Robert Gutschera Quote Shows Common Challenge the Devs Face
When I recently watched the Q&A stream with Robert Gutschera, I remembered a post from the Lead Systems Designer that I want to share today. In my eyes it revealed one of the challenges the devs face on a daily basis.
[su_quote cite=”rgutscheradev” url=”http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/comment/12969999/#Comment_12969999″]I’ve finally found the wiring where overall healing suppression in PvP is attached. Right now, it’s an across-the-board 50% reduction on healing.
Is that the right amount? Should healing be reduced more?[/su_quote]
At first glance it’s a relatively inconspicuous post about Healing Depression in a PVP feedback thread. Robert simply wanted to ask the community whether they think 50% reduction is a good amount. But if you look closer there’s a ton of extra information in it. Another user a few replies later rightfully stated that it’s “simultaneously a piece of good news, a bit scary, and refreshingly honest”.
Devs have to crawl through the code
I mean… Robert actually had to crawl through the code to find the “wiring where overall healing suppression in PvP is attached”. So there was apparently nobody to inquire about it and neither had anyone written it down. While I don’t know Cryptic’s documentation guidelines, the original coder is indeed no longer with the studio. We believe Tenacity and Healing Depression was originally designed by Chris “GentlemanCrush” Meyer, who left Cryptic after Module 6.
These are common struggles in a fast moving industry. Next to constant in-house juggling, Cryptic as small studio often is just a first step in a dev’s career. At least that’s my impression. So the guys that implement a feature today might not be the ones that maintain it tomorrow. Every now and then new devs have to familiarize with the code base and also apparently search for stuff.
Where are the documentation standards?
Granted, I could be reading too much into it. Maybe it’s a pretty common process in development or “finally found” overstates the time Robert actually spent digging up Healing Depression. If true however I do agree with the sentiment that it’s a bit scary, but refreshingly honest. It certainly helps to sympathize with the devs, but it also raises questions which manager didn’t do its job and missed to enforce code documentation standards.
In any case I thought this was an interesting tidbit to share and now you guys can figure out the rest in the comments below or the corresponding thread on our message board!
Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 40,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.
I’m not surprised, I’ve known people who have worked on other games that they have taken over from previous coders and the first thing they say is ‘oh man the guy before me was the worst coder ever’ and the first thing they do is rewrite everything. As someone who is a coder, though not in the game industry, who works for a very large company I can say that we have almost no documentation. Every few years someone high up comes along with the noble goal of documenting everything and it always dies before being finished because those aren’t billable hours and it takes forever and whatever things we do end up documenting end up no longer accurate a year down the line because its impossible to keep up with such things. I also know that when another coder leaves and I inherit their stuff….the first thing I say is ‘oh man the guy before me was the worst coder ever’ and the first thing I do is rewrite everything.