Practical Game Design

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 many social and natural phenomena.

Some examples:

• 20% of the clients of a company account for 80% of its revenues
• 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 traffic

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

In fact, we can safely state that:

"80% of a game is ...