How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#2I remember this one...
...it sure is interesting, especially that soak test or whatever that looks for leaks. So is the "preserving life time" idea, really. Although a lot of this, as the article points out is just for independent games.
I felt the hating on academic papers was a bit over the top, although it's possible his claims could be a little bit accurate. Anyone know more on this?
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#3I liked a lot of Johnathan's ideas about writing simple code.
One idea that I don't think fits for the type of system I develop is the idea of preferring huge blocks code over function calls (around 30:00). He counters the benefit that the function name documents the chunk of code it encloses, but an even bigger benefit, in my opinion, is that the function signature documents the function's inputs and outputs. If you avoid global variables then you know when you modify a function exactly what information you have access to and exactly what information the function produces. This makes changing the function much easier.
He says he's talking about thousands of lines of code that always get executed in serial, so it doesn't sound like my code is very similar to the code he's talking about. I also expect that code I write gets read and modified much more often than the code he's talking about.
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#4I was writing the first lines of code for a game prototype while listening to this. I looked at the code I was writing, and promptly put it aside -- I was coming up with a nice advanced, performance implementation of dynamic octrees to represent the voxels my world is based on ... but why do I need that, before anything runs at all? Sure, I will need it in the future (although not the super, super optimized version until well into the future), but I should have this running before moving forward. I'm glad I watched this, and saved myself some pain initially.
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#5"... that the thing is playable and that people will want it, all of which are much more difficult than to making the right decision about where to sell something" (At 49:06)
Make something people want is not just for startups.
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#6"Is not like a Don Quixote type of technical problem"
Loved that phrase! All the way at the end. All in all I really enjoyed this talk.
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#7I liked a lot of Johnathan's ideas about writing simple code. One idea that I don't think fits for the type of system I develop is the idea of preferring huge blocks code over function calls (around 30:00). He counters the benefit that the function name documents the chunk of code it encloses, but an even bigger benefit, in my opinion, is that the function signature documents the function's inputs and outputs. If you…
I think he was talking on the extreme.
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#8Braid is a wonderful game, for anybody who hasn't played it. Probably one of my top 3 favorites of all time. I really enjoyed this talk, the bit about optimizing for years of my life per program implementation (life) was great.
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#9Braid is a wonderful game, for anybody who hasn't played it. Probably one of my top 3 favorites of all time. I really enjoyed this talk, the bit about optimizing for years of my life per program implementation (life) was great.
If Braid is in your top three, I'm curious: what other games do you really like?
Re: How to program independent games (Johnathan Blow of Braid fame)
#10Braid is a wonderful game, for anybody who hasn't played it. Probably one of my top 3 favorites of all time. I really enjoyed this talk, the bit about optimizing for years of my life per program implementation (life) was great.
If Braid is in your top three, I'm curious: what other games do you really like?
Braid is in my top three alongside Ico/Shadow of the Colossus and Civilization IV.