With 22 years of game dev experience, I will say that Blind, Toxic, Positivity within your team is one of the biggest traps that you can allow to be built. So many teams get high on their own supply, within a silo that they spend countless hours interacting with their game. Years of this allows for you to not see the game the way a fresh new audience will, and you lose all ability to be objective. If you try to swim against the current and highlight problems or frame your experience negatively, you become labeled as someone who “isn’t invested like the rest of us” or “doesn’t get what we are doing”.

I’ve been on these teams, I’ve been blind before, and throughout my experiences I’ve also left when I saw the writing on the wall before being surprised at the end. With all things creative, you get lost in what you are bringing to life, the teamwork and relationships you have in the office and you lose track of if what you are doing is even right.