HN treats it as the go-to explanation of ECS, valuable even for people who don't use Rust.
Topics › Games & Game Development
The best game programming & engines videos, according to Hacker News
113 videos about game programming & engines that Hacker News commenters keep pointing each other to, ranked by how many separate months they were recommended. Part of Games & Game Development.
HN treats it as the definitive deep dive on Nanite, admired for the engineering ambition behind pixel-sized triangles and compute-driven rendering.
It is one of the most frequently recommended videos on HN for old-school game development hacks under tight hardware constraints.
HN recommends it as a talk whose advice on simplicity and avoiding unnecessary work applies well beyond games.
HN programmers recommend it, and the Jai series that followed, for the game-industry view on replacing C++ and for watching a language being invented.
It is the go-to talk for anyone building falling-sand or pixel-physics simulations, and several commenters say they modeled their own engines on it.
HN commenters recommend it for its source-based history of OOP, though some dispute its account of Alan Kay.
Frequently recommended for an experienced game-engine builder's view on why GC pauses are inevitable and why Swift's approach is appealing.
HN rates his QuakeCon keynotes among the best technical talks, and cites this one for the VR segment and for his views on Linux gaming.
A favorite on Ask HN lists of programming YouTube channels, praised for mind-blowing systems and graphics programming and a watchable coding style.
It is the canonical demo HN people cite for live interactive development and hot reloading, as proof the workflow is real and not smoke and mirrors.
HN raves about it as one of the best conference talks, showing a master's creative process and sound design.
HN treats it as the best entry point to geometric algebra and an intuitive route to understanding quaternions.
The go-to link in any anti-cheat thread for a concrete, well-delivered account of machine-learning cheat detection in production.
HN calls it an inspirational must-see on SDF rendering and a favorite tech talk for graphics programmers.
HN cites it as the example of a better alternative to whiteboard and fizzbuzz-style interviews.
The go-to talk whenever Wave Function Collapse, Townscaper or tile-based procedural generation comes up.
Held up in debugger and tooling threads as an amazing ideal of a tight feedback loop and what debugging could be.
HN considers it one of the best game networking talks, with insights that carry over to distributed systems generally.
Cited again and again as Carmack's key public statement on functional programming and purity in game development, plus his remarks on garbage collection.
HN treats it as the definitive practical talk on rollback networking in a shipped AAA fighting game.
Seen as the origin of the IMGUI idea that inspired Dear ImGui, recommended to anyone curious about immediate-mode UI design.
HN treats it as required viewing for understanding the PS5's SSD and architecture beyond raw specs.
HN points to it as the standard example of procedural content generation and extreme size optimization in games.
HN commenters point to it as the first-person story of how Myst grew out of HyperCard and fit on CD-ROM, especially in threads about HyperCard and retro game constraints.
HN recommends it as an approachable way into C and low-level programming that gets to something visible quickly.
HN cites it for the story of how Pitfall's levels are generated procedurally from a seeded counter, within 4K of ROM.
HN points to it as a standout example of physics-based sound synthesis and engine simulation.
HN recommends it as a fun, informative survey of easy-to-implement dungeon generation methods from the author of the Rust roguelike tutorial.
HN recommends it as the original explainer for a clever dithering technique and the go-to video in dithering threads.
Praised as an engrossing, in-depth look at SM64 mechanics that is surprisingly compelling to watch.
HN recommends it as an excellent inside look at Valve's history, its technology and the games industry of the time.
Cited as an early, striking demo of neural networks acting as game engines and world models.
Commenters recommend it as the clearest way to understand WFC, especially in threads about Townscaper and tiled content generation.
Recommended as a prime example of large-scale procedural generation used in a shipped AAA game.
Cited as a source for Carmack's views on static analysis, open source and languages, and praised as a captivating, conversational speaker.
HN recommends the series as a thorough look at low-level game programming by someone with deep knowledge, offered free.
HN commenters use it as the canonical demo of deep reinforcement learning, noting that watching it teaches more than an article does.
Recommended to Carmack fans as the keynote with his functional programming adventures and for his fluent, wide-ranging talk.
Recommended for a substantive look at language design priorities and a critique of why modern programming feels broken.
It is the standard citation in HN arguments over Rust for game development, the borrow checker and ECS designs, as a skeptical view from an experienced game developer.
HN cites it as a showcase of one of the best voxel engines, impressive for its detail and smoothness.
HN mines it for Carmack's views on AGI, debuggers, tooling and the metaverse, and recommends it as worth the full length.
HN commenters cite it as a level-headed counterpoint to ECS zealotry and a good intro to game architecture beyond ECS.
HN points to it as a concrete case of procedural animation that keeps characters responsive, often in threads about Overgrowth and game feel.
HN recommends it as a good overview of what ray-traced lighting changes for developers and players.
HN points people to it as a rare, concrete look at how a AAA studio uses procedural tools to fill huge worlds with natural-looking environments.
HN commenters recommend it as a firsthand account from the creator, including the old tooling.
Jai had no public release, so commenters point to this beta user's videos as a way to see what the language is actually like.
Recommended as a good first-steps shader tutorial that also teaches broad graphics knowledge.
HN cites it whenever Lisp in games, Naughty Dog or Racket in production comes up, as the main first-hand account.
Recommended as a great talk on live, functional-style game programming.
HN people point to it as an excellent, inspirational talk on Rust GUI architecture, and it led many to the Druid project.
Recommended as a clear, practical introduction to atomics and lock-free programming in C++.
HN recommends it as a fascinating hacker war story, especially in threads on Naughty Dog's custom Lisp languages GOOL and GOAL.
Recommended as a wide-ranging Carmack interview, noted for his views on work ethic and AGI.
Recommended as a clear overview of Another World's graphics and programming and what the Amiga could do.
HN points to it as a first-hand account of game netcode and engineering lessons from a Blizzard and Guild Wars developer.
HN points to it as the clearest short demo of iMUSE, considered a high point in video game music.
HN commenters cite it as the reference for how a rewind system works and as a point of comparison for undo and serialization approaches.
HN recommends it as a striking example of rendering with distance-estimated fractals and non-standard graphics approaches.
HN points to it for seeing Jai's compile-time metaprogramming in practice and for Blow's tools that visualize programs to spot problems.
HN recommends it as a way to demystify game creation and shows what an experienced developer can build in a 48-hour jam.
HN points to it as a practical example of solving a tricky multithreading problem, including using a spinlock to speed up a real-time physics solver.
HN commenters recommend it as an accessible, non-technical look at real game pathfinding problems from a developer who built them.
Recommended as a clear, from-scratch demonstration of how simple code hot-reloading is with plain OS facilities.
Cited as an impressive real-time rendering showcase, with Nanite and a huge photorealistic city, that rivals film CGI.
HN holds it up as a vivid example of focused game-jam productivity, and it has been used to demystify programming for students and inspire tools for recording coding sessions.
HN points to it as coverage of an impressive 3D game port on very limited hardware.
HN cites it in threads on Linux desktop application distribution as a clear treatment of why binary compatibility and static linking are hard.
HN uses it as concrete data in game engine debates, showing a custom engine far outperforming Unity at several times the effort.
Cited in discussions of sine implementations and whether lookup tables beat computation on memory-bound hardware.
HN recommends it for first-hand accounts of how early 3D games like Doom worked within tight hardware limits.
Cited in threads about Lua, embedded scripting, and game engines as a concise argument that scripting languages are redundant.
HN points to it as the definitive example of making 3D rendering look like 2D animation through cel shading, outlines, and framerate tricks.
Pointed to in Minetest and spherical-voxel-world threads as a striking example of what the open-source engine can do.
Strongly recommended as an inspiring hour on how id worked, often linked in programming-practice threads.
HN points to it as a mind-blowing seed-cracking story related to other Minecraft RNG reversal work.
HN cites it as a favorite demo of live coding and hot reload in a game engine.
HN commenters link it as official evidence that the new simulator's flight model is serious and comparable to dedicated sims.
HN uses it as a reference for how noisy raw real-time ray tracing is and how it compares with traditional faked lighting.
Cited in discussions of software getting slower and of efforts to reduce friction in programming.
HN points to it as a detailed production example of mesh shaders and GPU-driven rendering, though some find it daunting.
HN cites it as the original showing of ForPlay (later PlayN), the cross-platform Java game library.
Cited for his plain-language explanation of how VR convinces the brain and for resolution and pixel-density figures.
HN commenters link it when people ask about cross-platform game development and for details like SDL's licensing change.
HN points to it as an example of Notch's famous live-coding sessions, which drew many early Minecraft fans.
HN points to it for insight into how the Caves of Qud developer thinks about game engines.
Cited as the evidence that Denuvo DRM measurably hurts game performance.
HN points to it as the explanation of how The Witness solved walking and collision.
HN points to it as a rare, practical look at how a game studio tests its games and engine.
Cited as a talk full of rendering tricks, and as an example of what a small team can do with custom tech.
HN points to it for Wright's ideas on procedural design and as the source of the huge expectations around Spore.
HN cites it for Acton's common-sense views on building engines, valuing curiosity and self-driven learning.
HN points to it as a real-world example of game engine multithreading and of safety annotations in C.
Shared as the canonical example of visualizing a real project's version control history with Gource.
Cited mainly for Carmack's offhand survey asking how many people had spent $20 on Android apps, used in debates about app store economics.
HN points to it as the official showcase that Godot works for non-game application development.
HN cites it as proof of how capable browsers became, a landmark for asm.js and WebAssembly.
HN people cite it as the origin of the vanishing-in-a-screenshot effect, used in ideas for captchas and AI-resistant text.
HN links it as a historical artifact showing what Minecraft looked like at its very beginning.
Cited in StarCraft and AI threads as a vivid example of superhuman micro and of machine speed advantage over humans.
Cited as a benchmark of what mobile graphics could do in 2010, against which later WebGL games are compared.
HN references it as the explanation of how Valve uses containers for Linux game compatibility.
HN commenters link it as the primary source for the 'multiplicative gameplay' idea and the chemistry engine behind BotW.
Cited as an example of LED volume virtual production, as used for Star Wars shows, in threads about VFX.
Cited as an impressive example of real-time digital humans, especially the facial and mouth animation.
Mentioned as an early example of real-time ray tracing and path tracing demos.
HN cites it as an example of messy code behind successful games and of the human stories that code comments can hold.
Cited as an early, primary-source look at Carmack's VR prototype, which preceded his move to Oculus.
HN cites it as a marker of where real-time graphics are heading, such as sub-pixel triangles and per-pixel compute.
Cited as evidence that Clojure support in Unity exists, mostly in threads about game programming and Lisp scripting.
Cited by HN as a fun example of a laser projector side project that later led to jobs and wealth for its author.
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