The Final 10%

Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It states that 80% of most effects are caused by just 20% of the possible causes. It is known as the Pareto principle, named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian scientist who postulated a mathematical distribution to describe the distribution of wealth in a given population, and applies to a variety of social and natural phenomena.

Some examples are as follows:

• 20% of the clients of a company account for 80% of its revenue
• 80% of a company’s sales come from 20% of its products
• 80% of global world wealth is owned by 20% of the population
• 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals
• 20% of the posts on social networks generate 80% of the traffic

It is a rule of thumb, but you’d be surprised how accurate it can be!

In fact, we can use it to describe what happens in videogame development:

80% of a game is made in the final 20% of the time.

I know, this chapter is titled The Final...