> keeping it playable is easily the most effective way of crafting a game because it enables you to routinely playtest and understand your progress.
Obviously.
> A key element of that is making the game legible and for that you do need to spend some time on “polish” because it’s an intractable element of the whole.
What does "legible" mean? Polishing means making something production-ready. A polished feature contains (ideally) no known bugs, has been thoroughly tested, gone through several UX iterations and brought up to a release standard.
That's not necessary for playtesting and improving the game. Unless you're done with all core game mechanics, you shouldn't be polishing.
Legible means clear enough to be understandable and polish can be a clear part of that including selling the game feel. It’s a pretty classic move to under-appreciate how much feedback from a game players need to understand it.
Your definition of polish is much narrower than mine and I fundamentally disagree with you on the value of polishing during development through bitter experience.
Obviously.
> A key element of that is making the game legible and for that you do need to spend some time on “polish” because it’s an intractable element of the whole.
What does "legible" mean? Polishing means making something production-ready. A polished feature contains (ideally) no known bugs, has been thoroughly tested, gone through several UX iterations and brought up to a release standard.
That's not necessary for playtesting and improving the game. Unless you're done with all core game mechanics, you shouldn't be polishing.