Game developers also passed cheat codes to reviewers who would test the game and be able to use them if they wanted. Older game titles had a lot of problems with bugs, and deleting cheat codes could lead to even more errors in the game.
Cheats in games: why did the developers come up with cheat codes?
However, in modern games, cheats are getting smaller, why? And here’s the thing: the cheat code that is available in production development for QA players and engineers turns into conditional compilation, like this.
And when a release build is being prepared that will go gold (from the English gone gold – goes to print on blue ray / dvd discs), these codes will not be included in it.
Games in the past were simple enough, so developers only needed a few codes to check all the game mechanics and the patency of the levels. In early games, such as Doom or Quake, you can easily enter a cheat to go through walls (the famous noclip cheat code) to overcome an impassable section of the level. Trying to do this in a modern game with a bunch of scripts and triggers, which are an integral part of the gameplay, could potentially lead to a breakdown.
Therefore, a number of cheats in the final product is simply missing. On the other hand, the developers themselves add “entertaining” cheats, designed to diversify the gameplay. For example, in the popular series of the game Grand Theft Auto there is an opportunity to make the car fly through the air, make it invulnerable, or immediately get the whole arsenal of weapons to have fun over the destruction of everything and everything.