Making Video Games (Without an Engine) in 2025

Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine) May 18, 2025 It's 2025 and I am still making video games, which according to archive.org is 20 years since I started making games! That's a pretty long time to be doing one thing... Screenshot of my website circa 2011 When I share stuff I'm working on, people frequently ask how I make games and are often surprised (and sometimes concerned?) when I tell them I don't use commercial game engines. There's an assumption around making games without a big tool like Unity or Unreal that you're out there hand writing your own assembly instruction by instruction. 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 ... Read full article.