#100DaysOfCode #100DaysOfGameDev C#Illogical Bacon Panic Room Script-writing Unity Visual Studio

DevTools Code Cleanup (or How I Lit a Fire Under My Own Ass)

August 4, 2020August 5, 2020 sinwyrm

#PanicRoom Day 067

#100DaysOfCode R2D33
#100DaysOfGameDev R2D32

I finally kicked it into a higher gear and tackled, head-on, my ever-growing hot mess of a script, DevTools. I knew it was getting unwieldy, I could feel it. It’s probably part of the reason I’ve been putting off dealing with it; I knew it was going to be quite the task to clean it up. But no more waiting! With my ears stuffed with the most energizing dubstep I could find, I saddled up behind the keyboard and set my sights on making more sense of this script.

I’m glad I finally took the initiative and made this a priority because: A) I felt like I was stagnating in my development because of this ugly elephant in the room I didn’t want to deal with was keeping me from moving forward, B) I was facing roadblocks I wasn’t sure how to deal with that were just being put off, and C) When I finally got going again I felt like I was let free after so long locked in a cage of my own doing, and it felt good to run!

I found a whole block of code that was doing absolutely NOTHING! It must have been a misguided idea from an earlier iteration of the script. Just to be safe I marked it inactive and made sure the rest of the code ran fine without it before actually deleting it.

By starting simple and just cleaning up my code systematically line-by-line, I was able to get a better understanding of what I had been working on so hard over the last several weeks. It seemed like I was doing so much in so many different places, but looking at it again now and condensing and streamlining as I went not only reduced my code footprint, but really solidified all the concepts in my head that I had been cobbling together into a really vivid picture of something marvelous. I was in love with my code again!

I made new notes as I went through the code to clean it up to point out things I could still do to make things more intelligent, useful, or easier to work with in the future.

By the time I was done reorganizing, I had so much momentum that I began going back through my code making improvements wherever I could. Some changes were small and subtle, others were sweeping and epic, but they all contributed to tighter, better-functioning code. After a few hours I not only had a better script than I thought I could ever write, but it was now full of new and exciting notes to give myself even more direction to keep moving forward on improving and enhancing it. Just what I needed to re-light the gamedev fire under my ass again!