[baka]

"I remember reading some of ID's engine code and admiring how well I could follow it and know what's going on."

Npte though that id hasn't really created an influential game in 15 years and arguably the game of the century (Minecraft) was programmed, badly from what I hear, in Java. People often say that "you can write good C code" without considering what you're giving up in terms of architecture and creativity.

[jstimpfle]

Writing good C code also means knowing when to use another language on top. Scripting languages such as Lua are commonly used in the games industry.