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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.
73% of our students come back for another course
We don't offer discounts on our courses. Ever.
"Excellent course! I really enjoyed this course! I've been working in the games industry for many years but never built an engine from scratch so it was interesting and useful to see some of the underlying concepts in a 2D engine. I learnt some new tricks, so thanks!"
"This is a great course. I followed along in the beginning, but soon sort of ran ahead of the curriculum to implement things I thought seemed sensible. In most cases the fundamental structure pointed me in the right direction :) I also decided to implement this in pure C after having first started with C++, and then Rust. I find C is better suited to getting language details (and problems) out of the way so I can focus purely on the concepts taught."
"Great intro to game engine development!"
"I got lots of valuable insights concerning the architecture and behaviour of a game engine, and how to use modern C++. Gustavo Pezzi has an excellent way of explaining difficult things, the pace of his presentation was just right for me and I appreciate his way of conveying context and dependencies."
"Fantastic Course! When I started this course, I had no idea how much autonomy it would give me at the end. Today, I can create my projects in C++ and SDL with great ease, both in terms of debugging and building the project. I definitely intend to continue studying other courses here on the platform."
