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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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
"One of the rare online courses I completed!
The instructor moves at a good pace, explains everything in clear detail, and builds each piece upon the previous one not leaving anything out or doing any magic handwaving.
I am a C# programmer, and did a brief intro course on C++ before and this course was great to help me get more used to C++ syntax and idioms. I want to learn the Godot or Unity engine for 2d games and hope the instructor makes a course on one of these pre-made engines one day.
A very practiced and talented instructor."
"Worth every penny!Gustavo was very informative at every step of the way and now that the course is over I feel pretty confident I can build on this project further to really create something unique with what I've learned."
"Drops serious knowledge!
There's a little 2d game, I don't remember the name of it exactly, but there is a character dropping things from the top of the screen and your little character has to run along the ground and catch what's being dropped in a little bucket. This is what I feel this course is like, so much knowledge is dropped throughout the course it's quite incredible. And the excitement watching things fall into place piece by piece as we go along is oddly a more thrilling feeling than any AAA game can give me.
Excellent stuff Gustavo, thanks so much! Valeu amigo :)"
"This is really an amazing course!
I learned a lot of C++, game engine architecture, integration with Lua, and the running project is incredible.
Thank you!"
