FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
Level Refinement and Lock-Down
After the level review, take the feedback you've received and refine the prototype, correcting any problems and implementing any new decisions made in the course of the review. This can require any amount of work from tuning a few numbers to
scrapping the entire design and starting over from scratch. When you think you've got it right, hold another review and make another refinement pass. Continue this process until everyone agrees (or the person in charge agrees) that the level is ready to go into full production.
At this point, lock the level design. Once a level is designated as locked, no additions or changes may be made except if grave problems are discovered. This corresponds to the lock-down that occurs in overall game design at the end of the concept stage. If you don't treat the level as locked, you could go on tuning and tweaking it forever, stretching out the development time and running up the budget.
