D game development: a call to action

[Manu via Digitalmars-d]

On 14 December 2014 at 17:38, ketmar via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:20:48 +1000
> Manu via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
>
>> On 14 December 2014 at 16:57, ketmar via Digitalmars-d
>> <digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
>> > On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 11:04:45 +1000
>> > Manu via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> I'm also very interested in experiments writing game code on
>> >> commercial-style engines.
>> >> Hobby engines are nice, but we will get a much better feel for using D
>> >> in the AAA games industry if a commercial-style engine is used.
>> > what is "commercial-style engine"? as far as i know, "commercial-style"
>> > means "unmaintainable pile of shit".
>>
>> Hard to describe... just the sort you'd find in a big commercial game.
>> Perhaps I could say something like, highly optimised and purpose
>> specific, as opposed to generalised and flexible/object oriented.
> i've seen such code. it's... ah, it's terrible. unmaintainable. and
> becomes garbage just when the next 3d-accel or processor is out. sure,
> nobody cares as it is sold million times already and everyone is
> working on another pile of shit now. libraries? code reusability?
> design? architecture? screw that! i moved out of that industry 'cause i
> couldn't take it anymore. they almost ruined my programming skills.
>
> that's why i was so wondered.

Where did you work? It sounds like you had a bad experience. I've
worked in a few such environments, I can say we only got the balance
right once.

I've never had trouble migrating to a new platform though, failure to
abstract a platform effectively sounds like a pretty big mistake.
I find a much bigger problem is tendency for some programmers to
commit over-abstraction, sacrificing heaps of efficiency/performance
in the process. Most open-source engines are this kind, and will never
release a AAA game in a competitive market.