What in the World Does a Programmer Do?
October 16th, 2009 by PlatinumGames
Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames
Hi everyone. I’m Kenji Saito, the lead programmer on Bayonetta.
I’d really like for all of you to take this opportunity to understand what a Programmer really does, so I thought I would do so by giving you an insight into my work.
Basically, a programmer takes the ideas from the game director and game designers and combines them with the materials (CG, sound effects, etc.) from the artists, sound designers and company, and then “puts together a game.” Programmers are also charged with creating the development environment for the artists and designers. While this isn’t a job that is immediately apparent, I suppose it correct to say programmers are the unsung heroes.
So what does a programmer actually do? To put it in simple terms, he takes the director’s ideas and translates them into a programming language that a computer can understand. How good or bad a translation it becomes is directly related to the programmer’s skill.
However, with a game on the scale of Bayonetta, the amount of translation to be done is incredible. How about we take a look at one of the source code files for Bayonetta?
This is one of the player character source code files, and it weighs in at around 13,000 lines. The whole of Bayonetta is somewhere around 1.8 million lines of code. (That would be about 170,000 printed pages.)
Kamiya-san has filled Bayonetta to the brim with the many things he holds dear. I really hope you all check it out!
Tagged: Bayonetta, Kenji Saito, PlatinumGames, Programming, Xbox 360
16 Comments Add Your Own
Maruis Posted on October 16, 2009 at 11:00 pm
What languages do you program in for Bayonetta? I assume you're using XNA / Visual Studio for your X360 development. Give us a little more about the tools that you use. Thanks.
twenty1 Posted on October 17, 2009 at 6:30 am
nice glimpse of the meat of game development
Marink Posted on October 17, 2009 at 6:34 am
I have you bow down to you.
That's alot of work.
It looks like your using C# or C++.
I'm unsure 'cause I'm familiar with Ruby. lol
Fabian Posted on October 17, 2009 at 10:13 am
Plaese give us a little more about the tools that you use. Thanks
SonicTHP Posted on October 17, 2009 at 11:11 am
Despite being the unsung heroes of video game development, I can see how programmers are actually affect the player of the game more than most of the other positions. Well done programming means the game plays well in a lot of ways, and what I have played of Bayonetta is amazing. Thank you for you and your team's hard work.
Humberto Posted on October 17, 2009 at 1:07 pm
wow, brutal. million and a half lines of code… well, if you didn't have arthritis before the start of this project you provably do now. Well, just the same, thanks for the hard work, and stay strong.
FAUNA Posted on October 17, 2009 at 3:26 pm
That's a lot of code. This is my most anticipated game.
José And. Car Posted on October 17, 2009 at 3:27 pm
"1.8 million lines of code" O.OU Woooouu!
EagleEye Posted on October 17, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I'll be wuick but, I have great respect for the programmers and especially, the work that has been done on this game! Thanks alot Kenji Saito and the rest of your "programming" team! Rest assured, because judging by the demo, you have done a perfect work
Samuel Batista Posted on October 17, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Hey Kenji, I have a quick question:
I have recently completed the biggest project I had to undertake and I had to work with a .cpp file, built mainly by one of my colleagues that was around 3-4K lines of code. I don't want to point fingers here but the code was poorly written with a heavy focus on procedure programming instead of object oriented programming which C++ is meant for. Needless to say it was total chaos!
My question is this: If you have several source files that control the main actions of the player, each of them tens of thousands of lines of code, how do you manage such a large file? Do you program with supreme carefulness to ensure proper functioning of all methods? How do you track bugs in such a cluttered environment?
Thanks, from poor college grad game programmer.
Zen Posted on October 17, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Nice vim. I wanted to say thanks for keeping us in the loop.
baberific Posted on October 19, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Jeez, I'm in the beginning stages of programming that only involves visual basic and a few lines of code!
So that source code alone is amazing!
Keep up the good work Kenji, as well as all the other programmers who are working on Bayonetta!
The game is already fantastic!
altahi Posted on October 20, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Awesome Source Code! That's dedication indeed!
Dave Posted on January 28, 2010 at 8:42 pm
It was really appreciated. i just get this game last week, while i read though this blog, and i saw that you guys are great, it's really really great. keep on the great work.