Game Engine Questions and Considerations

[100goats]

I noticed that there are many game engines available on Github.

The large game engines such as Unity and Unreal have made a name for themselves and their use is very clear.

However, there are many smaller engines available in github. For C++, I've searched and about 26k results showed up.

This leads me to several questions that can maybe get answered here.

Why is there such a large supply of game engines?

When should a smaller independent game engine be used?

When should an engine be used instead using independent libraries for graphics, audio, and input?

[Deckhead]

Why is there such a large supply of game engines?

Everyone and their dog tries to make a game-engine at some point. I use bitbucket because I like to keep my repositories private, but if I was on github, I would be like 10 of those results.

When should a smaller independent game engine be used?

If you made it yourself, or if it has some feature that is a must have for your game, and you can't possibly implement that feature yourself in an established engine.

When should an engine be used instead using independent libraries for graphics, audio, and input?

Depends on your game. If it's a "normal" game, then you use an engine. If you're doing something like those surreal games that require some crazy stuff not available in engines, then you would use those libraries to build up your own engine.

Personally, I love making the engines. To the point where I use virtually no external dependecies other than Win32, OpenGL, OpenAL, and FreeType2.