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This month's Developer Update comes from Guy Somberg, Lead Programmer of Echtra. Sometimes the best possible way to look to the future of a project, is to understand its past. While the next Developer Update will take a deeper dive into upcoming updates, ongoing issues, and other community feedback, this blog is for those who enjoy a good technical read and want a closer look at some of our internal development ‘war stories’.
INTRODUCTION
In game development, not every problem that you solve is performance, features, or functionality that the players get to see. Sometimes, you have something messy that needs to be fixed, and you just need to dive in and fix it so that work can get done.
There is a phrase that we use to talk about this sort of work: “yak shaving”. Originally from a reference to the TV program “Ren and Stimpy”, it now refers to work that appears to be completely unrelated to the end goal, but which you have to accomplish in order to reach it. For example - “I am trying to build a stone bridge over this creek. I am shaving this yak so that I can trade the fur to a yarn maker, who in exchange will let me borrow the cart so that I can take it to the quarry to pick up some stones.” Shaving the yak isn’t necessarily an important part of building that bridge, but you won’t be able to make any progress while the yak still has its coat!
This is a collection of just some of the times that we’ve had yak-shaving problems that needed to be “just fixed”.
- Echtra Bean
Read the entire blog at https://www.torchlight3.com/en/news-article/11482053
