ABSTRACT
In the closing laps of the race, the project is all but done and it’s all about putting it in a box or on a digital storefront. But the game has likely never been more broken, as everything is crammed in at the end. Now is the time to polish what’s there and fix what’s broken. Standard closing stages in the delivery of software, the Alpha, Beta, and final Gold Master, are often confused even by game developers, especially as some teams choose to ignore the real purpose of each stage and the checks and balances they are designed to provide. Easily fixed within a single animation but more often occurring between them, popping is when the character noticeably jumps over a single or small number of frames, destroying the fluidity. A degree of interpenetration is expected when the character is customizable or when animation is shared across multiple characters—especially those of different sizes.
