I write mostly like I would in C, but use C++ features as needed. It ends up looking similar to Rust if you squint. All these "I write games in C" people complain about C++ features, and then end up reimplementing virtual interfaces manually with struct headers or massive switch statements, just to feel better about themselves. Writing games in C is not harder, you just have to implement modern language features by hand.

Complaining about a language having features you don't want is silly. C++ doesn't take longer to compile if you don't abuse templates.

People did do that, 30 years ago.

Then Watcom C/C++ made it quite easy to use C++ for game development on PCs, PlayStation 2 introduced support for C++, quickly followed up by XBox and Nintendo, and that was it.

>I really dislike javascript, it is so loose that I marvel that people are able to write big chunks of software in it. I have no interest in trying.

Because they use Typescript.

>The stop-the-world garbage collection is a big pain for games

There is a number of languages that allow manual memory management: Zig, Nim, Rust and few others

"nobody does this"

Well, this should be reformulated a bit. Using C is not the norm, but it once was and many people are still using C to write games, myself included.

Literally thousands of games have been written in C, and all graphics APIs (OpenGL, Vulkan, DX) are C APIs, so it isn't weird at all. All major game engines are also written in C/C++.

It's not unheard of, but you have to be a little crazy to do this in 2026. I developed Chrysalis entirely in C (with GLFW3 and FMOD for audio): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594210/Chrysalis/

>Death of flash

>The library support for games[in Go] is quite poor, and though you can wrap C libs without much trouble, doing so adds a lot of busy work.

I can't see when this was written, but it has to be around 2015. So, about 10 years ago. I wonder what his opinion is today.

I totally resonate with the author of the post. My main requirement to enjoy a language deeply is often simplicity, so I love languages like, C, Golang, Odin and Zig.

That said, I also acknowledge that often times I need to solve problems that can benefit from a language that embraces what I call necessary complexity, but do it in elegant ways. Whenever I need to prioritise code correctness, especially memory and concurrency safety, using a mostly functional pattern instead of OOP, but without going as extreme as say Haskell, I unquestionably choose Rust, my favourite complex language. I often work with network code that is highly concurrent, must be as correct as possible and benefits from good performance, so then again, Rust feels natural here.

On the other hand, I love coding simple indie games and for that particular case, I like a simple and performant language using an imperative, non-OOP style. In my opinion C, and in particular Odin more recently are quite a good fit. If Jonathan happens to be reading this comment, since he mentioned Golang, I would suggest him Odin as perhaps the best of both worlds between C and Golang. It has all the simplicity of Golang, but without a garbage collector, plus it is quite easy to code a game using Raylib.

In my core I'm the same. C is my language and served me well for decades. There's nothing inherently major wrong with it until you reach one of the two (or both). Working in a group of people on a C codebase tends to introduce pain on multiple levels unlike some other languages (yes, including C++). The other is that anything takes a long-ass time to do compared to modern alternatives, which might also be an issue if you're developing a game; Especially if you're developing a game. Having said that, I can't disagree since as I said, I'm also inclined towards it's siren call of simplicity.

I write all of my games in pure C++. C++ all the way. FMOD for the audio engine, Steam Audio or Atmoky TrueSpatial for HRTF/geometric occlusion, and Jolt Physics for, well, physics. I'm sure many might say I'm a bit insane to do that, but eh, I do it anyway because it's fun.