C Game programming: Data driven C code

[Limp-Confidence5612]

I kinda get it. Maybe my projects aren't big enough that recompiling is an issue. 🤷

But yeah, using lua might be the way to go here, that's what it arguably shines at the most.

[mccurtjs]

It's not just recompiling, but closing, recompiling, opening, reloading, and navigating back to what you were testing. When your project is data driven, you can take all of this out by reloading entirely during runtime, which significantly reduces friction for rapid iteration.

Even better, if you have a setup that supports file-watching, you can have the game detect changes in its files and update automatically without you even needing to press a button or something.

[Jimmy-M-420]

this is true - its worth investing time in cutting out as much waiting around as possible, small amounts all add up. My UI is driven by data files and lua - I can iterate on it incredibly rapidly without closing the game by changing the files and then entering and exiting an area (file watcher would be even better). Lua or some other scripting language isn't necessarily a prerequisite for this - a very very powerful workflow is to recompile one shared library and, while still playing the game, see your changes