Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
handmadehero.org
Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
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Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#2This looks like it could be really helpful for someone like me who wants to up their C game.
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#3The video was top-notch, nearly gave me goosebumps.
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#4The programmer behind this, Casey Muratori, has been helping out Jonathan Blow (Braid) on his new game, The Witness, and blogging about it.
For the more experienced game devs out there, the series is a fantastic read: http://mollyrocket.com/casey/ (starting post 6). Many of the insights apply to software engineering in general, not just game dev.
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#5Oh, nostalgia.
I hope this will turn out to be a great resource for experienced programmers interested in graphics, real-time processing, and the like. I wish I had the time to go through it.
However if your goal is to make games my advice, and I'm not alone, is to make games and use an engine. Your users will not know if you developed it from scratch in C. They won't even care if you tell them. Only programmers and game developers care.
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#6Oh, nostalgia. I hope this will turn out to be a great resource for experienced programmers interested in graphics, real-time processing, and the like. I wish I had the time to go through it. However if your goal is to make games my advice, and I'm not alone, is to make games and use an engine. Your users will not know if you developed it from scratch in C. They won't even care if you tell them. Only programmers and…
Lots of gamers can tell when a game is a "Unity" game for example (due to lots of built in shaders and effects). I'd agree using an engine is a wise choice but make the decision very carefully. It can save a ton of time, but you still have to put in a lot of work to not let the engine dictate too much about the look and feel of the game.
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#7Wow. I can't even begin to express how much the premise behind this series resonates with me. I've been looking for something just like this.
My only issue is that, although in C, the preview/introduction video seems pretty centered around visual studio[0]. In the FAQ you say that multi platform support for *nix systems will be added later.
How exactly will this work for those of us who want to follow along, but don't have Windows?
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#8Oh, nostalgia. I hope this will turn out to be a great resource for experienced programmers interested in graphics, real-time processing, and the like. I wish I had the time to go through it. However if your goal is to make games my advice, and I'm not alone, is to make games and use an engine. Your users will not know if you developed it from scratch in C. They won't even care if you tell them. Only programmers and…
Lots of gamers can tell when a game is a "Unity" game for example (due to lots of built in shaders and effects). I'd agree using an engine is a wise choice but make the decision very carefully. It can save a ton of time, but you still have to put in a lot of work to not let the engine dictate too much about the look and feel of the game.
The point I was trying to make is that developing a game from scratch is a labor-intensive way to make a game. You have to consider file paths, resource management, texture packing, file formats, parsers, and hardware. You have to think about abstract things like event processing, concurrency, simulation, reacting to inputs, etc. A mountain of work goes into lighting up a pixel on the screen. Doing it from scratch is essentially inventing the universe from the atoms up.
I like this kind of stuff.
However there are projects where I'm more interested in game play mechanics, art, music, and experience. I can still write my own shaders. I still write all of my own behaviors, AI, and controllers. But with an engine I don't have to worry about animation blending, input control, hardware platform differences, asset tooling, etc, etc, etc, etc.
I don't want to discourage anyone who is curious. I just wanted to push back against some of the nostalgia in the video. It's not all glamorous. I've spent my share of my youth slavering over cryptic compiler errors. Developing games then wasn't as much fun as it is today, IMO. It was different and unique in its own way. But the tools we have today are far, far better.
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#9This looks very interesting, in straight C no less. Props to this guy.
I'll definitely be watching it, although I take some mild offense at the idea that I am somehow less of a gamer or game-maker if I decide to use an engine. Truthfully, I am not a very good programmer: I don't delight in getting into the guts of the mathematical algorithms that allow for the complicated physics calculations, AI pathfinding, or multiplayer networking, nor do I enjoy the tedium of hand-optimizing routines for tweaking performance. I just want to make games.
On the other hand, someone like John Carmack clearly does delight in some of these things, and he is ten times the programmer I will ever be. To boot, he has written this amazing Doom engine (to use an antiquated example) which he will license out to other developers! Why shouldn't I use it? What am I demonstrating by insisting that I do everything myself if it results in an inferior game?
Re: Handmade Hero: C game from scratch
#10Wow. I can't even begin to express how much the premise behind this series resonates with me. I've been looking for something just like this. My only issue is that, although in C, the preview/introduction video seems pretty centered around visual studio[0]. In the FAQ you say that multi platform support for *nix systems will be added later. How exactly will this work for those of us who want to follow along, but don'…
Answered in the Q&A video that followed the one you linked to. The project will be avoiding OS specific code as much as possible so I can't see a there being a dependency on visual studio. http://youtu.be/I5fNrmQYeuI?t=11m21s