C#: Collection Initializers

Developing games requires countless amounts of properties and settings that often straddle the line between 'code' and 'data' quite akwardly. C# Collection Initializers allow very nice inline placement of these sorts of values.

Here is a snippet of some weapon data for a 2D top-down shooter:

new List() {

    new SWeaponData() {

        ReloadTime = 0.15f,

        Speed = 15.0f,

        Damage = 0.3f,

        Offset = new Vector2(0.0f, -10.0f),

    },

    new SWeaponData() {

        ReloadTime = 0.15f,

        Speed = 15.0f,

        Damage = 0.3f,

        Offset = new Vector2(0.0f, 10.0f),

    },

},

This sort of code/data is easy to modify and understand, and really just is an excellent fundamental language feature that you will miss using C++.

Keep in mind that this code runs -after- the constructors, so you can have default values in your constructor, and then on a per-instance basis override any of the values. Very useful!

// Instant variation!

Turret t = new Turret() { Texture = "MagicTurret", SE = "MagicShoot", Health = 20 };

Sensible defaults with the occasional case-specific override gives your code an enormous amount of flexibility.