This article covers the best game developer resources to help you create great games.

Let’s get started.

Why do you need resources for game development?

Game development from scratch and creating your assets along the way is complex. It requires hundreds of hours, and you need strong motivation to master the different stages of the game development process.

This process starts with laying out the plan, creating a story, creating engaging visual effects, developing game mechanics, adding music, and testing and debugging. On top of all these, you also need to market and promote your game to reach your intended audience.

You also need to know a lot about different things, be it graphics, music, marketing, programming, or project management.

There’s no doubt that making games isn’t easy. (Let’s not sugarcoat it to appeal to new game developers).

To help you through this, you need to use the best resources available. They’ll teach you about game development most efficiently and help you troubleshoot issues if you’re stuck. It’s also crucial to have access to something that helps you stay ahead of the curve by informing you about new trends and topics.

We figured the best way to support you in this is to filter out the noise—and curate only the best resources for your convenience.

Game Design

1. GDC Vault: GDC Vault is an excellent source for game design videos. It includes all Game Developer Conference talks and provides in-depth insights from the best minds. In addition, it offers free and paid sections. For beginners, the free section is more than enough. However, if you feel limited by the free content, you can get their paid subscription, especially if you’re a professional.

2. Boardgamizer: If you’re into board games, you’ll find Boardgamizer very useful. It hosts access to board game strategies and lists popular designs for inspiration. In short, it covers the board games topic in detail. 

3. GameDeveloper: If you like written content, then you’ll find Game Developer (formerly known as Gamasutra) useful. It covers game design topics and other helpful game developer resources, including programming, audio, art, production, business, and more.

4. Three Hundred Mechanics: You can check out this site if you’re looking for game design inspiration. It lists 300 different game mechanics by the author. He documents all his ideas, and you can explore them for better ideas.

5. HacknPlan: This tool offers an excellent way to do game production and allows game designers to plan, organize and track game development progress.

6. Game Design Workshop: If you need more programming or artistic experience, this book can still help you get started with digital game creation. Tracy Fullerton writes the book and discusses design techniques using popular games.

Art

1.  2D Game Art Guru: A excellent resource for game development art that Chris manages. He has 20 years of art development experience, which is reflected in his work. He covers various art topics, including helping new learners get started with Inkspace, an open-source tool for creating art.

2. The Art of Game Design, Jesse Schell: This book discusses game design questions through different lenses, trying to understand fundamental and most profound game design principles. It also covers VR and AR platforms and goes through popular games such as Last of Us and Unchartered 4.

3. Textures.com: If you’re looking for high-quality CG art, this site is for you. It offers free and premium content which you can use to create art for your game.

4. GameDev Market: Explore various game art, including 2D backgrounds, GUI HUD, 2D characters, Audio SFX, GUI Icons, and much more. It also offers 3D assets.

5. The Art of Making of Hogwarts Legacy: This book explores one of the newest games in the market, Hogwarts Legacy. It explores its original concept art, an excellent pick for aspiring game developers who want to learn from it.

6. OpenGameArt: OpenGameArt lists tons of free art real users submit. Here, you can access 2D, 3D, and concept art. Additionally, you also get access to textures, music, documents, sound effects, and even tutorials.

7. Real-time VFX: This ultimate guide allows learners to learn real-time VFX. It includes tons of information and guides you through the whole learning process.

Effects

Without effects, actions in your game feel empty. That’s where these resources will come in handy.

1. Freesound: Freesound is the best place to get sounds for your game. All sounds are covered under the Creative Commands Licensed, so you can use them without worrying about copyright issues.

2. Incompetech: Incompetech is a free-to-use graph paper generator. 

3. Blender 3D models: Get your project’s 3D models, particle systems, and effects. Here, users submit their own generated content for other users to use.

4. FreeSFX: FreeSFX houses more than 500K music tracks and sound effects. All of these are free to download and use.

5. GameSounds: GameSounds lists royalty-free sound and music.

Blogs

Blogs give you insights in a concise manner (as opposed to textbooks and documentation).

1. Microsoft Game Dev: If you rely on Microsoft technologies to build your games, this blog can help you get started. In addition, you can also check out AWS for Games, which offers more detailed resources on game development in the cloud and AWS.

2. CGspectrum Blog: CGspectrum blog offers diverse content related to game development. Here, you can access topics such as game development, 3D modeling, visual effects, visual production, and digital painting.

3. GamesIndustry.biz: Keeping up with game industry news is vital to know trends. GameIndustry.biz covers GDC, events, academies, and other news that shape the industry. It also lists video game jobs.

4. HTML5 Game Development: If you’re into HTML5 game development, you’ll find this blog helpful. It offers engines, tutorials, demos, tools, and news related to HTML5 game development.

5. Unity Technologies Blog: Unity is at the forefront of game engines, and you surely don’t want to miss out on what they have to share.

6. GameDeveloperTips: This blog covers interesting game development topics, ranging from beginner to advanced.

7. GDkeys: GDKeys blog covers exciting topics for indies, game designers, and enthusiasts. They also host a discord server where you can interact with like-minded people.

Podcasts

Listening can sometimes be a better way to learn things, especially when you’re doing mundane tasks. So here, we list the best podcasts you should take advantage of.

1. Psychology of video games: This channel regularly hosts podcasts about how video games and psychology interacts. They regularly post new podcasts and talk about fascinating topics.

2. GameDevUnchained: GameDevUnchained talks about various topics related to game development. They post new podcasts every week discussing games, tech, and more.

3. Level Design Lobby: Level Design Lobby dedicated itself to breaking level design techniques for its audience and how they can be used and improved. They break down popular games’ level design and interview famous artists.

4. CoRecursive: A game dev podcast aggregator lists the best video game podcasts online. It is handy to find exciting podcasts and learn about new things.

5. GameDevAdvice: Another brilliant game dev podcast by John JP Podlasek, who has 30 years of experience in the game industry.

Free Tutorials

Tutorials can give you the required knowledge to get started with problem-solving, troubleshooting, and converting ideas to life.

1. GameDev.net: A game developers’ community that offers access to tutorials and lively forums.

2. Alanzucconi: He is a pioneer in game academics. His work is renowned in the game industry. You can read about his work on his blog.

3. Game accessibility guidelines: Game accessibility is one of the big topics in game development. This tutorial/game resource teaches you basic, intermediate, and advanced game accessibility guidelines. Everything is in a document form.

4. Brackeys Youtube channel: If you’re new and want to get started with game development, then this Youtube channel offers everything you need to know to get started.

5. Visual Storytelling for Film and Video Games: This 120 hours course on visual storytelling for video games is free for everyone. You can also pay for it(optional) to get a certificate.

6. CS50’s Introduction to Game Development: It is a 12-week course about game development. It is a beginner’s course and provides excellent value for your time. It is free, but you can get a certificate with a fee.

7. Introduction to game development for the web: The MDN web docs tutorial is a beginner’s doorway to web game development.

Game Development Courses

Courses are a more structured approach to learning. These game development courses can help you sharpen your skills and knowledge.

1. Udacity: Udacity offers access to plenty of game development courses. Its Interactive 3D Graphics is an advanced course on computer graphics. If you’re a beginner, check out its 2D Game Development with libGDX. It also offers exciting courses, including Mobile Games Engagement and Monetization and How to Make a Platformer Using libGDX.

2. Udemy: Like Udacity, Udemy has a lot to offer. Its game development courses range from learning Unreal Engine 5: The Complete Beginner’s Course to Advanced techniques such as Game Physics in Unity.

3. Coursera: Coursera is also a great place to learn game development. It offers a wide variety of courses that range from beginners to advanced. One of its popular courses includes Introduction to Game Design by the California Institute of the Arts.

4. Learn Unity: Learn Unity offers access to more than 750 hours of on-demand training. In addition, it provides pathways that help learners to have a better learning experience.

5. AudioTuts: Get in-depth learning about music and audio. It offers an excellent collection of courses, articles, and tutorials.

Marketing

1. Slay the Spire: Success through Marketability: This is a talk by Mega Crit Game’s Casey Yano on how they achieved success through marketing decisions, adding value to the game, and community-building.

2. Indie Game Marketing: The post guides you on how to market indie games, discussing pitfalls to avoid, must-haves, the importance of App Store Optimization(ASO), and the time to sell your Indie game.

3. Beginner’s Guide to Games marketing online: An excellent guide on marketing games online. It discusses different ways to promote a new game.

4. Effective Indie Game Marketing: It offers a step-to-step detailed guide on marketing an indie game. 

5. 20-item Game Dev Marketing Checklist: A handy checklist when marketing your new game.

6. Udemy’s Game Marketing Courses: A great collection of game marketing courses. Some courses include Business of Mobile Gaming, Introduction to Games Marketing, and Indie Video Game Marketing on Reddit.

Communities/Forums

Communities and Forums give you access to like-minded people. It gets you into meaningful and relevant conversations with the ability to ask for help and help others.

1. Polycount Forum: It is a forum that delivers game art. Here, you can discuss video game art(2D and 3D). In addition, it is an active community that covers news, work opportunities, contests & challenges.

2. r/gamedev: The Gamedev Reddit channel discusses everything related to game development, including art, music, marketing, business, and programming. It is very active, and you can get plenty of good old discussion archives, resources, and news.

3. r/IndieGaming: If you’re an indie game developer, you’ll love this small yet active subreddit. Here, most people ask for advice and share progress on their indie games.

4. GameDevLondon: London developers can use this community to build games and connections. It offers chat options, events, and podcasts.

5. Game Dev Network: This discord server is an active community of more than 40K developers. You can discuss game dev code, jobs, tools, and game engines here.

Conferences

1. Game Developers Conference: One of the top game developer conferences held annually in San Francisco, CA. It brings the best experts to the stage that shares excellent real-world insights.

2. MGS 2023: This conference covers app monetization, mobile user acquisitions, product development, user retention & engagement, to name a few. It focuses more on the app ecosystem and is a 6-day event.

3. Meet to March: A great event to meet game programmers, financiers, marketers, and authorities. You get excellent networking opportunities here with expert speakers sharing their experiences and learnings.

4. Digital Dragons: A 2-day event focused on gaming B2B. It has 94 presenters with over 1400 attendees. Alongside the speaker’s talk, they also have panel discussions.

5. DevDays Europe: This conference discusses cutting-edge technology, followed by workshops. That’s why it is a great event to visit for programmers, marketers, UX designers, and game developers.

Programming

1. FreeCodeCamp: If you’re a beginner who wants to create web-based games, there is no better place than FreeCodeCamp. It provides you access to web-based technologies without spending a single dime.

2. Math for Game Programmers: Noise-Based RNG: Squirrel Eiserloh discusses Noise-Based RNG and how he replaces it with a math library in this GDC video.

3. Procedural Generation: Learn the most popular game dev technique, Procedural Generation. 2D procedural generation, a comprehensive guide, and MIT’s take on 3D words with deep learning.

4. Khan’s Academy JS: Games and Visualization: Learn about advanced JavaScript for games and visualization. 

5. Game programming courses: Coursera, Udemy, and edX offer some excellent courses on game programming. 

Best Flow of Resources to Get Started With Game Development

Game development is a process. It requires careful planning and execution. You’ll find the massive game dev resources confusing if you’re starting. After all, where to start?

The very first step is to lay out the plan. Next, you must create a Game Design Document(GDD). It requires tools such as Nuclino, Workflowy, or Dundoc.

Next, you need to devise a good story. For it, you can check the game design resources listed here. Then, you can learn what makes a good story. Along with the knowledge, you can use story-building tools such as Canvas, Twine, ChoiceScript, Miro, and others.

You can pick Scrivener, Obsidian, and even Google Docs/Sheets for writing.

Withyour GDD created, it’s time to load your project management tools such as Trello, Asana, ClickUp, or HacknPlan and get agile. 

Now, you need to think about your tools. Different teams have different requirements. They can use Unity or build on their custom engine. In any case, online resources are plenty. For a custom engine, you must reference internal documentation for better understanding.

Your game development should progress nicely from here. First, however, you should get a prototype covering core mechanics. It’ll help you stay confident about your project and create placeholders for future assets. Next, for audio, you should check out our effects section.

Lastly, it’s essential to always keep learning. Our game dev resources list online courses, free tutorials, communities, and in-depth videos. Feel free to review them and use your knowledge to build a new fascinating experience for the players!

The post 55+ Game Developer Resources to Create Amazing Games appeared first on Simple Programmer.

At Simple Programmer, we specialize in the career skills to get you the job you most desire. 

Let’s lay out a realistic roadmap you can follow to achieve your dream of becoming a professional game developer.

Developing games for a living – the financial perks

According to salary.com, the average salary of a game developer in the US is $73,427. 

This is less than what you’d make in a Software Engineering position—but you might be willing to accept this, in exchange for getting to work every day at something you’re deeply passionate about. 

What you need to do to become a Game Developer – 8 essential steps

If you follow this roadmap, you’ll maximize your chances of becoming a great developer and landing one of those sought-after jobs in the game industry—or finding success on your own.

1. Set your goals

How you’ll go about becoming a game developer will depend heavily on what you actually want to achieve. There’s a number of different paths and end goals available to you in the field of game development:

• You can make games just for fun as a hobby
• You can focus mostly on coding and specialize as a Game Programmer
• You can learn a wider set of skills and become a Game Designer
• Your goal could be to make your own games and go solo as an indie developer 
• You could plan to join a prestigious game studio, working on the most advanced titles
• You might want to become an expert in a distinct coding language and game engine

The different types of game developers
These career paths are available for you as an aspiring Game Developer:

• Game Programmer
• Game Designer
• Gameplay Engineer
• Systems Designer
• Different types of Game Artist

Also ask yourself what kinds of games you want to create. Is it state-of-the-art 3D games (“AAA/Triple-A”), or 2D titles? And for which platform? Mobile, console, or desktop?

2. Pick your means of development

Let the goals you’ve set in the first step dictate which game engine you’ll learn to use. Each engine uses a specific coding language. 

By knowing what part of which kinds of games you’ll want to work on, you can confidently pick the right engine to get into, as well as the programming language that goes along with it.

The most popular engines for professional game development

The vast majority of the highest-end 3D games are developed in Unreal Engine. Unreal does have a “visual scripting” function, meaning you don’t necessarily need to know how to code to create games.

But, if your goal is to one day work as a professional in game development with Unreal, you’ll need to learn its native programming language, C++. Writing custom code gives you the possibility to add unique features and behaviors to a game. You have complete control over every detail, and the performance of your game. 

It’s not enough to be proficient with a built-in game builder. To have a chance to become a pro game dev with Unreal Engine, you’ll need to be able to code every feature of a game from scratch using C++.

Unity is the second major game engine in professional game development. Like Unreal, it does have visual scripting. When it comes to writing your own code to build a Unity game: You’ll need to use the C# programming language (“C-Sharp”).

3. Become good at coding

Now it’s time to start your journey into learning to code. For the language you’ve picked, gather some resources: Books, free tutorials, and courses. You’ll want to learn Computer Science fundamentals and programming principles along with writing your first code.

Your passion for game programming should push you to study hard: Watch 1-2 tutorials or course lessons per day, every day for 2-3 months—and try to apply everything you’re learning right away.

4. Further develop your game developer skills

Which skills do you need to become an in-demand game developer?

• Coding skills. You’re working on this. But it’s not enough to simply be good at writing code. A professional game developer needs to have many other abilities as well.
• Math and physics skills. The gameplay of games is based on physics. Learn as much as you can about it. Math underlies all code—understanding it will make you a much more effective programmer. Subjects to study are Linear Algebra, Calculus, and Trigonometry.
• Software Engineering skills. As a game programmer, you should become an expert in all aspects of making software. Further areas of focus should be knowledge of networking—working with databases and implementing server backends. Debugging is another crucial skill for a game developer: When working for a game studio, you’ll spend a lot of time working with, debugging, and improving other people’s code.
• Problem-solving ability. This is the number one skill for any programmer, and game developers are no exception. Work on your ability to analyze a problem. Then find, plan, and implement an effective and efficient solution.
• Imagination and creativity. The chance to use your creativity most days you’re at work is a blessing. Whether you’re working with your team on creating the next level of your game, or figuring out best way to code gameplay features, imagination and creativity are essential skills for game developers.
• Storytelling. Try to learn about linear and non-linear storytelling and narrative techniques. In a linear storyline, the players’ actions drive the story forward, while in non-linear games, the actions players take will determine how the story will unfold. Understanding how stories develop and reach a satisfying end can give you a much-needed perspective in writing the increasingly complicated code necessary for such storylines.
• Work ethic and time management skills. Game developers are no strangers to looming deadlines and long hours worked. This is why it’s imperative to be disciplined in your work, and excellent at managing your time and energy.
• Teamwork and communication skills. Completely self-created games are an exception in the world of professional game development. The most likely career situation for a pro game developer is working at a game studio, in a team. This makes the job more fun and interesting—but it also requires you to be a team player, empathetic leader, and good communicator.  
• Passion for game development. You will face hardship—while learning, while trying to get into a job, and while on the job—and you need to be able to deal with it. Your unwavering love for game development will get you through anything.

 5. Consider a degree

Do you need a degree to succeed as a game developer?

• You do not need a degree to be a good game developer, nor to get a job at a games company. Game studios are above all looking at the practical value you can bring them. 
• You can bypass the need for a degree with an exceptional portfolio and superior demonstrable skills, or even with creative ways of hunting for jobs.
• But, a university education in a relevant field will give you a good theoretical foundation, as well as some applicable or transferable skills. 
• The prestige it still holds with many companies can get you into interviews more reliably.

Game degree vs Software Engineering degree

Keep this in mind:

• Game degrees aim to teach you a bit of everything. But companies are often looking for specialists vs generalists.
• Degrees that include a 1-year placement are preferable. You might get hired back by the same company if you did a good job. Plus you already have experience to show—and game studios are looking mostly for candidates who already have experience.

6. Start developing games

To get started developing games, it’s recommended you pick a simple game that already exists, and try to recreate it with the help of tutorials and courses. Any time you’re stuck, you’ll have to learn new concepts and pieces of code to keep progressing. This is the best way to increase your game development skills—intense, hands-on, and fast.

It’s a good idea for an aspiring professional game developer to make games in different genres, just to be exposed to a wide variety of technical challenges, and develop a wider set of skills. 

The best game devs are constantly creating (and recreating as more advanced versions) games. They learn how to ship a finished product from early on, which will prove invaluable as they enter their career.

7. Create a strong portfolio that stands out

The field of game development is competitive. If you want to attract the attention of game studios—or your application be considered for an interview as a game dev—you need to take every chance to stand out.

A portfolio is a must. But the competition has caught on to this need. It’s not enough to show simple games made with the Unity editor in your portfolio—that just puts you at the level of most others. 

Ideas for an outstanding game developer portfolio: 

• Showcase excellent coding skills by creating your own game engine from scratch.
• Make your own physics engine
• Develop a game with unique features (vs. making a me-too game)

The portfolio should be visually appealing as well. 

Always include screenshots of the game scenes so that potential employers can assess the games. Also, include the links for the game installation software so that they can try playing the games.

8. Prepare and hunt for your first job

Before you start applying for game developer jobs, you’ll need to prepare your knowledge and coding skills to be able to answer the questions asked at game developer interviews.

Getting a job as a game developer is not easy. Try hard at getting your foot in the door of the industry, even if it’s not for your dream company or position.

Internships

Internships—or placements during your university studies—are an amazing opportunity. Most employers only want to hire someone who already has experience, which these let you gain. Moreover, if you do a good job and really prove yourself, there’s a good chance you’ll get an offer to join that same company you interned or were placed at full time.

Shooting for a junior position at a game studio

Good places to find open game dev positions are on game companies’ websites and job boards. Send your resume to any studio that’s hiring, even if it’s not your dream position. In addition, you can contact companies that aren’t officially hiring—they might still consider finding a place for you if they’re impressed by what you have to offer. This is a good way to avoid competing with dozens of other developers, as you do for job openings advertised on job boards.

Your portfolio and marketing can help you get a job

A game developer who is constantly building interesting projects and showing them off online can pique the interest of a game studio. This underscores how important an impressive portfolio and getting your name out there really is. Another way of becoming more known and building relationships that could lead to a job in the field is going to meetups, game jams and conferences. You’ll be able to make interesting new friends, get feedback on your games, and network with industry insiders and potential employers.

Plan B: Gain more experience in a regular programming job & pivot into a game development position later

Because of the fierce competition in the market, you might not be able to get into a game development job right away. Another viable option could then be to apply for a general programming job. You’ll gain experience programming and finishing projects. Some of the skills you learn might be the exact specialties a company is looking for. Armed with practical experience—a valuable point on your resume in the tough industry—your chances of getting a game dev job will have increased significantly.

9. Stay ahead of the competitive market

Once you’ve scored your dream job, keep learning. Stay ahead of new developments and trends as well as technological advancements. Make sure to talk with friends in the industry, be part of online communities and attend conferences. That way you’ll stay in the know and never get left behind.

There’s many ways to get paid for game development

If working as a game programmer at a studio doesn’t sound like what you want to do, then there’s other ways to make money as a game developer. From selling indie games to freelancing—if you’re serious about making a living creating games, you’ll have multiple options to do that.

The post How to become a Game Developer (9 ESSENTIAL Steps) appeared first on Simple Programmer.

Which one should you choose, then–if you want to get your start in game development this year?

In this article, you’ll get an overview of the currently very best game engines, so you can pick one that’s exactly right for your projects.

What are the Best Game Engines?

Let’s start with the best 3D engines:

Unity

Best for: 3D & 2D development.

Popularity: According to the Gaming Report, Unity is today’s most popular Game Engine, with 61% of developers using it. 

Languages: Unity’s engine core is written in C++, but you use the C# language for scripting.

Special features: 

• Unity is the best game engine for cross-platform development. It supports and runs equally well on almost all operating systems. 
• It also supports 3D & 2D game creation to the same high standard
• You can easily monetize your Unity game with ads, and use the integrated analytics to optimize your monetization.

Negatives:

• It’s not that easy to make something really nice-looking in Unity. The default shaders simply aren’t that pretty.
• Unity has been, and is being, criticized for incomplete features. As versatile as the engine is, it’s not perfect.

Sophistication: As it’s one of the least restrictive engines: Whatever level of sophistication you’re shooting for, you’ll be able to realize it in your game with Unity.

Hardware requirements: To develop Unity games smoothly, shoot for at least 16GB of RAM, a strong CPU like an Intel i7 or better, and a decent graphics card (GeForce RTX 3060 or better). While you can run it on a lower-spec system, the development experience won’t be great, unless you’re creating only very basic games . If you’re ever planning on using HD textures in your games, a good GPU is definitely a must.

Ease of use: Unity is one of the easier game engines to use. You can even get started with it if you don’t know how to code. To create more complex game software, though, you’ll want to be able to use the C# language.

You can’t drag & drop your way to a complete, complex game in Unity like you can in some other engines. Fortunately, C# is one of the easier programming languages to learn, and even some knowledge of its syntax will take you a long way in Unity development.

Famous games developed in Unity engine: The most famous games developed with the help of the Unity engine are Pokemon Go, the 2D side-scroller Cuphead, the isometric RPG Pillars of Eternity, and Rust (a more lifelike alternative to Minecraft).

Community: Being that it’s the most popular engine, Unity rallies a big, strong and supportive community behind it, with a membership of over 2.5 million game developers. Unity even puts on a yearly conference called Unite, which gives you the opportunity to meet fellow Unity developers face to face as well as learn about the latest news and tools about the engine.

Price: You can use Unity Engine for free for a long time. At least until you’re making tens of thousands from your game—then you’d have to start paying licensing fees.

Unreal Engine

Best for: 3D game development in elite, Triple-A quality.

Popularity: Unreal Engine is the second most popular 3D game engine.

Languages: Built in C++, and you need to feed it C++ code as well (if you want to create your game using code vs visual scripting).

Special features: 

• UE has an easy-to use visual scripting language with blueprints. If your game isn’t big or complicated, you won’t need to do much coding at all. You could create a whole game without writing any C++ yourself. It makes it really easy to make a high-quality beautiful environment quickly, without coding.
• It grants you access to its source code. Which means it’s easy to fix or debug it yourself.

Negatives:

• Unreal Engine UI is slightly cluttered & confusing. It complicates even some basic things. This adds cognitive load during development. 
• It can be harder to build something custom that’s not using Unreal’s premade assets.
• It’s hard to make a small, efficient game in Unreal Engine, games get large quickly. Most other engines are more lightweight.
• UE has remnants of old functionality embedded in the engine’s source code.

Sophistication: UE competes for the title of most sophisticated game engine in use today. It’s one of the most powerful, and lets you create the most stunning, complex 3D games (with the appropriate time and effort spent)

Hardware requirements: Unreal Engine has higher hardware requirements than other game engines. It lists 8GB RAM and a 2.5Ghz+ Quad Core CPU, as well as any DirectX 11+ compatible GPU, as required to run the engine. In reality you’d need much more RAM and a powerful graphics card to develop a 3D game in Unreal Engine without being slowed down too much: 32GB of RAM, a fast 6+-core CPU, and a GeForce RTX 3060 or better.

Ease of use: UE is easy to use if you stick to its drag & drop functionality. If you’re creating a completely custom game, and writing your own C++ code, it becomes even more powerful—but also complicated to use.

Famous games developed in Unreal Engine: The most famous games made in UE are the incredibly popular Fortnite, the legendary Unreal Tournament, and other very successful titles like Deus Ex. 

Community: In comparison to Unity’s, the community around Unreal Engine is not as big, slightly scattered, and less responsive. It is still growing steadily, though, so there’s a chance it’ll change in the future.

Price: Unreal Engine is free—unless you’re making tens of thousands from your game, then they’ll want you to pay licensing fees.

Godot

Godot is an up-and-coming game engine that’s versatile, beginner-friendly, and offers capability for 3D and 2D game development.

Who Godot is best for: Someone looking for an accessible all-around stable & reliable game engine for 3D or 2D. 

Popularity: Godot currently has a 3.4% market share in the field of game engines. It has been rising in popularity for a few years now.

Languages: You can develop with Godot engine in C#, C++, and other languages using their GDNative binding. It also has its own scripting language called GDScript, which makes creating in Godot really accessible and easy. There used to be a visual scripting functionality (essentially drag & drop game development), but it was removed in Godot 4.0 and might be overhauled and reintroduced in future versions.

Special features: 

• Compared to engines like Unity—whose 2D functionality is actually a 2D simulation run in 3D—Godot offers “real” 2D (in addition to 3D support).
• It’s one of the most lightweight game engines
• Godot is 100% open source—anyone can access the source code, use it for any purpose, and contribute to its further development

Negatives: 

• Godot is less GPU-efficient than Unity or Unreal
• It does not have its own asset store like Unity, only a list of open source assets

Sophistication: Godot is not the most sophisticated game engine, especially when it comes to 3D.

Hardware requirements: Because it is so lightweight, you can run Godot with only 2-4GB of RAM–although significantly more is recommended to be prepared for the most complex game development tasks. Godot needs at least a 2-core processor, and an entry-level Geforce or Radeon GPU, such as the affordable Radeon RX 6400.

Ease of use: This engine ranks high in ease of use and beginner-friendliness.

Famous games developed in Godot: Sonic Colors: Ultimate Remaster, released by Sega in 2021 has been the most famous game made in Godot so far. Godot is even used by Tesla to visualize certain features in several of their products.

Community: Godot has a large and engaged community relative to its market size.

Price: It’s completely free to use even for commercial applications. You won’t have to pay any royalties on your profits, ever.

Open3D (O3DE)

Open 3D is a fully featured AAA 3D game engine. The developers of Amazon’s Lumberyard engine took what they’ve learned from this prior engine and made something entirely new—and better—in O3DE.

Best for: Serious developers looking to make AAA-type 3D games, pushing the boundaries in terms of visual quality.

Popularity: As O3DE is still very new, it doesn’t have a lot of market share yet—but it is gaining in popularity.

Languages: Open 3D is written in C++ and—for some tools—Python, so if you want to interact with the source code, you’ll need to know either of these languages. Scripting your game is done in their own, Python-like language Lua.

Special features:

• The rendering in Open 3D is of Triple-A quality
• It includes physics simulations
• Amazon provides a networking infrastructure for you to use with your game
• O3DE’s open-source nature means you have full access to its source code and you can interact directly with it.
• With the visual scripting feature, you can create complete games without having to write code.

Negatives:

• There isn’t yet a wealth of tutorials and resources on Open 3D available
• Open 3D requires a powerful PC for development because of its advanced capabilities

Sophistication: O3DE can be used to make the most stunning graphics possible today.

Hardware requirements: The minimum hardware listed on Open 3D’s website is a 2.5Ghz 4-core CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 2GB+ VRAM GPU. But the recommended system has at least a 6-core CPU, 32GB RAM and a Geforce RTX with 6GB of VRAM.

Ease of use: It’s not the most beginner-friendly game engine, so if you’re just starting out, you might want to choose another option.

Famous games developed in Open 3D: Apart from Amazon’s internal game Planet Storm, no major games made in O3DE have been released yet.

Community: The community around O3DE is still small. At least for now, don’t expect extraordinary levels of support when you choose this engine to make games in.

Price: The game engine is open source and 100% free for you to use—even on commercial projects, you won’t have to pay any licensing fees.

Stride

This high-quality 3D game engine was formerly called Paradox 3D, and later Xenko. It was shut down by the company, but the developers managed to make it open source—and renamed it to Stride. 

Best for: Developers looking for a free, open source Unity or Unreal alternative for mobile or desktop 3D development that’s stable and offers good performance.

Popularity: Because it has still some ways to go in its development, Stride isn’t yet a mainstream engine. But as an overall package it is promising, so I expect it to become more famous over time.

Languages: It uses C# for scripting.

Special features:

• The source code is freely available on GitHub, with the MIT open source license.
• Tutorials are available on Stride’s website, as well as beginner projects—sample games you can check out and modify.
• The engine produces beautiful graphics and supports multi-threading.
• Stride employs modern C# and NET framework 6, which is faster than what engines like Godot are using
• There’s an easy integration with VisualStudio 2022

Negatives:

• There has been a slow pace of updates (it took 1.5 years to go from version 4.0 to 4.1)
• Stride is a Windows-only game engine
• The engine lacks some features for animated characters.
• Some users complain that the engine’s code base is a bit too bloated for what it can do

Sophistication: Stride engine is a bit more simplified than Unity or Unreal Engine, so one of those might be preferable if you’re aiming for more sophisticated projects.

Hardware requirements: 4GB RAM minimum (8GB recommended), an x64 CPU and a Direct3D 10+ compatible GPU. As with all 3D engines, more RAM, a 6+ core CPU and a good GPU will make for a much smoother game development experience.

Ease of use: Stride engine has a good UI that’s quite intuitive to work with, as well as template C# scripts & prefab assets for you to use. C# is one of the easier languages to learn. Overall this engine can be rated as relatively beginner-friendly.

Famous games developed in Stride engine: Some games developed with Stride are the space strategy game Distant Worlds 2, the first-person shooter Starbreach, as well as the racing game Rollerghoaster.

Community: It has a decent community behind it, with active user support forums, and even community meetings. Stride has a discord server as well.

Price: Stride engine is 100% open source and free to use for personal or commercial applications under the MIT license.

Bevy

Bevy is a code-only game engine based on the powerful Rust language. Its still in beta stage, but has the ambition to build a commercial-grade engine that offers complete vs. easy solutions and could one day outcompete Unreal Engine.

Best for: This engine is best for experienced programmers who want maximum performance, security, and freedom in their projects while not being afraid to put in more effort into coding and study to achieve those.

Popularity: As of now, Bevy isn’t widely used yet—although many game developers can see its potential as a high-end 3D engine that could end up playing a big role in a few years time.

Languages: Bevy is written in Rust language, and you need to code in Rust to be able to work with the engine.

Special features: 

• The engine offers high security thanks to its use of Rust, which is a memory-safe language.
• Similarly, you’re able to create very performant games with it because of Rust’s memory efficiency.

Negatives:

• Bevy is essentially still in beta and needs more general development as well as features to be added (but it already offers impressive performance).
• Bevy has a non-fancy, very basic UI.
• The engine’s asset management is not ideal.
• State management can be a bit of a clunky affair with Bevy.

Sophistication: Bevy allows you to build games of high quality and any complexity, as long as you’re willing to “take the hard road” to get there.

Hardware requirements: You can run Bevy engine fine on older systems. Of course, for complex projects with high-quality textures, a recent CPU & GPU and 32GB or more of RAM will make them run best.

Ease of use: Bevy is one of the least beginner-friendly game engines: First off, there’s no fancy user interface and no visual scripting / drag & drop ability. And then it requires you to learn and work with Rust language, which not many are familiar with and isn’t the easiest to learn (unless you’re already well-versed in C++).

Famous games developed in the Bevy engine: There haven’t yet been commercial games built in Bevy engine—but the Bevy Jam #2, a competition between developers, has produced a number of titles (mind you that these had to be created within the deadline of one week).

Community: Relative to its young age and obscurity, Bevy has a decent-sized, active community of developers, who congregate in the official forum, on Reddit, Stack Overflow, and on Discord.

Price: Bevy is a completely free and open source game engine: You’re allowed to work with its source code, and won’t ever have to pay royalties on your published games.

2D Engines

Construct 3 (by Sierra)

Construct 3 is a web-based 2D engine, developed by Sierra, which allows you to create games for Linux and other platforms—like Android or Windows—right on your tablet or smartphone while on the go.

Best for: Beginners who want to quickly create fun 2D games, even without writing code.

Popularity: Construct is quite popular as a 2D game engine: Over 50% of HTML games on Kongegrate are made with it. It’s also the second-most popular game engine in itch.io.

Languages: Construct is based on HTML5 and JavaScript, but game development works with no-code, event-based scripting. If you do want to replace some events with custom code, you can do so using JavaScript.

Special features:

• The game engine is one of the fastest to make small games with
• Construct is quite rich in features: It lets you do timeline animations, has built-in CPU & GPU monitors, an image editor, and even monetization tools in for of the native smart ad placement system.
• You can easily export to Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS & HTML. You can then publish your creations as browser games on itch.io, Newgrounds, Facebook et al.
• Construct’s developer team provides timely updates & upgrades to the engine.

Negatives:

• This engine is not a good choice for creating large projects
• Unfortunately the free version offers only limited functionality
• While Construct 3 now includes 3D elements, you’re better off using a more mature 3D engine if you want to make those kinds of games

Sophistication: The engine lends itself more to simpler games.

Hardware requirements: Hardware requirements for Construct are low, at 1GHz CPU speed, and 512MB RAM. The recommendation for best performance are a 2GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, and an AMD or Nvidia dedicated GPU.

Ease of use:

Construct is simple to use, while offering some advanced capabilities. With its no-code drag & drop game creation system, and quick prototyping, it’s one of the best game engines for beginners.

Famous games developed in the Construct engine: The most popular games created using Construct are Iconoclasts, Mighty Goose, and Hypnospace Outlaw.

Community: There’s an active, albeit smaller, community around Construct on Discord. 

Price: A free limited version of Construct 3 is available at Construct.net. If you go above the limits, you have to do a subscription from $99/year. You also can’t monetize your game if it’s made using the free version. 

RPG Paper Maker 2

If you’re looking to make an old-school style RPG game with 2.5D graphics, the RPG Paper Maker game engine is one of the easiest ways for you to do that. 

Best for: Beginners who want to create a fun, fully functional game without having to mess with any coding.

Popularity: RPG Paper Maker is a popular game engine with mostly positive reviews.

Languages: While you don’t need to write any code at all to create a complete game, you do have the option to add custom scripts in JavaScript.

Special features:

• No coding knowledge required – it’s easy to create a game even for beginners
• You can simply drag & drop pre-made 3D assets in the map editor
• The engine works on Windows, Linux and Mac. And it can export your games to be played on any of these same operating systems.

Negatives:

• RPG Paper Maker’s functionality for lighting is very basic
• The default graphics look dated—you’ll either love them or hate them.

Sophistication: Its simplified nature means that Paper Maker isn’t well-suited for very customized projects. If you want to build something advanced while creating many unique functionalities, you’re better off with a more sophisticated engine that doesn’t box you in as much.

Hardware requirements: You can run the engine on a 2-core CPU with 512MB of RAM.

Ease of use: RPG Paper Maker is among the most beginner-friendly game engines you’ll find.

Famous games developed in RPG Paper Maker: Games made with this engine include a port of the legendary Doom, a Final Fantasy Legend 3 remake, and the end times RPG Dauntless.

Community: There’s an active community for RPG Paper Maker on Discord.

Price: Free for personal use, $79 for a commercial license.

G Develop

GDevelop is an easy game engine using no-code development in which you’re creating events to script game behavior. 

Best for: Beginners who want to build & publish 2D games for multiple platforms (Facebook, Steam, Newsground, or export them for iOS, Android, Windows & Linux).

Popularity: Among 2D game engines, GDevelop is one of the most popular.

Languages: The engine is created in C++ and JavaScript. To extend your game using custom code, you’ll need to write it in the JavaScript language.

Special features:

• Tutorials integrated into the user interface
• You can easily add plugins/ assets from the store and community
• It has cloud-saving, allowing you to work on your projects from anywhere
• Very fast 2D physics engine with Box2D engine & Pixi.js renderer.
• Visual coding interface with tools—including a pixel editor for the sprites—nicely integrated into it
• Game templates for you to use as a base for your game or as inspiration

Negatives: 

• This engine is not as powerful as Unity or Unreal engine. It is meant for creating games with limited scope and visual quality.

Sophistication: As mentioned, GDevelop is a rather simple game engine—it doesn’t lend itself well for creating the most spectacular, feature-rich titles.

Hardware requirements: GDevelop engine doesn’t need fancy hardware to run well—an x64 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a WebGL-compatible GPU will work fine. If you’re trying to create a massive game, more RAM and VRAM will obviously help keep things running smoothly.

Ease of use: Because of its drag & drop functionality, game development is made fun and easy with this engine. You are learning coding logic along the way, though, even when using GDevelop’s visual scripting.

Famous games developed in GDevelop: Many fun games have been developed using the GDevelop engine, such as the physics platformer game Ball Challenge 2, the beat-em-up Gods from the Abyss, or the visual novel Swamp.

Community: GDevelop has an active and supportive community on Discord.

Price:

The engine is open source, so you can create and sell your games for free without paying royalties. There are two premium tiers on top of that at $6-$12 per month, but they’re totally optional & only relevant for additional cloud and testing features.

Monogame Framework

Created in 2009 as a successor to the Microsoft XNA library, Monogame is a free, versatile framework for game development.  

Best for: Experienced coders who want to build 2D games, or those who want to become better at coding while creating games.

Popularity: Monogame has a small market share compared to giants like Unity, but it’s popular among the 2D game community nonetheless.

Languages: The framework operates on the C# language. 

Special features:

• Monogames supports almost any platform, from iOS and Android, to Windows and Linux, to Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

Negatives:

• The framework has neither a pretty UI, nor drag & drop for events and assets, a built-in level editor, or many downloadable resources.
• Microsoft XNA, the underlying technology, is quite dated at this point.

Sophistication: Because you’re dealing with just a framework, no fully fleshed out game engine, you’re free to create as many complex features as you like without being boxed in—which obviously requires you to write custom code for everything.

Hardware requirements: Monogame doesn’t use a lot of processing power. With a x64 CPU, dedicated GPU, and 8+ GBs of RAM, you should be on the safe side.

Ease of use: You need to be confident writing code in C# if you want to use Monogame to create games. This means it isn’t as accessible to beginner game developers as some other game engines.

Famous games developed in Monogame: The Monogame framework has enabled developers to create titles such as the streetfighting game Streets of Rage 4, the side-scroller Chasm, and the super-successful Stardew Valley.

Community: There’s a somewhat active community in the official Monogame forums, as well as on Reddit and Discord.

Price: Monogame is 100% free to use under the Microsoft Public License.

Honorable Mentions

Of course there’s many more game engines out there! The following six didn’t make the list by a hair. But that doesn’t mean one of them couldn’t still be an option for you, depending on your situation and goals. 

Which is why they’re included here as well:

1. Defold

Defold is a 2D & 3D game engine, released and made open source by King, the creators of Candy Crush Saga. As such it’s 100% free to use.

It’s an engine for web and mobile game development, with the ability to export to Linux, Windows, Web, MacOS, Android, Nintendo Switch & more. Defold works with Lua scripting, and you can write your own code to extend the engine. There’s also a cloud build system which compiles your games in the cloud, without you having to stress about packaging your apps yourself.

Now—why isn’t Defold more popular, and why hasn’t it quite made the list of the best game engines available?

It’s more error-prone than other engines, and harder to debug. There’s no good out-of-the-box tools for debugging / refactoring. The Lua language has some quirks in its syntax. 

The workflow of inserting assets is not as intuitive & easy as with other game engines, and advanced effects are harder to implement. Defold’s 3D capabilities also aren’t that competitive yet. Finally, there’s not as many tutorials for Defold available as for other game engines.

With all that being said, Defold is still a decent platform for building games, and just barely didn’t make the best-of list.

2. PlayCanvas

The best, open source, game engine for browser games, using WebGL to create VR & 3D games directly from the browser—without any ‘build time’. It’s lightweight, so it loads efficiently in the browser and works great on mobile devices (even back to the iPhone 4s), with generally fast frame rates.

Its cloud-based nature means you can use version control & collaborate with your team in real time. You can easily use JavaScript frameworks such as JQuery, the Facebook Graph API, and others in conjunction with PlayCanvas engine. Use of the engine is free, but there’s an optional premium plan giving you 1GB of free cloud hosting.

The other side of the coin with PlayCanvas is that its unique web-based nature is also what holds this engine back from being more popular: Browser games just aren’t that en vogue anymore—it’s either mobile for simpler games, or desktop applications for the most powerful 3D games.

3. Game Maker

GameMaker as a 2D engine has existed for a long time. It has a visual builder—or you can code in its own language called GML. You can do prototypes, tests, and get actual results very quickly using GameMaker. These days it’s updated frequently, and it still has a passionate community behind it (although it has shrunk considerably over the years). 

GM didn’t quite make the list of the very best game engines because it’s a bit lacking in flexibility and performance, in part  because its very own coding language isn’t as professional & powerful as today’s popular game development languages.

A big criticism of GameMaker is that a while ago, they’ve switched to a paid subscription model. You do get a free version—but it’s limited in some features, and doesn’t let you export your game to HTML5, for example. Considering that there’s multiple free and open source engines out there, many of them offering better performance than GM, it makes sense that their pricing policy has put off many developers from using GameMaker.

4. GB Studio

GB Studio is a free-to-use game engine you can use to create GBA ROMs for GameBoy.

It’s best suited for top-down 2D JRPG-style adventure games, point & click games & shoot-em ups. You don’t need coding to create simple games—the engine lets you use interconnected objects and nodes to put a working game together. You can also export your games to play on the web, in a console, or in a GBA emulator.

While GB Studio is great for making simple 2D games, it hasn’t made the list of the best game engines because it’s so limited.

Sure, being lightweight can be an advantage for a game engine. But GB Studio, because it’s designed for building GameBoy-style games, has severe limits to game size and graphics. For example, you’ll be working with a maximum of 8×8 grids, 280 tiles per screen, 9 actors per screen, 25 unique animation frames per screen, and a limited color palette. 

5. Scratch

Scratch is the most simplified 2D engine you can think of. This is why it’s best for kids and total beginners. If you’re just taking your very first steps with game engines and game programming, Scratch can help you gain some initial experience.

But, you will soon come up against the engine’s tight limitations. As soon as you want to achieve any remotely advanced result, you’ll want to look to other more capable engines for the chance to realistically do that. 

6. Unigine

Unigine can create beautiful 3D worlds. It’s an enterprise-level solution created in 2005 for professionals to create world simulations in 3D and for VR. It can be used for game development as well, and it works well with Linux.

Unfortunately, it’s lacking some common features of dedicated game engines, so compared to something like Unreal Engine, it’s even more complicated to build most parts of a modern game.

The post The 10 BEST Game Engines – Learn One of These in 2023 appeared first on Simple Programmer.

Let’s look at the 12 best models available today, so you can make an informed choice – and get the mobile workstation that’ll best help you create the games (even AAA-type games, if desired) of your dreams.

Quick verdict

#1 best laptop for game development

ASUS ROG Scar 17

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Best price-Performance ratio

ASUS Zephyrus G16

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Best budget-sparing game dev laptop

ASUS TUF Dash A15

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What makes a great Game Dev laptop

Here are the most important attributes I’ve looked at in the review. These are what make a laptop great for game development.

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Large screen, high resolution, high color gamut

Ideally, you want 1440p+ resolution for maximum “screen real estate”, coupled with a 15.6”+ screen size so you’re looking at a decent-sized screen while making your games.

For designing games, you also want a high color gamut screen to produce the most vivid colors. The most beautiful and brightest screen type is Mini-LED, which is currently only found in some higher-end laptop models.

GPU

Picking a powerful GPU for your Game Development laptop will make a big difference in how quickly you can work with assets and render complex 3D scenes in Unreal Engine, for example.

CPU

The faster your laptop’s CPU, the faster your game will compile. Especially if you’re also doing 3D modeling, it could make sense to go for the most capable CPU within your budget.

RAM

To avoid lag during developing games, it’s important that your laptop has a large amount of RAM with high bandwidth and low latency.

PCIe SSD Hard Drive

Make sure your new laptop has the newest-generation PCIe SSD hard drives – they’re 2 to 3 times faster than the old standard SATA SSDs.

Good heat control

Any high-performance system encased in a small laptop chassis will produce a lot of heat. The best game dev laptop will be built such that this heat is managed well – because if it’s not, the machine’s speed will be throttled. Even worse, the scorching temperatures could damage the hardware over time. 

Keyboard

A solid keyboard without much flex, and preferably good backlighting, will make your game programming experience more efficient and enjoyable.

Portability: Battery & Weight

While many programmers use a laptop as a stationary desktop replacement, you still might want to travel with it, or work somewhere without access to electrical outlets once in a while. In that case you should look at how big and heavy your game dev laptop will be, and how long its battery will last you.

The 10 best Game Development laptops reviewed

The 5 highest-performance models compared:

Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023)⤻

AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX – Geforce RTX 4090 (16GB) @175W – 32GB RAM (64GB max)

This is hands-down the highest performing laptop for game development you can buy today. 

The ROG Strix Scar 17 combines the new, currently fastest CPU in the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX with the biggest GeForce 4090 – run at a full 175W – and 32GB of DDR5-4800MHz RAM out of the box (easily upgradeable to a max of 64GB).

• Display: The ASUS comes with a 1440p/WQHD (16:9) 240Hz IPS screen , which gives you a lot of real estate for game programming tools even if you’re using the laptop as a stand-alone. The brightness goes up to 1100 nits! And the 240Hz refresh rate is more than plenty for any application.
• Special Features: Strong RGB Light bar, UV reactive coating, MUX switch for higher performance (with Advanced Optimus, so you can switch on the fly), liquid metal & vapor chamber for cooling, 
• Battery: It doesn’t last too long – around 4 hours in normal use and a bit over an hour during intensive tasks like compiling games or 3D modeling.
• Cooling: Although Asus have implemented some powerful cooling mechanism into the laptop, it still runs quite hot (up to 95C at the CPU and 80C+ at the GPU) under the most serious stress conditions.
• Price: Unfortunately, the Scar 17’s best-of-market performance comes with a serious price tag.

Verdict

I crown this as the best laptop for game development, because it delivers the ultimate in performance for game programming. With this machine, you could create AAA games without it missing a beat.

The overall quality and durability for the high-end ASUS laptops is also a bit higher than its competitors. If you’re going to spend mid four figures on a portable game dev machine, you’re obviously looking to invest in something that’ll help you produce high quality games reliably, for many years to come.

Alienware m16 R1 2023⤻

Intel Core i9 13900HX – GeForce RTX 4090 16GB @175W – 16-64GB RAM (2 Slots)

The newest Dell Alienware 16” laptop packs a lot of punch for people looking to create games with spectacular graphics at great speed.

Display: It’s advertised at only 300 nits, but users say it still looks good. It’s not as bright as other displays, but the colors are beautiful.

Special Features: 16:10 QHD @240Hz IPS screen, keyboard RGB backlighting, webcam with IR, card reader, vapor chamber cooling 

Battery: The m16’s 86 Wh battery is below average.

Cooling: There’s a vapor cooling chamber and four fans, as well as several large vents in the chassis. Under full load, the average temperatures are between 80-90C. The keyboard does get warmer than most competitors’.

Price: In the ‘outstanding performance’ category of laptops, the Alienware m16 can be slightly more affordable than some of the other models, depending on the specs you choose. If fully decked out, it does go up to almost $4000.

Verdict

The Alienware m16 can compete in the highest category of game development laptops, despite some small drawbacks – namely the not-super-bright display, slightly weaker battery, tiny trackpad, and high heat development with medium intensity tasks (when the fans aren’t running at high speed).

If you’re looking for ultimate game programming performance for a price a bit lower than $4000, do check out this year’s Dell Alienware m16 R1.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 8)⤻

Intel Core i9 13900HX (Ryzen 9 option available from April ‘23) – 32GB RAM (fastest DDR5 @5600Mhz), 2 slots – GeForce RTX 4090 16GB VRAM – 2x 1TB PCIe SSD

The Legion Pro7i is Lenovo’s current highest-performing laptop, that has the latest hardware to allow for the smoothest experience for game coding and 3D modeling.

Display:

16” 16:10 UHD 240Hz IPS panel

500 nits of brightness

Special Features: AI chip for better performance, FHD webcam with privacy shutter (no IR), good RGB backlighting

Battery: 99,9Wh – but the machine is very power hungry and will only last around 60 minutes at full CPU & GPU load.

Cooling: 2 fans, 2 vapor chamber coolers for CPU & GPU. Liquid metal on the CPU, but not on the GPU, plenty of vents to expel heat.

Price: In the ultra-high performance sector, the Lenovo is more affordable than other options.

Verdict

If you’re after great performance for game development – below the $4k mark (way below if you forego the maximum specs) – the Lenovo could be an option for you.

Razer Blade 16⤻

The Razer Blade 16 packs the highest rated hardware in a 16” model chassis. Thus it is competing for the title of best laptop for gaming, and, in the same vein, game development and game design as well.

Display. Beautiful 2160p QHD+ (4K) Mini LED panel

Special Features: Small-ish 330w GaN charger, battery optimization mode, good FHD webcam with IR & shutter, 

Battery: 95Wh

Cooling: One vapor chamber atop CPU & GPU, and two fans. Temperatures are at 85+ at max load, with spikes up to 94C. The surface also heats up under full load.Price: The price is steep if you go for the RTX 4090 model.

Verdict

The laptop performs amazingly well in all aspects of game development – while being much lighter than its competitors of the same category. The (Mini LED-) display is amazing. It’s only the thermals – and slight durability risk associated with that – which stop the Razer Blade 16 from taking the crown. 

Gigabyte AORUS 17X 2023⤻

Gigabyte has completely redesigned their AORUS model for 2023, updating the cooling system especially to be able to keep up with the ultra-high performance components. Whether it be working with high quality 3D assets or designing complex game worlds, the Aorus 17x is built to perform resource-heavy tasks fast and without throttling.

Display: 17” 16:9 1440p (QHD) @240Hz. It’s not the brightest, but should be anywhere between 300 & 500 nits brightness. Its 100% DCI-P3 and thus pretty & colorful.

Special Features: Advanced Optimus, FHD webcam w/ IR, 2x USB ports on each side,

Battery: 99Wh

Cooling: Vapor chamber cooling system with 4 fans, big heat exhausts at multiple sides of the chassis.

Price: The price is slightly lower than that of the ASUS Scar or Razer Blade.

Verdict

This year’s model of the Aorus 17X is a vast improvement, and it can legitimately compete in the highest performance segment. For its middle-of-the-pack pricing, I’d say it’s a good choice for ambitious developers who want a solid, super high performing laptop capable of any game coding and design task.

2 Game Programming machines with good price-to-performance ratio

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2023⤻

Display: 16” 16:10 1920×1200 @165Hz. Around 300 nits brightness

Special Features: Silent Mode for low load activities, 

Battery: 90Wh with over 10 hours of battery life (under low load)

Cooling: Liquid metal paste, 4 radiators, 6 heat pipes, 2 fans

Price: At only half the price of some of the ultra high performing game development laptops, the ROG Zephyrus G16 brings good performance at a decent price point.

Verdict

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is a good option if you want a game dev laptop that’s a bit more portable, and you want good performance without spending top dollar.

Acer Predator Helios 16⤻

The Core i7 & GeForce RTX 4070-powered Acer Predator Helios 16 in this configuration targets the medium-price, high performance segment. The 2023 model is a complete redesign from prior versions (the Helios 300). Acer addressed past criticisms, aiming to create a flawless all-around machine for gamers and game developers/designers.

Display: 16” 16:10 QHD IPS @240Hz, 500 nits brightness

Special Features: FHD webcam, MUX switch, Advanced Optimus, miniSD card slot, 

Battery: 90 Wh, 5 hours in mixed usage, 7-8 hours low load usage

Cooling: Liquid metal thermal grease, 2 fans

Price: Under $2k

Verdict

The Acer Predator Helios 16 offers great value for money. If you’re looking to get a model from this year, but aren’t willing to spend $3.5-4k, make sure to look into this machine.

Although this particular version doesn’t boast the very fastest hardware currently available, it still offers impressive performance – and should deal with all game development tasks just fine, as long as you upgrade the RAM from the standard 16GB.

3 budget options for a Game Dev laptop

ASUS TUF A15 (2022)⤻

Last year’s ASUS TUF A15 uses AMD’s Ryzen CPU for great energy efficiency paired with decent processing power. It’s also sold at a very reasonable price point.

Display: 15.6” 1080P @144Hz

Special Features: MUX switch, automatic 60Hz display mode to save battery when not plugged in, many adjustment options in the Armory Crate software

Battery: 90Wh

Cooling: Heat pipes, 2 fans, exhaust holes in the chassis at all sides

Price: The ASUS TUF is a budget option of a game development laptop, coming in at only slightly above $1000.

Verdict

The ASUS TUF A15 competes with Lenovo’s Legion 5 and Acer’s Nitro 5 for the title of best game dev laptop for budget. It’s almost head to head with Lenovo performance-wise, but costs a bit less. Which makes it the best choice if you’re concerned about price as well as power.

Lenovo Legion 5 (2022)⤻

Lenovo’s Legion 5 strikes a balance between good performance and somewhat more affordable pricing. It’s the fastest out of the “budget” category, but also the relatively most expensive.

Display: 15.6” 1440p/WQHD @165Hz

Special Features: FHD webcam (no IR), easy-to-use Lenovo Vantage control center with many options, MUX switch, Advanced Optimus

Battery: 80Wh

Cooling: exhaust vents on all sides, 2 fans

Price: With a lower configuration, the Legion 5 can be had for not much over $1000. With the higher configuration, it costs more than the other affordable game development laptops in this review.

Verdict

Last year’s Lenovo Legion 5 is still a great choice for a more budget-conscious game developer. Do make sure to upgrade the RAM, and if you’re going for the 1080p display option, and using it as a standalone, you won’t have a whole lot of screen real estate for different development apps.

Acer Nitro 5 (2022)⤻

Acer revamped the Nitro 5 after criticisms of the prior version. Their goal is to make a more affordable mid-range laptop that’s powerful enough for gaming and game development

Display: 15.6” 1080p @144Hz

Special Features: Webcam (720p, no IR), bay for optional 2.5” drives, MUX switch,

Battery: 57Wh

Cooling: 2 fans, shared heat pipes between CPU & GPU, exhaust vents left, right, top & bottom

Price: The Nitro 5 in this configuration can be had for not much more than $1000

Verdict

While the Acer Nitro 5 performs fine, the only average display quality makes it not the best for designing games. If you’re more concerned with rendering performance over brilliant color optics, it’s still a fine choice for game coding.

The post Top 10 Laptops for Game Development (LATEST of 2023!) appeared first on Simple Programmer.

The Godot game engine is getting more and more powerful, and popular. Now’s the perfect time to build up your skills, so you can create the games of your dreams using Godot.

Let’s look at the best Godot courses you can take this year:

Which are the best courses to learn Godot?

• Create a Complete 2D Platformer in Godot (Udemy)
• Create a Complete 2D Survivors Style Game in Godot 4 (Udemy)
• Discovering Godot (Udemy)
• Godot Beginner Course – Learn How To Make Game (Udemy)

Create a Complete 2D Platformer in Godot (Udemy)

This is the second-most popular Godot course on all of Udemy. Creating a platformer game is the perfect place to start as a game dev beginner. You’ll learn many fundamental features of the engine without being overwhelmed by having to create fancy graphics.

Create a Complete 2D Survivors Style Game in Godot 4 (Udemy)

A highly rated course in which you learn to build a 2D game in the latest version of the Godot engine.

Discovering Godot (Udemy)

Discovering Godot is a step-by-step introduction to Godot and its many useful features. You get to create five game projects during the course at increasing difficulty. The course has you working with Godot’s GDScript language.

Godot Beginner Course – Learn How To Make Game (Udemy)

The beginner course leads you to making your own first game, even if you have zero experience with programming or using a game engine.

The post The Best Godot Courses in 2023 appeared first on Simple Programmer.

If you’re serious about leveling up your skills as a Game Developer, it could make sense to make this small investment to accelerate your progress. And then there might be a big payoff down the line.

About this review

In my decade plus in the software field, I’ve created 50+ code-learning courses myself, which helps me know what belongs in an online programming training, and judge whether the product is actually good. I’ll try and use this knowledge to make solid recommendations on which courses are worth taking.

Let’s go ahead and check out the selection of the best trainings, so you can pick one that perfectly fits you and your goals as a Game Developer!

Create Video Games with Phaser.js (Codecademy)

Codecademy provides a fun way to learn JavaScript plus the Phaser.js framework in the context of Game Development. It’s a gamified platform which has you complete code challenges as you’re learning – this unique structure is a major reason why Codecademy is one of the most popular code-learning sites with 50 million lifetime users.  

Best for: Beginners wanting to create their first browser-based game using JavaScript

Time investment: 6 weeks (self-paced)

Prerequisites: No experience required

Pros:

• It starts at the very fundamentals of JavaScript, taking you by the hand to get from beginner to intermediate JS game developer
• Codecademy’s interactive platform with its built-in code editor and progressive structure that allows you to level up step by step is a motivating way to learn
• The hands-on projects help you put what you’ve learned into practice immediately
• There’s practice sessions and assessments to see whether you’re on the right path

Cons:

• The course is code- and text-based, so if you love learning from video content, it isn’t for you
• This particular Codecademy skill path requires a Pro or Plus subscription

Features:

• Learn Javascript from the ground up
• Learn how to create gaming apps using the Phaser 2D game framework
• Live coding environment
• Three real-life projects completed during the 6-week course
• You can earn a certificate of completion after going through it

Verdict:

Because of its hands-on, engaging nature, Codecademy might well be the best place for beginners to learn the fundamentals of coding. You won’t get bored quickly and you’ll be motivated to keep going on your path to learn Game Development. 

On the other hand, if you’re a very autonomous learner or/and want to go deep into theoretical programming concepts, the straightforward nature of this course will probably frustrate you, and you’d be better off choosing a different resource.

I recommend you take advantage of Codecademy’s 7-day free trial to dive into the course. If you then decide it’s not for you after all, you can cancel at no cost, and invest your money into another course.

Unreal Engine 5 – The Complete Beginner’s Guide (Udemy)

Unreal Engine is one of the most popular and powerful game engines of today. With this course on Udemy, you can learn step by step how to create your own 3D game using Unreal Engine 5.

Best for: Aspiring Game Developer who wants to focus on Unreal Engine

Time investment: 10 hours of video lessons (self-paced)

Prerequisites: Absolutely beginner-friendly (no experience required), Hardware: 2,5Ghz+ processor, 8GB+ RAM, DirectX11-compatible video card

Pros:

• The course is well-vetted, with a 4.6/5 rating after 50,000+ students having gone through it.
• You can get lifetime access to the course for a reasonable one-time fee – and should you end up not liking it, you can easily get a full refund within 30 days as per Udemy’s solid money-back guarantee. You could also try a Udemy subscription for 7 days free of charge.

Cons:

• It focuses on designing games using the tools & blueprints of Unreal Engine – it doesn’t teach you C++ coding. To learn that, you’ll have to consult additional resources.

Features:

• Tutorials for all fundamental functionalities of Unreal Engine, starting at the very beginning.
• With 79 total lectures in 9 modules, it’s a comprehensive course
• Engaging videos that are easy to follow.

Verdict: Udemy’s course is one of the best out there for learning how to design 3D games in Unreal Engine from scratch. Because of its newbie-friendly material and low-ish one-time cost, it’s a great choice for beginning Game Developers who don’t want to invest too much upfront to learn the trade.

Mathematics for Computer Games Development using Unity (Udemy)

While you can do a lot in Game Development using the visual no-code tools built into popular engines — to be a well-rounded Game Developer, a strong background in math and programming fundamentals is essential. This Udemy course teaches you the data structures, algorithms & math concepts you need to stand out from the crowd.

Best for: Intermediate programmers and Game Developers looking to advance their relevant math skills

Time investment: 15 hours of video lessons (self-paced)

Prerequisites: Good programming knowledge in C#, some experience with Unity Engine.

Pros:

• The course is taught by a Computer Science PhD with 25 years of experience teaching, and boasts a 4.8/5 rating with 14,000+ alumni — speaking for the content’s quality.
• Every lesson includes a quiz you can use to test how well you’ve absorbed the knowledge
• An online student community is included in the course, so you won’t be on your own when learning the math needed to develop your own games.

Cons:

• It doesn’t show you how to set up Unity, so you’d need to do some research on that if you’re an absolute beginner in everything Game Development.

Features:

• The courses teaches you a good number of math-based concepts important for Game Development, such as Bitwise Operations, Vectors, Matrices, Object Positioning, Navigation, Angles, and more.
• You’ll be developing a game as you go through the course, and you’ll need to use the math concepts you’ve learned to navigate within it. This provides a fun way to drill in the learnings and apply them to the “real world”.
• It shows you how to create a math library in C#, so that you can transform your theoretical knowledge of the concepts into usable code

Verdict: To have all essential math knowledge you need for Game Development in one place, explained to you by an experienced instructor via easy-to-follow videos is a blessing. I recommend Mathematics for Computer Games Development using Unity to anyone who wants to go beyond visual game development —  into the math concepts underlying the actual game code. If you master these, you’ll greatly expand your abilities as a Game Developer.

Complete C# Unity Game Developer 3D (Udemy)

Unity is great for developing both 2D and 3D games. This course focuses on the latter, with emphasis on essential coding skills in C# (C-Sharp). While Unity has a powerful visual, no-code functionality, learning C# to a good level can only help you become a stronger Unity Game Developer.

Best for: If you’re set on using the versatile C# language for Game Development.

Time investment: 30.5 hours of video content (self-paced)

Prerequisites: None (friendly to the absolute beginner)

Pros:

• The course has you complete real projects as you go along – so you’re making sure you’ve understood each concept enough to be able to actually apply it.
• With 200,000+ students having gone through it, it’s maintained an amazing user rating of 4.7/5 
• Ben Tristem, the main course creator, is one of the most knowledgeable, popular, and experienced teachers of Game Development you’ll find online, having taught 1M+ students on Udemy, with a 4.7/5 instructor rating

Cons:

• As this training is geared towards beginners, you might not learn much or get bored if you’re already a more advanced Game Developer

Features:

• At 30+ hours of instructional video, this is a comprehensive resource to learn Game Programming from scratch
• There’s a total of five game projects being built
• Every video lessons includes practical exercises — instead of being drowned in theory, you’ll get to write your own code right away

Verdict:

This course is a great resource for beginner Game Developers wanting to get to a good level with C# programming for Unity. You’ll learn all the coding basics you need, and will have developed your own projects along the way. If you factor in the reasonable pricing for lifetime access and Udemy’s money-back guarantee, you can’t go wrong at least trying this course as a beginner Game Dev.

Learn C++ for Game Development (Udemy)

C++ is still second to none when it comes to creating the most performant AAA games. In this Udemy course, you’ll learn this powerful language from the ground up. By the end, you’ll be ready to start creating your own games for Unreal Engine with C++.

Best for: If you want to be able to write the code for games created in Unreal Engine (or Cryengine / Lumberyard / others) 

Time investment: 12.5 hours of video content (self-paced)

Prerequisites: No prior coding knowledge needed

Pros:

• The course breaks down C++ basics as simply as possible, making it an ideal choice for absolute newbies.
• Stephen Ulibarri, the instructor is an experienced C++ game developer who wrote the book “Unreal Engine C++ – The Ultimate Developer’s Handbook”.

Cons:

• You don’t learn how to use any Game Engine – the training is solely focused on C++ coding skills.

Features:

• All fundamental C++ programming concepts are explained in high-quality videos
• You start with the simplest of game projects, so as to get you coding ASAP without overwhelm.
• The course does get into some advanced concepts later on, but you’ll have built up the foundations for them first.

Verdict:

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better course teaching beginners the ins and outs of C++ coding for Game Development. You’re learning from an expert instructor, so you can rest assured the course material is of high quality. For the reasonable price as well, I can recommend Learn C++ for Game Development.

Become a Game Designer (Udemy)

Do you want to focus on game design skills in addition to game development – or maybe even become a dedicated Game Designer who also has some understanding of code? Then I recommend you take this affordable course at Udemy.

Best for:  Aspiring Game Designers

Time investment: 84 hours of video lessons (self-paced)

Prerequisites: No experience required

Pros:

• The course is comprehensive and covers both Game Design and coding fundamentals in C#
• You’ll dive into all technical skills needed for a Game Designer
• It’s offered at a low price and comes with Udemy’s usual, solid 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons:

• Become a Game Designer won’t take you from beginner to master coder in this one course. Programming is just one part of the training. But you will learn the coding basics needed to start creating your own games. 

Features:

• The course deals with both 2D & 3D games
• Created by the School of Game Design, whose instructors have 15 years of experience in the industry and had 200k+ students go through their courses at an average rating of 4.5 / 5
• You’ll learn how to create 3D models using tools like Maya or 3DS 
• Digital painting masterclass

Verdict:

This course will help you become well-versed in Game Design. But not just that – you’ll also learn game coding fundamentals. As a result, you’ll be more well-rounded than pure Game Designers, which will make you stand out more during your job hunt in this competitive market. For being such an exhaustive resource, the training is priced very affordably as well. 

Learn Game Development with Python and Pygame (Alison.com)

Python with Pygame is great for building games quickly. Because of Python’s simplicity and user-friendliness, you can complete prototypes and whole games even as a relatively inexperienced developer. This course on Alison’s education platform teaches you the steps needed to do that, and allows you to get a CPD-accredited certificate to display in your bio or on your resumé.

Best for: Beginners looking to get into Game Development with Python

Time investment: 4-5 hours (self-paced)

Prerequisites: No prior programming experience required, but some knowledge of Python

Pros:

• You’re taken by the hand for all basic steps, down to installing the Pygame libraries and Python itself.
• The course videos are of high quality and explained such that beginners can easily understand the concepts being taught
• You can take the course for free — it’s only the optional Alison certificate that’ll cost you money

Cons:

• As it’s a compact course aimed at beginners, you’ll have to use additional resources to dive into more advanced Python programming

Features:

• Insights into the Visual Studio Code IDE.
• Understanding and using the Pygame library.
• Creating game screens, game loops, and event handlers
• Knowing and using variables in Python

Verdict:

Learn Game Development with Python and Pygame is a quick and simple introduction, and the quickest way to gain a certificate as Python Game Developer. It’s recommended as a starter course for beginners – but it’ll enable you to start building your own projects after a few hours of studying this resource. In my opinion, it’s well worth it to spend that amount of time.

Interactive Games using HTML5 and JavaScript (Alison.com)

The fastest way to gain a CPD (Continuing Professional Development)-accredited certificate is to complete one of Alison.com’s quick courses. 

Best for: Aspiring developers of web-based games.

Time investment: 3 hours (self-paced)

Prerequisites: No experience required

Pros:

• You’ll be building two actual games during the course. Instead of only absorbing dry information, you’ll dive right into coding simple projects yourself.
• The instruction is excellent, which makes for an enjoyable and efficient learning experience

Cons:

• The content itself only spans a few hours – you’re expected to take what you’re learning and apply it yourself (e.g. in building out projects)

Features:

• You’re learning HTML, Canvas and JavaScript basics at the same time, so you’ll be building a useful small stack of languages/elements from the start
• Once you’ve completed the course and passed the assessment at 80% or higher, you can purchase an official Diploma from Alison, which is great if you’re a beginner with little to show on your resume or bio.

Verdict:

This course is perfect to get a quickstart in creating browser-based games. Within just a few hours, they’re teaching you how to use HTML, Canvas and JavaScript, and you’re building your first real game right away. For me it’s the best way for a beginner to start their journey into web-based game development.

The post The 8 BEST Game Development Courses in 2023 appeared first on Simple Programmer.

This means you can’t try out assets or see the results of any changes you’re making without extra time cost. Especially when you’re working with powerful engines like Unreal Engine, a state-of-the-art GPU will make your life as a game developer that much easier.

I’ve compared the currently most popular & relevant graphics cards for you — so you can improve your game development experience by picking the best one for yourself.

Quick verdict

Best GPU for professional Game Programming:

The ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC is the most powerful and best GPU you can buy. It sports superior processing speed, RAM and ray-tracing capabilities in comparison to all other cards available today. The high price is prohibitive, though — unless you’re a professional Game Developer who wants to make this investment into his career.

Best intermediate option: Although the MSI Geforce RTX 4070 Ti 12GB offers only half the amount of RAM and bandwidth of the RTX 4090, its clock speed is excellent, and it’s overall still a good option for Game Development. 

Best for budget: The Gigabyte Geforce RTX 3060 OC 12GB is a good entry-level model for Game Developers. If you want decent performance while spending only half compared to the RTX 4070 Ti or only a fifth compared to the most powerful RTX 4090 OC, I recommend going for Gigabyte’s overclocked version of the GeForce RTX 3060.

The 3 best GPUs for Game Development reviewed

Let’s get into the review.

Best of the best – ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX® 4090 OC Edition

Pros:

• Overclocked to 2640 MHz from the factory (and is reportedly able to run at 3GHz+)
• Unmatched processing power
• Industry-leading amount of high-bandwidth RAM
• Excellent ray-tracing capability
• DLSS 3.0 technology

Cons: 

• Lofty price point
• High power consumption (requiring a good quality, 1k+ KW PSU)
• Needs a lot of case space & strong cooling setup

Verdict:

If you’re explicitly looking for the most powerful graphics card on the market, the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC is it. Out of all GPUs available today, it will improve your efficiency as a Game Developer the most.

Best intermediate – MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

Pros:

• Fast GDDR6x RAM type
• Good ray-tracing & DLSS capability
• High clock speed
• 40% less power consumption than the 4090 OC

Cons:

• Only half the amount of RAM than the RTX 4090 (12 vs 24GB)
• Half the CUDA cores of the RTX 4090 (7680 vs 16384)
• 500GB/s memory bandwidth compared to the RTX 4090’s 1000GB/s (192 bit memory interface width vs 384 bit)

Verdict:

The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is a powerful graphics card that can do almost all tasks within Game Development at a fast speed. Unless you’re going for the pinnacle of performance, and are looking to create the most complex AAA 3D worlds, you won’t need more than the GeForce 4070 Ti to develop impressive games – without being held back by your GPU’s speed or capacity.

Best for budget – Gigabyte Geforce RTX 3060 OC

Pros:

• Affordable price for beginner Game Developers
• Decently sized memory at 12GB
• Low relative power consumption at ~200W
• Offers ray-tracing and DLSS(2) to a decent level

Cons:

• Lower relative core clock at 1,800MHz
• Only 3584 CUDA cores
• GDDR6 memory type vs GDDR6x, with 360GB/s bandwidth vs 500/1000GB/s

Verdict:

While it can’t compete with the latest generation of GPUs, the RTX 3060 still does well with Game Development. If you’re not willing to spend $800-$2000 on a graphics card, this is a good compromise between performance and affordability.

What to look for in a graphics card to do Game Programming

Lots of RAM

If you want to work with complicated 3D scenes while still having everything go fast, at least 12GB of VRAM are recommended for any new GPU you’re looking to buy. If the details of your game are too big to fit into your GPU’s RAM, system memory will have to be used – which is much slower.

Good memory bandwidth

But it’s not only the amount of VRAM that matters – your GPU’s memory bandwidth determines its rendering speed. You want your memory interface to be as wide as possible (256-384bit is great), and your memory clock to be high. This will result in a high memory bandwidth.

High amount of processors

The more CUDA cores you graphics card has, the more data it can process in parallel – meaning it makes your game development go faster.

Fast core clock speed

Besides the memory clock speed, you also want the GPU core clock to be high. Just like with CPUs, higher core clock means more processes completed per second.

Ray-tracing capabilities

If your GPU supports ray tracing, you’ll be able to render life-like light effects. The newest GPUs have dedicated ray tracing cores, and perform ray tracing to a much higher level in general than older models.

How to pick the best GPU for yourself in 3 steps

1. Start with a budget

Do your professional ambitions warrant a four-figure GPU purchase? Are you realistically going to make back that money with what you create? Or is lightning-fast Game Development your highest priority regardless? Then you should set your budget high.

If not, settle on an amount that’ll be reasonable for you to spend on something that’s a side hustle or simply your favorite pastime.

Now you’ll have your starting point. You know what you can spend without regret, and without talking yourself into buying something you won’t really need.

2. Formulate your needs & nice-to-haves

You might need certain features for the projects you want to create: For example 12+GB of VRAM for working with large details, or advanced ray-tracing capability because you want to use cutting-edge lighting effects in your game.

Other features might be just a nice to have. Still others you might not care about at all, like size of the card or power requirements.

Get clear on these so you can make a better choice.

3. Find the best fit

Considering both the budget and needs you’ve established, you can now judge each GPU you’re researching much more effectively. You end up choosing one that does what you need it to, without breaking the bank. You make sure you’ll be happy about your purchase – eliminating the need to worry about any regrets popping up later.

The post The BEST GPUs for Game Development in 2023 appeared first on Simple Programmer.

For the behavioral part, you can write out and rehearse your answers beforehand – just to have something prepared in the back of your mind for when you’re in the heat of the moment.

Good luck!

General Questions about Game Development

These are the low-difficulty questions you’ll get asked mostly during the phone screen and at the start of your in-person interview.

1. Tell me about your personal projects.

2. On a scale of 1-10, how good are you at C++?

3. Tell me about your experience/expertise with Unreal Engine.

4. How do game UI frameworks work exactly?

5. What is Qt?

6. What is WPF?

Specific Game Development Interview Questions

While many questions in game interviews overlap with general programming interview questions, there’s also many that are specific to this industry. Because game dev companies are dealing with a lot of unique problems, they want to make sure you have the right kind of expertise needed for solving these.

7. How do you implement a system where stats change constantly, like in a role-playing game?

8. How would you create an algorithm for the spread of a virus among game characters?

Technical Questions

9. What is the Big O runtime of a list/array/set/map/hashmap/vector?

10. How to do Binary Search?

11. When do you best use a list/array/set/map/hashmap/vector?

12. How does a hashmap work in detail?

13. What is the runtime for binary searching an array?

14. What are balanced vs unbalanced trees and when to use each?

15. How do you do depth-first & breadth-first searches, using stack/queue?

16. What’s the difference between a reference and a pointer?

17. What does dot product represent? What does its magnitude mean?

18. How can dot product be used?

19. What does cross product represent? What does its magnitude mean?

20. How can cross product be used?

21. How do you reverse a string?

22. What is reflection and how does it work?

23. How do you reflect a vector against a wall?

24. How does the vtable work?

25. How do you determine when a moving object is nearest to another object?

26. When do you need to normalize a vector?

27. How do you calculate a normal?

28. How do you calculate the distance between two vectors?

29. How do you set a bit?

30. How do you clear a bit?

31. How do you check a bit?

32. How do you toggle a bit?

33. What is the maximum value for an int32?

34. Please write -3 in binary.

35. Please write -4 in hex.

36. How large is an int* on a 64-bit system?

37. Explain a Slab allocator.

38. Explain a Buddy allocator.

39. Explain a Stack allocator.

40. Explain a Relocatable Heap.

41. Explain a Pooled Allocator.

Game Debugging Questions

42. How would you go about trying to reproduce an error?

43. What options does a debugger give you for solving a specific problem?

Optimization

44. How do you make a function run on thousands of objects at as high a framerate as possible?

45. How do you allocate memory such that CPU cache size is used most effectively?

46. Do you have experience with tools like VTune, and how would you use them?

Behavioral Interview Questions for Game Developers

Also called “cultural fit”-questions, they are meant to screen you for how compatible you’ll be with the company and your coworkers, as well as attributes like being disciplined and a good problem-solver.

You’ll be asked about your time working at other companies, to see how you’ve dealt with different situations and challenges.

47. Tell me about yourself.

48. Why are you passionate about Game Development?

49. What was the hardest bug you’ve had to fix in a game – and how did you do it?

50. Tell me about a conflict you’ve had with your boss/coworker.

The post 50 Game Developer Interview Questions (Common & Critical) appeared first on Simple Programmer.

To help you make your decision easier, we’ll go through different facets related to software and game development. By the end of the article, you’ll have all necessary information to make your decision.

If you’re not a computer science graduate, and just starting your programming journey, keep reading, as the article will clear many of your doubts.

Before we proceed, let’s briefly explain software development and game development.

What is Software Development?

Software development is a computer science trade. It deals with software creation, where individuals and teams design, prototype, and develop the software.

At the core of each software, you’ll find programs – a set of instructions for computers to perform a task. As a software developer, programmer, or engineer, you need to write combinations of instructions. However, the role is not as simple as it sounds.

In general, software development encompasses four basic software types:

• System software: System software provides core functionality such as disk management or operating system.
• Programming software: Compilers, debuggers, linkers, etc., fall under programming software.
• Application software: Application software lets you perform tasks. The best example includes productivity suites, media players, and office.
• Embedded software: Software that runs on devices and control machines such as cars, networks, and robots falls under embedded software.

There are a lot of ways you can involve yourself in software development. Software development roles are diverse. Let’s check them below:

• Programmers/coders: A programmer carries out specific task coding. For example, they write code for conducting searches, merging databases, or routing communication. They use programming languages such as Python, C, C++, etc.
• Software engineers: Software engineers focus on the broader aspect of software development. It includes devising solutions with modeling language tools. They focus on software complexity and generate tasks for programmers and developers.
• Software developers: Software developers deal with the overall software development lifecycle. They also write code and conduct testing and maintenance. Moreover, they manage development teams as well.

What is Game Development?

Game development is all about creating video games. Here, teams or individuals work on the game development process of designing, development, and releasing.

As a game developer, you must work on different facets of game development, including coding, engineering, conceptualization, rendering, and testing. However, there are specific roles to streamline the game development process, especially working on larger projects.

You’ll find game development hard if you’re from a non-programming background. However, it does offer more non-technical creative aspects, such as sound and design.

You’ll find frameworks and game engines at the core of the game design. These provide a graphical user interface(GUI) to simplify designing and coding video games. If you’re just starting out, you might find game engines such as Construct and Game Maker useful. However, the industry-leading game engines are Unity, Unreal Engine, and Cry Engine.

If you choose to be a game programmer, you start as a junior programmer with a focus on getting into more specialized aspects such as:

• Game engine programmer
• Physics engine programmer
• AI engine programmer
• Graphic engine programmer
• Tool programmer

In game development, you can choose any role that suits you. These include game developers, designers (level & sound), artists, programmers, and testers.

Software vs Game Developer

Software development and game development are closer than ever. So, if you’re thinking of transiting from software to game development, or vice-versa, you’ll find the transition relatively easier.

From an eagle-eye perspective, game and software development are similar. However, both are different, especially regarding goals and outcomes. Moreover, they also need different commitments, demands, and expectations.

Differences between Software and Game Developer

In this section, we’ll take a closer look a the differences between software and game developer.

• Software developers create applications and services that match users’ expectations. With clear goals, software development is more streamlined toward success. However, that’s not the case with game development, as it is hard to know whether the game will succeed.
• You’ll find game developers working more than software developers when it comes to working overtime. Crunch in the game industry is a common problem (we’ll discuss it more in the “work hour” section.)
• Game developer requires a more creative approach compared to software development. However, this is up for debate, and many may disagree.
• You need way more experience to start as a game developer than a software developer. This is because game development is more complex.
• Game developers generally need to know more compared to software developers. They need to know about game mechanics, players’ psychology, level designing, and more. On the other hand, software developers can master specific skills and learn things when needed.
• Software developers may not be worried as much about performance compared to game programmers, who always need to keep performance in mind when developing their games.

Similarities between Software and Game Developer

• Both software developers and game developers write code.
• Both of them work through the product/game life cycle.
• Both of them use programming languages to achieve their goal. Game developers rely on high-performance programming languages such as C/C++. On the other hand, software developers’ programming choices depend on the type of application they are developing. For example, if they are developing a web app, they use programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, etc.
• Crunch times are common among software and game developers.

Salary: Software vs Game Developers

Money is one of the puzzle pieces that will help you decide which path to take.

Game developers

According to built.in, the average game developer salary stands at $114,589 with an average cash compensation of $13,021, making the total average $127,610. The salary starts at $70K per year for junior roles and goes upto $220K per year for a more senior role. Also, the average game developer’s salary depends on company size, with smaller teams constituting more salary.

According to Glassdoor.com, the numbers are on the lower side. They report the average salary as $80,094 per year, more representative of the industry state. Entry-level game developers make $65,901 per year. And, if you look at Talent.com, it reports a $100K average salary.

If we take an average of all these sources, we get an average of $102,570 per year.

Software developers

According to Glassdoor.com, the average software developer is $95,516 per year. If you’re starting, you can make $83,587 per year. If we look at USNews.com, the average software developer’s salary is $110,140 per year. Lastly, talent.com reports the numbers at $107,300 per year. 

If we average all these sources, we get an average of $104,318 per year, which makes it more than the average game developer’s salary.

Qualifications and Skills

Game Developers

• Graduate in Computer Science or higher
• Basic understanding of character animations and digital assets
• Good programming knowledge in C or C++
• Good working knowledge of game engines such as Unreal, Cryengine, or Unity
• Familiarity with Android or iOS if into mobile game development
• Good communication skills

Software Developers

• Graduate in Computer Science or higher
• Have a basic or intermediary knowledge of atleast one programming language. It can be Java, JavaScript, Python, C, or C++.
• Knowledge of open-source technologies such as Linux
• Knowledge of agile methodologies and software development lifecycle
• Good communication skills
• Have a working knowledge of atleast one software development framework.
• Understands how data works, especially in relational databases, and can write queries in SQL or similar technology.
• Computer networking knowledge.

Duties

Game Developers

A game developer needs to do the following duties:

• Be creative and develop new game design ideas.
• Improve gameplay by prototyping and iterating.
• Convert visual ideas to code
• Collaborate with artists, producers, quality analysts, and designers.
• Improve code quality
• Maintain games after launch
• Manage games across platforms
• Port games from one platform to another

Software developers

Software developers have the following tasks and responsibilities:

• Program new ideas into code
• Build and deploy code into production
• Maintain and test the codebase after the release
• Know how to use popular software development tools
• Know how to document software while writing code
• Know how to optimize code for faster application

Work Environment and Work Hours

Game Developers

Crunch (working overtime) is a common practice in gaming, especially during project release time. Kotaku published an in-depth article about Crunch in Rockstar, establishing that crunch is a “common occurrence.” In fact, a former Rockstar employee said in the article that the company stated 80 hours of work per week with mostly no overtime payment.

Vulturebeat also reported 76% of game developers still work under crunch conditions.

However, should you worry? Well, not really. Even though crunch is common, it completely depends on your company’s culture and project. Many companies see crunch as unproductive and mismanagement. If you look at GDC’s State of Game Industry 2021 survey, you’ll find that not everyone works more than the traditional 40 hours.

Software Developers

On average, software developers’ work environment is better than game developers. However, you’ll still find companies asking software developers to crunch, especially during product launches.

In most cases, a company with the “right” measures, such as transparency, good planning, and an agile approach, does enough to avoid crunch culture. Your company’s culture determines your work culture and work hours. In general, expect to give 40 hours per week to your company.

Job Security/Level of Risk

Game Developers

When it comes to job security, you’ll find conflicting information online. Many sources cite less to no job security for game developers. However, that’s not the case for most companies. 

In most companies, your job as a game developer relates to your project. Simply put, you complete your project and then take on another one. This can give you the flexibility to choose projects and do something interesting.

However, you can always find cases where massive layoffs take place, especially when other big gaming industry giants buy up a company. Also, an unsuccessful project can lead to layoffs. On the brighter side, game developers rarely sit unemployed. Depending on your city or location, you can find new opportunities, especially with good networking skills.

Software Developers

Compared to the game industry, the software industry offers better job security. However, it also depends on the project you’re working on and your value to the team. 

In most cases, if you have extraordinary skills, you hardly have to worry about job security. Technically, the private sector doesn’t offer job security. However, the employability chance is higher compared to other trades. If you lose your job, you can get multiple opportunities, considering that you have excellent technical skills.

Which one is for you? Software development or Game Development?

In this section, we’ll take a look at different scenarios. Let’s get started.

Can a software engineer become a game developer?

Making a choice completely depends on your experiences. And, to gain experience, you need to build things.

Therefore, if you’re a software engineer and want to dive into game development, you must make a game. Simply put, you make game development a hobby and finally switch when you feel confident in your skills. This approach is also beneficial, considering you’ll have a portfolio of demos and games when you’re ready to switch.

If you consider switching from software to game development, you must ensure you have the necessary skills. You should know at least one of the two industry-standard game engines, Unreal Engine or Unity. You may also have to learn new programming languages.

Can a game developer become software developer?

But what about game developers who want to shift to software development?

Even though it’s rare to see developers choosing software development once they have become part of game development, you’re free to choose your path. There can be multiple reasons, including a lack of growth opportunities to allow yourself to settle down into a more stable work environment.

In any case, shifting from game development to software development is easier. Here, you may need to learn a new toolset or programming languages. As for the approach, you can follow the same pathway we mentioned above. Start with hobby projects and build a portfolio.

Once you’re ready, make the jump!

What if you’re just starting out?

Lastly, we have people who are just starting.

In that case, the general advice is to do projects (again!). Sooner or later, you’ll find which trade matches your long-term goals and passion. You can choose to do serious software development and create games for fun or vice-versa. The choice is yours!

However, the general advice is to start with software development and then move to game development once you better understand your skills and the industry.

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