"At the expense of a flaming crate"
In game development, when a feature that would be fun to have, but not very important, is removed so another feature that's more important can take it's place.
I thought it up when watching a video showing some early progress of Thief: The Dark Project. Apperently, in the early stages, when you hit a crate with a fire arrow, it would catch on fire. This was removed, though. Most likely to make room for other, less novel features.
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Directions: to predict the future, make a wishlist and then drop it in the bin. presto!
"We love it, we love it so much we want to buy it, don't change a thing, it's perfect... but can you add a monkey?"