Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)

The advice I see passed around (to beginners) now is that "making a game" and "making an engine" are basically mutually exclusive. "Don't reinvent the wheel; just learn Unity!"

I think for a lot of the people who "just want to make a game" (often engaging with programming only as a barrier to their goal), a pre-built engine is limiting...but it also lowers the barrier for entry. The game-making community increases in size as a result, but a lot of the increase is the population of developers who really look at building your own engine as some kind of black magic, rather than something that's in their power to design and write.