Is Minetest a game or an engine?

[Kosmos]

Often I saw discussons where people sayed that Minetest isn't a game - just an engine.
But what does this means? I know from Mt 0.4.14 to 0.4.15 the "Minetest Game" was renamed from "minetest" to "minetest_game". What does it means if Minetest is an engine, and what does it means if Minetest is a game. <-- (like things that will be added, or so what)

[rubenwardy]

Minetest Engine, or just Minetest is a domain-specific Game Engine, ie: for blocky games.

Minetest Game is the game that ships by default with the Minetest Engine, but isn't called "Minetest". Minetest Game used to be called minetest_game. It has never been called minetest. However, there was an engine bug which meant the main menu showed the wrong name for a game.

Subgame is a stupid term for a game, and should be dropped.

[Otter]

Yes.

[Wuzzy]

The name “Minetest Engine” was just invented by rubenwardy, in this thread. This name is NOT official. :P

The engine is just called “Minetest”.
Apart from that, rubenwardy summed it up well.
(I disagree about removing the term “subgame”, but I don't have strong feelings.)

Further reading:
https://wiki.minetest.net/Minetest
https://wiki.minetest.net/Subgames

PLEASE read the wiki to find more answers. Many people have put many hours into this.

[rubenwardy]

The name “Minetest Engine” was just invented by rubenwardy, in this thread. This name is NOT official. :P

Lol, corrected

[sorcerykid]

I am okay with the term subgame, because it suggests that games for Minetest must execute within the Minetest engine, rather than being standalone executables themselves.