Simple Pixel Game Engine
This is the template which I use often in order to create some projects during GameJam events like LudumDare. This template is really useful if you are skilled using C++ because it allows us to quickly display a prototype on screen. It has been inspired by an amazing tool which is named OLC PixelGameEngine (by Javidx9), but I changed my plan doing something drastically different, modifying some functions, adding features like a custom font, a randomizer, some algorithm to compute (non regular) polygons creation and more more more. In the end, this template is good enough, keeping the first spirit - maybe less sophisticated than its big brother, but simple in order to control everything. Have fun ++
As first examples, you can find some projects like :
A MineSweeper game with its logical gameplay (it uses the custom font and colors),
The traditionnal Conway's Game Of Life,
A simple widget giving time (using the windows time system),
A collecting game which manages the pixel's alpha and a custom particle system (my entry for the 52nd LudumDare),
The Overlooker - a Papers, Please clone (my entry for the 53rd LudumDare),
An application displaying the full colors' spectrum,
A very simple 3d projection with an icosphere,
A classic game - Asteroid ...
All these little projects - and their template - are really useful in order to understand how a games engine works including an Update section (and buffer), delta time, actors and components, mouse/keyboard events, some OpenGL basics, 3d matrix and more. It could be an intermediate code so as to develop your own engine more sophisticated.
If you need more features, take a look at its big brother - the OLC PixelGameEngine at the link below :