Something I like to do as I'm nearing the end of a project is take my dev kit home and play through the game in my living room as a consumer would.  Yes, I play the game a lot during my work days but there is something completely different about sitting on your couch and being away from the office.  A nice big screen with 7.1 surround and a wonderful wife to bring me drinks.  Yeah...that changes the experience a bit :)

Now my focus has shifted away from making sure all of the important things are accounted for and things are getting into the game.  It's time to focus more on the smaller details and polish that need to get in for the game to feel the best it can and not pull anyone out of the experience.  I'm doing this a little earlier in development than I usually do because I need to create some detailed polish lists for the level designers to implement on our next round of iteration.  So, the kit came home this last weekend and my journey began.

An interesting thing that was different this time was having my son be old enough to watch me play and give me feedback.  So, I started using him as a little focus tester and asked him questions from time to time about what he saw and understood to be true in the game.  At one point I walked toward an area that we built for a reveal and as I approached the area he said "oh man...this is gonna be bad"  Score! This was exactly the kind of response I was hoping for.  If a 6 year old gets it...you will too right?