Also, have you used Windows recently?

Insane take given all the things that run on Linux...

Aaaand that's why I'm using Vivaldi over here (which has a built-in adblocker).

Yeah Monogame doesn't do that.

Pretty much every definition of framework vs game engine puts Monogame, SDL, Raylib, SFML, libGDX, LÖVE2D, etc... in the framework category. Engines are Unity, Unreal, Godot, Defold, O3DE, etc...

I'm not necessarily making any judgement about what someone should do. Rolling your own engine for a story based game is probably a bad use of time. But the idea that few successful indies have rolled their own is false.

I agree - if you're just doing something that needs some assets placed, some interactions, rendering, some physics, use an off the shelf engine. But the idea that it's impossible or not worthwhile to roll your own is repeated too much.

Yeah there's successful games that used an off the shelf engine but saying very few roll there own is plainly wrong when a bunch have. And that's without mentioning the whole flash era...

You compared a full-on 3D renderer to something that's basically the same as SDL or Raylib. Ogre could be considered a game engine but XNA/Monogame definitely isn't (nor is SDL or Raylib).

> But most indie games do not roll their own engine.

Most indie games are slop that are barely more than a template with pre-purchased assets and sell zero copies. There's no point talking about most of something when 99% gets thrown straight into the garbage.

> The most successful indie games often have their own unique aesthetic, and rolling their own game engine, while not strictly necessary, does make that uniqueness the default outcome rather than something you have to strive hard to achieve.

Yup and that's the point. Code is art as much as art is art. Sure, you can get a basic game made in a couple hours with Godot, but what's the value or uniqueness when anyone can do the same?

Except a ton of successful indie games, including some of the best of all time:

Minecraft, Braid, the Witness, Dwarf Fortress, Stardew Valley, Terraria, Fez, Animal Well, and probably a bunch I haven't heard of or forgot.

Also most AAA studios and a lot of AA studios.

Most game engines were also born out of a game. Source, Unreal, IDTech all were games first, then the engine was extracted.

I do agree with a lot of the article though, Lisp plays nicely with LLMs. Definitely had better luck with Lisp and LLMs than C++ or Rust.

Also, kind of random, but here's an interesting tool to use CL with LLMs: https://www.lambda-symbolics.com/autolith