HACKER Q&A
📣 amichail

Is CS research mostly discovery while novel game dev mostly invention?


Should students use this as a guide when deciding between the two?


  👤 sargstuff Accepted Answer ✓
Using information provided:

CS commonly involves discovering/developing corresponding enumerations / associations needed to support/to focus on given science field/area. Depending on how 'novel' support is required for given field/area; may have to 'invent' necessary protocols/language/etc. based on required enumerations/associations 'discovered'/needed for a given science field/area. Very helpful if students also look at non-CS areas would want to use CS classes for. aka genomics, web back-end development, AI, etc.

Novel game dev[3] "invention" as in (?) software engineering'(?). Implication of novel taken as 'on own'/free lancing. Game developer more full process/multi-hat development / broader set of process(es) within given field than CS. Still have to 'discover' what 'sells'/'client(s) interested in buying'. (vs. directed discovery bounded by science area/field) . aka ID Software's inventive development approach[0] vs. discovering 'novel ways of using' doom game engine[1][2].

----------

[0] : https://charlesboury.fr/articles/id-software-principles.html

[1] : psdoom : https://psdoom.sourceforge.net/

[2] : doompdf : https://github.com/ading2210/doompdf

[3] : https://howtomarketagame.com/2023/09/28/the-missing-middle-i...


👤 bigyabai
Why do they have to be dialectical in the first place? What is your reason for trying to categorize either career? Do you have any supporting evidence for your claims?

We can't meaningfully discuss these questions without more context. Your title is a loaded question; most people don't try to label each archetype because they can be radically different people. By presupposing that they exist in different worlds, you're already making this question hostile to interpretation and response. Please, if you have to beg the question like this, at least illustrate your thought process so we can understand what you're trying to say.