The LCTHW Weekly Update #6: July 8, 2025

I'm back with weekly updates on my progress in my courses, new course, game development, and various other projects I'm working on. These emails are things I've found that I think you may be interested in, and updates on products you've purchased or future plans.

You can read this email at:

https://learncodethehardway.com/emails/16-lcthw-weekly-update-6/

Major FREE Upgrades Coming Soon

I've been busy redesigning many of my current course based on feedback and trends in the industry. Since I'm so far behind on videos everyone who's purchased these course will get a free upgrade to the new version. The courses due an upgrade are:

1. Learn JavaScript the Hard Way -- I'll be changing this course to be "Full Stack Web Development" and I'll be teaching both Go and JavaScript in the course. I'm doing this change because I myself cannot stand JavaScript on the backend, and have been finding that Go is way easier to use and deploy for backend work. I'll have more discussion in a blog post about this change, and this will mean you'll get a free upgrade to the course if you currently have "Learn JavaScript the Hard Way."
2. Learn Python the Hard Way, 6th Edition -- I'm going to rework this course to completely remove Anaconda and go back to a "skills basics" style like I had before. It'll still teach most of the same topics and still focus on data analysis and management, but I just won't use Anaconda. I'll also be changing the tone of the course to focus on an appreciation of programming as an activity for its own sake, and how that fits into a world with generative AI programming tools. Again, I'll have another blog post on this and this will be a free upgrade if you bought the 5th Edition.

Feel free to reply and let me know what you think of this, and I'll talk more next week about how you'll get the free upgrades. Currently I think they'll just "magically" show up in your account, but I may see if I can give people early access who are interested in testing it.

Maze Generation is a Fun Learning Topic

I'm currently working on a blog post about how I used maze generation algorithms in my C++ game. If you're looking for something to study and learn then Maze Generation algorithms are loads of fun. Here's a big list of resources if you wish to try making one yourself. Some of the folks in my Twitch chat have started making these as a personal challenge.

• https://www.astrolog.org/labyrnth/algrithm.htm
• https://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/2/7/maze-generation-algorithm-recap
• https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~112-s23/notes/student-tp-guides/Mazes.pdf
• https://professor-l.github.io/mazes/ and code https://github.com/professor-l/mazes/blob/master/scripts/hunt-and-kill.js
• https://joeiddon.github.io/projects/javascript/maze_generation.html

Other Fun Links

When I stream on Twitch I drop a ton of links in chat for things we find, and chat suggests many more to me. My "links to check out" file is so large now that I'm currently working on a Stream Chat Support Site in Go just so that I can keep a catalog of every stream and what we mentioned there. Here's a small sample of my list so far:

https://schteppe.github.io/cannon.js/

A really nice looking lightweight 3D physics engine for the web.

https://forums.nesdev.org/viewtopic.php?t=24053

I love a really in-depth excellent description of an obscure topic and this one is definitely that. It covers Mode7 graphics, which is something I never knew about, but looks like an interesting challenge to implement.

https://ebitengine.org/

Want to learn Go but bored with web development? Take any of the above maze algorithms, take this 2D game engine, and make you a rogue...or like any other game with mazes.

https://github.com/ebitengine/purego

CGo got you down? CGo so slow you want to rename it to "SlowGo"? Try out purego. It's by the same people who did Ebiten Engine and uses inlined assembler to make a better C ffi system.

https://www.ursinaengine.org/

Python game framework that looks pretty nice. It uses Panda3d but gives a much nicer API to work with. If you're a Python programmer who's dreamed of making a 3d game, check it out. Although, I'd say go make a Rogue in your Terminal first to get some basics of making games down.

Digital Painting Demonstration on Youtube

I've uploaded a simple digital painting demonstration on Youtube for people curious about how I might approach teaching painting in the next series of lessons. The thing I'm figuring out in this video is how to treat a digital painting tool like Krita or Rebelle like it's painting with physical materials. The closest I've come is this demonstration where I do everything I normally would, but use the palette knife tool in Rebelle to do the painting. Check it out if you're curious and let me know if you have experience with Krita doing the same thing. I tried Krita and it wasn't quite a close as Rebelle when it came to the "feel" of painting.

https://youtu.be/K6Z-Wy5-nfI

I'm also currently doing a series of parodies of 80s Movie posters like Buckaroo Bonzai, Escape from New York, and Toxic Avenger. I work on these on stream so if that sounds as hilarious to you as it is to me then stop on by.

See You Next Week

I'm back to doing these weekly, and I should have some new course videos and content posted shortly. I might be announcing a new upgrade to Learn C the Hard Way soon if I can sort out how to rework the material for game development. Stay tuned for that announcement if I can figure it out.

More emails we've sent.