Bethesda Softworks Inside the Vault Q&A
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What was the best part about working as a programmer? The worst part?
I love puzzle solving and finding the answers to (mysteries). There are two main stages of the programming work flow, creation and fire fighting. In creation you get to design and implement systems to make the game cool. This is a fun stage but firefighting is where code takes on a life of its own. Sometimes finding a crash in the game is a simple null pointer but other times it can be hours of tracing an evil memory trashing bug. It is frustrating, and exhilarating at the same time. Being able to fix the game or make it run faster or being able to help a designer find his logic error are some of my favorite things to do as a programmer.
The worst parts would be that the limitations of the hardware and the constraints of time. The game has to run fast and the amount of memory is limited so often your cool ideas (or sometimes crazy ideas) have to be dialed back. We are not a government contractor or have an artistic grant. We have to produce a product in a reasonable time period. Fans also would like to actually play the game. You can always think of all the other wonderful things you could have done if you just had a little more time.
