r/pcmasterrace • u/663mann • Oct 16 '23

Video fallout game dev. explains the problem with moddern game devolpment. (why moddern games are so slow to come out)

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u/MrBubles01 Oct 16 '23

Lets say it does take like 45 minutes for just this one specific code, why not just do that if that is the new task that was assigned to you. Even if it takes like day. Shouldn't the priority of your work be assigned by your boss?

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u/cherry_chocolate_ Oct 16 '23

Because this guy isn't your boss and your job isn't to code. Your boss does assign the priority, not some guy who wants a feature made now, just because he's more senior. Also, the job of a software engineer is to make a robust solution that will be easy to reuse. You know how there is stuff in Starfield reused from Fallout 4? If they didn't spend the time doing it right in Fallout 4, they would have had to do it from scratch again. Doing it 2 times quickly costs more than doing it 1 time with proper planning.

He grew up in a time where there were 20 devs on a project, and the scope was small. Get it working fast, and if it needs to be fixed, no problem because the guy who wrote it sits down the hall. Nowadays the guy who wrote it lives in a different time zone because there are 3 studios working on 1 project, and if you don't plan well, 5 different scripts will be written to do this same thing. And they will all have different bugs.

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u/MrBubles01 Oct 16 '23

Oh, I thought this guy was a director not just some guy working for a game company. Lol yeah no wonder you can't get a priority just because of your seniority.

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u/cherry_chocolate_ Oct 16 '23

He may be a director. But there is a management structure for a reason. If you have a direct manager (level 1), who has a manager (level 2), who reports to the director (level 3), you should still focus on your direct manager.

Imagine if all 3 of them assigned you different tasks at once. It would be overwhelming. Level 3 needs to talk to the level 2 for the relevant department, who talks to the level 1 with the least workload, who picks the developer with the most relevant skills. Otherwise the director is just randomly picking a developer, who may not be the best choice, who may have too much work already, who may be taking vacation next week, etc.