I didn't mean to imply that ignoring the 'future' is a good idea, there needs to be a balance between being prepared for upcoming story and getting too far ahead on one aspect. It's easy to get working on something and forget that you need to finish X, Y and Z before this work will ever see the light of day.
Shit happens, tomorrow may never come... spend your time wisely.
True, but as a dev, you like to err on the side of caution.
Producing content is "fun" because you see new stuff added to the game. You know the players will appreciate it, and you like seeing your game develop further.
But if you get stuck in an endless loop of fixing past content because you didn't streamline the process, or having to repeatedly switch between different work environments, is very
very time consuming and draining.
That's why, ideally, you like to stick with one aspect and work on that, instead of jumping around.
If you make 10 3d scenes with actors, then render them, then write the dialogue, and then put them & the dialogue into code, you can do each step with confidence and maximum efficency.
If you do scene-> render -> code -> dialogue -> code for renders -> dialogue -> wrap up code, and then do that with the next scene, and then the next, each time your mind needs to switch to an entirely different suite of tools. It's like someone tells you, do sit ups, now solve this calculation, eat a banana, run aroud the block, etc.
You need to switch gears all the time and instead of falling into a easy rythm thanks to the familiarily with the tools, you keep switching back and forth, constantly trying to keep in mind all the parameters you've set for yourself.
Just think about lighting, for example. Most devs develop a kind of "recipe" for what lighting best suits the atmosphere and they'll create a few rules for orientation so that they'll be able to replicate the same feel to ensure a unity of visuals instead of having stuff that looks off. Now imagine that every time you have a grasp on how to best light something in order to match the existing artwork, you have to go re-familiarize with your rules, check your work against past work, and then trial & error your way to success, because you kept switching out of the workflow every time you were starting to get into the groove.
