this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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Okay, I work as a programmer, and there is a reason projects work the opposite way. You first have to have a working product that comes back as good from whatever QA you have, then you optimise and build on it. If you have to optimise on day 1, nothing will ever get done. I should know, that's why I have a ton of personal projects in development hell.
Why would games be different?
I mean, putting in a bit of thinking before you actually hit the keyboard can be an incredibly effective form of optimization, if you can get for example an O(n^2) down to an O(log n). You'll even save time on not having to rework the thing later, and if you build on poor foundations, chances are you'll stumble upon fundamental architectural challenges down the road, which can be extremely costly in terms of development time.
Yep, taking some care early on can pay dividends down the road. The data structures you choose really matter, and YAGNI can stop you from going overboard with indirection and other shit. Premature optimization is bad, but there's nothing wrong with writing performant software as long as it's still comprehensible and extensible.