Programming a game engine?

Does anyone know how to go about programming a game engine? I can program it in Java or C++ or even learn another language, but I would like to know how you go about programming an ENGINE only, not an entire game. I can't seem to find any information on it.

Really? What did you find when you searched Al Gore's amazing Internet for "build game engine" and other similar searches? If those results don't help, then what are you looking for?

What I got was either how to program a game or game engines themselves. I was thinking about downloading the source code of one and attempting to dissect it, but I don't know how successful that would be.

You asked in title and body, "how to go about programming a game engine?" What you found on Al Gore's amazing Internet was "how to program a game or game engines themselves." I'm confused why what you found does not answer your question.

Further, if you mean to suggest that "downloading the source code of (a game engine) and attempting to dissect it" would be a good tutorial on how to build your own, the success of that approach would depend on how well the game engine source code you download is written, commented, and whether your programming or ability to learn and code reading skills are a good fit for the code you're studying.

I recommend starting with a simple tutorial so that you get an introduction to the basic parts of a game engine along with some (probably) basic ways to code them. Once you have that under your belt, more advanced study might be the approach you've suggested.

try a series on youtube by the "chernoproject"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFYT...9F8lFjdkn2ZdWD