Can we make games without a deep understanding of maths?

Hi people!

Absolutely loving this course learning so much!

I’m a game sound designer and have just started learning game dev. Getting to know coding bit by bit but the maths part is very daunting for me, I’m much more creative than technical, especially when it comes to maths and just wondering if making games is possible without a ton of knowledge in maths.

I’m definitely not afraid of learning more but just wondering. I know there are tools that help with maths and make it easier like leanTween but just want to know if I’m not completely doomed lol.

Thanks so much!

Steve

Hi Steve,

Welcome to our community! :slight_smile:

What do you mean by “deep”? Knowing how to add, subtract, multiply and divide is definitely crucial because that’s how we move objects around in the scene.

Many typical problems in games are solved “by maths”. For example, if you want to move a value between two values, e.g. a and b, the typical solution would be the Lerp function. While you do not have to do the maths yourself, you should at least know about it. If you don’t know it, you’d have to do the maths yourself to solve your problems.

And this would be the maths behind the Lerp function: a + (b - a) * t where t ranges from 0 to 1.

LeenTween and all the other things that move things around use those typical mathematical functions like the lerp function. If you know the typical functions, you know what you would look for in the LeenTween API to achieve certain effects.

Ben and Gary created a maths course containing the most important things you “need” to know about maths to make your life as a game developer easier.

You certainly do not have to take that course or learn a maths book by heart before being able to develop games but not being afraid to learn something new is important if you want to achieve more than moving something back and forth with constant speed.

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Hey Nina,

Thanks so much for the detailed answer. I can definitely do basic maths despite what my old secondary school teacher might say lol but yeah when it gets into PI etc it becomes quite confusing!

I think that course is definitely something I’m going to look into after I complete the c# one so thanks for linking it!

Good to know though that I don’t need to be a genius to at least progress with game dev!

Thanks Nina!

Steve

You don’t need a “deep” understanding of maths, probably just enough of an high-level understanding so that you are able to google your answer on a case-by-case basis…

That part - the finding the answer to your own problem - is probably the most important bit, not so much the being a mathematical genius

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