Handmade Hero is a new, ongoing project by game developer Casey Muratori to livestream himself developing and programming a professional-quality video game via Twitch. That in itself wouldn’t be too terribly exciting, however what is definitely interesting is the fact that Muratori is aiming to do so while teaching others to program a professional-quality video game of their own.
Read more details on game developer Muratori’s project below:
Game Developer’s Handmade Hero Project
For a general overview of Muratori’s Handmade Hero project, check out what he had to say below:
“With the rise of programming streams on things like Twitch and YouTube, a lot of my friends are starting to stream cool game programming videos. This easily-accessible way to show live explanations to a wide audience got me thinking that maybe the time was right to try to make something that anyone could use to learn professional game programming the way I did: by watching someone who already knows how to do it, and asking them questions.”
“It’s a project where I will spend an hour a night for (at least) the next year streaming the entire process of creating a game, with explanations of each step and Q&A sessions where people can ask about things they didn’t understand. If you can’t make it, every episode will be archived on YouTube so you can watch it at your leisure.”
Furthermore, due to the nature of the project, Muratori has made Handmade Hero‘s source code available from day one.
“Because the goal of this project isn’t just to program a professional-quality game, but to teach people how to program a professional-quality game, I’ve decided to make the source code available right from day one. Anyone who preorders the game on the handmadehero.org website will get full access to the source tree, updated nightly.“
“Furthermore, since I want Handmade Hero to be available as a platform on which people can build new educational materials, a clock will start the day the final release of Handmade Hero is posted. Within two years of that day, I will release the full source code into the public domain permanently, so anyone and everyone can do whatever they want with it forever more.”
What is even more interesting is that Muratori will not be using traditional game-making engines such as Unity or GameMaker, instead he, as a game developer and programmer, will be creating a full game engine from scratch. Muratori stated the following on his reasoning behind the decision:
“…those tools obfuscate and abstract most of the actual work the computer does to run a game. They’re fine if all you care about is learning game design, but if you want to learn game programming, then you really need to start from scratch, so you can see absolutely everything that goes on inside a full game engine.”
Muratori emphasizes that he is a game developer and programmer, not a game designer, thus Handmade Hero will be a traditional game, using tried-and-true design principles. It will be a classic adventure where the protagonist of the game will embark on a quest of discovery.He also states that his goal is not to simply teach basic game programming, but delve into the intricacies of advanced game programming:
“My goal is to teach not just basic game programming, but advanced game programming, the design will be intentionally intricate. All the things that we can think of that we might want to do in the game, we will code: complex item interactions, globally propagating environmental effects, monster behaviors that interact with each other and the environment, combinatorial powerups — anything that might be tricky to code, we’ll code.”
As for the structure the game developer Muratori hopes to employ in regards to livestreaming, he is targeting to stream 1 hour a day (from 8PM to 9PM PST) in addition to time reserved for answering viewer’s questions and remarks.
“I’ll try to keep the streams to about one hour a day (8PM to 9PM PST), plus some additional time for Q&A that will be separate from the main stream where I program the game.”
Naturally, due to the inherent pace of game developer time and the fact that Muratori will be teaching viewers, development on Handmade Hero will be much slower than what it would take a normal game developer to finish a project.
“It’d be great to have a game done in a few months, but realistically it’s pretty safe to assume it’s going to be well over a year. So I apologize in advance for the slow pace, but that is the cost of having it be a class instead of just a game.“
Handmade Hero will be initially developed for Windows PC , with possibilities of Mac and Linux in the future.
If you’re interested in becoming a game developer, or just curious as to the details surrounding Muratori’s project, you can check out his official announcement here.
Furthermore, you can watch the game developer’s official Handmade Hero announcement video below:
What are your thoughts on Muratori’s project? Are you an aspiring game developer, or maybe simply interested in learning what game developer and programmer life is life? If so, will you check out Handmade Hero?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.