Don't use a game engine if you're a beginner.

I see this way too often on this sub. It really bothers me when beginners who want to make a game ask for advice, and most of the people in replies are telling them to use a game engine since it's easy.

It's not easy.

It's easy to follow a tutorial and just repeat everything the guy does in the video. It's not easy to understand what you're actually doing. Game engines are used only to accelerate the process of classic code-based game development, not replace it. You still have to think like a programmer. How can you use all the classes and functions that a game engine provides, if you don't even know what a class is?

The reason why everyone wants to start with an engine is because it's flashy. The result is instantly visible. You write one line of code, the character magically moves. The tutorials know that, so they try to convince the watcher that making games is really easy. But in order to be able to write code yourself, you HAVE to understand WHY the character moves.

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I'm saying this because in the past I have also been stuck in tutorial hell for way too long. I was using GameMaker for almost 2 years(!) and got NO results. All I got was some prototype games that were made with hundreds of step by step tutorials. If you asked me then to rewrite the code myself, without the help of tutorials, I would either not be able to do it, or try to remember the code from memory. It was miserable.

It wasn't until I started from ground up that I started to see results. I spent nearly a full year learning Java, and the result was a simple space shooter. But I actually wrote it myself! I didn't look at any tutorials, or use any engine. It was a huge accomplishment.

Over the next few years I got more experience, made more small games, and eventually decided it would be fun to check back on GameMaker. It felt so refreshing, understanding why everything is the way it is. I was finally able to use a game engine by myself. And yes, using an engine IS easier than writing pure code. But if you can't write pure code, you won't be able to use an engine.

Obviously I'm not saying you should spend 6 years before touching a game engine like me, but you should definitely learn to code first, create some simple apps, and only then go and use the engine's full potential.

I apologize if there are any developers who actually had a good experience from starting coding with a game engine, I just truly believe there aren't that many of them.