I recently started a course on 2D game engine development with Pikuma, which covers everything from creating a basic game loop and using SDL to handle input and graphics to building a full-fledged entity component system from scratch.

Instead of installing and linking all of the dependencies manually like Gustavo does in the lectures, I challenged myself to set up the dependencies for the project in a more robust and platform-independent way using CMake. I wrote a little about that here.

So far, I have a game loop and a tank sprite moving across the screen, as well as a basic framework for handling input. It doesn’t sound like much, but even a task this small requires a surprising amount of code at such a low level. If you’re interested in the project, it’s publicly available on GitHub. I’ve even added some basic instructions for building the engine yourself.

I’ve been dragged away to other projects for now, but I’m hoping to return to this soon. I highly recommend Pikuma if you’re interested in low-level programming and game development.