2019-03-01_PC_Gamer___40_US_Edition

FAR LEFT: A piece of

partially disabled

health bar code in

War for the Overworld

ended up doubling

the size of possessed

creatures before the

game’s release.

LEFT: Defender’s

Quest DX developer

Lars Doucet

encourages

community members

to look through files

for secrets.

COMMENTING CLEARLY How Fate Teconics developer Alex Bethke tags their code

UPDATE

It works right now, but it could be

modified to make your life and code

changes easier in the future. This tag

identifies any code that currently

works, but that requires small changes

to fit best practices.

REMOVE

From placeholder sounds that need to

be replaced for launch, to features that

may eventually be eliminated, ‘Remove’

helps Bethke keep track of suspect

code segments within thousands upon

thousands of lines of code.

KLUDGE

Unlike Magic, Bethke’s ‘Kludge

Hammer’ uses visual aids to mark code

that handles complex operations, but

should be coded in a different way later

on (aka, refactored). Often used for

hacky/non-standard coding solutions.

MAGIC
It isn’t clear why this code works, but
any modifications to it could completely
break the game. Bethke uses this tag
(and large wizards drawn in ASCII) to
mark ‘M A G I C’ code segments that
should not be touched.

The Lego games use

the same basic code

to recreate Harry

Potter’s Aguamenti

spell, the Clone Wars

hover tanks, and Iron

Man’s chest laser.

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