Noel Berry, \"Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)\":
\n\n\nI genuinely believe making games without a big \"do everything\" engine can be easier, more fun, and often less overhead. I am not making a \"do everything\" game and I do not need 90% of the features these engines provide. I am very particular about how my games feel and look, and how I interact with my tools. I often find the default feature implementations in large engines like Unity so lacking I end up writing my own anyway. Eventually, my projects end up being mostly my own tools and systems, and the engine becomes just a vehicle for a nice UI and some rendering...
\n
I read blog posts and tutorials like this all the time. Every few months, I go on a spree of installing and firing up game development tools. I keep kind of wanting to actually end up finishing a game, kind of like how my dad used to make a few fly fishing lures but only ever managed to go fishing every few years. But, do I like reading about this stuff.
\nAnd this post snags me, in particular, because one of the reasons I even started poking around with game dev stuff was to learn. And what better way to really just plummet down the rabbit hole than to learn how to make a game engine almost from scratch?
\nOh, but in terms of actually finishing things: I can say I made Poke the Mongo for Pico-8! That's at least one finished video game. It's got an itch.io page and an end-game screen and everything. I won't spoil the end screen, though I'm pretty sure I only know one other person who's ever seen it.
\n", "body": "\nNoel Berry, \"[Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)](https://noelberry.ca/posts/making_games_in_2025/)\":\n\n> I genuinely believe making games without a big \"do everything\" engine can be easier, more fun, and often less overhead. I am not making a \"do everything\" game and I do not need 90% of the features these engines provide. I am very particular about how my games feel and look, and how I interact with my tools. I often find the default feature implementations in large engines like Unity so lacking I end up writing my own anyway. Eventually, my projects end up being mostly my own tools and systems, and the engine becomes just a vehicle for a nice UI and some rendering...\n\nI read blog posts and tutorials like this all the time. Every few months, I go on a spree of installing and firing up game development tools. I keep kind of wanting to actually end up finishing a game, kind of like how my dad used to make a few fly fishing lures but only ever managed to go fishing every few years. But, do I like reading about this stuff.\n\nAnd this post snags me, in particular, because one of the reasons I even started poking around with game dev stuff was to learn. And what better way to really just plummet down the rabbit hole than to learn how to make a game engine almost from scratch?\n\nOh, but in terms of actually finishing things: [I can say](https://blog.lmorchard.com/2016/09/11/poke-the-mongo/) I made [Poke the Mongo](https://lmorchard.itch.io/poke-the-mongo) for Pico-8! That's at least one finished video game. It's got [an itch.io page](https://lmorchard.itch.io/poke-the-mongo) and an end-game screen and everything. I won't spoil the end screen, though I'm pretty sure I only know one other person who's ever seen it.", "parentPath": "./content/posts/2025", "path": "2025/05/19/gamedev-reading", "needsBuild": true, "prevPostPath": "2025/05/19/beyond-text-only-ai", "prevPostTitle": "Beyond Text-only AI", "nextPostPath": "2025/05/19/miscellanea", "nextPostTitle": "Miscellanea for 2025-05-19" }