Handmade Hero by Casey Muratori
Hacker ApprovedTied for most recommended of 8 educational videos
Recommended as a free, detailed video course for learning low-level programming and game development, with source code and line-by-line explanations. Critics note it trails off without a finished game.
Recommended as a free, detailed video course for learning low-level programming and game development, with source code and line-by-line explanations. Critics note it trails off without a finished game.
34 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 24
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 24 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free, clear educational videos
“I highly recommend the Handmade Hero series to folks in his situation. Casey has put up an absurd amount of material for everyone for free.”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “OpenClaw Is Changing My Life” “Casey Muratori's Handmade Hero series has several excellent explainers aimed at aspiring game developers”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “One Formula That Demystifies 3D Graphics” “Some of the best programming educational content available, in my opinion.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Craft software that makes people feel something” - Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Launching the Handmade Software Foundation”
- Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles”
Teaches low-level graphics and systems
“The early windows platform layer stuff in the handmade hero series demonstrates doing so without anything like Cygwin or MinGW.”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Go-legacy-winxp: Compile Golang 1.24 code for Windows XP” “there is a ton to learn about the low level graphics and input systems”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “I learned Unity the wrong way” “has invigorated interest in low-level programming”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “High-Level Is the Goal” Influenced other developers and games
“Animal Well wouldn't exist without Handmade Hero, Billy himself said it in an interview.”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]” “I was heavily influenced 7 years ago from learning from HandmadeHero”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “The Goose Programming Language” “Billy Basso was hugely inspired by the Handmade Hero series”
Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]” - Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)”
Takes beginners from zero
“It actually teaches you almost everything you need to know both from a language perspective”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Move in C++ without a std:move” “it turned that it really helped people to go from zero to "hero"”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Launching the Handmade Software Foundation” “served as an educational platform for a lot of programmers”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Indie game developers have a new sales pitch: being 'AI free'”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Never finishes or ships a game
“the fact that Handmade Hero just trails off and doesn't end up producing a finished video game is a problem”
Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]” “was abandoned over two years ago, after not really getting anywhere over the course of 9 years”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Indie game developers have a new sales pitch: being 'AI free'” “he took pre-orders for it before eventually abandoning development”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Launching the Handmade Software Foundation” - Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)”
Tangents and slow progress
“I stopped caring about Handmade Hero because he just never got out of the global illumination rabbit hole.”
Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]” “Watching Handmade Hero (by Casey Muratori) for example was a little frustrating”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: CodeMic” “The deeper it gets into the game, the worse it gets.”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles”
Other educational videos people recommend
The four most recommended other educational videos, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handmade Hero by Casey MuratoriThis page | 24 | 10 | 71% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Andrej Karpathy YouTube videos | 24 | 3 | 89% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Essence of Linear Algebra by 3Blue1Brown | 16 | 1 | 94% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ask an Astronaut | 9 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| Terence Tao explains 6 essential mathematical concepts | 7 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
36 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I was heavily influenced 7 years ago from learning from HandmadeHero”
“It actually teaches you almost everything you need to know both from a language perspective”
“Animal Well wouldn't exist without Handmade Hero, Billy himself said it in an interview.”
“Open source is the very worst thing currently going on because it is so incredibly exploitative”
“Billy Basso was hugely inspired by the Handmade Hero series”
“I stopped caring about Handmade Hero because he just never got out of the global illumination rabbit hole.”
“I want more things like that old hand made hero to exist in the world”
“introduced me and some friends to an entirely new way to build graphical user interfaces”
“the fact that Handmade Hero just trails off and doesn't end up producing a finished video game is a problem”
“learned a ton by watching how he thinks about things in his handmade hero series”
“What he is most highly regarded for is his teaching, particularly the Handmade Hero series on YouTube”
“it's not really 'for' me even if I wanted to make video games”
“it was simple straightforward procedural code”
“there is a ton to learn about the low level graphics and input systems”
“took more than 600 episodes to eventually go nowhere”
“the "game as dynamic library" trick from Handmade Hero”
“Watching Handmade Hero (by Casey Muratori) for example was a little frustrating”
“I highly recommend the Handmade Hero series to folks in his situation. Casey has put up an absurd amount of material for everyone for free.”
“his irrational hatred of high-level code and modern standards will lead developers astray and waste their time”
“If you have patience, the first 30 or so episodes of Handmade Hero are pretty good.”
“The goal was always, first and foremost, to teach.”
“my 15$ spent on Handmade Hero were well served by having access to the source code and the breadth of video that annotates every line of code”
“it turned that it really helped people to go from zero to "hero"”
“he took pre-orders for it before eventually abandoning development”
“Casey's a great teacher and the videos are very informative”
“has invigorated interest in low-level programming”
“The early windows platform layer stuff in the handmade hero series demonstrates doing so without anything like Cygwin or MinGW.”
“Casey Muratori's Handmade Hero series has several excellent explainers aimed at aspiring game developers”
“it seems to me that Casey was selling an audience on revealing something deeper”
“Casey has made great resources”
“They said, they got the most value from the first 50 eps or so.”
“Handmade Hero teaches depth-first development. I'm not sure who it benefits”
“The deeper it gets into the game, the worse it gets.”
“Some of the best programming educational content available, in my opinion.”
“served as an educational platform for a lot of programmers”
“was abandoned over two years ago, after not really getting anywhere over the course of 9 years”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.