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title: Why developers prefer programming arcade games and what is difficult

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# Why developers prefer programming arcade games and what is difficult

![girls-playing-1967833_1280](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/BknIPxGs0.jpg)



Arcade games set the wheels in motion of what we experience today. Some of the absolute classic games were all in the arcade genre. Typically, before the evolution of technology and subsequently the internet, the social place to meet up and have fun with your friends, if you weren’t at a bar or club that it is, was the arcade. And of course, when online gaming came to popularity for a while, arcades went quiet. But since then they have made a comeback. More people than ever before want to feel that nostalgia of playing **[online arcade aviator](https://www.my10cric.com/casino/arcade/aviator/)** games with their friends. And believe it or not, arcade games are still being programmed and remastered despite having games like GTA V and Fortnite available now. 

## Why are they preferred?

And so today what we’re going to look at is why developers actually prefer to program these old classic arcade games over other games that are on the market today. And we’re also going to look at the trials and tribulations experienced by these programmers during their tumultuous journey or coding an arcade game. Before we deep dive into the arcade games niche, we’re going to look at game development as a whole. If you look at games like GTA V, as we have mentioned already, the size and complexity of the game are absolutely staggering. Sometimes beyond comprehension, such a level of detail requires thousands and thousands of hours by talented programmers. Whereas if you look at a classic game like Space Invaders, it is a lot more simple to understand and also play. 

## Is AI helping?

Of course, with the recent explosion in the mainstream use and advancements of AI, to an extent, this has aided developers who were faced with the task of developing games with such a high level of detail and complexity. However, each and every game still requires human involvement in it. Whereas the actual journey and mechanics behind some of the classic games, such as Tetris, look so much simpler in comparison. And so if the focus is on how easy arcade games are to program compared to modern games, what makes them difficult? Well, as always, there are bugs, and the more simple a game is, the more pressure there is to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.

## Resource heavy

There is also the time that is required to be able to commit and program these games. In a lot of the standard games now, if you were to look at a blueprint and each part of it was referred to as a ‘node’, each of those nodes would need between 6 and 40 thousand lines of code. And some of the modern games, such as MMORPGs or games like GTA V, have dozens of nodes. And so this means in excess of a million lines of code. Yes, a million lines of code for a single game. And this isn’t just demanding from the time perspective, but can you imagine having to program all of those lines of code for one single bug or glitch to stop the game from releasing? And then having to sift through all of the lines of code to find where the error is

## Not a light investment

Game development companies from a commercial and financial perspective also much prefer to get their programmers to code games like the arcade classics. If you think about it, it costs a lot less in terms of wages and resource time to have someone code a game that requires around 80,000 lines of codes as opposed to in excess of a million. Likewise, the barrier to entry for a lot of game development companies is simply not only having the money to invest in resources, in the form of programmers, but it’s also acquiring said resources. Games design as a skill and a career is in demand, and the numbers of people studying it and graduating are growing, but the demand, especially with a growing population, is simply oustripping this. 

## Evergreen revenue

And as games like **[Space Invaders](https://www.wired.com/story/space-invaders-45-years-tomohiro-nishikado/)** and Tetris have stood the test of time over decades and still retained their popularity, game development companies are always trying to brainstorm and try to find that next big arcade game that will not only achieve them bit-initial sales but will also stay evergreen over the next one or two decades, gaining a following in the meantime. This is the ultimate aim for any game development company, and trying to achieve this goal doesn't necessarily require a lot of investment, but that passion for arcade games and to really understand what binds all of the classic arcade games together. 

## Technical requirements

Another thing to keep in mind is what programming language your game is going to be designed in. For example, **[Unreal Engine](https://www.unrealengine.com/)** has been the magic behind a lot of the latest big hit names, which are coded in the language C++, whereas if you want to code in Unity, this is coded in C#. And it’s not so much the language that’s the concern, but how many programmers are proficient in that language. You’ll also have to take into account that some arcade games are coded in other languages. Some common gaming programming languages include:

* C++
* Java
* Python
* Lua
* UnrealScript
* Objective-C

## In Summary

Hopefully today we have given you a clear insight into the history of arcade games, how their resurgence is being propelled and powered, and likewise what the challenges are that both the programmers and game development companies face when creating these games. It’s going to be interesting over the next few years to see if any of the remastered arcade classics will really take off and go to that next level. Time will only tell, but more and more game development companies are investing their resources and research into creating that next big arcade title so that they can get the big revenues and their piece of that very lucrative pie. 

