it usually makes sense to start hacking and slashing towards shipping anyway since 95% games have a shelf life and aren't maintained and extended much beyond th

it usually makes sense to start hacking and slashing towards shipping anyway since 95% games have a shelf life and aren't maintained and extended much beyond the original release. By the time the next game starts production there's probably major engine and platform upgrades to contend with and a different non-overlapping set of features to support so why bother with excessively clean well architected code that won't be re-used. (Of course this is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy the state of the code-base influences business decisions with regards to what will be re-used and what the next game will be)