5 ms·

Got any recommendations on how someone that can code a little but isn't a professional might go about learning to make an engine?

• hoorayimhelping 6y ago
  Sure: Make games, not engines. To break it down a little more: come up with a game you want to make. Start making it. You'll figure out how to make an engine as you start making your game. To break it down even more: I wanted to impress an old girlfriend by making a clone of Galaga, cause she loved it as a kid. I decided to make Galaga in HTML5. I wanted to start by rendering the ship to the screen, so I went down that path until I could do it. How do I draw something to the screen on the web? Use Canvas - figure out how to reliably render a canvas element on the page and fill it a color. How do I draw an image? Draw sprites on the canvas - get a sprite of the ship then figure out how to draw it. How do I move the ship? Create a backing representation of the state of the game, then render the world based off that. I now have a simple game engine and an emerging game. https://github.com/hoorayimhelping/Galaga5 https://github.com/hoorayimhelping/Galaga5
• klodolph 6y ago
  What kind of engine do you want to make and what is your goal by making that engine? The generic, one-size-fits-some advice is: Go and make three games, and by the time you’re done with the third game, you’ll have a clear idea of what you want from an engine.
  • mekanicalsyncop 6y ago
    I'd like to eventually learn to make a simple 3d engine suitable for a retro FPS. However, to start with I'd like to learn how to make 2d engines for side scrolling or isometric action games. Basically, game dev is a hobby for me so I'm in no rush to actually publish a game. I'm interested in learning nearly every aspect of how games are made. I've already been playing around with Unity and Game Maker Studio a bit. I'm continuing to learn Unity but rather than spending tons of time learning how to use a game engine's libraries I would prefer to learn how these things are built and make one myself.
    • klodolph 6y ago
      You might find it valuable to make some simple games without using an existing engine. For example, a simple action platformer game is nice because the physics can be pretty simple.
• whateveracct 6y ago
  A game engine is really just a set of libraries. And making good libraries that compose well and are at a useful abstraction level takes taste, which comes from experience. So code more! Could be hacking on games, could be doing other programming. But once that software design muscle is big enough making an engine will seem more obvious than ever.
• corysama 6y ago
  There's a complete "skill tree" reading list for game programming https://miloyip.github.io/game-programmer/ https://miloyip.github.io/game-programmer/ I wrote a little advice comment on simple game engines recently: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/fr986w/game_engine_creation_where_to_start_i_know_the/flujb6d/?context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/fr986w/game_engine...
• soylentgraham 6y ago
  Write one game. (Even if it's tiny, unpublished etc) Then write a different one, but take bits where you can from the last game. Any bits you reuse (or adapt) are now your engine! Ideally then go back to game0 and reapply the changed engine/common parts. Port it to another platform, renderer etc Tada! You have an engine :) Repeat this over 20 years, rewrite from scratch every few years, switch to unity, unreal, then back to another rewrite!