At the very least a bespoke engine will deal with state management, data loading and saving, audio, gameplay systems and probably AI. I'd even argue that these are more of a focus in indie games than rendering is.
I would argue it very much depends on the type of game you make.
You do not always need a sophisticated assets loading mechanism nor AI modules. Or you need them in a different way, than what the engine provides (mostly my experience).
My point is, "game engine" is not a static universal concept.
Not every game needs a physic engine, for example, nor even assets(I think there are engines for text only rpgs)
hutzlibu|4 years ago
You do not always need a sophisticated assets loading mechanism nor AI modules. Or you need them in a different way, than what the engine provides (mostly my experience).
My point is, "game engine" is not a static universal concept.
Not every game needs a physic engine, for example, nor even assets(I think there are engines for text only rpgs)
(A point where the article is indeed poor)
xg15|4 years ago
The term becomes a bit meaningless then.
Many a better approach would be to ask whether every game needs a game engine?