because it's go sot complex. Yes it's probably down to bad design and I should have had a full plan at the start etc etc...yada yada.
Thing is, I was given a design brief that was quite long but those sort of docs never go into technical detail. It's just up to the programmer to "make it work". So the project grows and the designer and I come up with new ideas and cram then into a design that wasn't made for the new ideas and soon the project begins to groan under its own weight (sounds familiar anyone?)
My profile code has ended up pretty complex. The profiles can get updated, saved, loaded etc at quite a few points and affect many things in the game from mid-level saves to overall game progress etc. I found myself adding new features to the wrong area and couldn't think of the right place to add them. So several hours later I've fully documented my profile code and understand how it works lol, and can add in the new features much more easily.
I don't mean commenting code, the code is heavily commented. I mean writing an overview doc with a flow chart of what happens where and why. You can figure it out just from looking at the code but you might miss another related factor - therefore some good documentation is really helpful.
Hmm, not sure what the point of this post is now. It's just a muse. Found it amusing that I had to write documentation for ME not for some 3rd party although if someone else ever needs to find that stuff out then at least some docs exist.
I documented other parts of the game two like all the special anims, what they do, if input is blocked during them and if they must completed before the level can be saved etc. Very useful to refer back to when you add new stuff just to remind you what you need to check and test.
Thing is, I was given a design brief that was quite long but those sort of docs never go into technical detail. It's just up to the programmer to "make it work". So the project grows and the designer and I come up with new ideas and cram then into a design that wasn't made for the new ideas and soon the project begins to groan under its own weight (sounds familiar anyone?)
My profile code has ended up pretty complex. The profiles can get updated, saved, loaded etc at quite a few points and affect many things in the game from mid-level saves to overall game progress etc. I found myself adding new features to the wrong area and couldn't think of the right place to add them. So several hours later I've fully documented my profile code and understand how it works lol, and can add in the new features much more easily.
I don't mean commenting code, the code is heavily commented. I mean writing an overview doc with a flow chart of what happens where and why. You can figure it out just from looking at the code but you might miss another related factor - therefore some good documentation is really helpful.
Hmm, not sure what the point of this post is now. It's just a muse. Found it amusing that I had to write documentation for ME not for some 3rd party although if someone else ever needs to find that stuff out then at least some docs exist.
I documented other parts of the game two like all the special anims, what they do, if input is blocked during them and if they must completed before the level can be saved etc. Very useful to refer back to when you add new stuff just to remind you what you need to check and test.