- Making your own game engine can be a fulfilling learning experience that avoids frustration from third-party engines, as you understand exactly why features are missing or broken.
- Custom engines are best for long-term growth and specific project needs, while existing engines are better for quick game production.
- A game engine is any set of tools and libraries designed to help make games, and can be as simple as a few libraries for input, graphics, and audio.
- Essential engine features include window creation, a game loop, input handling, graphics rendering, and audio output; many others are optional depending on the game.
- Physics, scripting, networking, AI, and UI are optional; a minimal engine can skip these to reduce complexity.
- Starting by making games from scratch and gradually extracting reusable code is the recommended approach to build a personal engine over time.