Post Production...that time when we change our thought process from "get everything in the game" to "let's polish the crap out of what we just put in the game!"  For me, this stage of the project means even more oversight and making sure things are running smoothly.  I spend most of my day in meetings giving feedback on the missions and the rest of the day tracking down dependencies and trying to communicate decisions effectively. 

The game is now entering that scary stage where any changes need to be more directed and we have to be super careful not to make changes that break things.  Detailed communication and direction is even more important now than ever and our QA team has their hands full with making sure things are remaining stable.  Everyone is on a tight schedule and a build that is broken for even a few hours can devastate productivity and motivation.

As with any project nearing the end, I needed to come in this weekend to play through some missions one last time before a deadline.  We have some print press coming in to see Red Faction: Armageddon next week, so we're taking some time to make sure the levels we show them are in the best shape we can.  I've been really pleased with our mentality here for demos...we pick a part of the game that is already showing well and then spend some time making it better without derailing the whole team and project.  I do have to say, this has been one of the best projects I've ever been on at minimizing crunch.  How did we do this?  Quite honestly by cutting the crap out of the game as we made our way into and through production.

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