I made games while I was in school. Lots of games. PC games, iOS/Android games, and even some homebrew 360/PS3 games. All of those games helped me get the attention of technical directors at a couple of studios and got me my first two internships and eventually a job as an engine programmer on a multi-platform game engine.
But the code in those games was crap. Looking back on the early stuff, I am amazed it even compiled. It wasn't until I had to work on a +500k LOC codebase with 30 other programmers for a year and a half that I learned the importance of writing code that can be easily read, understood, and modified by other programmers (or even myself) six months after it was written.
Writing maintainable code is a skill that comes naturally to every good developer after they have to work on the same code base for an extended period of time. Dan hasn't had time to do that because he's shipped 20 different apps in the last 2 years, but now that he's working on his own startup (and will be for the foreseeable future) it sounds like he's learning the value of elegant code.
But the code in those games was crap. Looking back on the early stuff, I am amazed it even compiled. It wasn't until I had to work on a +500k LOC codebase with 30 other programmers for a year and a half that I learned the importance of writing code that can be easily read, understood, and modified by other programmers (or even myself) six months after it was written.
Writing maintainable code is a skill that comes naturally to every good developer after they have to work on the same code base for an extended period of time. Dan hasn't had time to do that because he's shipped 20 different apps in the last 2 years, but now that he's working on his own startup (and will be for the foreseeable future) it sounds like he's learning the value of elegant code.