While planning a project (Week 3 Project Timelines), there is a certain amount of time in the future that you can no longer plan effectively for. There are simply too many unknowns to make a useful plan. This is called the "planning horizon," and is a very useful limit to keep in mind so you can be more honest about the plan's details (Be honest in your planning).
This is a very similar conecept to Keith Bergun's Strategy Game horizon (Clockwork game philosophy builds infinite fun) as explained in his book Clockwork Game Design ((Clockwork game design #citation)). Essentially, there is a sweet spot created by the game designer that the player cannot see past. This might be a view distance, a number of moves in the future, etc. The point is that the player must use their heuristic knowledge (Children need rules to be able to play with the rules) to continually plan for the best scenario despite only having limited knowledge.
This makes planning a project very much like a complex strategy game. You have heuristics, but not full clarity of what the future will bring. So acknowledging that you can't see any further ahead than reality dictates allows you to make best guesses with confidence - full well knowing that you'll need to change the plan (Project planning is a process) as more information crosses past the threshold into your horizon.
#DPM #gamedesign #toolong