I'm not dismissing the importance of a basic to moderate understand of coding principals. But being an expert coder versus knowing how it works isn't going to make the game's design any better. Period.
I'm not saying it is useless to know how to code a video game. I'm saying that it doesn't make the game's design better. And if you are focused so heavily on some fancy graphical wizzardry that you forget to do something seemingly minor like working out a proper control-scheme, you've short-changed your own game.
Also. You'll be less likely to, say, change from a keyboard controled system to a mouse controled one. If the gameplay should seem like it really would be better that way.
After all.. making THAT code change is no small step in most cases.
I'm not saying it is useless to know how to code a video game. I'm saying that it doesn't make the game's design better. And if you are focused so heavily on some fancy graphical wizzardry that you forget to do something seemingly minor like working out a proper control-scheme, you've short-changed your own game.
Also. You'll be less likely to, say, change from a keyboard controled system to a mouse controled one. If the gameplay should seem like it really would be better that way.
After all.. making THAT code change is no small step in most cases.