This is more of a code design than a game design question, but I didn’t know where else to post it. Please feel free to move it somewhere if you see the need.
I posted a question in the State of Fortune thread, but a wise man pointed out that people don’t look at the thread for generic questions, and therefore this thread is created.
What is the best way forward (from a time/code point of view as well as maintainability) when one has two versions of the same game running, where a lot of the code is shared, but many functions are different?
Should one:
Make a copy of the current projects (client and server) and build on top of that?
- Positive: Easy to separate the projects, the jar for the sandbox will download quicker as it doesn’t contain the game content
- Negative: If one fixes something generic one will need to change both versions. Big refactorings needs to be done to both versions separately. Will need a launcher client where you can choose which version to start up
Extend the current classes where necessary and make a game version of them, only overwriting where necessary?
- Positive: Cleaner code
- Negative: I don’t know if my programming skills are good enough to keep it organized
Split the game code completely away from the engine code and let the game know where it can inject code?
- Positive: Cleanest code
- Negative: I really don’t know if my programming skills are good enough to keep it organized A lot of work to keep the game code separate
Add cases to the code based upon which game version one is playing?
- Positive: Quick win
- Negative: Messy code
Something obvious that I didn’t think of?
Mike