In this post, Espozo wrote:
No, I'm talking about actually manipulating the game, like changing the variable running speed, which is conveniently located in a textfile (somehow. Does the game actually parse the textfile to find something like "runspeed:" in ASCII? Why not just make it some kind of variable before compiling? Creating something that reads a textfile is more CPU intensive and just more hassle to program
You're suggesting that they need to shave 10 milliseconds of text parsing off the startup time (why?) by either removing this accessible debug feature, writing a specialized tool to put it into binary format, or requiring someone to recompile from source? Why do you think text parsing is more "hassle" to program than binary parsing? (It's not. For most professional programmers it is a bread and butter staple.)
Espozo wrote:
It's almost like they want people to mess with the game.
Specifically, they want people who are working on the game to be able to change things about it without having to compile it from source. A game like this probably takes a few minutes to compile, not to mention that compilers are expensive and anyone who isn't a programmer probably isn't set up with one (and may have never used one before). How would that be an advantage over editing a number in a text file that immediately takes effect whenever you run the game?