How many pages of script are video games today?

Pong is a classic arcade game released in 1972 by Atari, widely regarded as one of the first video games to achieve mainstream popularity. The game simulates table tennis, where two players control paddles on opposite sides of the screen and use them to bounce a ball back and forth. The objective is to score points by making the ball pass the opponent’s paddle.

Pong was incredibly simple by today’s standards and was not written with traditional lines of code in a modern programming language. Instead, it was developed using a combination of electronic hardware logic and simple programming instructions embedded in circuits. The game was implemented through discrete logic circuits and transistors, so it did not have a line-count similar to that of software written in programming languages like C or Python.

If Pong were recreated using a modern programming language, it could be done with as little as 100 to 200 lines of code. The simplicity of Pong—which includes basic paddle movements, ball movement, collision detection, and scoring—means that it requires very minimal code to replicate its core gameplay.

Overall, the original Pong was more of a hardware-engineered game with embedded instructions than a traditional piece of software with a defined number of lines of code. Modern interpretations or versions written as practice projects typically have a small codebase compared to today’s complex video games.

The term “script” can refer to both narrative dialogue and the actual code used to create video games. If we’re talking about the code or scripting used to develop video games, the answer differs significantly from narrative scripts.

In the context of video game development, “scripts” can mean the code that defines gameplay mechanics, character behaviors, level triggers, and other interactive elements. These scripts are written in programming or scripting languages such as Python, Lua, JavaScript, C#, or custom scripting languages specific to game engines like Unreal Engine’s Blueprint or Unity’s C# scripting.

The amount of code involved in a video game varies greatly depending on the scale and complexity of the project. Small indie games may have a few thousand lines of code, while large, triple-A games can have millions of lines of code, spread across different systems and teams. The codebase includes core game engine functionalities, gameplay logic, physics calculations, artificial intelligence scripts, and more.

Unlike traditional scripts for narrative dialogue, which can be measured in pages or word count, coding scripts are quantified in terms of lines of code (LOC). A massive game with open-world mechanics, intricate AI, and rich storytelling elements could require hundreds of thousands to millions of lines of code, contributing to the game’s depth, interactivity, and overall functionality.

The largest amount of code used for a video game is often attributed to massive open-world games or games with complex online multiplayer components. One notable example is Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), developed by Rockstar Games, which reportedly has over 100 million lines of code. This staggering amount reflects the complexity of the game, which includes detailed open-world mechanics, AI systems, physics engines, online multiplayer functionalities, and a rich narrative.

Another example is Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), which is considered one of the most complex games ever developed. This game simulates the entire planet with real-time weather, topographical data, and sophisticated flight physics. While exact figures for the number of lines of code used in Microsoft Flight Simulator are not officially disclosed, it is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions due to the integration of real-world data, satellite imagery, and cloud computing services that run in conjunction with the game’s software.

World of Warcraft, developed by Blizzard Entertainment, is another game with an exceptionally large codebase. This massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has evolved over nearly two decades and has accumulated millions of lines of code due to its continual expansions, updates, and complex systems.

Overall, the largest amounts of code used for games are typically found in games that feature vast, interactive open worlds, extensive online capabilities, and complex gameplay mechanics. These games require a substantial number of lines of code to support detailed graphics, player interactions, AI behavior, and the expansive environments that players can explore.

There have been cases where a game’s code has become so complex that significant issues have rendered parts of the code nearly unfixable, or at least so costly and difficult to fix that developers have chosen alternative approaches. This situation often arises in large, long-running projects where multiple developers have worked on the codebase over many years, resulting in what is known as “spaghetti code”—a tangled and overly complicated code structure that is difficult to maintain and debug.

One example of a codebase that became notoriously complex is Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sony Online Entertainment. The game faced significant difficulties with maintaining and updating its complex code. Over time, updates and patches layered on top of each other created dependencies and conflicts that made certain aspects of the codebase nearly impossible to change without causing new problems elsewhere. This contributed to decisions that led to major gameplay overhauls, such as the “New Game Enhancements,” which fundamentally changed the game and alienated many players.

Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red is another recent example of a game with an extremely complex codebase that led to major issues. Upon release, the game was plagued with severe bugs and performance problems, particularly on older console hardware. While the code was not unfixable, the sheer complexity of the systems and the interconnected nature of the game’s mechanics made bug-fixing and optimization a prolonged and difficult process. It took several large patches and updates over a long period to bring the game to a more stable state.

In cases where the code is so convoluted that fixing it becomes impractical, developers sometimes choose to rewrite portions of the codebase or even start from scratch. This can happen when the cost and time required to fix existing issues are greater than the resources needed to develop new code. In older games or software projects, such as legacy systems that were built without modern coding practices or documentation, developers can find themselves unable to effectively fix or update the code without risking further damage or creating new problems