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by tikhonj 2129 days ago
Game programming isn't—or at least shouldn't be—so different from other fields that fundamental software engineering principles do not apply. It seems like discarding criticism just because it comes from outside the immediate industry is going to lead to an insular culture and get in the way of any real change or progress.

Doubly so for an industry that still has high-profile, highly funded projects (Battlefield V, Anthem... etc) flounder because of technical debt and poor tooling. (And yes, these issues are all downstream of awful management for those particular projects, but that doesn't change the technical side of things!)
3 comments
tikhonj 2129 days ago
This goes in the other direction too: other fields can and should borrow ideas from game programming. At the end of the day the goals of different software projects are pretty comparable: we all want to produce quality code, minimize bugs and do it as quickly and productively as we can. The details and trade-offs aren't identical, to be sure, but at the end of the day different programming fields are far more alike than not.
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stevofolife 2129 days ago
Your first paragraph is like saying ship building, plane building or car building isn't or shouldn't be so different from one another. Wait what?
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JamesSwift 2128 days ago
Sure theres similarities, but game programming is usually at the bleeding edge of computing compared to most other areas. Its like saying engineering a space craft isn't/shouldn't be different than engineering a car. Sure, there's overlap, but the fundamental requirements differ so much that a lot of it is _not_ applicable.

I'm not a game developer, but I like to keep an eye on how its done specifically because it is fundamentally different from how I typically do things in SAAS / mobile app land. Its a good way to get a broader view on development, and I learn new things _constantly_ by looking at game development.

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