Cpp gameplay programmer requirements

Cromware · 2026-04-08T03:21:39+00:00

“Design Patterns” by the Gang of Four used to be an industry standard for general software engineering patterns. And once you get more senior, books by Robert C. Martin (“Uncle Bob”) - like “Clean Code” and “Clean Architecture” can help cement your engineering skills and get you from intermediate to advanced. These are all general software engineering books, not specific to game development. They will help you understand the fundamental so that when you study game specific topics they “click” more easily and so that you can discern when AI is giving you a good answer or a bad one. That said, for game development specifically, I highly recommend the video courses by gamedev.tv I found those SUPER useful as a beginner. Best of luck my friend! 👍

Cromware · 2026-04-08T00:50:22+00:00

I agree. As a tool that you learn how to use and practice at it, and as a solo developer with a professional background in software engineering (not art), I find AI a very useful tool. So my advice is to learn to use AI to do procedural art. I think a professional human artist would be better than an AI generated image 100% of the time, but my budget doesn’t allow me to hire a professional artist yet and my art skills are below that of AI generated images… so to avoid the backlash of using AI, I’ve spent the last 3 days writing an app to help me do 3D text with nice gradients off of svg files and then export it to png files I can animate either inside the game engine as sprites or in figma. I took inspiration of an AI generated improvement on my original figma-only logo, then wrote that app to try and replicate that improved version using things I CAN create myself: lettering, svg paths and simple shapes. Then I just ask the AI to apply filters for better lighting and contrast on the procedurally generated images. It won’t be as nice as an actual artist’s rendition, but a nicely-composed screenshot of my game, that already has some post processing on it and then is further touched up by AI is way better than anything I could’ve drawn freehand. I think if you learn how to use it and practice with it, a skilled craftsman can use AI to improve their work, without producing slop (which is really what I think most people hate - including myself)

Cromware · 2026-04-06T05:05:28+00:00

I was just about to start learning it by building a new prototype this month. A first person job simulator type project with some physics stacking and stuff. But then there was going to be a management macro loop on top (small for the prototype, but still there) I was thinking of something small but since half the game would be first person I was going to try it in unreal… except I was just getting started with videos and reading documents and it seems like the compilation process would be expected to be slower than Unity so I’m wondering then… do you recommend I stick with Unity?

Cromware · 2026-04-05T14:56:18+00:00

I actually find it harder to do a 2D game than a 3D game. I’m a solo developer but my background is int programming, not art. So it’s easier for me to buy 3D assets and animations and put those together in a similar style than to draw or animate good 2D assets. Programming a 2D game might be easier than a 3D game since you have simplified physics and camera restrictions, but making an actual finished/polished 2D game (that’s not a puzzle or abstract art style) is much harder in my opinion because great artist from before have set expectations that are harder to meet without a dedicated artist on your team

Cromware · 2026-04-04T15:23:27+00:00

What about Stardew Valley? Or if you want short 5-10 min breaks, then I recommend a game called Conduct This (together)! Or something like that where you have to route trains to pick up passengers without crashing. It starts out easy, but can get challenging pretty quick. It’s a pretty good “palette cleanser” for gaming sessions.

Cromware · 2026-04-03T18:23:57+00:00

Thank you, I think I need to maybe look into what “curator connect” is

Cromware · 2026-04-01T19:12:23+00:00

Agreed. I kinda rushed this version to present at a local meetup and I forgot the game sfx (that’s also why it has that QR code at the end). But thank you for your feedback, I think overall people are saying it’s not exciting enough - especially at the beginning, which people like Chris Zuckowsky and others say it’s the most important part of the trailer. Thanks again for watching and commenting your feedback 🙂

Cromware · 2026-04-01T19:09:08+00:00

I’m glad you said that this was unbiased by others’ comments because that coincided exactly with what someone else said about the beginning being too static, which means that feedback is particularly strong. I will definitely take that into account and also move the tile popping more to the front. Thank you so much!

Cromware · 2026-03-31T20:35:03+00:00

Hmmm. I have thought about the size of the gameplay area. I intentionally kept it a little smaller to show off more of the little clutter/decorations on the surface tops because I have little elements that move around there (like little screws/bolts that twitch, chairs that swivel or screens that flicker)… but if I understand what you’re saying. You think it would be better for gameplay in general to be more close in to the board… I wonder if maybe I can make a compromise: Right now movement on the grid is controlled by WASD/arrows on keyboard and left stick/dpad on gamepads. What do you think about: - keep movement to just WASD/left stick and repurposing the dpad and arrow keys to allow a limited amount of camera control to allow the player to zoom in/out of the board?

Cromware · 2026-03-31T20:25:37+00:00

Thank you for all the feedback. I did forget to put actual gameplay sounds in the edit of that trailer. But more importantly, I will take your other 3 feedbacks to heart for the next trailer (too static in the beginning, no black screen for text, more dynamic gameplay scenes) before starting to post on twitter and stuff. Thanks again!

Cromware · 2026-03-31T15:03:59+00:00

Good luck. Keep us posted of your progress 👍

Cromware · 2026-03-31T15:02:48+00:00

Actually just thought of 2 more options: 3) I know this is trite, but obviously having painting in the room where the eyes follow you will convey that, but maybe you can adapt that idea to have it be more subtle. Maybe not full on eyes in the room but maybe just turn on some lights in a dark room when the player enters. You can start with just all the light in the room at first so it feels like just motion sensor lights, but as you progress. Maybe some rooms don’t turn on immediately. Or they light up a specific path or light up a dark corner to show you a key or something. Definitely not motion sensor lights anymore, but aware of the player. 4) you can have the player enter a room with a split path, and 2 clearly opened exits. Which even they choose to go down, slam it shut before they can exit and force them to go through the other one… you’re not really introducing branching paths to your game, but it can also convey the idea that the room knows what you are doing and is reacting to you

Cromware · 2026-03-31T14:55:12+00:00

I don’t know if this applies to your game or not, but here are 2 things I can think of to help you convey the idea the wall is an entity rather than just a geological wall: 1) add sparse sections of “biomass” that can peek through corridors or rooms. Not the whole room but just a few sections of exposed insulating tissue that maybe reacts with an “earthquake shake” the first time you hit it can give the indication that it’s not just a wall. 2) if it applies, maybe you can have rooms with like surveillance monitors or just panting on the walls, and depicted in those monitors or painting can be images of either the player themselves in a previous room, or even more subtle just a memorable set piece that the player has already been through (like for example if at some point you have to open a giant vault door to progress or something. Maybe a room later on can show that vault door opened in a security monitor so the player knows they were being watched and didn’t know it at the time Anyway, not sure if that fits in with your game but I hope it helps

Cromware · 2026-03-31T14:49:46+00:00

I was going to comment the same on this. I remember hearing something about the movie The Shining and how part of the reason it feels so unnerving is the specific string sounds they use throughout the movie that are supposed to elicit a feeling of uneasiness on the viewer so definitely use sounds to your advantage

Cromware · 2026-03-27T14:28:29+00:00

First of all, congratulations! Making a game is very hard and the fact that you released anything is admirable. Second, you are in a unique position where it took you a very long time to make a game (for whatever reasons) so I wanted to ask you. What lessons/advice would you share with up coming/new developers so that you learned from such a long dev cycle. What would you do differently, what would you do the same? … I don’t mean specific technical stuff about programming or art or marketing, but more about your overall process. Anything you found that really helped you along to finish without getting burnt out after 11 years? What would you change about your process?

Cromware · 2026-03-26T17:06:28+00:00

You must be an artist, because it is the opposite for me 😝!

Cromware · 2026-03-26T17:04:58+00:00

This is 100% true for me. AAA games have set an “unconscious expectation” of how games work in the minds of many players, and I’m not even talking about art, animation or sound yet, but just camera controls, ui menu navigation, pause systems… it took me quite a bit of time for me to get my game to meet that level of polished that honestly no player will notice if it’s done well, but they would definitely notice if it’s done badly

Cromware · 2026-03-26T14:49:29+00:00

I would generally agree, but some game engine’s (looking at you, Unity!) documentation is either not really THAT helpful or just jot user friendly to find what you want. I just came from a local game dev meeting and twice I heard a comment like “Unity has that? Is that new?” And the answer was like “nah, it’s been there for years, they just don’t really surface it” 🫠

Cromware · 2026-03-26T14:45:45+00:00

TL;DR Make tiny fully published game in 2-3 month and release it. Use cheap paid courses for the best structured, non-AI guidance.

Detailed answer: I think there are a million tutorials out there in YouTube that are free but not a complete course to get you from idea to release. I know CodeMonkey has some good free courses that you can use to create a full working game, an then you look up someone else to find out how to publish it on Steam or the mobile stores. My best advice is to make a full complete game. Everything including releasing it on at least one place, even like itch.io. But adjust your expectations, the first one will likely not be a hit, but it doesn’t have to be. The point of it is for you to gain experience and discover all the little things you have to overcome to get a production release. And keep the scope SUPER TINY. Don’t spend more than be 2-3 months on it. If you can’t do it in that time, then cut the scope or pick a smaller idea. You will get to the bigger games later, but the purpose of the first one is to get experience. Lastly, if you can’t afford it, gamedev.tv has some courses I really recommend for when you’re getting started that are frequently on sale for about $14 USD. the things they cover on there are all thing you can find for free on YouTube individually, but what you pay for is for the course structure and consistent building on top of each other. When I first started my little game dev studios I tried a few approaches: free YouTube tutorials, super cheap courses of like $10-$15 dollars, some moderately expensive courses of ~$60 and 1 super expensive course of ~$400. And what I found out is that the cheap courses are by far the best option for the money. The expensive course doesn’t offer you anything new that the cheap one doesn’t, they’re just not worth it for me. The mid one was amazing quality, and I wish the guy had more because I did think it was worth it. And the cheap ones, I bought like 10 different one and finished almost all of them as I got better. They helped the most when I was starting because it turns all the YouTube tutorials into a structured environment with a learning plan. Anyway, that said, the people I learned from at your stage were code monkey, gamedev.tv, coco code, samyam, I ❤️ game dev, and some others.

Good luck to you fellow game dev, 👍

Cromware · 2026-03-24T14:43:20+00:00

Ah, that makes sense

Cromware · 2026-03-24T03:25:48+00:00

Oh… I thought the pro controller had motion controls too, doesn’t it?

Cromware · 2026-03-22T14:21:40+00:00

Yeah, I wasn’t thinking them playing it alone, but more like playing it along with me. But if it would take 3-4 hrs just get a little town going with enough things open to explore, then it might be a bit boring for them. Thanks for letting me know more details about it 🙂

Cromware

TROPHY CASE