On engines

The most common question I get from people starting out in game development is what engine should I use?

Irritatingly, I usually answer well that all depends, which nobody wants to hear.

But it’s true! Game development is a very wide field, and has lots of opportunities to carve out a space for what you like to do. So, for example, you might want to make the next Binding of Isaac — in which case, you might choose a different engine than if you wanted to make the next Witcher III. Both are excellent games, but require very different things from the engine.

It’s easy to see that there is a lot of interest in Unreal and Unity, for good reason. I’ve used both extensively. But it’s easy to get caught up in learning an engine, and get distracted away from what you want to make. That tension between learning the Next Big Thing and making Your Own Thing will follow you for the rest of your career, but you must always keep Your Own Thing in mind. Be true to your vision, and let the technology support your vision.

With that in mind, I personally recommend Unreal, Unity, DragonRuby, PlayCanvas, and Love2d. All of them are good in their own way.

tl;dr: let the tech serve you, not the other way around.