Fellow "making a game on the side in C" here :) One of the best pieces of advice I read was "you have to ask yourself, do I want to make a game, or an engine?"
Both are fine choices, but you need to know which and stick to it. And engine in that context refers to all the bits that make the game work, not necessarily that they're in a modular form for others to use.
Basically, you can spend your whole time adding cool or clever features but never turning it into an actual game. It's an easy trap to fall into because adding features is a fun distraction from some of the slog of gamedev. Make the features you need, but don't "gold plate" things.
Absolutely. I think a lot of people misinterpret this advice like this (or actually the advice is intended this way): if you don't use an off the shelf engine you are destined to slogging away writing your own engine.
When in fact it's perfectly reasonable to ship a game without using any off the shelf tooling, or worrying too much about "patterns".
Follow up advice (from someone who isn't really qualified to give it): stop listening to people who say "do this, don't do that, you can't do this, it must be done like this" etc. You know yourself what you're curious about and interested in and what you want to build. This includes this advice, maybe reading about patterns will help you. Let your inner voice guide you.
There is another saying I read somewhere. It was something like: -
many people who write games never finish them
This hits home, especially in my younger days. If you are making a game.. focus on that game! Your next game might require you starting from scratch. I get why people try to make a nice engine (ie and using ECS) because the goal is to reuse it many games.
I am sure the (silent) majortiy making an engine for their game... just keep working on their engine. It never leaves thier bedroom.
Both are fine choices, but you need to know which and stick to it. And engine in that context refers to all the bits that make the game work, not necessarily that they're in a modular form for others to use.
Basically, you can spend your whole time adding cool or clever features but never turning it into an actual game. It's an easy trap to fall into because adding features is a fun distraction from some of the slog of gamedev. Make the features you need, but don't "gold plate" things.