How do you collaborate and share your scripts with other developers and designers?

1 Version control

One of the most important aspects of scripting collaboration is version control, which is a system that tracks and manages the changes made to your scripts over time. Version control allows you to create, edit, merge, and revert your scripts without losing or overwriting your work, and also to collaborate with other developers on the same or different branches of your code. Version control also helps you to avoid conflicts, bugs, and errors that can arise from incompatible or outdated scripts. Some of the most popular version control tools for game development are Git, Subversion, and Perforce.

2 Coding standards

Another key element of scripting collaboration is coding standards, which are a set of rules and conventions that define how you write, format, and document your scripts. Coding standards help you to maintain consistency, readability, and clarity in your code, and also to communicate your intentions and logic to other developers and designers. Coding standards can cover aspects such as naming, indentation, comments, structure, syntax, and style. You can follow existing coding standards for your programming language or game engine, or create your own custom ones for your project.

3 Scripting tools

Besides version control and coding standards, you can also use various scripting tools to enhance your collaboration and productivity. Scripting tools are software applications or plugins that help you to write, edit, debug, test, and optimize your scripts. Some of the benefits of scripting tools are that they can provide features such as syntax highlighting, code completion, error checking, refactoring, debugging, testing, profiling, and documentation. Some of the most popular scripting tools for game development are Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, MonoDevelop, and JetBrains Rider.

4 Scripting frameworks

Another way to improve your scripting collaboration is to use scripting frameworks, which are libraries or modules that provide predefined functions, classes, or templates for common or specific tasks in game development. Scripting frameworks can help you to save time and effort, reduce errors and bugs, and increase performance and quality in your scripts. Scripting frameworks can also help you to standardize and modularize your code, and to integrate with other frameworks or systems. Some of the most popular scripting frameworks for game development are Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, and Phaser.

5 Scripting documentation

The last but not least aspect of scripting collaboration is scripting documentation, which is the process of creating and maintaining written or visual information that describes your scripts and how they work. Scripting documentation can help you to explain your code to yourself and others, to facilitate learning and understanding, and to support maintenance and updates. Scripting documentation can include comments, annotations, diagrams, manuals, tutorials, and references. Some of the most popular scripting documentation tools for game development are Doxygen, Sphinx, Javadoc, and Markdown.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?