Let me first state that this cartoon in no way reflects where I work now or the people I work with.

That being said, in the past, I’ve found myself in the position of trying to explain to folks that making a computer game is a bit more difficult than it seems.

It involves math. Lots of math. Geometry, trigonometry, that kind of stuff.

Because it’s all about writing formulas that predict where things need to be based on where they are. And sometimes the numbers just don’t add up (computers can be very picky sometimes – you need to be very precise in your instructions).

But invariably someone would see a hit game and think “that looks easy” and assume that the programming behind it must be easy as well. They don’t take into account the level design, the testing, the creation of new powers to keep the game interesting and so on. It is just assumed that someone else has already done all of the hard work so all that’s left to do is just “look” at the example and the game is made! Easy peasy.

Would that it was actually that easy. See you next week.