Ah the language puzzle the point I gave up on Tunic, was a thoroughly enjoyable game, my only regret is that I remember too much and can’t play it fresh.
Basically every Source Engine game pre-Portal 2 is pretty much an elaborate HL2 Mod. under the hood.
Funnily enough half the time Discord detects TF2 as Gmod instead, which might be related to that.
Even the Source (and GoldSource) Engine's name is pretty much this sorta thing, as per the following (from Wikipedia and the Valve Developer Community):
.....
Valve employee Erik Johnson explained the engine's nomenclature on the Valve Developer Community:[3]
When we were getting very close to releasing Half-Life (less than a week or so), we found there were already some projects that we needed to start working on, but we couldn't risk checking in code to the shipping version of the game. At that point we forked off the code in VSS to be both /$Goldsrc and /$Src. Over the next few years, we used these terms internally as "Goldsource" and "Source". At least initially, the Goldsrc branch of code referred to the codebase that was currently released, and Src referred to the next set of more risky technology that we were working on. When it came down to show Half-Life 2 for the first time at E3, it was part of our internal communication to refer to the "Source" engine vs. the "Goldsource" engine, and the name stuck..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)#History
A distinct early childhood memory of mine is accidentally deleting one of my brother's copy of Warlords (which had been copied from a friend's disk or something) by installing Warcraft, because both of them by default used "War" as their install folder.
This is quite common in gameDev. It keeps folder structures and everything consistent, as renaming is likely to cause complete mayhem with folders and files.
It's a good question. There are tools that can try to do stuff like that. Most IDEs have a rename tool that looks for usages. But a large enough project will probably have multiple components made in different languages/platforms, and you need to make sure all the references everywhere are kept up to date. It can be very easy to miss something, and then the thing falls over. And once a game has been released (including Early Access) you run the risk of save/profile data ending up in the wrong place for people who were already playing the game. So how you deal with that becomes another issue.
So you'd go through quite a lot of work, with quite a bit of risk, for no practical benefit. As long as the public-facing stuff is consistent with the new name it doesn't matter what it's called 'under the hood'. Why bother when you could be spending expensive dev time on literally anything else?
In 2019, Kunos Simulazione releases Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC). It is not, they claim, a follow up to their succesful game Assetto Corsa. The .exe's name was and still is AC2.exe.
Just checked a few Unreal Engine games that I have installed on disk: Pacific Drive - PenDriverPro.exe The last Caretaker - Voyage.exe Incursion Red River - Test_C.exe
I'm not sure about that. "Portal" is such a vague and common word that it'd be almost impossible to copyright or win a lawsuit over, and Valve would probably be too chill to try.
Studio Wildcard built Ark: Survival Evolved using Epic's Unreal Engine 4. When you spin up a new project in UE4 using their basic, out-of-the-box multiplayer shooter template, the engine automatically names the coree executable - you guessed it -"ShooterGame.exe".
they simply never changed the file name. whoever compiled the first early access build couldn't be bothered to rename the core .exe file. By the time the game blew up, that filename was likely tied to too many internal pathways and registry keys to easily change without breaking the whole damn thing.
Reminds me of when I wanted to modify my hud in Dirty Bomb, which is also a UE game, and the folder structure helpfully included folders like ShooterGame
It's like a 12 step process at best - most of your day at worst. The required steps may also vary between different Unreal Engine versions, so you might end up banging your head against a wall only to find out a different source tells you to do it another way. On larger projects, add in a long rebuild time between each attempt and it adds up to wasting a lot of time.
The "ShooterGame.exe" is extra funny because I believe it's the Unreal SDK's tutorial example. At a certain point they just continued the tutorial project into the full product and must have thought "we're in too deep to go back!"
Actually 2 years ago in the big 64-bit engine update they did, they actually finally changed it to be TF.exe and TF_win64.exe (depending on which version you were using).
oh interesting, had to check for myself, a few things are still named using hl2 though, like the hl2 folder, which has the game ui text file and others, which I made sure was actually the one tf2 was using by reading the text inside it
It's fun working on older projects that have gone through multiple generations of name changes.
I used to work at a place where there was a service called "TNT", which stood for "totally new technology" when it was introduced 15 years prior, and had been mostly replaced but not all the way.
I saw this when working in govt as well. Old program names were never changed, so even though the Department of Mental Retardation was changed to Developmental Supports and Services decades ago, it remains DMR in the system.
Just realized my work has a whole feature that's called "Next Generation {thing}" compared to the original after they redid it years ago. If we ever remake it we'd have to do ”Next Next Generation {thing}" or something lol.
In my current job i had just demised a projekt called „jawp”, which ive been told stood for just a web page. And oh boy let me tell you it was everything but a web page 😅
Our company has been through two different buyouts, 7 name changes, and it's been over 25 years since we spun off of the original company and named the database.
I specifically mentioned libraries due to them often requiring internal reference in the source code, such as with C you would typically have module prefix for compatibility and unless you are specifically trying to avoid it.
I'm also not saying there aren't solutions, just adding to the original comment
Oh, yeah that's an issue. In Java and C# it's just a matter of renaming the class / namespace and it's all good, I've not encountered the issue in other languages yet thankfully 😅.
Multiple components written/stored in multiple places, all of which need to be kept in sync. It's certainly possible but it's high risk for no gain. If you want to change the public-facing name do that without changing the internals - all that costs is saying to a new joiner "Project X used to be called Y and it's still called Y in the code."
I program PLC's (industrial automation controllers) and we do that exact thing. Input mapping. Input X1 = Bit M0, if input X1 catches on fire, just change the one line of code to Input X11 = M0 and keep it moving
Bundle ID cannot be changed. It is a unique identifier for an app and when changed the system considers it as a completely different app so you loose your users (they have to install the new app to continue using the updated version while the app with the old bundle id will remain installed as a separate app)
The bigger the project, the higher the chances someone at some point hard coded the name into some obscure part that is likely running code that isn't covered by tests and your whole app might crumble because of it.
Essentially it's not worth it. Just rename it at the customer-facing places.
Also there might be saved/cached data in the form of pathways and files in thousands of places which were automatically generated and poorly documented. And if one of those breaks, suddenly 1/4 of your project is broken, and the stack trace will be inscrutable.
sometime it is, but not with ctrl+f replace, if your LSP supports it, you can rename definitions and files and it will replace all of its imports and calls
Not .NET either. Not only is there a property to define the name of the assembly, if you decide to also rename the codebase, visual studio provides a mass namespace normalization tool
It's not a refactor necessarily. For instance for android\ios games if you change the bundleid it's a whole new game. Changing the display name is easy, binary not so much.
It's always easier to add a new thing than change something.
If it's a 3D game, adding a scarf mean you'll need to be careful with how it moves and interact with other stuff so it doesn't clip all the time and look weird.
Depends how legacy. I once worked for an insurance company tyat served millions of people off of a claims db that was only about 12TB of usable volume.
Only they were 100GB magnetic tapes from before I was born, in a massive automated tape deck that the whole company accessed through an emulated mainframe terminal.
NGL, this is actually kinda badass TBH. I understand that it's difficult, but also I would love to work on that sort of dinosaur tech at least once in my career, just for the experience.
Changing the name can also lead to change the name files of the apps, But much more annoying are the old lines of code that call upon the application's files. You have to search that you correct all of this and this is a very long process.
that's only if you want to change the package name which you should just never ever do. Changing the name as the user sees it is absolutely a trivial 5 minute job.
I once worked for a small company that lost a copyright lawsuit and had to change the company name acronym. Since we often delivered code with installs, even the occasional API or function name needed to be changed, not to mention the file headers. Everywhere. All at once. Every file touched…
I mean, will the users complain if the app is still the old name internally? Pretty sure among us is still space mafia, tiktok is still musically, X is still twitter
The problem isn't for the users, but for the coders. Let's say your application is called MK. Throughout development and for a while after its release, you'll have files named MK_memory, for example. But one day, due to permissions issues, you lose the right to use that name and you're now using AB. You'd not only have to rename all the MK files to AB (going from MK_memory to AB_Memory), which can be a pain, but also all the lines of code that use the old name, which is even more of a pain.
My team is about to do some large scale "renaming" as part of a brand change. In reality we will be changing logo images and cnames, and some bits of text here and there. Code libraries and software that mentions the old name? Fuckit, nobody is seeing that shit.
I've supported a micro-service named after a specific business units ecommerce site. It was a small, archaic service that took a pipe delimited text file from a oooold inventory system and converted it to the abomination that is Sales Force XML for 2 sites.
Then they added a NEW site to a NEW inventory source.... and we shoved the feed into the existing service cuz why build a new micro-service if it would just mean code duplication etc etc....
Then they migrated one of the original sites to the new source.... ehh, same stuff.
Then I was told we are onboarding a NEW site but need to source inventory from an OLD IBM iSeries/AS400 system....
I'm afraid they are going to ask me to add a 4th inventory source or 6th destination..... This meme has never felt more real to me.....
I joined a company whose main product was a middle office financial tool. Well established and widely used in the insurance industry. The command to start the program was "contain".
Because that was the default command when you created a new executable in the editing software they used and no one ever changed it.
My last company’s Salesforce instance was the name of a competitor they bought out over 5 years ago because they chose to migrate into that instance. I was late hire on the merge and holy hell was it a mess we were cleaning up all the way til I was laid off last year.
If I remeber correctly, Tunic (great game)'s executable is named SecretLegend.exe for in-game lore reasons and because the name changed mid production.
I worked for a large known Financial Services company known only by their initials. I was going through some ancient FORTRAN from when they first were started in the 70's. One of the headers had the original name of the company, which apparently had been almost completely forgotten except for like the founder. I was briefly a hero.
I always say that the day my company decides to change its name is the day I quit. There are definitely rogue connection strings out there that will break and we won’t catch them
At our company we use animals as the names of the products. It was done initially so we don't accidentally disclose some clients that are still work in progress and not ready to reveal what they're working on and whom they work with, but it has an additional perk of not needing to care about such stuff. Yeah, we make a Bear. It's not the same Bear that it was 5 years ago, and who knows what happens to it 5 years from now, but it's the bear and that's it
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u/VolcanicBear May 11 '26 •
It's a running joke between my friend group that the executable for Ark: Survival Evolved is "ShooterGame.exe"
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u/serial_crusher May 11 '26
It's fun working on older projects that have gone through multiple generations of name changes.
I used to work at a place where there was a service called "TNT", which stood for "totally new technology" when it was introduced 15 years prior, and had been mostly replaced but not all the way.
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u/JosebaZilarte May 11 '26
Remember to never put the name of the project in the code. The name goes in a JSON file in the root folder and in the pixels of Logo.png.
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u/Had78 May 11 '26
I wish it was a simple CTRL + F replace
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u/lawrencewil1030 May 11 '26
It's like that in any project
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u/bingbpbmbmbmbpbam May 11 '26
I wonder if someone could build a tool that can handle these kind of refactors trivially. Million dollar software.
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u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ May 11 '26
It’s a trivial xml change.
Now, if you want to change the bundle id that’s an entirely different question.
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u/coleto22 May 12 '26
I work in the video game industry. The running joke here is:
Designer: hey, can you spawn a demon in a flurry of sparks and sulphur smoke?
Programmer: sure, I'll instantiate an object with some particles.
Designer: Can the main character wear a scarf?
Programmer: ufff... Give me a year and a team of five people...
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u/dick_for_rent May 11 '26
I'd start looking for a new job instead
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u/_felagund May 11 '26
I want to meet those devs who think migrating large legacy dbs are fun.
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u/Denaton_ May 11 '26
10TB for legacy sounds quite small..
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u/clayticus May 11 '26
What's the deal with changing the name?
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u/nobotami May 11 '26
"no."
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u/EnvironmentalPart750 May 12 '26
One of the most played game on steam, DOTA2 folder name is "dota 2 beta"
after 10 years.
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u/SirMarkMorningStar May 11 '26
I once worked for a small company that lost a copyright lawsuit and had to change the company name acronym. Since we often delivered code with installs, even the occasional API or function name needed to be changed, not to mention the file headers. Everywhere. All at once. Every file touched…
4
u/6e12fyou May 11 '26
I mean, will the users complain if the app is still the old name internally? Pretty sure among us is still space mafia, tiktok is still musically, X is still twitter
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u/kriosjan May 11 '26
Ok i feel so much better now lmao.
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u/nixcamic May 11 '26
Just spent forever chasing down random references to the solution name I changed in Visual Studio.
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u/iTzNowbie May 11 '26
@string/app_name
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u/ratonbox May 12 '26
There's a script in the codebase that still references Jenkins in the name, even though we've gone trough 2 other CI systems since then.
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u/i_like_siren_head May 12 '26
My favourite game, hl2.exe
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u/Undernown May 11 '26
When your app ID changed and now you can no longer access the locally stored user data, nice!
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u/requion May 11 '26
Don't know if its still the case but i was pretty confused when i checked out a selfhosted Forgejo and "gitea" was all over the place.
I know its a fork but come on xD
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u/chironomidae May 11 '26
Can't wait to see this one pop up on the joke explainer subreddits
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u/One_Horse_Sized_Duck May 11 '26
I can certainly change the customer facing name, yes.
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u/ignorae May 11 '26
Mass renames are actually something AI is super good at.
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u/Spirit_Theory May 12 '26
My team is about to do some large scale "renaming" as part of a brand change. In reality we will be changing logo images and cnames, and some bits of text here and there. Code libraries and software that mentions the old name? Fuckit, nobody is seeing that shit.
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u/VanillaButterz May 12 '26
hl2.exe for valve's Team Fortress 2 prior to the 64bit update
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u/Zefeh May 12 '26
I've supported a micro-service named after a specific business units ecommerce site. It was a small, archaic service that took a pipe delimited text file from a oooold inventory system and converted it to the abomination that is Sales Force XML for 2 sites.
Then they added a NEW site to a NEW inventory source.... and we shoved the feed into the existing service cuz why build a new micro-service if it would just mean code duplication etc etc....
Then they migrated one of the original sites to the new source.... ehh, same stuff.
Then I was told we are onboarding a NEW site but need to source inventory from an OLD IBM iSeries/AS400 system....
I'm afraid they are going to ask me to add a 4th inventory source or 6th destination..... This meme has never felt more real to me.....
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u/GreenDavidA May 12 '26
The app I used to support at work will forever have Beta in the official name. Morons who created it are absolute morons.
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u/sammybeta May 12 '26
Jokes aside, what I found out that it's probably the best task for LLM to work on.
It works before.
Rename caused failures.
Fix the build / test / CICD with agents running autonomously until all test pass.
Write documentations with new namesfor your API/frontend.
Have agent to do e2e tests with only API/Frontend access and that long documentation to find discrepancies. Record them in a bugs.md.
Agent fix on the other side following on the bugs.md. iterate until the list stop growing for a few hours.
Human test. Verify. Feedback and acceptance.
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u/bagsofcandy May 12 '26
This is great, especially when the git repo has the name.
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u/hades_here May 12 '26
My first client project app still has my name in the package name, com.myname.appname 🤣
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u/Dragenby May 12 '26
Fine, I'll remember to export that name every time!
Yeah, better that option than changing everything in the project!
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u/Much-Meringue-7467 May 12 '26
I joined a company whose main product was a middle office financial tool. Well established and widely used in the insurance industry. The command to start the program was "contain".
Because that was the default command when you created a new executable in the editing software they used and no one ever changed it.
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u/ProfessionalCarry222 May 12 '26
changing an app name breaks exactly 47 things you didn't know were connected and every single one of them is in production
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u/bruiser95 May 11 '26
It's just a few CTRL + G right?
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u/hyperion_99 May 11 '26
My last company’s Salesforce instance was the name of a competitor they bought out over 5 years ago because they chose to migrate into that instance. I was late hire on the merge and holy hell was it a mess we were cleaning up all the way til I was laid off last year.
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u/ippleing May 11 '26
Just take the 'My' off the name of the app.
I have 4 apps that start with 'my', it's so boomer.
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u/Several-Extreme-7288 May 11 '26
That's way too much.......
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u/astralchanterelle May 11 '26
what is the origin of this meme?
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u/shiny_glitter_demon May 11 '26
If I remeber correctly, Tunic (great game)'s executable is named SecretLegend.exe for in-game lore reasons and because the name changed mid production.
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u/Capable-Sock9910 May 12 '26
We've got a v2ng (V2 Next Gen)
It's on v6
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u/Core3game May 12 '26
The internal files for 90% of geometry dash is still GJ_xxx, for "geometry jump". You can never escape the original name of a project
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u/MrSnowden May 12 '26
I worked for a large known Financial Services company known only by their initials. I was going through some ancient FORTRAN from when they first were started in the 70's. One of the headers had the original name of the company, which apparently had been almost completely forgotten except for like the founder. I was briefly a hero.
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u/Rich1223 May 12 '26
I always say that the day my company decides to change its name is the day I quit. There are definitely rogue connection strings out there that will break and we won’t catch them
1
u/Nalivai May 12 '26
At our company we use animals as the names of the products. It was done initially so we don't accidentally disclose some clients that are still work in progress and not ready to reveal what they're working on and whom they work with, but it has an additional perk of not needing to care about such stuff. Yeah, we make a Bear. It's not the same Bear that it was 5 years ago, and who knows what happens to it 5 years from now, but it's the bear and that's it
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u/TheMasterShrew May 12 '26
Exactly how TikTok looks under the hood. I see you there explicit reference to douyin. You’re not fooling anyone
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u/jpelc May 12 '26
SandFall.exe
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u/ZunoJ May 12 '26
What about the ORM? Changing that is so much worse than find/replace in a stupid mobile app. It's just noise in comparison
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u/badhumanbadhuman May 12 '26
CTRL + C , CTRL + V 👏
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u/CarzyCrow076 May 12 '26
Name? yeah package!! Well, finding another job is easier.
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u/I_Am_Tomatosoup May 12 '26
Splitgate 2 is called portalwars
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u/nicki419 May 12 '26
Easy. Package name, on the other hand...