I've begun making my own game engine (actually this is now my second as I grew bored of the original one) after precisely 1 university course on it.

It's not as bad as people say. Start simply (boxes and spheres), solid colours instead of textures, etc. and move on from there.

I should add that I'm writing mine in c# using SlimDX, so things are a little easier for me (I don't have to worry about memory leaks as much or other more obscure errors), so I'd recommend getting started with something like c# and XNA. Most universities I know teach some measure of Java, and C# is barely a stone's throw from Java, syntax-wise.

There should be a sticky about this.
It's quite often that the OP confuses engines with the framework (there's a "how to make a game engine" thread every day), and it's quite often, that we don't understand that they are really asking about frameworks. Even higher rep members doesn't always get the intentions of the OP (me included, but I try to pay attention) and sometimes answer harshly, pointing out that making engines is a failure for a beginner, and blah blah same old. Which is truth, but off topic if we look behind the misused "engine" term.

The appropriate reply would be pointing out that the OP is misusing the term "engine".

It's often clear that the OP is talking about reusable stuff/libraries, which is still not an engine. In this case, the "make games, not a libraries" like comments are truth, but the OP should be told that it is NOT and engine anyway.

I think it's important to tell these to the OPs, as they will have a hard time to get useful info, as they desperately google with the keyword "engine" while they could find info if they used the right terms.


Note, it's very possible that I even misuse the term "framework". By framework I mean the whole structure of a particular/specific program without the details, the dressing (I'm so bad at expressing myself). Without the actual textures, gameplay details, texts blahblah.

I think I have to humbly admit that I was guilty of the same confusion between engine or framework though I don't consider myself a beginner (I knew assembler on my c64 and Amiga)

If I get it right a game engine is some package that allows non-programmers or beginning programmers to create a game with point and click interfaces while a framework is only there to hide the nitty-gritty i.e. individual DIP calls, renderstate changes, model management, etc.
I myself want to create a game from scratch without a framework then but definitely not a game engine. According to me the latter is work for a whole team of Computer Science Phd's

An engine is not a point-and-click tool. There have been countless of discussions to define the term "engine" but it always ends up with lots of people disagreeing with eachother.
The best way to describe an engine would be to give examples. Have a look at the UDK, Cryengine 3, Unity, etc. Those are engines
They provide an entire toolset for building vastly complex games of varying genres, and that's what an engine's all about

I'd say you stand a good chance of creating your own game from scratch if you dabbled in assembler.[/background]

What would make you say that? I've programmed in IA32, AMD64, MIPS, MC68000 and ARM assembler, and those skills mean absolutely nothing when it comes to developing my engine or games for that matter