Learn to Make an Alien Farm Game With C++ SDL2 From Scratch

Name: Learn to Make an Alien Farm Game With C++ SDL2 From Scratch
Rating: 5.0 (13 reviews)

You can construct paths and waterways, plant alien crops and trees, and colorful animals that move.

Created byDave McMurtrie

Last updated 1/2025

English

What you'll learn

Create a farm game with an alien theme
A tiling system that allows you to place dirt, water which makes surrounding dirt wet, and different colored "grass"
Plants of different types and sizes that have shadows, move up and down, start small and grow, and can only exist on the correct types of tiles
Animals of different types and sizes that have shadows, start small and grow, move around without overlapping plants, other animals, the wrong types of tiles
Improve your C++ game development skills

Course content

4 sections • 28 lectures • 2h 26m total length

Intro3:02
Learn to build an alien farm game from scratch in C++ with SDL2, implementing a tiling system, planting and animal life with shadows, water effects, and dynamic placement checks.
Download and Setup Software11:53
Install Visual Studio community edition with the C++ compiler and SDL2, set up a 64-bit project, and import the course code to build your alien farm game.
Basic Engine Overview10:52
Set up the basic engine with SDL2 by creating a window and renderer. Load textures, process input, and run a game loop with delta time.

Intro0:44
Checkered Grid4:47
Learners implement a purple checkered grid in a C++ SDL2 game by building a level class with x and y tile counts, and a draw routine uses x+y mod 2.
Tiling System7:20
More Colors3:12
Add more colors to the tile system by introducing a type structure and a static list, replacing the switch-case with a data-driven color lookup in the draw function.
Shadows5:29
Develop automatic tile shadows in a top-down 2D alien farm game by comparing surrounding tile heights (water, dirt, purple grass) to render edge and corner shadows using SDL2 textures.
Improve Code3:11
Wet Dirt3:54
Implement a wet-dry mechanic by updating dirt tiles within a set distance when water tiles are added or removed, using a refresh surrounding function and tile names to drive rendering.
End Result0:50

Intro0:53
Add and manage plants of types and sizes with shadows, starting small and growing; enable add/remove with mouse and keyboard, and ensure placement on correct tiles via a tile check.
Basic Plants3:38
Multiple Plants7:19
Plant Movement3:30
Animate alien farm plants by modulating their draw scale with a cosine-based timer for gentle up-and-down motion. Update the timer every frame to keep the movement lively.
Plant Growth1:56
Use a timer growth to control plant size, updated by Countup, with smaller textures during growth and full-size images when it ends, varying growth time from 7.5 to 15 seconds.
More Plants9:48
Enhance the alien farm by introducing multiple plant types with a type id system, dynamic textures, and variable sizes (two-by-two tiles), and implement overlap checks for placement and removal.
Improve Shadows4:20
Check Tile Types7:43
Implement tile-under checks to ensure orange and purple plants require wet dirt, green plants and trees require grass, water is forbidden, and remove any plants when tiles change.
End Result0:37

Intro1:17
Add and remove animals of various types and sizes with shadows; start small, grow, and move to avoid overlapping plants, animals, and water, using mouse and keyboard.
Basic Animals9:04
Basic Movement5:31
Improve Movement6:25
Overlap Checks 113:22
Model animals as circles and detect overlaps with water and level tiles using point and line-segment checks; add a position ok check and circle-tile overlap logic to ensure safe movement.
Overlap Checks 24:02
Fix Placement11:02
End Result0:43
Add and manage varied animals that grow, move to random points or rotate, avoid overlaps with plants, animals, and water tiles, and get removed when tiles change.

Requirements

Basic C++ programming skills
Basic understanding of game development
Windows 7 or newer OR if you use a different OS (eg. macOS) you must have a C++ compiler and SDL2 already installed. This is because the instructions to download and setup this software are only provided for windows.

Description

Overview

You’ll be able to place dirt, water which makes surrounding dirt wet, and different colored grass. Add and remove plants of different types and sizes that have shadows, move up and down, start small and grow, and can only exist on the correct types of tiles. Add and remove animals of different types and sizes that have shadows, start small and grow, move around, and avoid overlapping plants, other animals, and certain tiles like water.

Tiling System

Start by adding a simple purple checkered grid to get the basics setup.
Then it will be improved by adding a tiling system that allows placement of different colored tiles.
Next an algorithm that automatically generates shadows, to give a sense of depth, will be added to the game.
Finally when water tiles are added or removed, the surrounding dirt tiles become wet or dry depending on how far away they are from water.

Plants

Start by setting up simple plants that can be added and removed with the mouse and keyboard.
Then they will be improved so that they look like they’re moving up and down, and start small then grow to their full size.
Next more plants/trees of different sizes will get added to the game, and their shadows improved to be lighter and remove overlap with other images.
Finally an algorithm will be added that checks tile types underneath them. That way they can only get placed on the correct ones, and if tiles are changed to types that they shouldn’t exist on, they get removed.

Animals

Start by setting up simple animals that can be added with the mouse and keyboard, that start small then grow to their full size.
Then they will be improved so that sometimes they either pick random points to move to, or random angles to rotate to.
Next their movement will be improved further so that they avoid overlapping other animals, plants, and tile types that they shouldn’t exist on, for example water.
Finally more overlap checks will be added so that animals can no longer be placed on plants, other animals, or the wrong types of tiles. Also an overlap check so that plants can’t be placed on animals. In addition code will be added so that animals can be remove with the mouse, or if the tiles under them are changed to types they shouldn’t exist on.

Who this course is for:

Anyone who wants to learn how to create a farm game with an alien theme
Anyone who wants to improve their C++ game development skills

Learn to Make an Alien Farm Game With C++ SDL2 From Scratch

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 26min

Tiles8 lectures • 29min

Plants9 lectures • 40min

Animals8 lectures • 51min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: