003 — Git Branches

Git Branches

You can think of these as timelines running parallel to each other. They allow developers to safely work on different aspects of their game (and/or software) with mitigated risk of fouling the whole thing up.

Commonly, it’s good to use two primary branches: the dev branch and main branch.

Dev branch: where the game or program is being developed and actively worked on.

Main Branch: where everything comes together for building the final product.

Say a bug is discovered in the code — it’s more likely to be found in the dev branch instead of the main that’s being released to the public. This way your team isn’t putting out buggy code.

Coming from a video game context, let’s say we’re working on an RPG. We can make different branches for the different systems: a quest branch, a magic branch, a combat branch, an inventory branch; branches for the overworld and branches for locations.

**git branch**

lists out available branches. The branch with the asterisk is the one you’re in.

To switch to a new branch, type

**git checkout [branch name]**

Anything done in one branch does not affect anything else in the other branches.

To make a branch in Git use the following command:

**git branch [name of new branch]**

Once created, type

**git branch**

to see your list,

Next up, we’ll look deeper into switching around between branches.