Adding a feature to a game might seem like a fairly straightforward process, but even a simple feature can have much bigger ramifications than you might think at first glance. During GDC Europe 2012, CD Projekt Red gameplay producer Marek Ziemak and lead gameplay designer Maciej Szczesnik detailed the process that the developer uses to evaluate any features that could make their way into a project.

CD Projekt Red uses a set of internal documents that the studio's employees all have access to. Using these documents, developers can describe their features and the rest of the staff evaluates them. In some cases, staffers even apply numerical values to a proposed feature, with the final "score" affecting the likelihood that a feature will make it into the game. The overarching idea is to fully analyze the risk of a feature and the consequences of implementing it.