Game Engine Project

Note

If you’re new to coding game engines, you might want to start with my blog post: How To Program a Game Engine. 

Basic Overview

I kicked off this project at the start of 2021, with a clear vision—not to create the next industry-standard game engine like Unreal Engine, but to craft something more personal. I knew that building an engine at that scale solo would be unrealistic. 

What is the Game Engine Project?

This project is a 3D engine built using the Vulkan API. I experimented with OpenGL initially, but it abstracted too much, making it difficult to understand the underlying rendering process. Plus, Vulkan is known for its performance advantages over the older OpenGL, offering a real challenge, which I embraced. 


My goal was to build a project that serves as a reference point for myself and others who might be curious about game engines. While I don’t plan on releasing it publicly, it could still be a resource for future projects. 


Current Status 

The engine is still a work in progress, with some key features yet to be implemented, including: 


I’m sure there are more aspects that need work, but these are the main focus areas for now. 

Why Start with Vulkan? 

Although I began with Vulkan, I’d recommend that anyone interested in learning a graphics API start with OpenGL. Luckily, I already had a solid understanding of game engines and graphics concepts, which made diving into Vulkan more approachable for me. I chose Vulkan to deepen my understanding of how these concepts are implemented. 

An Example of OpenGL vs. Vulkan 

In OpenGL, implementing a depth buffer—an image that stores information about how far each pixel is in the scene—takes a single line of code:
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST)

This code essentially toggles the feature, but it doesn’t explain how the depth buffer works. By contrast, Vulkan's implementation is much more verbose (see this Vulkan tutorial on Depth Buffering). However, that verbosity forced me to grasp what a depth buffer truly is: an image that stores depth info for each pixel, which controls which colors appear in front. If someone had just told me that, I’d likely forget it—but coding it out ingrains the concept.

Challenges with Vulkan

Vulkan was incredibly challenging to learn. I’m working on a blog post about the Vulkan API that will share some of the resources that have helped me along the way. Coming Soon! 


And I think that's why the Game Engine project is a perfect contender for my attention because I'm not going to run out of content to learn any time soon!

Final Thoughts

I’m no expert, and I make plenty of mistakes. It’s easy to get distracted, especially when you're curious like me and want to learn everything. But this curiosity is also why the Game Engine Project keeps pulling me back—it’s a bottomless pit of learning.

You can find all the code for the Game Engine Project on my GitHub. If you have feedback or suggestions, don’t hesitate to reach out—I could use all the help I can get!😃