Game from Scratch 000 - Dream Big

I’ve always wanted to make a game. I think a lot of people share that feeling. If you didn’t get it from the title, I’m making a game entirely from scratch. No engines like Unity or Godot. No libraries like SDL or Raylib. Just lots of code and system calls.

This is a big change from my last big side project, An API of Ice And Fire, a REST API that I created in 2016 that got a lot of attention. The highlight? An interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Why Not Use an Engine?

You want the honest truth? Because I don’t want to. Using a game engine would help me finish faster - and the final game might even be better. But I want to learn how to build a game from the ground up. I want to understand every single line of code, from creating a window to manually managing memory to rendering it all on screen. It won’t be easy, and it’ll take a long time - but that’s the point.

I’m not trying to make the next Triple-A shooter. I’m going for something more humble and fun. I’m keeping the details secret for now because they might change, but it’s inspired by a game I had a lot of fun playing as a kid.

The Tools

As if making a game from scratch wasn’t challenging enough, I’m not using the language I’m most comfortable with, C#, or my usual IDE Visual Studio. Instead, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone to learn new tools. Another reason to ditch Visual Studio? It’s slow. Painstakingly slow. I’d rather spend my free time coding, not waiting on my IDE.

I’m still deciding between C++ and Odin but I’ll have made a decision before the next blog post. For editing I’m using Neovim and for debugging, RAD Debugger.

Closing Thoughts

I haven’t been this excited about a side project in a long time. My hope is that both you and I will have fun and learn a lot on this journey. You can expect lots of code snippets and screenshots along the way.

Until next time!