100 Principles of Game Design

2. Universal Principles for Game Creation

The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule, sometimes called Pareto’s Principle (not to be confused with his other breakthroughs—see Outcomes: Pareto Optimality), is one that many development teams should keep in mind in order to focus their development efforts on those features that will provide the highest returns and help avoid detrimental feature creep.

The theory essentially states that 80 percent of any resource is controlled or driven by just 20 percent of the controlling factors. This was first observed by Vilfredo Pareto in 1906 when he noticed that 80 percent of the land in his home country of Italy was controlled or owned by just 20 percent of the population. He then found this ratio held true in most other ...