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