Oh I agree that bad code is a problem I ' ve just encountered many developers who end up crunching because they put too much effort into things that don ' t matter and end up scrambling to finish things that we really need . I used to be a huge advocate for really strong and robust code , but recently I worked with a producer I really respect and been responsible for delivering and realized that even though I had the best of intentions a lot of times what I did didn ' t help the project . What you really need is a senior technical lead who advocates for proper time to build good code where it is needed . There is a strong business case to have a strong foundation if you want to be able to pivot and adjust but you need to make sure the entire project works with that . Everything has a cost , and architecting good code is expensive , and that ' s not always the right choice . Especially with indie games , you need to experience the last 20 % of development and the thrill of trying to get your game into people ' s hands . Those are incredibly important skills and the cleanest code in the world isn ' t going to sell copies .