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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.
"Game Engine Primer! Great course for anyone wanting to get started with game engine creation. Also invaluable insight for those merely using an existing engine to understand what is happening, under the hood."
"Love these courses on Pikuma! I am doing Pikuma courses on the side as a hobby. Absolutely love them."
"Great course! Gustavo addresses various topics in a very efficient way, explaining in detail and gradually increasing the complexity, allowing students to follow along. With each class, we have something new and we look forward to seeing the next one. I will certainly purchase the other courses, thank you very much Gustavo."
"Great course to get you started in game development."
"Excelent content! I'm profesional game dev with more then 5 years of experience (mainly in Unity) and programmer with more then 10 years of experience (games, mobile native, backed dev etc), and I've found this course very well made, executed and informative. Most of my time I have been using higher level languages such as C#, Java or Swift and this is very good C++ refresher too! I was able to learn a new ideas and I have a really good idea what to do next. From my side - money worth spent! Thank you Gustavo :)"
