Back in January of this year, the Technical Director of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Yukata Ito shared a photo of source code from the then-upcoming mainline entry of the long-running series. It was an uncommon move among major developers to share such integral parts of their development process. In an interview in late November with Automaton Media, Ito addressed this, with the goal of offering encouragement to coding hopefuls and future developers in the industry.
Ito Told Automaton that programming can be “surprisingly simple” He went on to say:
I created an X account in the first place because I felt like there weren’t many game developers out there spreading technical information for people who want to become programmers.
He was joined in this sentiment by Programming Manager Tomoaki Nakamura, who similarly acknowledged that secrecy was common in programming and game development. He went on to say people expect there to be “some kind of special programming” used for titles such as Like A Dragon. He hoped that, by showcasing that these games were made with standard code like C++, it would showcase that the coding language “is enough for anyone to be able to make a game.”
According to Ito, graduates who apply to Sega often don’t have C++ knowledge, feeling that they should since many high-end titles use the language, with C++ being the cornerstone of public engines such as Unreal. He stated:
If you want to be involved in console game development, it’s a good idea to gain experience creating games in C++ while you’re still a student.
Despite this, even Ito admits that the thread of coding pushed the limits of what he and his team were allowed to make public. The session to post the thread of code was not made before consulting with each team, and the programmer that coded it., before making it public. The parts he did post were, in his words, “relatively clean,” which was intentional to make them readable even to new programmers without much experience.
Addressing aspiring developers, Ito went on to say:
as long as they have learned the basics of programming. [It’s] not only for those who have studied it professionally. If you are working in another industry with the dream of becoming a game programmer, we encourage you to apply for the mid-career job openings at RGG Studio.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is in a lot of ways a testament to their internal functioning. Releasing titles on a yearly basis, several ideas, such as placing new developers near more tenured ones to help address issues that might arise quickly and efficiently. I recommend reading the article to get a full picture of just how working at RGG Studio might feel. Infinite Wealth is one of the best titles in a series that releases nearly manually, and you can read my review of the title here.
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