Gas, my current game project, has reached a turning point at last. I know this not because I’ve written a whole bunch of new code—actually, commits have fallen off a little lately—but because I’ve started removing the code that implements the bridge ideas.

I think most developers have this concept, even if they call it something else. For me, a bridge idea is only obvious in retrospect, a feature that I spend considerable time implementing but have to throw away in the end. A bridge idea moves the project along, and though it no longer suits the project, the project could never have been completed without it.

I just wish I had a better analogy than a bridge for this kind of idea. Yes, they both get you somewhere, but you usually don’t throw a real bridge away once you’ve crossed it. (Unless I’m missing a trick here. Disposable bridges? Get my people on the phone.)