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Andras Schmelczer 2026-05-28 16:20:12 +01:00
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---
title: A 3D Platform Game in C and SDL 1.2
description: 'My first proper project: a 3D game with random maps, destructible voxels, enemies, powerups, and time slowdown.'
title: A 3D Voxel Game in C, Built While Learning Pointers
description: My Basics of Programming course project. 3D platformer in C with SDL 1.2, destructible terrain, time-slowdown powerups, and a great many segmentation faults.
date: 2026-04-28
projectPeriod: 'Autumn 2017'
thumbnail:
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tags: ['games', 'systems']
role: Game author
stack: ['C', 'SDL 1.2', 'Voxel terrain']
outcome: A playable 3D course project that made programming feel like the right long-term direction
outcome: A playable course project, and the moment programming clicked
audience: technical
links: []
---
This was my first proper project: a 3D game written in pure C on top of SDL 1.2.
Autumn 2017, Basics of Programming, a deadline that forced me to learn C the hard way. I'd write almost none of it the same way today, and I'd defend every choice in it anyway. A 3D voxel platformer in pure C with SDL 1.2. No engine, no scripting layer.
The maps were randomly generated and destructible voxel by voxel. That let the player build structures to hide from flying enemies, which chased the player and could destroy the terrain after merging together and growing larger.
Maps were randomly generated and destructible voxel by voxel, so the player could dig their way out of trouble or wall off flying enemies that merged into larger ones as they got closer. Powerups let you shoot, or slow down time at the cost of points.
After collecting enough powerups, the player could shoot and even slow down time, in exchange for losing some points.
What I actually learned was pointers, painfully, through an adequate number of segfaults. The course was meant to teach the basics of programming; for me it was the moment programming stopped feeling like a list of facts and started feeling like a thing I could build with. The next time I reached for C it was on hardware that punished waste; see [Ad Astra](/articles/ad-astra-attiny85-game-engine/).
I built it as the final project for my Basics of Programming course. I learned a lot about pointers after an adequate number of segmentation faults, and it was the project that convinced me programming was the right long-term direction.
First-project privilege.