For some people, myself included, programming is the most rewarding experience you can have legally, clothed, or un-inebriated.
But it's not an endorphin fueled LOL-fest - you have to earn your rewards, it's what makes them awards, in the non-awarding anything sense.
Loosing you yet?
Well, for example I might struggle with an effect for a couple of hours, trying to get it to work how I want. As soon as you compile+run, and you get the results you've been looking for, well it's a proper brain-chemical high, I don't find that joy in much, in fact the only thing to instill as much pride in me is my son. Writing a game for 12 months, then finally getting it to alpha is like child birth.
It's similar when you find a bug that has plagued you, if you sort it out good and proper it's very satisfying - especially when it's something daft that you've left out, it's that same swell of pride over your work. I think that's the thing, that some newbie programmer might be missing... the tangible program. I like to see my projects as more organic than some might, almost like they are beasts I have to tame, I have to get in control and make the beast work for me. I want to conjure fire with a single function call, and have collision code that just does it's job with no fuss. It sometimes feels like I'm training my code to do that stuff as if it was a naughty puppy.
Programming a game yourself is very much like creating life, it's pretty much the most complex, creative thing one person can do while still having a somewhat normal life. Oldbies like me nurture our code, we love our code because it's part of us, and if it misbehaves we're not above ignoring it for 3 years and moving onto something else, something that can behave for 5 minutes. Taking a game project from start to finish starts with the go-go and ga-ga of concept programming, free and easy and immortal in it's own lunchtime. Then the teenage years come along, the code starts to develop attitude, bugs crop in, corrective action has to be taken, someone has to be in charge. Then eventually it goes and finds a home of it's own, on freeware game servers - by that time developers are already getting clucky for their next project.
TGC take no responsibility for any disturbances caused by this post, reader discretion is advised. It's been a long day.
