As a prime example of this, I'd point to the horrifying source for VVVVVV, a darling indie game of its time: https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/vvvvvv https://gi

As a prime example of this, I'd point to the horrifying source for VVVVVV, a darling indie game of its time: https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/vvvvvv https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/vvvvvv (my favorite piece: https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/VVVVVV/blob/master/desktop_version/src/Game.cpp https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/VVVVVV/blob/master/desktop_...) (There was also discussion about it on HN before as well, if one is interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22011358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22011358) That said, refactoring for later gains might be wasted time if you have only a certain amount of scope planned for the rest of time, counter to the typical heuristic.