Hey there, and welcome to the course, Pro, Unreal Engine, Game Coding. aka, the Black Book, but why the Black Book? Well, just watch the short preview video if you want the full experience. But if you like reading, then around 25 years ago, when I was just entering the games industry, there emerged just such a black book. A book of graphics programming, full of coding voodoo written by the programming powerhouse that is Michael Abrash. And this black book, took many coders like myself, from being merely competent, to being able to produce something akin to magic on the screen. It was legendary.

Naturally, a lot has changed since then, and in this course we've crafted a new black book for a new generation, a series of masterclasses in Unreal Engine game coding for the 2020s. I want to give you guys, what it was, that Michael Abrash gave my generation. I'm going to take you from being an Unreal Engine virgin, to being a real pro, and a prized asset to any employer.

My last game, GRIP: Combat Racing, will be the focus for the latter half of this course, and we'll get to see an awful lot of what's going on under the hood there. We're going to expose all of its secrets. This journey will take you from being a C++ novice, all the way up to writing the most challenging racing game I've ever been involved with, and I've written a few. But if that sounds terrifying, don't worry, we've got this. We can do this, together.

I'll be presenting in a no-nonsense style, side-stepping a lot of the hokum you don't need to know, focusing intently on the stuff you really do, and providing rock-solid examples of how to apply what you'll be taught here. This is not academia, this is real-world getting it done, and getting it done well kind of coding. This is stuff taken straight from the battlefield of game development. After firmly establishing all of the fundamentals, I'll be imbuing you with tricks and techniques, algorithms and insights, gathered from decades of coding experience that you can apply across many game genres. We're going to turn you, into an Unreal Engine Ninja.

So get ready coder one, because we've got work to do.