Let's learn about Gamedev via these 90 free blog posts. They are ordered by HackerNoon reader engagement data. Visit the Learn Repo or LearnRepo.com to find the most read blog posts about any technology.
"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important," John Carmack.
1. Code a Java Game with (almost) Zero Coding Skills
Everyone, well, almost everyone, loves video games. So even if you are not going to be a professional game developer or just don’t know for sure, to learn a programming language through practice and creating your own video game project is an excellent idea. Furthermore, it could be a good motivation for your learning.
2. Build a Game Engine from Scratch in C++
So you want to learn more about game engines and write one yourself? That's awesome! To help you on your journey, here are some recommendations of C++ libraries
3. How I Let an AI Code a Game For Me!
What if I would ask an artificial intelligence to writa game for me? Is it hard? Will it work? I'm using Github Copilot to try it out.
4. 5 Best Game Engines for Beginner Indie Developers
With so many game engines to choose from it can be difficult to focus on only one. Especially without any experience in the world of game development. That is why I made this list of game engines each with a summary of why it is a great option for beginners.
5. What I Learned Developing Games from Scratch on Flutter
"Dart engineers exploring Stack Overflow 'Flutter gamedev' section", Photo by Elena Zhuravleva.
6. Why I Believe Unity Is The Best Development Engine
Use Unity if you want to make speedy and engaging progress with your game creation!
7. Phaser 3 Game Framework: My Honest Review
I've been using Phaser 3 for a couple of months now, and I'm really enjoying it, but sometimes it makes shake my head 'why?' , only not in a 'bad way', making games is weird, js itself is weird, so it's only logical that Phaser, a game engine js-based... is weird. That's why I opted for the following way to address this review, I'm gonna be giving you something that I liked, next to why/how it was weird, in what's gonna be my attempt to look impartial. But first...
8. Is It Hard to Develop a MMORPG?
How we built a MMORPG in just about 2 years (actually, it’s more).
9. Unity AI: Creating Intelligent NPCs and Enemy Behaviors
Explore the world of Unity AI and learn how to design smart NPCs and enemy behaviors for your games.
10. Creating a 2D Platformer in Unity: The Beginning
Dive into game development with our guide on creating a 2D platformer in Unity. Learn the essentials of setting up, designing levels, and more. Start now!
11. Game Development in 2022: Top 6 Programming Languages
Do you want to become a game developer? Then, you need to learn a gaming programming language. So, check out this blog to know more about these languages.
12. How to Broadcast Interactive Web Based Gaming Live Streams with Amazon IVS
The Web Broadcaster SDK is a game changer that gives developers the ability to integrate the broadcast experience directly into their streaming applications.
13. From Hypercasual to Hybrid Casual: Analysis of Monetization Solutions for Idle Games
In this article, I would like to share how we monetize hypercasual idle game mechanics using in-app purchases and subscriptions
14. Creating Immersive Virtual Reality Experiences With Unity
Step into a new dimension! Discover the art of crafting captivating Virtual Reality experiences with Unity.
15. Level Design in Unity: From Concept to Playable Environments
From concept to playable environments, explore level design in Unity and learn to create immersive gameplay spaces.
16. Why GameDev Designers Are the Swiss Army Knives of Game Development
In this article, I will delve into the essential skills required for GameDev and illustrate each with examples from my own experience.
17. How Much Does It Cost to Start a Video Game Business?
Discover the costs of starting a video game company, from software and team salaries to marketing. insights on budgeting for indie and commercial game projects
18. Game Coding for Dummies: A Quick Guide for Newbies
If you’re a complete newbie or already have a bit of a programming background, you can’t go wrong with Java for game development.
19. Exploring Unity DOTS and ECS: Is it a Game Changer?
Exploring Unity DOTS & Entity Component System (ECS) for game development, their benefits, performance optimization, and related packages.
20. How I Remade 2048 Using React
Today you will learn how to build your own clone of the 2048 game in React.
21. From Pixels to Profits: Boosting Revenue with Analytics in Game Development
Unleash the Power of Analytics in Game Development to Drive Revenue Growth. Discover how data-driven insights transform pixels into profits.
22. The Battle Against Trolls and Hackers: A Guide for Game Developers
Master the art of game protection. A guide for developers to combat trolls and hackers, fortify security, and foster a thriving gaming community.
23. Indie Game Marketing on YouTube: a Guide by Developers for Developers
With the growth of YouTube, potential for promotion arises. But the marketing of indie games is not easy. How to avoid a chaotic struggle and achieve success?
24. Unreal Engine vs. Unity: Choosing the Right Game Development Platform
Unreal Engine vs. Unity: Choose your game development platform wisely and bring your ideas to life with the perfect fit.
25. Monetizing Your Unity Games: Strategies for Success
Monetize Unity games for success with strategies like in-app purchases, ads, subscriptions, and user engagement.
26. Rider 2023.1: Discovering New Features for Unity Developers
Rider 2023.1 enhances Unity dev experience with Android debugging via USB, UI Toolkit templates & DOTS support, making it a top IDE for Unity developers.
27. The Four Elements and Their Graphic Effects: Exploring Shaders in a 2D Game
Features rendering of 2D effects - fire, water, earth and air
28. Creating a Troll-Free Oasis: Preventing Trolling in Your Game from the Ground Up
Build a troll-free gaming community. Learn strategies, moderation, and fostering positivity for an inclusive and enjoyable experience.
29. The Hacker's Nemesis: Strengthening Game Security to Ward Off Intrusions
Unveiling how game developers strengthen security to thwart unauthorized intrusions, emerging as hackers' ultimate nemesis in online gaming.
30. Unity Realtime Multiplayer, Part 5: Preparing Game Data
In terms of network transmission, in a realtime multiplayer game, data format is key. We cover techniques for serializing and deserializing.
31. What AI Game Developers Do and How to Become One
Depending on the genre and purpose of the game, different technologies and approaches are used in the development of AI.
32. How to Create a 2D Character Controller in Unity: Part 2
Learn to refine your Unity 2D character controller with new input handling, smoother jumping, and dynamic camera tracking.
33. How To Integrate App Tracking Transparency with your iOS Unity Project
ByteSyze SDK covers iOS 14 compliant bases by integrating a custom App Tracking Transparency handler into your Unity iOS project for your ATT-dependent SDK's.
34. How To Make Your Own Game in Python
35. On Weapon Design in Video Games
After introducing you to the game characters' initial conceptualization in the previous DevBlog, it is now time to design the weapons that the characters use.
36. Learn to Code with Pico-8 Games
There are a lot of reasons to learn to code with games. Games are fun. Unlike to-do apps, games are something you are excited to show to your friend because it is something they will engage with. There is a misconception among some developers that games are difficult to code, and unapproachable to beginner developers. I couldn’t disagree more, especially if you learn to code with Pico-8 games.
37. An Introduction to LÖVE the 2D Game Engine
If you are looking into starting with LÖVE, this guide compiles a lot of information that will help you to get started and save you hours of research.
38. Quest Arrest: Shipping a Physical Game Boy Game in 2021
In this article, I'll talk about Quest Arrest, a digital and physical Game Boy game I developed and shipped in 2020 and continue to sell today in 2021.
39. Why Less Is More In Games
I’ve played many games that try to be too many things at once and they always fail. My favorite ones are those that take a simple concept and play with it.
40. How to Get Your First Job as a Video Game Designer
How many of us have thought to ourselves “how cool would it be to become a game designer!” It might seem like a pipe dream at first, but with the right approach, it’s possible, even for someone in their 30s with a completely unrelated education or background.
41. Making A Spooky Quantum Game in 15 Hours or Less
It’s no longer news that many organizations and even NASA are in a race to reach what is known as quantum supremacy or the quantum advantage. This means they are investing in resources to develop new computers that are able to solve problems that current (classical) computers cannot; and of course perform faster at already solved problems. If you’re reading this article, you may have heard about Quantum Computing and all it promises to deliver and are curious to learn about the technology.
42. Testing in Godot: How I Personally Approach It
Some time ago, I participated in a game jam and made this game – Of Mice and Bad Choices, I think this is a good opportunity how automated testing can be done
43. 72 Stories To Learn About Video Game Development
Learn everything you need to know about Video Game Development via these 72 free HackerNoon stories.
44. 6 Software Tools I Use to Make Game Art Without Being an Artist
Being a programmer doesn't stop me from making game art assets. If you go for a minimalism style and use good colors that fit well together you can make a game look good. I will show you the programs I use and the games I used it for.
45. How to Enhance Your Game Project Using the ObjectPool Pattern (A Unity Guide)
The Object Pool pattern usage for optimizing game projects. Guide for Unity Developers
46. Getting Started With Game Development
How to begin developing video games?
47. Frank Morgan on Writing, Hospitality, and Web3
Learn how tech writers can create viral content about web3, scrum, agile, hospitality tech, The Sandbox, FTX, NFT, and the metaverse on Hackernoon or anywhere!
48. The Inside Scoop on How Gaming Companies Get You to Buy Their Stuff
Standing out from the crowd and capturing the attention of gamers is both an art and a science.
49. The Future of Multiplayer Game Architecture is Hybrid
This multiplayer game architecture, if technically and economically feasible can reshape the future of gaming.
50. Rust + OpenGL: Rendering 250,000 Dynamic 3D Entities at 50 FPS on a Single CPU Thread
How I forced an old 2013 laptop to render 13,000 active 3D entities at 60 FPS using Rust and OpenGL. No LOD, no culling—just pure data-oriented architecture.
51. Bugs From the 90's: The Code of the Command & Conquer Game
The American company Electronic Arts Inc (EA) has made the source code of the games Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Command & Conquer: Red Alert publicly available. This code should help the game community to develop mods and maps, create custom units, and customize the gameplay logic. We all now have a unique opportunity to plunge into the history of development, which is very different from the modern one.
52. Common Coding Conventions in GDScript
Discover essential GDScript coding conventions that enhance code readability and maintainability. Learn about naming, indentation, line length, and more!
53. 223 Stories To Learn About Game Development
Learn everything you need to know about Game Development via these 223 free HackerNoon stories.
54. Advantages of AI in Gaming: How We're Creating Smarter Competition
Why artificial intelligence is being introduced into competitive and cooperative games today, and how the development teams of such games use AI.
55. I Built a Functional, Data-Oriented 3D Game Framework in Rust for Low-End PCs
A lightweight Rust game framework built with Macroquad and ECS, designed to run on low-end hardware while exploring functional programming patterns.
56. Pixi's Asset Pack 1.0: Is the New Version A Step Forward for Asset Management?
Discover how Pixi's Asset Pack streamlines game development with features like automated texture packing, compression, mipmaps, and manifest generation.
57. 5 Things You Should Know Before Developing CTV Games
Learn 5 main steps that CTV developers should take into account when they are creating a new game.
58. Adventures in Assembly #2
59. What I've Learned By Making And Promoting A Game To Help Stray Cats
At the beginning of summer 2019, I've got an idea to make a cat-themed game to help stray cats by donating all the revenue to cat charities.
60. This Game From the 80s Had Kids Obsessing Over Space Trade—And Its Source Code Is Now Available
Elite was a space trading game with a huge universe, and you could explore it. The game's difficulty was insane, and I loved it.
61. Reflection-Driven Development in Pure C: Eliminating Boilerplate at Scale
Automate your pure C game engine with Reflection Driven Development. Learn how to build a custom libclang parser to generate ECS and serialization code.
62. A Podcast with NIS America: How has COVID Changed the Gaming Industry?
In this episode of the Hacker Noon Podcast, I talked to Erin Kim from NIS America. For those of you that don't know, NIS America is the America-based counterpart of the Japanese game development company NIS (Nippon Ichi Software).
63. C++ Isn’t Going Anywhere in Game Development
C++ remains the backbone of modern game engines—and it’s not going away anytime soon.
64. How to Create Promotional Assets: An Insider's Guide into the World of Graphic Design
I offer you to go through the evolutionary stages of promo materials.
65. Bugs from the 90's: The Code of Command and Conquer [Volume 2]
The American company Electronic Arts Inc (EA) has opened the source code of the games Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Command & Conquer: Red Alert publicly available. Several dozen errors were detected in the source code using the PVS-Studio analyzer, so, please, welcome the continuation of found defects review.
66. My Experience as A Team Lead For Unity3D Gamedev Team
Recently I became the team lead in the company I am working for and here I want to share a few lessons that I already managed to learn.
67. Blockchain Games Hold More Potential Than Previously Understood
Blockchain technology is step by step penetrating many areas of our lives, not just becoming an innovation, but shaping the approach and requirements for market products.
68. Dedicated Game Server: How To Choose The Right Infrastructure
69. What To Do When Your 12-Year-Old Son Has a Girlfriend in Fortnite
I recently had a chat with a parent. He said his 12-year-old son came home and announced that he has met someone in Fortnite — and that someone is now his girlfriend.
70. Blockchain Tech In the Gaming Industry: Major Players To Spark Mass Adoption?
While the blockchain and crypto industry participants never stop developing and exploring new possible applications of the tech, major global industries are now turning for answers in this unique technology when it comes to innovations in their field.
71. Demographics of the Gaming Industry: Reading Between the Lines
An overview of recent developments in the gaming industry and what they mean for publishers and developers.
72. The Attention Span Drought Is Forcing LiveOps to Go Relentless
73. The Brainrot-ification of Mobile Game Economy Design
74. Supercharging Game Graphics with Physics in Phaser
Craft ropes that dance, limbs that sway, and fish that splash with the magic of physics and images in Phaser. Learn how to effortlessly create a rope-like mesh
75. From 3D Rendering to Motion Capture: What's Next for Game Development?
The past few decades have been game-changing for our daily lives as a whole range of industries transformed into what we see today. The world does not function the way it used to just a few decades ago and that is thanks to technological advancements, occurring throughout this timeframe.
76. 5 Steps You Should Take To Launch A Cool Game
The key steps of the game development process, how each of them functions, and what roles and operations they consist of.
77. IoT as a Multi-Faceted Game Changer in 2021 and Beyond
There is no second-guessing the predominance of the IT industry, despite the catastrophic effects of the pandemic felt across diverse verticals.
78. The Importance of Music in Video Games
Think back to the year of 1986. You are an excited child sprinting through the arcade so you can be the first to get to the amazing new game, ”Outrun”. What was it that was so special about this game? The cars? The quirky characters? The endless crashing into things? Probably. But I recently played it for the first time, and the one thing that stood out to me was the music.
79. 51 Stories To Learn About Gamedev
Learn everything you need to know about Gamedev via these 51 free HackerNoon stories.
80. Creating a Notification-Based Game via Unity and Courier
I built a notification-based game with Unity Engine, Courier, Twilio, and Mailjet. This post discusses how I used Courier to build Rain Spikes.
81. How to Improve Customer Care
Today customer care is one of the most popular and widely discussed topics in the IT industry.
82. The Jinn: My Storyline for my first Game Project in Unity
The daylight dims, its 3:00 pm, almost afternoon. It feels humid as the moisture in the air has increased. The skin feels all damp and sticky. My little room is getting all hot as I start sweating. It was supposed to be an ordinary afternoon on a summer day. “Lets go outside…” I talked to myself.
83. What is Cloud Gaming and How is Google Leading the Industry?
Most games today are downloaded and played on smartphones, gaming consoles, and PCs. Network connections support player accounts and in-game purchases, but the games themselves run on players' devices. Game companies build services around top game titles, enabling them to deliver continuous updates that add new gameplay and respond to the public feedback on social streaming services.
84. “Brainrot” and the Attention Economy Are Changing Time Gating in Free-to-Play Games
Practical take on how modern attention trends like “brainrot” shape player habits and influence free-to-play design.
85. 'Seed' by Klang Games: Part 1 of The Game AI Series
I spoke to their excellent game AI engineer Alessia Nigretti to get some insights into the team’s development process and the technology unpinning the game.
86. The Noonification: Startups of The Year 2023: Nominations and Voting Now Open (5/10/2023)
5/10/2023: Top 5 stories on the Hackernoon homepage!
87. Oh You're Going to Your First Game Jam? Read Me First
I have participated in quite a few game jams over the years and now I want to share my experiences with you. I participated in both online as offline jams like Ludum Dare and Global Game Jam. Game jams are fun and can be a great learning experience but they can also be stressful and tiring.
88. Wanna Get Great At Making Indie Games? Make Lots Of Them
It's simple, really: ff you want to become a good game developer, you need to make lots of games. Let’s first start with why you need to be productive: the more games you make the better and faster you become at making games. Every new game you make is a new addition to your portfolio. Publish your games on different portals to see what the players think about your game, see what works, and what kind of ideas don’t.
89. Why Even Legendary Games Like Wesnoth Hide Bugs in Plain Sight
Discover why even classic open-source games like The Battle for Wesnoth conceal hidden bugs—and how static analysis tools reveal them.
90. Why Hits Feel Different Now: Mobile Chases TikTok, Console Chases Community
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