I've been really interested in things like raylib [1] and other minimal C libraries for lower-level game-engine-like capabilities. There is a widening middle ground available for developers between writing your own engine completely from scratch and using a full-featured engine like Godot, Unity, or Unreal. There was always stuff like SDL but these new minimal libraries hit a sweet spot for a lot of cases.
Yup, raylib is great. Sokol is another solid choice for the low level bits - that's what my engine is built with and it's excellent (at least for indie level games).
I'm currently using raylib and Odin to build a 2D platformer for my twins. I built out a PoC with a couple of levels. Now I'm working my way through a level editor. It has completely reinvigorated my passion for programming.
1. https://www.raylib.com/