Comment by archagon
9 months ago
Just off the top of my head, Celeste, Super Meat Boy, Fez, Spelunky, Dead Cells, Braid, and The Witness all use custom engines and are widely considered some of the best indie games of all time. Moreover, I think much of their charm and uniqueness stem directly from the amount of custom engine work involved. Writing your own engine lets you focus on the details that make your game stand out in a crowded field.
Your assertion seems silly.
In fact, the article is by one of the devs of Celeste.
Agree with your sentiment.
But Spelunky was written in Game Maker Studio.
The original Spelunky, but not HD. The devs talked about how they started out with the Braid engine and then just rolled their own.