Learning low-level game development from scratch is crucial for a complete programmer's education, empowering developers to understand fundamental principles and innovate beyond existing game engines.
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you probably already answered this but
why start from scratch versus using an
engine why reinvent the wheel it's a
good question and the answer is twofold
one is because I think it's important
for game developers uh who are going to
be serious programmers uh to learn
everything about how a game works and if
you start with an engine then it it
basically changes what you're learning
from the fundamental truth of how to
implement a game to someone else's
version of that they have basically gone
from what the actual game code actually
does and put a big old giant layer in
between you and that so now what you're
really learning is that engine you
haven't learned how to make games you've
learned how to make games in unity right
and if Unity were to disappear for
example you would no longer know how to
make a game at all I'm not exaggerating
this that's just the truth um and so
while there's nothing wrong with making
games in engines because that may be the
most efficient way for you to make the
thing that you want to make I don't
think you can have a complete game
development education as a programmer
without learning how everything works
right down to the core principles that
have been true uh for the past several
decades that's how a CPU runs game and
so I think those are essential to learn
and I wanted to show them so if people
want to use engines that's totally fine
uh but that is the opposite of what I'm
trying to show here I want to show how
all that stuff works uh and I want to
give people the ability to make their
own engine stuff as necessary as well
because even if you go use an engine
like unreal or something to make a game
knowing how all of it works
underneath makes you so much more
powerful even in that engine because now
it means you don't just have to look at
the Docks and guess how the thing kind
of is doing it you know how the Thing
Really Works and so you can go oh I know
there must be a way for unreal to do
YZ because I know that's how the CPU
works and I know it can do it so let me
go find how to do that or write my own
plugin that can do that for me and now
you're so much more powerful you don't
have to be like hamstrung by the the
things that they allowed you to do in
that sort of layer right so it's it's
empowering it's educational that's all
good uh but the second thing I wanted to
point out is saying reinvent the wheel
statement and it always bothers me a
little bit when people people say things
like why reinvent the wheel and the
reason is because the
wheel is an amazing invention it is
almost perfect uh or even possibly
perfect for what it does when you look
at a wheel it is the thing that
perfectly turns Dynamic friction into
static friction for moving objects right
it's something that is so elegant and
beautiful that if you ask me why you
would want to reinvent it I would say of
course you don't want to reinvent the
wheel the wheel is amazing it has worked
for thousands of years it has been
unchanged for thousands of years the
concept is the same today as it was when
they first made a wheel probably right
it does exactly the same stuff
physically nothing we have developed in
the past 30 years of game development is
a wheel we do not have a single wheel if
you think Unity is a wheel or you think
unreal is a wheel that is just it's just
plain shortsighted like I'm sorry but
that's the truth in the future we will
have so much more powerful tools for game
game
development that they will make the
engines we use today look like a joke
people will laugh at the things that we
did to make games
today and the reason that I point that
out is not to diss on those things
because they are the best engines we
have today so yes if you need to use an
engine you want to use some of these
things right but I want to point out the
fact that if we want to get to a real
wheel that when you really do say to me
would you rent the wheel I would say you
shouldn't use the wheel if we want to
get to that wheel we need people baking
new things that attempt to be a wheel
and you can't do that if all you know
how to do is program stuff in unreal or
Unity because that's all you get that's
the square wheel right that's kind of
clunking around and if all you're ever
going to do is build cars on top of that
they're going to be lousy right um
unless you're driving on a road that
looks like this uh so basically what I
want to inspire too as part of the
series if I can is I want people to look
at this and go hey wait a minute
low-level game programming is not that
hard I saw him do it I saw how he did it
and I'm starting to understand this I
could go do this and if they get into it
and get excited about it then they may
be the people who make those next
engines that allow a whole new uh wave
of game development to happen just like
Unity allowed so many more people to
make games who didn't have that
knowledge who's going to be making those
things of the future right and so that's
why I think lowl program is so important
is because we need lots of people with
those with those talents and those
skills to get us to the point where it
really is silly to be working on anymore
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