I made myself keep reading.
ZONE 4: THE SUNKEN RUINS. LEVEL RANGE: 8-12. DIFFICULTY: HARD. ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS: DROWNING, PRESSURE, LIMITED VISIBILITY.
The underwater zone had taken four months to build and had produced more arguments per development hour than any other part of the game. The swimming mechanics alone had required three complete rebuilds. I had insisted on oxygen management that operated on a genuine countdown, no generous grace period, no forgiving buffer. You miscalculated your depth and your air and you drowned, and the pressure damage at lower depths compounded the problem so that rushing for the surface too fast was nearly as dangerous as running out of air.
My lead programmer had called it the most stressful thing he had ever coded. He had said it like a complimen
