I totally agree with Ron Gilbert in his recent Thimbleweed blog post.

Upon starting my latest project, I was pondering whether I should go and use an already existing engine or write a new one from scratch.

Several good scripted game engines are available on the net, such as LÖVE (which is also open-source) and Unity3D. But…

… while peeking and messing others’ code is a pivotal and funny way to learn new methods/ways/point-of-views, I always end in tailoring my own suit.

I’m just too exacting to find an existing engine that suits my needs. Moreover, whilst full-featured, those engines are mostly general purpose. They do feature things I simply don’t need and they lack what I want (such as the scripting-side expressive power I seek).

( I simply won’t implement my path-finding algorithm with a scripted language, no matter its performances… the engine should abstract these kind of functionalities, not the script implement it )

I’ll just end in spending weeks tweaking the engine/framework at the point that it would be easier to write my own from scratch. In the meanwhile, I won’t feel comfortable at all in being so far from the guts of the program.

Plus, starting an engine from scratch is always a good opportunity to try new solutions and technologies!