Game Development Community

Why laptops?

by Richard Ranft · in General Discussion · 08/05/2013 (8:45 am) · 13 replies

After years of seeing "I'm having a problem with X" - "Are you on a laptop?" - "Yeah... why?" I'm really beginning to wonder what the deal is.

Why does everyone want to try to develop a game on a laptop? "Portability," I get it - but don't do it. If you want portability, set yourself up with one of those "LAN party" rigs - they're small and light, and only a little more effort to move around when traveling. And they are not gimped with power-saving snail-like processors or half-baked video hardware.

Just sayin' - I'm pretty sure that very few pro studios do more than a bare fraction of their dev work on laptops and we shouldn't either. They're generally just not designed for that sort of work.
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Torque Owner Richard Ranft
Roostertail Games

About the author

I was a soldier, then a computer technician, an electrician, a technical writer, game programmer, and now software test/tools developer. I've been a hobbyist programmer since the age of 13.

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    Associate Michael Hall
    Distracted...
    #1
    08/05/2013 (9:13 am)
    But, but... a laptop is so much easier to manage at the bar. People might look at me funny for lugging around a LAN rig :D

    Torque Owner Dwarf King
    Noble Games Production
    #2
    08/05/2013 (9:18 am)
    Say what?

    I have for a long time developed on a m17x Alienware machine. It works flawlessly(all games on highest settings). In fact it works like a small desktop delight. It will never beat my desktop but it is sure a fine on run solution(Sager is fine too).

    I also use my desktop of course :)

    Best,

    Dwarf King

    Duion
    #3
    08/05/2013 (9:33 am)
    Working on a laptop drives me mad after some time, not mainly because they are slower, but you have small monitor, small keyboard, small or no mouse, just not so ergonomic so you cannot work that fast, sure you can add a keyboard, mouse, monitor and all, but why a laptop then? You would have just merged the disadvantages of laptop and desktop in this case.

    Torque Owner Dwarf King
    Noble Games Production
    #4
    08/05/2013 (9:38 am)
    Well the monitor is the number one reason I still prefer desktop. In fact I use a 27 inches Samsung screen and a ergonomic Microsoft keyboard for working.

    The m17x machine only comes with 17 inches but the keyboard is fine.

    Desktop is still the king :o)

    Torque Owner Demolishun
    DemolishunConsulting Rocks!
    #5
    08/05/2013 (11:53 am)
    I would hazard a guess that the majority of laptop developers are trying to recoup lost commuting time or are students that need the laptop for school. Some might even be taking computers science related classes at universities and use a laptop in the classroom and at their dorm/home. Laptops for development are here to stay even if they are not the preferred development environment.

    Just wait until people start developing on Android machines...

    Torque Owner Richard Ranft
    Roostertail Games
    #6
    08/05/2013 (3:39 pm)
    Hah! Yeah, I've got a Raspberry Pi I want to develop on. Talk about mobile! But for C++ you're generally going to want to set up for remote development on it - I can't find a version of NetBeans for ARM that actually runs on it and I'm not going to spend any longer than 10 minutes at a time in vi if I can help it....

    And I'm going to say that the Alienware rig is an exception to the rule - your average laptop isn't quite up to that spec.

    Torque Owner Stefan Lundmark
    #7
    08/06/2013 (4:50 pm)
    I'm on a G74SX and it's so much faster (and quieter) than my stationary rig.

    I wouldn't ever buy one of those cheap small laptops. That's so pointless if you're doing anything else but surfing.

    Torque Owner Edward Smith
    Silencersoft
    #8
    08/06/2013 (4:51 pm)
    I have a desktop and if I want portable I got a laptop, which is fine but you have to think what is your uses of the laptop. If it's for game dev you want a good GPU as the key feature. And then it'll be fine.

    As your developing a game you need a better machine than your target machine as things will be unoptimised.

    Associate Steve Acaster
    [YorkshireRifles.com]
    #9
    08/07/2013 (7:16 am)
    I once borrowed a crap lappy to do some script/code writing whilst in the pub ... didn't get any work done at all which shows how useless laptops are. ;)

    Torque Owner Richard Ranft
    Roostertail Games
    #10
    08/07/2013 (8:48 am)
    Seems like we're trending toward "if you're going to use a laptop, get an awesome one."

    I suppose if I were really on-the-go that much I'd invest that sort of money into a monster gaming laptop to develop on.

    Torque Owner Demolishun
    DemolishunConsulting Rocks!
    #11
    08/07/2013 (12:22 pm)
    Writing code in a pub...so the laptop is to blame for the lack of productivity? I suppose that like Clinton, you did not inhale?

    Friends don't let friends use "crap lappy" in a pub. That totally sounds like a really strange cartoon character, or the ugly stripper at an adult club.

    Associate Michael Hall
    Distracted...
    #12
    08/07/2013 (12:24 pm)
    Not taking the new laptop to the pub accounts for a good bit of my lack of productivity...

    Torque Owner Demolishun
    DemolishunConsulting Rocks!
    #13
    08/07/2013 (5:55 pm)
    Wait, going to the pub or not taking a laptop accounts for this?

    Remember, this is for posterity, so please be completely honest. How does this make you feel that I have just sucked away 10 seconds of your life?