An old-school web sports sim developer reflects on building games before modern tools existed
By
YesBox
Master baker tier. Every paragraph earns its place on the tray.
Summary
A veteran web-based sports simulation game developer reflects on the evolution of web development since 2012, contrasting the primitive tools and documentation of the past with today's modern ecosystem. The author shares their journey of building Basketball GM (BBGM) from scratch when npm was new, bundling was manual, and technologies like TypeScript, React, and async/await didn't exist. The article explores the tension between old-school craftsmanship and the new wave of "vibecoded" sports sims enabled by modern AI tools, offering a personal perspective on how much the web development landscape has changed.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledBack when I started working on the web-based version of Basketball GM in 2012, web development was very different.
npm was brand new and hardly anyone used it.
And things like TypeScript, React, async/await... these did not even exist yet!
It was really difficult! The tools and documentation were horrible compared to today.
But I thought it'd be really cool if I could make BBGM run in a web browser, so I persevered.
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