Modern Methods - C# Game Programming: For Serious Game Creation - page 32

In the world of game development, it's always a good idea to have something
working, because then if a deadline is moved forward or a demo is required,
something can be ready immediately. If you're working alone, you have some-
thing to show people to get feedback. Feedback offers a much better idea about
what will work and what won't.
Game Programming Traps
Many developers start out wanting to make a game but suddenly find that they're
writing a framework or game engine instead, and it will be useful to make any
sort of game. But the developer never does make his game and falls into the
framework trap, redeveloping his framework over and over, adding the latest
features but never actually getting on to the game creation part.
Pragmatic programming helps you avoid the framework trap. It expressly for-
bids you to start working on a framework; creating a functional game is first and
most important.
Pragmatic programming has two major coding principles: KISS and DRY. These
are two great development tools that will improve your coding ability.
KISS
KISS stands for ''Keep It Simple Stupid.'' Don't needlessly complicate your game
programming.
''Hmm . . . my space invaders game will be much more efficient if all the enemies
and bullets are in a quadtree. So I better start building that...''
This is the wrong way to think if you want to make a game. It's a great way to think
if you want to learn about quadtrees. You have to decide which is more important
to you and focus only on that. If you want to make a game, get the game functional
as soon as possible, then decide if the extra complexity is needed.
DRY
DRY stands for ''Don't Repeat Yourself.''
If you start seeing snippets of code repeated all the over the place, then that code
should be consolidated. The fewer places the code is repeated, the fewer places
that need to be modified when making a change. Let's take the space invader
example again.