One Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth lead has shared a look at the game's code base, and other devs have hopped on the trend to give fans a look behind the curtain.
As first reported by Automaton Media, Yutaka Ito, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's technical manager, took to his personal Twitter account to share some very rare game information. Ito reveals Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is written in the C++ coding language, and has even shared a screenshot of several lines of code.
ちなみに、龍が如くは「C++」という「プログラム言語」で書かれているのですが、ここで実際に龍が如く8で使われているプログラムをほんの少しお見せします😎意外とシンプルなので、C++の基礎をしっかりと学んでいれば十分龍チームで働くことができると思います。就活生の皆さん、お待ちしています🙇♂️ pic.twitter.com/8FbZLm9tBHJanuary 10, 2024
"By the way, Like a Dragon is written in the C++ programming language. I’ll show you a tiny bit of actual code used in Infinite Wealth," Ito writes in the tweet above (as translated by Automaton Media). "It’s actually quite simple, so I think that if you have a solid knowledge of the basics of C++, that’s enough to be able to work for Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Job-seeking graduates, we’re waiting for you!"
What Ito's showing here in the screenshot above is game states for the player's controller. A fair amount of the code is actually dedicated to the player's bicycle, as well as forcing the bike to freeze under certain game states. Ito isn't wrong - this is pretty standard stuff for 3D game development, and the developer's message is really encouraging for all the aspiring programmers out there.
Ito's tweet has seen other developers share code from their games, including Takuro Mizobe of the Palworld development team. Palworld is a game sort of like Pokemon, but where you can gun down the creatures instead of befriending them. Mizobe's screenshot below is a little blurry, but it looks like it's branching pathways for the game's camera.
パルワールドで実際に使われている美しいコードです https://t.co/0Xt9iK1Pa5 pic.twitter.com/fmCAPiqHzRJanuary 11, 2024
Astlibra Revision developer Keizo also hopped on the trend, sharing the code seen below. "I've been making games with C++ for almost 20 years, and I don’t understand anything. It's like reading a newspaper in a foreign language. Here's what my C++ code looks like," Keizo writes in the tweet below, getting pretty frank with the complexities of coding.
ちなみに僕のC++のコード pic.twitter.com/Kgt9cgmRZZJanuary 10, 2024
Finally, Nama Takahashi, the developer behind the brilliant ElecHead, shared the code for their own game. The code revolves around 'if' states for the player, which are really common in game development - they're basically used to check certain conditions and provide resolutions. For example, one line of code below dictates that if the player passes through a wall, they'll be returned to another position.
ElecHeadのプレイヤーのソースコードThe source code for ElecHead.#ElecHead #gamemaker pic.twitter.com/qcHYHytQhrJanuary 11, 2024
This is all to say that this is a really rare - and quite frank - look under the hood of game development. Also, for all the aspiring game developers out there, keep Ito's original message in mind: if you can make sense of the code you're seeing here, you're doing great!
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth launches later this month on January 26 across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. You can read our full Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth preview for a look at what to expect from the huge RPG.
Elsewhere, Like a Dragon is incorporating roguelike elements with a dungeon that changes every time you visit it.
