I would recommend a more flexible definition of "from scratch" that doesn't require reimplementing everything including the stdlib and which allows using libraries like SDL or GLFW or OpenGL so maybe you'll actually finish something.
I mean... Handmade Hero started in 2014. It's 2020. He still doesn't even have the basis for a game yet. It's a great source to learn theory and low level implementation details, but no one would actually approach making a game that way.
The purpose of the project is to show how a high quality game can be created. It is educational project, finishing the game is not the main goal. The series are on ~600 episode. Which is around 800 hours. I don't think that is much considering that
- until episode ~200 soft renderer was used to show how exactly rendering works, then he switched to openGL.
- he is diving into complicated topics, like right now advanced light system.
- ~50% or more of time is spent on detailed explanations.
A high quality game can be created in Unity, Unreal or Godot. No one needs to know how to implement a renderer from scratch to do that.
I'm not disputing that Handmade Hero is valuable - there is a lot of good theory and insight into process there, but what it does not teach is how to make a game.
I mean... Handmade Hero started in 2014. It's 2020. He still doesn't even have the basis for a game yet. It's a great source to learn theory and low level implementation details, but no one would actually approach making a game that way.