CZNP - Don't fall in love with code, it will eventually break your heart.

Don't fall in love with code, it will eventually break your heart.

Posted on 19.12.2009 09:59 pm

About a month ago I was at a IGI workshop and there the CEO of CCP was showing us the rough development process of EVE Online. He showed us a screenshot of the first prototype, It looked very simple and was in 2D.

He noted that it took a few months to make (iirc) and they created some groundwork for the eventual game in that prototype.

I asked him if any of the prototype code was still in the current EVE Online client. He said no, since they rewrote the game 11 times.

He stated that a big lesson to take from this is not to get emotionally attached to code, don't be scared to just remove large portions of code if its not working out.

They did that with a radar system in the game, at first it was centered under the ship, then it moved down, and then to the lower right corner, and then off the screen. A large portion had been invested, both design and code wise in that radar and it wasn't working, so out it went. The person who had spent all that time coding the radar had probably some feeling attached to all that code.

This was a pretty good lesson for me, and I've been trying to take it to heart. Code is just code, just a tool to make the computer do what you want it to.

5 34 Like it or hate it? - Comment (20)

Richard Christie

13 14 / Posted on 20.12.2009 08:47 pm

I guess this is kind of like the difference between sex and love!

Aleks

7 7 / Posted on 20.12.2009 09:45 pm

A wise lesson, indeed! It makes it even harder if the code you've fallen in love with is part of a personal project.

ultra

1 6 / Posted on 21.12.2009 12:55 am

I agree, this is why I use version control. When I make a big change to my code, it doesn't matter cause I can always revert it.

james

0 4 / Posted on 21.12.2009 03:22 am

How about when a chunk of your finalized working code is thrown out because of a decision by management to go in a different direction? its pretty hard when code is removed not because it doesn't work, but because someone else decides they didn't really want it after you've finished making it.

Cyde Weys

0 5 / Posted on 21.12.2009 04:45 am

Being attached to your code is one thing ... but having to rewrite your code 11 times? That just reeks of poor planning. The real lesson here isn't not to be attached to your code, it's to develop your software correctly.

XK

0 2 / Posted on 21.12.2009 04:46 am

Considering Eve has been rewritten 11 times and is still as buggy, unstable and exploitable as the day it was released should demonstrate that perhaps they ought to care a bit more about what they write...

ajax81

5 0 / Posted on 21.12.2009 05:16 am

I can totally relate to the sentiment. To combat my urges to resist x-ing out my code, I've implemented a pseudo-version control system of my own -- a simple journal like text file called "graveyard.txt"...the final resting place for all of the code that has passed, but should not be forgotten...

noar

1 0 / Posted on 21.12.2009 05:38 am

Serious agree it, remove the code you have been written could make the system much more robust and better, so don't attach the code with more felling. "Code is just code".

Funk

0 3 / Posted on 21.12.2009 08:16 am

As a hobbyist game programmer, I've completely rewritten things a dozen times, it's not a big deal for me to rewrite it, because I do it for fun.

The reason I rewrite it is because I think of a new idea for the game. First it was a 2d platform game, then I changed it to slightly isometric, now it's sort of oblique and three dimensional.
and sometimes I have to change pages of code to introduce a new weapon or item into the game that clashes with another part of the system.