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> For example, if you’re making a game for a 24-hour game jam, you probably don’t want to prioritize clean code. That would be a waste of time! Who really cares
by hobofan 1y ago
> For example, if you’re making a game for a 24-hour game jam, you probably don’t want to prioritize clean code. That would be a waste of time! Who really cares if your code is elegant and bug-free?
Hate to be an anecdote Andy here, but as someone who has done a lot of code review at (non-game) hackathons in the past (primarily to prevent cheating), the teams that performed the best were also usually the ones with the best code quality and often at least some rudimentary testing setup.
- kqr 1y agoThese two statements do not contradict themselves. That teams have the best code quality does not mean they must have prioritised clean code.
- tikhonj 1y agoI mean, it's pretty strong evidence that they value good code. You don't get quality by accident. (But you do get it by habit!) But, in another sense, they didn't "prioritize" good code because it isn't really a tradeoff. They're just better.
- bob1029 1y agoThe gaming use case is what makes this apt advice. If you've got 24h to make a game and you're spending more than ~1h worrying about the source code cleanliness, I don't think it's gonna go well. Systems like UE blueprints showcase how pointless the pursuit of clean anything is when contrasted with the resulting product experiences.
- jimbokun 1y agoIf you're an experienced developer, writing clean code doesn't add any more time than writing shitty code. It's just ingrained habits of what makes for the best productivity.
- pydry 1y agoI think some people look at code cleanliness in aggregate (this code base is dirty vs. it is elegant and bug free) and others have a fine grained cost/benefit analyses of nonfunctional code improvements. Im pretty sure the latter vastly outpeform the former under all circumstances - whether quick and dirty hackathon or ultra hardened production code.