--- title: So, you want to make a game engine | daily.dev description: A developer with 3 years of custom engine experience shares a comprehensive overview of what it means to build your own game engine, prompted by the Unity... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-make-a-game-engine-hexbfxesr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: So, you want to make a game engine | daily.dev og:description: A developer with 3 years of custom engine experience shares a comprehensive overview of what it means to build your own game engine, prompted by the Unity... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-make-a-game-engine-hexbfxesr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HeXBFXeSR.png og:image:alt: So, you want to make a game engine og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # So, you want to make a game engine **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 24 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer with 3 years of custom engine experience shares a comprehensive overview of what it means to build your own game engine, prompted by the Unity pricing controversy. Covers the pros and cons of rolling your own engine, a practical definition of what a game engine actually is, and a feature-by-feature breakdown including windowing, game loops, input handling, graphics, audio, asset management, physics, scripting, networking, AI, UI, and build/distribution. The key advice: don't start by building an engine — start by making games in game jams, then extract reusable code into an engine organically over time. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What are the core components a minimal game engine needs to support 2D games? A minimal 2D game engine needs window creation, a core game loop, input handling, basic 2D graphics (such as sprite drawing), and audio output. Libraries like SDL2, GLFW, or SFML handle windowing and input across platforms, while simple pixel or sprite drawing plus an audio mixing library cover graphics and sound. This full setup typically takes only 2 to 30 days to implement, since it represents roughly 1% of total game development work. _daily.dev surfaces practical breakdowns like this for developers weighing whether to build or buy a game engine._ ### Do I need a physics engine like Box2D for a simple platformer or top-down RPG? No, most 2D platformers and top-down RPGs only need basic character movement and simple collision detection, not a full physics engine. Custom-written movement and collision code is easier to tweak for specific gameplay needs than integrating a generic library. Real physics libraries like Box2D or Bullet are only worth adopting when a game genuinely requires realistic physics simulation, such as complex rigid-body interactions. _developers deciding between rolling custom collision code or a physics library can find comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ### Why would a solo developer choose to build their own game engine instead of using Unity or Unreal? Building a custom engine removes the frustration of depending on someone else's unfixed bugs or missing features, since you know exactly why a feature is missing (you simply haven't built it yet). It also maximizes learning and lets a developer who loves low-level coding and library design enjoy the process. The trade-off is significant time investment, potentially years, especially if AAA-level features are the goal. _anyone weighing custom engine development against Unity or Unreal can track this ongoing debate on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What You Gain by Building Your Own Game Engine](https://daily.dev/posts/what-you-gain-by-building-your-own-game-engine-nam5bxph6) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#c++](https://daily.dev/tags/c++), [#graphics-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/graphics-programming), [#opengl](https://daily.dev/tags/opengl) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-make-a-game-engine-hexbfxesr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"So, you want to make a game engine","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-make-a-game-engine-hexbfxesr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-make-a-game-engine-hexbfxesr"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T17:17:20.747Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:11:04.067Z","description":"A developer with 3 years of custom engine experience shares a comprehensive overview of what it means to build your own game engine, prompted by the Unity...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--qPvKM23u--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2009","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--qPvKM23u--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2009","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-make-a-game-engine-hexbfxesr","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"game-development,c++,graphics-programming,opengl","timeRequired":"PT24M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"So, you want to make a game engine"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/so-you-want-to-make-a-game-engine-hexbfxesr#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What are the core components a minimal game engine needs to support 2D games?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A minimal 2D game engine needs window creation, a core game loop, input handling, basic 2D graphics (such as sprite drawing), and audio output. 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