14 years of building my own 2D game engine

5•encelo•5mo ago

Fourteen years ago I started writing a 2D game engine as a personal side project. What began as a way to learn has grown into something I've maintained across jobs and countries, through rewrites, feature creep, and shifting technologies.

I recently gave a talk at /dev/games in Rome about what it's been like to maintain it for over a decade, from the technical challenges, the lessons learned, and the community aspects of keeping such a project alive.

Slides: https://encelo.github.io/nCine_14Years_Presentation/

PDF: https://encelo.github.io/nCine_14Years_Presentation/nCine_14Years.pdf

A video recording will be available soon on the conference's YouTube channel.

Comments

andrewmcwatters•5mo ago

Hello, fellow engine developer! nCine is pretty cool. Your engine is one of the ones we evaluate against our own at Planimeter!

It's really cool to see your journey, and also, how long it's taken. There's a lot of growth and learning there that we can relate to.

encelo•5mo ago

Thank you Andrew, I really appreciate a comment from a fellow engine developer! ;)

gus_massa•5mo ago

Clicky: https://encelo.github.io/nCine_14Years_Presentation/

encelo•5mo ago

Thanks for the clickable link! I hope you liked the presentation.

georgejg•5mo ago

I can really relate to the challenges of managing both code architecture and project assets. Over time, I realized that having a reliable assistant for game development makes a huge difference. Tools like https://www.code-maestro.com/ have been especially useful—they help maintain clean code structure, automate handling of scenes and prefabs, and even provide insights for optimizing mechanics or fixing lingering bugs. Beyond just coding, it turns complex projects into an interactive knowledge base, making it easier to understand how different systems connect. For anyone working on long-term or legacy projects, integrating something that offers both code generation and structured documentation can save months of trial and error, while also supporting more consistent and maintainable growth over time.

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