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Part 4 · Audit & close / Session 11 · Week 11

Revision studio: protect the backlog, not your feelings.

You have three documents in tension — your playtest report, your audit memo, and the design you fell in love with in week 4. Today you merge them into a single ranked backlog, then execute the top of it without flinching. The discipline today is not creativity. It is triage.

Contact time 180 min 30 triage · 120 work · 30 show
Deliverable Backlog + build Merged into D5
Outcomes 4 Demonstrated
Materials D4 + memo Both in repo, both open
01 · Learning outcomes

By the end of this session, you can…

  1. LO 11.1Merge playtest findings and audit findings into one ranked backlog with impact × effort scored.
  2. LO 11.2Commit to a revision frontier — the top N items that fit within budget — and defend the cut line.
  3. LO 11.3Execute at least three revisions in the studio period; log the diff.
  4. LO 11.4Present your revised loop to a peer group in a 5-minute show-and-ask.
02 · The merged backlog

One table. Every finding. Ranked.

ColumnWhat belongs
IDShort handle — PT-03, AU-02. Easy to reference in commits.
SourcePlaytest / audit / instructor / own observation.
FindingOne sentence. No paragraph; those go in the source doc.
Impact1–5. How much does fixing this move a D2 objective forward?
Effort1–5. How many studio hours realistically?
FlagRed if stopper (ethics, safety, content error). Non-negotiable top priority.
DecisionDo / defer / decline. Deferred and declined items have a one-sentence reason.
i
The cut line is a design decision

A good backlog has items below the line. Items below the line have a reason they are there — low impact, high effort, out of scope, or a deliberate choice about what this version is not. A backlog with no declines is a to-do list, not a design.

03 · Triage — 30 min

Score, sort, draw the line

TimeWhat happensCue
00:00–10:00Solo — transfer all findings into the backlog. One row per finding."No editing yet. Capture everything."
10:00–20:00Solo — score impact and effort. Flag stoppers."If you rate >5 items at Impact 5, you have not really scored them."
20:00–25:00Pair — swap backlogs; partner queries the top three rankings."Why is PT-03 impact 4, not 3?"
25:00–30:00Draw the cut line. Above it: this session's work. Below: the decline/defer note."The line is a commitment, not a filter."
04 · Studio — 120 min

Execute. Log the diff.

Work above the line, top down. After each revision, make a commit (or a dated entry in your change log) with the backlog ID and a one-sentence diff. The log is graded — a fast revision with no trace is worth less than a slow revision that is documented.

!
The new-idea trap

Today you will think of a great new feature. Write it below the line. You are not building it. This is the last revision week; what is not on the list is not in the game.

05 · Show-and-ask — 30 min

5 minutes, 2 slides, 1 question

Demo the revised loop to your triad. Two slides max — before and after, or the revised state machine. Bring one question you want feedback on. Not "thoughts?" — a specific question. Your peers' job is to answer that question only.

Question discipline

Good questions / bad questions

Bad
"What do you think of my game?"
Better
"Does the revised pager-interrupt state visibly teach escalation, or does it feel like a chore?"
Bad
"Any feedback?"
Better
"Between the old and new feedback for incorrect picks, which lands the discrimination point faster?"
07 · Preparation for Session 12

Before final presentations

Companion reading

The build-discipline handout for revision

Revision studio is when teams overbuild. Today's handout is the counterweight: structured implementation with Codex, task packets scoped tight enough to debug, and decisions about what to cut.

12
Implementation handout · Discipline

Codex-To-Three.js Build Playbook

The build-loop discipline for teams turning revision findings into bounded, testable code changes. Written to prevent the classic failure: asking Codex for a full game instead of a disciplined next slice.

Why this week Write your revision cycle as Codex task packets from this playbook. If the packet won't fit the template, the revision is too big.

Read Download MD · ~20 min
08 · Exit ticket

What you chose not to do

The backlog item I most wanted to do but cut — and the one-sentence reason it is below the line: