New Interview on AMFP - "Infection" Mechanic Was Cut

[Paddy™]

I think the point Ash was making is that the work shouldn't require the author to anticipate whether or not the audience will reach the end at all, nor for the author to alter the work accordingly. It shouldn't even be a consideration.

Dan intentionally making the game less scary so that people would stick with it to the end is an example of how wanting to keep people on board for the whole ride affects the overall work in a massive way. His initial vision, which was apparently much more frightening and Amnesiaesque, was shelved in favour of something else, for no reason other than wanting to ensure people got to the end. That's no way to approach any piece of art.

I also echo Ash's interest in finding out where this idea about "most" people not completing the game comes from. Sounds dubious to me, given how massively popular TDD is. For a game "most" people haven't finished it's sure done pretty well for itself, financially, critically and culturally! I'm not being flippant here, I would really love to know how anyone could possibly know the completion rate for TDD.