Reddit reviews Game Engine Architecture, Third Edition

I wouldn't recommend Allegro for game programming tasks, but this is my personal taste.

For books, I recommend these:

• Game Programming Patterns
  
• Game Programming Algorithms and Techniques: A Platform-Agnostic Approach
  
• Jason Gregory's Game Engine Architecture

> What should I do now?

Here's what you should do: keep learning C# for now. C++ and C# are both form the C-family programming languages so when it's time to switch to C++ lots of things will feel familiar. When you are starting to feel comfortable with the language, install Unity and start learning about programming games while using your C# skills. C#/Unity will provide you with an awesome safe sandbox where you can experiment. Try creating small minigames like Snake or Tetris in the beginning and then try more complicated things. Also, at this point may be read Game Engine Architecture or a similar book. Learn about Scenes, game objects, entities, components, 3D math, meshes, shaders, animations, particle systems, etc. It will help you a lot to be familiar with all these concepts when you start working with Source.

When you are starting to feel comfortable with C# and Unity then start learning C++. The main difference compared to C# is that you will have to learn to be a bit more disciplined and manage the memory yourself instead of relying on a GC. Modern C++ (i.e. smart pointers) helps a lot with that but you should familiarise yourself with new and malloc also since Source is pretty old and I don't think it takes advantage of all the [not so] new [anymore] goodies in the standard. When you are starting to feel comfortable with c++, install Source and start working on that awesome Half-Life mod you have in mind! Looking forward to playing it! 😁

I'm also making my own engine (C++ with lua integration) and here are some resources I found helpful:

- Game Engine Architecture By Jason Gregory Probably my most used resource, especially chapter 6.

- This Blog by Ming Lou "Allen" Chou (All parts)

- Lua Integration (All parts)

As a side note, I would recommend using C++ because with game engines performance is a key problem and C++ gives you so much more control. Plus using C++ will make sure you really understand everything that is going into making a game engine.