4 ms·

... not sure why 'video game development' is in Science and Technology rather than Digital Art. Good on 'em though, hope it flourishes.

• rainbowmverse 9y ago
  It would depend on how they define development. The people who do the art and the people who do the code are rarely the same person, even in smaller indie games.
  • vacri 9y ago
    Programming is a craft, and is much closer to photoshop than physics.
    • snakeanus 9y ago
      I would argue exactly the reverse.
      • fastball 9y ago
        As a software engineer with a degree in Physics and a degree in Biomedical Engineering, you're both wrong.
        • mercer 9y ago
          Care to elaborate? Physics has always been the 'what-if' scenario for me so I'm very curious!
          • fastball 9y ago
            Yep, see my reply to vacri.
            • mercer 9y ago
              Thanks. It's a good reply :).
        • vacri 9y ago
          I'm a software engineer with a degree in neurophysiology (partial phd), though no degree in physics (just an interest). Would you care to actually back up your appeal-to-authority there with some actual commentary? Or are we just going to compare dick sizes?
          • fastball 9y ago
            Sure. A craft is something you get better at by improving the constituent skills that are required in that craft. For instance, in woodworking, it takes some level of skill to work with hammer and nails, or to sand a board, etc. etc. So programming is not a craft. Programming, at its core, is problem solving, and getting better at programming requires improving one's problem solving ability. Physics is also about problem solving, and is likewise improved by improving one's PS ability. However, having heavily experienced both, I would say that they are very different types of problem solving. Modern programming is a lot of trial and error, ala any other type of "invention". "I did not fail, I now know 1000 ways to not make a lightbulb" - Edison. Modern physics is not really trial and error. Physics is applied math. You take some fundamental principles, combine them together in a logical way, and get something new. At a high level, that sounds like programming. But for me personally, and I think for many people, the fundamental thought process and approach to problem solving in the two fields is very different.
            • cr0sh 9y ago
              > Modern programming is a lot of trial and error If you follow Uncle Bob's TDD methodology, it becomes much less so.
    • LyndsySimon 9y ago
      I think I agree than programming can be a craft - I think of myself as a craftsman, and usually use the term "artisanship" to describe the quality of code. I don't think that it's necessarily a craft, though. Most academic code that I've worked with is not written in a way that I would consider up to my standards, but it gets the job done and is often targeted at expanding human knowledge. In that way, programming can be seen as more like physics or other 'hard sciences'. Come to think of it, Photoshop is the same way. If I'm editing a headshot for a pageant contestant (which I've done quite a bit in the past), that's firmly in the "craft" side of things. If I'm putting together a UX design for a webapp, what's a bit ambiguous - there are design elements that are "craft-like" and there are usability considerations that are "science-like". If I'm writing a droplet to do batch processing of a whole series of photos I've take on a shoot and have to test that it's doing what I need it to do over a wide variety of inputs... well, we're back in the "science-like" side of things again. In fact, I would argue that the toolset and even the discipline are almost irrelevant in this discussion. "Craft" versus "science" is a matter of process and mindset more than anything.
• kobeya 9y ago
  Both are involved. Usually the art people call themselves digital artists though.