When I started working on my new game I knew I’d be writing it in C++. I wanted to own my tech and I know that I want to target a wide range of platforms. C++ meets the bill there.

Originally, though, I setup a project for C++17 and dove into the deep end learning all about the new features and trying to do all the right template stuff to be modern C++. At some point I realized it was a whole lot of effort for not a whole lot of results.

Then I remembered Handmade Hero.

So I scrapped all the code, started nearly from the ground up (I’m still using SDL2 and I’m not doing a software renderer), got hot reloading working in a few hours and recently started implementing the “push buffer” style rendering. It’s been nothing but a joy to work in.

Highly recommend anyone embarking on a technical journey like this to take the time to consider various approaches. Your first choice might not actually be the best one for you.

It’s been nearly four years since we released Polychromatic and over six years since Shipwreck. Since those games released I’ve changed jobs a few times, had a kid, started (and stopped) online music composition classes, and generally have just been busy. However in the last few months since settling in with my new role at Stripe I’ve become more and more eager to make a new game. I’m not exactly sure what it’ll be but I’ve set a couple of goals for myself:

1. Make a game and ship it, preferably in the next year or two.
2. Build the game from scratch, using some libraries but no engine.

I’m currently using C++ to write the game and building on top of things like the Metal graphics API on macOS, Direct3D11 on Windows, and an OpenGL renderer for Linux. There’s still a lot to be figured out but it’s a lot of fun building this architecture up.

Hopefully I can share more details about the code as well as tips/tricks that can help others who also want to make games in this way.

Setting up Jekyll for this new site has certainly been an effort in me accepting that not all software will work exactly how I want but that it’s not worth making my own static blogging tools.

Hello dear readers. I’ve recently decided to have a go at writing up some blog posts again. Stay tuned for some (hopefully) fun posts on game and software development among other things.