Games and the Dark Side of Programming

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(jlucard, 19:59:57 - 09 May 2011 - Random)

Skull Games programming is a bit of a dark art. This is not because it is that terrible secret nobody is willing to share with you. When it comes to secrets it is quite the opposite really – game developers are one of the friendlier mobs out there; half the time they are telling you their secrets regardless of whether you want to hear them or not. No, secrets have nothing to do with it. Making games is a bit of a dark art cause of all the cheating like there is no tomorrow needed to make them. You see, you could do things properly, the same way you would for a scientific simulation, and your game would just about run on a huge mainframe with a couple thousand processors. Alternatively you could lie, deceive, evade and compromise ensuring your game would run fine on much more modest hardware. Hardware like the one your target users are likely to have. Games programming is not about doing things the right way. It is about fraudulently tricking your target audience into thinking things are done properly. In simpler terms it is like doing a David Copperfield using programming instead of mirrors and rotating platforms.

The reason things are the way they are is simply this – in the beginning of the gamming era the hardware was not up to the task. So we started cheating – using scripting instead of AI, pre-calculated values instead of maths, approximations instead of physics and so on. Improvements in the hardware didn’t help either cause when this arrived we wanted to build even better games. In fact at no point in the gamming era did the hardware available has ever been up to the task. For a purist, someone who really is serious about science and who cares about accuracy when it comes to representing the real world, building a modern game with today’s hardware is impossible. For pulling out a trick like that you have to be a cold hearted crook, a compulsive deceiver of the highest degree. Someone willing to sacrifice the accuracy of his collision detection, someone willing to use pre-rendered images for skyboxes, someone who is not afraid to even redefine the laws of physics themselves just for the sake of saving a bit of processing power here and there. What it takes is a special type of liar – a good one. Appropriate when considering that the end result will be a lie itself, for what is a game if not a fantasy given form; a virtual world that no matter how similar it is with our world it might be, it is still a thing that does not exist.

In a way making games is a bit like writing a fiction novel. The main difference is the stories (game scenarios or whatever) told are not the only falsehoods. To make a game one has to also lie about the capabilities of the hardware, the game mechanics and detail of the graphics (textures instead of geometry, phong shading instead of ray tracing, etc). In time the hardware will allow miracles and wonders being done the correct way. However, if there is one thing we learned from the previous few decades of gaming is simply this - it doesn’t really matter. The reader of a fiction novel does not really care if it is based on a true story or not, might be even willing to believe the impossible if told in a skilful way. Furthermore, the reader does not care whether the cover of the book is made of paper or high quality leather either (unless perhaps he happens to be NesCartesius). If the end result is enjoyable and fun then the mission has been accomplished. Rejoice follow dark lords; a good lie is better than an unpleasant truth.

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NesCartesius

21:57:00 - 09 May 2011

I admit it. I have a thing about leather covered books. Oh, my god, the shame...

Now, as far as programming games is concerned... Since a game is a form of interactive fiction, i think any connection or analogy with literature or cinema or other storytelling artform is entirely valid. Also, depending on the type of game, a stronger connection could be made to the one or the other. For instance, buliding a game like Guitar Hero probably requires some of the skills of a video clip director. From what i gather, building a computer game these days may be as complex as making a film. Lots of different people doing different things (music, 3d modelling, 2d graphics, story writing, actual programming etc).

Does that make the programmer a liar? Only in the same way a film director is a liar. Which brought this thought in my mind. What if computer games are a form of art, a new art drawing on the old ones, like cinema and comics? Or am i going too far?

jlucard

22:23:00 - 09 May 2011

I sense you are uncomfortable with the terminology used. It is all about double standards really. Someone been accused in the court of law might be slightly distorting the real flow of events in his testimony so he is a liar. On the other hand naturally the "Last Dinner" is an accurate representation of exactly how it happened because the painter took a trip back in time to see for himself. Give me a break here. Whether something is said with good or bad intentions does not change facts. Been able to tell porkies is an important aspect of any form of art, no matter how uncomfortable it might make us to admit it. In the case of games twice as much as you also need to be dishonest about te technical aspect of them, using tricks to fake the things you cannot achieve due to the technical limitations (so do films special effect teams actually). Well I guess games are trully the work of the devil. Embrase the dark side my son.

Chain smoking makes you thin

NesCartesius

18:36:22 - 10 May 2011

I was trying to make the point that game developement is a creative activity and, as such, it has more to do with art than with hardcore science. Science comes in, of course, since programming is actually applied mathematics. The game developer, however, will use science to create an artistic result.

From what i gather, it's not a good idea to write an algorithm implementing natural laws of optics or radiation in general in order to use it in a game, although that may be perfectly feasible (radiosity algorithms, i think, but you, oh our dark overlord, would know better). From what you say, i understand it would be better to use texture mapping, or even anticipate the 2d image and eventually emulate the on screen results of these laws, tricking the eyes and mind of the gamer.

Perhaps a game developer could be seen as a modern age illusionist. The same goes for film makers, but computer programmers have already laid claim to the titles of wizardry (see magic, deep magic and heavy magic, as current hacking terminology).

jlucard

19:01:42 - 10 May 2011	Login or register
I always thought of games as design rather than art... In any case I like the idea of game developers been witches or something, modern or not. It must be true cause last time I checked I did float in water and everything. I guess I must be made of wood. Chain smoking makes you thin

Alien

18:00:20 - 12 May 2011	Login or register
you look like you weigh the same as a duck too. i find the cheating the most fun part of programming. things dont seem to work the way they are meant to so you trick it into doing the same thing or something similar in a rather poor way. the code becomes confusing and your neighbours start complaining about the manical laughter, but still fun. 2's compliment, 3's a crowd

jlucard

22:37:00 - 12 May 2011

Thanks to my 20 layers of clothes I weight a bit more than a duck actually, especially with all those tools and cigarette and coffee supplies I carry around.

Cheating is fun - a lot of programming is just a glorified form of computer abuse. Bend the machine and the rules in order to achieve your ends, that sort of thing. However I should point out it is possible to do so without writing confusing code. Nothing wrong with a bit of organised crime with appropriate named classes and variables and a few commends here and there after all.

Chain smoking makes you thin

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