running once at true startup

I'm working on a mud with a couple folks, and we've got a question about the right way to
do things.

When we start up, we want it, naturally enough, to run the game. So we have some

:- run_the_game.

in the startup file.

inside the game we've got a command that gets you back to the prolog prompt for development.

This is all hunky dory, until you modify a file and run make. now the game gets started again!

Whats the proper way to handle this sort of behavior?