This week on Backend Banter, we’re joined by Ryan Fleury, a talented game developer currently working with Epic Games on their Rad Debugger project. Ryan shares his journey from building games to creating powerful developer tools, offering insights into arenas, memory management, and the fascinating world of programming from the ground up.
In this episode, we dive deep into memory management, exploring the differences between stack, heap, and arenas, and how they shape modern development. We discuss the trade-offs of various allocation strategies, the magic of pointer stability, and how arenas simplify managing lifetimes in both games and other applications. Along the way, Ryan shares his approach to developing tools, insights into game development workflows, and practical tips for clean and efficient programming.
Learn back-end development: https://www.boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm
Ryan's Socials:
Rad Debugger: https://github.com/EpicGamesExt/raddebugger
Website: https://www.rfleury.com/
X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanjfleury
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Ryan Fleury's Path to Game Development
02:49 - From Engines to Debugging Tools
06:51 - Arenas Explained: Memory Management Basics
16:51 - Arenas vs. Garbage Collectors
27:40 - Real-World Applications of Arenas
31:39 - Why Pointer Stability Matters
42:57 - Dynamic Allocation Made Simple
48:48 - How Arenas Streamline Development
01:01:38 - Debugging Tools and the Rad Debugger
01:09:43 - Where to find Ryan
