Build the engine systems, including:

• Rendering, including mesh, texture, particle, billboard, and UI rendering

• Hybrid Entity Component system for scripting

• Serialization and Deserialization of scenes/objects

• Editor interface, including various development and profiling tools

• Build tools to turn game projects into executable applications

Learned a significant amount about software development, graphics programming, and game engine architecture

Consistent daily work schedules allowed the project to maintain momentum

Good internal documentation allowed the project to persist long term

New file formats were designed to be easily extended, allowing new file sections to be added easily

Editor features were prioritized over creating a full game with the engine.

“Spaghetti” code made adding and removing features time consuming.

Custom written code was often chosen over external libraries, leading to wasted time and avoidable bugs

Maintain a consistent daily work schedule for long term projects to prevent momentum loss

When creating custom file formats, design for scalability and extendibility

Prioritize game creation over cool features to keep development focused

Use techniques such as design patterns and decoupled event systems to reduce spaghetti code and maintain clean architecture

Use external libraries liberally to reduce development time and bugs