How in the world do games that are that old run with new content without getting too glitchy? Is this trial and error that developers work on? Are certain games unique that slapping on content is as easy as a puzzle?
In: 4
software engineer here (although, not a game dev)
In general it’s because they are using the same engine/”framework”. Provided that engine doesn’t become redundant because of OS updates or conflicting software updates, there’s no reason adding more content should crash the game. Just because it’s “new” content doesn’t mean it’s entirely new code with a new framework and language. They are still using the same language and framework.
If the devs started pissing around with the engine, that would absolutely cause issues and would almost certainly crash games unless they put a lot of hours into re-working the engine to be modern. For that reason, devs tend to not touch the engine and instead just add more content to it. It’s a ton of dev time and a LOT of testing
It’s the reason WoW has the exact same graphics for the last like 15 years. The engine works (admittedly, not incredibly efficient), so they don’t touch it. Instead they are milking every possible expansion until they have to either:
A) rebuild the entire engine (doubtful because it’s VERY expensive)
or
B) stop making expansions
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