martinstarkov/protegon

Protegon is a classic example of a personal 'engine-building' project. While utilizing modern C++23 standards—which suggests technical proficiency by the author—it lacks any meaningful competitive moat. With only 10 stars and 2 forks over a nearly 6-year lifespan, the project has failed to gain any market traction or community adoption. In the 2D game engine space, it competes against behemoths like Godot (general purpose), Raylib (simplicity/education), and SFML (established C++ standard). These competitors offer extensive documentation, asset pipelines, and massive communities that Protegon does not. Frontier labs are unlikely to build a C++ 2D engine directly, but the rise of AI-assisted game development (e.g., generating entire games in Three.js or Unity via LLMs) further marginalizes niche, low-ecosystem engines. The platform domination risk is high because developers almost exclusively gravitate toward established engines with cross-platform support and mature tooling. There is no unique algorithmic or data-driven advantage here; it is a standard reimplementation of well-understood game development patterns.