Polished Game Development: From First Steps to Final Release

CHAPTER 9

Coding Practices

Good code is felt but never seen. Its impact permeates the whole game in both the audio and visuals. Unless you’re writing a game for a university project, you might think that your code—as in the quality of your code—is unlikely to come under much scrutiny once it’s working. That, alas, is a fallacious argument.

Throughout the development cycle, you likely have to revisit your code many times. Even the low-level engine components that “just work” may need to be fixed for obtuse edge cases, refactored to incorporate new functionality, or optimized for performance. Each time you have to delve into the code, you risk breaking ...