Course description

c++ game engine

This course is a gentle and comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of 2D game engine architecture. We'll discuss several of the most popular programming patterns used in game development and try to put all the theory we learn into context by coding a small 2D game engine using modern C++, SDL, and Lua.

c++ ecs

We will write, together, a small ECS framework from scratch to manage our entities, components, and systems. We will discuss how engine programmers design their code and how we should think of organizing game objects in memory with performance in mind.

The tools you'll need

c++ game engine tools
  • C++ is a powerful compiled language
  • SDL2 is a library for cross-platform rendering and input
  • GLM is a math helper library
  • Dear ImGui is a library to create UI for engine tooling
  • Sol is a binding library for modern C++ & Lua
  • Lua is fast and easy to use scripting language

We'll try to write most of our engine code from scratch. All these libraries and tools are cross-platform, so you'll be able to code along with either Windows, macOS, or Linux!

c++ game engine platform

Is this course for you?

The target audience for this course are beginner programmers that wish to learn more about how C++ works in the context of game development. Therefore, students must already know how to code and be familiar with basic concepts of programming and logic. You should be able to write if-else statements, loops, functions, and classes using simple OOP.

You do not need to know C++ before enrolling; many successful students have a background in web, mobile, and game development, working with languages like Java, Python, Ruby, Go, Swift, JavaScript, Ada, Zig, Kotlin, and many others.

How is this course different?

This course is not just a simple tutorial on how to create a game with C++. This is the opportunity for you to think about the abstraction of what a "game" really is and all the pieces that need to interact to make them happen. More than that, this course allows you to write from scratch the code of a small C++ engine that can be used to create many types of games.

We will also touch other important topics like ECS, data-oriented design, STL containers, C++ templates, game loop, SDL rendering, event systems, asset management, memory management, and performance. And finally, we'll also learn how to embed the Lua language into our native C++ code to add scripting power to our engine.

lua game scriptingr

While there are other resources about game engine development out there, they are either too theoretical or overwhelmingly long. If you are looking for a gentle introduction to the world of game engine programming and want to learn how games really work under the hood, then you should definitely take this course!

About the instructor

gustavo pezzi

Gustavo Pezzi is a university lecturer in London, UK. He has won multiple education awards as a teacher and is also the founder of pikuma.com.

Gustavo teaches fundamentals of computer science and mathematics; his academic path includes institutions such as Pittsburg State University, City University of London, and University of Oxford.

teaching certification
higher education academy
pgclt teaching certification
bpp university award

Course content

30 hours total length 27 Chapters Last updated January 2024
  • Motivations & Learning Outcomes
  • How to Take This Course
  • Project Technologies and Libraries
  • Configuring Linux Dependencies
  • Configuring macOS Dependencies
  • Compilation
  • Linking
  • Makefiles
  • Configuring Visual Studio on Windows
  • Quiz: Compilation and Linking
  • Static vs. Dynamic Libraries
  • Game Loop
  • Game Class
  • Creating an SDL Window
  • Polling SDL Events
  • Rendering the SDL Window
  • Fullscreen SDL Window
  • Fake Fullscreen vs. Real Fullscreen
  • SDL GPU Acceleration and VSync
  • Quiz: SDL Window
  • Drawing an SDL Rectangle
  • Double-Buffered Rendering
  • Loading PNG Textures
  • Quiz: Game Loop and SDL Window
  • Object Movement and Velocity Vectors
  • Fixed Game Framerate
  • SDL Delay
  • Variable Delta Time
  • Uncapped Framerate
  • Game Loop and Determinism
  • Quiz: Game Loop Timestep
  • Logger Class
  • Exercise: Logging Game Information
  • Coding the Logger Class
  • Popular C++ Logger Libraries
  • Quiz: Logger
  • Project Subfolders
  • Makefile Variables
  • Creating C++ Objects
  • Examples of C++ Object Creation
  • Organizing Game Objects
  • Object Inheritance Design
  • Quiz: C++ Objects
  • Component-Based Design
  • Entity-Component-System Design
  • ECS Folder Structure
  • System Component Signature
  • Working with C++ Templates
  • Component Type Template
  • Understanding Component<T>
  • Exercise: System Functions
  • Adding and Removing Entities from Systems
  • The Erase-Remove Idiom
  • Operator Overloading for Entities
  • Quiz: ECS Design
  • Pool of Components
  • The Pool Class
  • Coding the Pool Class
  • Registry Systems & Entity Signatures
  • Entity Creation
  • Adding Components
  • Removing Components
  • Implementing System Functions
  • Quiz: ECS Implementation
  • Creating our First Entity
  • Smart Pointers
  • Converting ECS Code to Use Smart Pointers
  • Raw Pointers for SDL
  • Quiz: Smart Pointers
  • Adding our First Component
  • Careful with Types size_t and int
  • Exercise: Entity Class Managing Components
  • Entity Class Managing Components
  • Warning About Cyclic Dependency
  • Movement System
  • Movement System and Delta Time
  • Render System
  • Managing Game Assets
  • The Asset Store
  • Displaying Textures in our Render System
  • Exercise: Displaying the Tilemap
  • Displaying the Tilemap
  • Rendering Order
  • Sorting Sprites by Z-Index
  • Animated Sprites
  • Animation System
  • Identifying Animations By Name
  • Entity Collision Check
  • Implementing the Collision System
  • Exercise: Rendering a Collider Rectangle
  • Quiz: 2D Collision
  • Killing Entities and Re-Using IDs
  • Implementing Entity Removal
  • Introduction to Event System
  • Event System Design Options
  • Event Handlers
  • Emitting Events & Subscribing to Events
  • Exercise: Key Pressed Event
  • Event System Design Patterns
  • Quiz: Event System
  • Keyboard Control System
  • Camera Follow System
  • Sprites with Fixed Position
  • Projectile Emitter Component
  • Projectile Duration
  • Health Component
  • Exercise: Shooting Projectiles
  • DRY Code
  • Tags & Groups
  • Optimizing Access of Tags & Groups
  • Projectiles Colliding with Player/li>
  • Projectiles Colliding with Enemies
  • Compilation Times
  • Data-Oriented Design
  • Cache Hits and Cache Misses
  • Avoiding Data Gaps
  • Packed Pool of Components
  • Array of Structs vs. Struct of Arrays
  • Cache Profiling with Valgrind
  • Popular C++ ECS Libraries
  • Adding Fonts to the Asset Store
  • Render Text System
  • Exercise: Rendering Health Value
  • Introduction to Dear ImGui
  • Dear ImGui and SDL
  • Dear ImGui Demo Window
  • Immediate-Mode GUI Paradigm
  • Render GUI System/li>
  • Button to Spawn Enemies
  • Exercise: Customization of New Enemies
  • Quiz: Dear ImGui
  • Killing Entities Outside Map Limits
  • Flipping Sprites on Collision
  • Invisible Entities & Obstacles
  • Exercise: Keeping the Player Inside the Map
  • Culling Sprites Outside Camera View
  • Game Scripting
  • The Lua Scripting Language
  • Using Sol as a C++ Lua Wrapper
  • Lua State
  • Reading Lua Tables
  • Fetching Missing Table Values with Sol
  • Lua Functions
  • Level Loader Class
  • Reading Assets from a Lua Table
  • Handling Multiple Objects in a Lua Level
  • Scripting for Night/Day Tilemap
  • Scripting Entity Behavior with Lua
  • Script System
  • Lua Bindings
  • Binding Multiple Lua Functions
  • Loading Different Lua Levels
  • Division of C++ and Lua Code
  • Quiz: Lua Scripting
  • Finishing our Code
  • Next Steps
  • Proposed Project: Tilemap Editor
  • Moving Forward
  • Copyright & Content Distribution

73% of our students come back for another course

We don't offer discounts on our courses. Ever.

What students are saying

4.96
5 star
97.4%
4 star
0.9%
3 star
1.7%
2 star
0.0%
1 star
0.0%
Garrett Gaston
"Love this course! So far I'm only 20 - 25 % into this course but so far I love and and highly recommend."
22 Sep 2024
Sean Giroux
Sean Giroux
"A Fantastic Introduction to Game Engine Design!

Having never used C/C++ and only having some background in Python and Java, this course was a great starting point for expanding my coding knowledge. Growing up with multiple gaming influences, I've always had an interest in creating gaming environments—a passion I never really had the chance to pursue until the last few years. Knowing that much of the gaming industry is rooted in C++, I did some research and found introductory courses and learning resources online. That's when I stumbled across Pikuma's courses.

Since I was completely new to the language, I decided that following along with a structured lecture series would be the best approach. I created an account, completed the free tutorial, and was sold shortly after. Over the next four weeks, I started each day with an hour or two of lectures, slowly building my understanding of the core concepts required to create common engine elements.

There were a couple of times when I had simple typos in my syntax and couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. Even though the course was published several years ago, Gustavo was still actively monitoring the discussion boards and responded to my post within 24 hours, helping me recognize a simple capitalization error.

The course was fun, well-paced, and easy to follow. The updated source code provided at different intervals was also helpful when pausing the video didn't give me the full view of certain sections that I needed to troubleshoot.

I highly recommend the course to anyone looking to learn foundational concepts of engine development using modern C++17, along with integrating libraries like Lua, Sol, and SDL.

After taking this course, I wish I could attend an in-person university course taught by Gustavo, but I'll happily settle for taking another Pikuma course instead!"
18 Sep 2024
Lucas Gois
"A great course! A course that teaches you how to program in C++, as well as simple ECS, and even gives you pointers in how to improve the code. I highly recommend it."
03 Sep 2024
Shreyas Srikanta
"his is exactly what I was looking for! From 'scratch' as the title says."
31 Aug 2024
宗翰 吳
"A Very Good Course for Beginners to Start with. Overall, i think the course is great for people that know some c++ but are completely new to game engine. This course help me a lot with many basic game engine concepts."
08 Aug 2024

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