Indie Game Dev in 2025: Ditching Big Engines for Lightweight Toolchains

A game developer with 20 years of experience shares their 2025 indie game development workflow. Rejecting large engines like Unity and Unreal, they opted for a lightweight toolchain built around C#, SDL3, FMOD, and Dear ImGui. This approach, they argue, offers greater flexibility, fun, and control. The article details their tech stack choices, asset management, level editors, cross-platform porting, and encourages developers to choose a workflow that suits them.