Post mortem analysis list

Harri:
What went right: Usability testing
The team used real players from general public for testing the features they were working on from very early on in the production.

What went wrong: Preproduction was too short
The team didn't use enough time to make sure they had defined everything that needed defining before going into production. That lead to some of the tools they used having only basic or less than basic functionality to create the content.

(http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/197269/postmortem_kingdoms_of_amalur_.php)

Eppu: Right: They did several different versions from pretty anything in the game. This helped them pick the best, easily understandable assets for the game.

Wrong: Release was a complete mess. The client vanished and when they self-published the game, they didn't expect any visitors and didn't put in any ad systems to generate money.

(http://gamedesignreviews.com/reviews/excit-post-mortem/)

Johannes:

Right: The Power of Animation Juicy animations really can help to make a game more interesting and fun to play.

Wrong: Balancing: They made levels which felt to be to difficult at the beginning for the gamers. The difficulty curve was going up to fast and people were frustrated.

http://gamedesignreviews.com/reviews/excit-post-mortem/

Juho:

Right: Emphasis on accurate scheduling.
The production of Splinter Cell for the PS2 took no more than four months. We didn't have much say when it came to setting the due date for master; Ubi Soft was adamant that the game be released by the end of its 2003 fiscal year. Yet we couldn't start production early, since the Xbox version was still under development.

(http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131239/postmortem_tom_clancys_splinter_.php)

What went wrong: Small Features With Big Impact
Although we took so much care into polishing the game, some areas still fell short. One thing we never were satisfied with was the scoring system. It was flawed from the beginning.
They seem like small details but they ruined the experience for a lot of players and made us miss some important opportunities.

(http://gamedesignreviews.com/reviews/excit-post-mortem/)