are miracles.

We are mistaken. Exhaustion only sabotages us. It leads us astray. The smartest solutions arise when we operate at our full capabilities.

In this book, we offer an approach born from Lean, scientific empiricism, Agile, and many other practical philosophies. We emphasize an enduring and self-correcting decision-making system that embeds choice as the core function of culture. To support the system, we must understand how our organizational environment functions as a game for its employees. We must also recognize that we are human, and that we perceive reality only through our own cognitive filters. We further critique many taken-for-granted assumptions that prevail in the industry. Once we realize these assumptions are not absolute rules, we can break free and produce more innovative products.

Game development isn't easy, but it needn't be perilous.