The fact is that most games are held together by duct tape

Last week, Dicey Dungeons Creator Terry Cavanagh celebrated the 10th anniversary of the previous game, VVVVVVV, by releasing its source code to the public. In layman's terms, this means that the average person can now look at how the game is built, because the entire line of code can be eliminated.

This is not the kind of thing it happens often, for that metric only, the output value of this information is large. People can learn from it, or improve it. Some of the answers to VVVVVV & # 39; s the source code has been alarming, as viewers split things that could have been better written. Cavanagh probably foresaw this – in his post documenting his release, he admits, "VVVVVVV it is not a professional game! Even with the self-esteem standards taught by indie ads, it's a bit of a stretch. ”

There is this misconception that coding is naturally beautiful and complex, because of course, it's like logical writing, right? Isn't it expensive for computer SCIENCE for a reason? But reality is much more complicated than that. Time and again, video game development stories show that, because video games have so many different components, from game to game, that things often come together until the last second – when they come together.

"Almost every single game I have ever worked on has posted at a time when pieces of spit and prayer are holding it all together in danger of collapsing," wrote game developer James Patton, at a Twitter chat about game code.

Almost all the game developers I spoke to said the same.

"Games are no longer a regular part of the software, they are a complex beast that requires many different fields to be successfully deployed, and sometimes in a timeline that needs to be made," game developer James Simpson said in an email. “I know that many developers are cracking up trying to make their code complete. An open source code like this makes it clear that you can send successfully without that level of perfection. ”

In this case, there is some part of the VVVVVVV source code that provokes conversations because of its complete mess. Basically, it's something that helps in deciding which game you're in, whether that's slowdowns or conversations. Usually, most of these states can be classified differently – parts of small games written in a different location than, say, a jump mechanic – but not in this case. As a random example, Cavanagh seems to have a bunch of game sites that refer to cutscenes sprinkled between pieces of code and with things like gameplay modes and a great menu.

Zach Gage, who has worked in similar mobile games Pocket-Run Pool and Really Bad Chess, broke Polgon's hot statement by saying that it was "a perfect example of something Terry may not have known about when he started writing the game: how many cutscenes, how big the menu will work and how many incredible limits it might work."

If Cavanagh was trying to code something wrong, he might have stopped to change the way he put it together for a better order. But instead, he decided to go ahead and do what he could, doing one big part of the code to handle hundreds of separated opportunities.

"Instead of relapsing, and more importantly posting the game."

Gage is very familiar with this line of thinking – he tells Polygon that when he looks back at the hit game Strange Fishing, “Literally (he doesn't) have any idea how that code works because it's poorly written.” Even some members of the team don't fully understand how their game works.

And you know? Extraordinary Fishing still won awards and made nearly a million dollars in a few months. Obviously, developers have to pay attention to distractions that end a game, anything that finds a way to enjoy a player experience, but as they say, he is perfect for the enemy.

"There will always be unplanned sections, and going back to fine-tuning the code means the time spent in writing new code, new builds, or art," Gage said.

But with all the enlargement of the eye VVVVVVV played on social media, Cavanagh still seems to have a sense of humor about everything.

“What can I say?” He wrote in the blog's source code blog post. “I was young and was more interested in getting something on the screen than doing it right. Probably the best thing about it VVVVVV & # 39; s source code if that is proof of what you can shoot together or not a program organizer. ”