Game engine

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A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor.[1] The "engine" terminology is akin to the term "software engine" used more widely in the software industry.

Game engine can also refer to the development software supporting this framework, typically a suite of tools and features for developing games.[2][3]

game development by reusing/adapting, in large part, the same game engine to produce different games[4] or to aid in porting
games to multiple platforms.

Purpose

platform game in Godot

In many cases, game engines provide a suite of visual

data-driven manner. Game-engine developers often attempt to preempt implementer needs by developing robust software suites which include many elements a game developer may need to build a game. Most game-engine suites provide facilities that ease development, such as graphics, sound, physics and artificial intelligence (AI) functions. These game engines are sometimes called "middleware" because, as with the business sense of the term, they provide a flexible and reusable software platform which provides all the core functionality needed, right out of the box, to develop a game application while reducing costs, complexities, and time-to-market—all critical factors in the highly competitive video game industry.[5]

Like other types of middleware, game engines usually provide

architectural visualizations, training simulations, and modeling environments.[6]

Some game engines only provide

GPU
. But older games did not have hardware acceleration or GPUs and had to build their own software renderer.

As technology ages, the components of an engine may become outdated or insufficient for the requirements of a given project. Since the complexity of programming an entirely new engine may result in unwanted delays (or necessitate that a project restart from the beginning), an engine-development team may elect to update their existing engine with newer functionality or components.

Game engines are not limited to use in the video game field, and have found uses in other scientific fields. Part of this is due to game engines being optimized for consumer-grade computing equipment rather than high-performance computing, allowing researchers to develop programs for their use on lower cost machines. Game engines also simplify many of the computing operations needed for scientific software, including graphics, networking, and interactivity, reducing the need to develop these features themselves.[7]

History

id's Quake engine which resulted in the id Tech
family.

Before game engines, games were typically written as singular entities: a game for the

hardware—which was the leading edge of the market at the time—meant that most of the code would have to be thrown out afterwards anyway, as later generations of games would use completely different game designs that took advantage of extra resources. Thus most game designs through the 1980s were designed through a hard-coded rule set with a small number of levels and graphics data. Since the golden age of arcade video games
, it became common for video game companies to develop in-house game engines for use with first-party software.

A notable example of an in-house game engine on

side-scrolling engine developed by Shigeru Miyamoto's team at Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The engine they had developed for the side-scrolling racing game Excitebike (1984) was later employed for the scrolling platformer Super Mario Bros. (1985). This had the effect of allowing Mario to smoothly accelerate from a walk to a run, rather than move at a constant speed like in earlier platformers.[8]

While third-party game engines were not common up until the rise of

Thunder Force Construction (1984),[10] Adventure Construction Set (1984), Garry Kitchen's GameMaker (1985), Wargame Construction Set (1986), Shoot-'Em-Up Construction Kit (1987), Arcade Game Construction Kit (1988), and most popularly ASCII's RPG Maker engines from 1998 onward. Klik & Play (1994) is another legacy offering that is still available.[11]

The term "game engine" arose in the mid-1990s, especially in connection with 3D games such as first-person shooters with a first-person shooter engine. Epic games, founded by developer Tim Sweeney, debuted Unreal Engine in the year 1998.[12]

Such was the popularity of

levels—the "game content" or "game assets". Separation of game-specific rules and data from basic concepts like collision detection and game entity meant that teams could grow and specialize.[11]

Later games, such as id Software's Quake III Arena and Epic Games's 1998 Unreal were designed with this approach in mind, with the engine and content developed separately. The practice of licensing such technology has proved to be a useful auxiliary revenue stream for some game developers, as one license for a high-end commercial game engine can range from $10,000 to millions of dollars, and the number of licensees can reach several dozen companies, as seen with the Unreal Engine. At the very least, reusable engines make developing game sequels faster and easier, which is a valuable advantage in the competitive video game industry. While there was a strong rivalry between Epic and id around the year 2000, since then Epic's Unreal Engine has been far more popular than id Tech 4 and its successor id Tech 5.[13]

Modern game engines are some of the most complex applications written, often featuring dozens of finely tuned systems interacting to ensure a precisely controlled user experience. The continued evolution of game engines has created a strong separation between rendering, scripting, artwork, and

level design. It is now common, for example, for a typical game development team to have several times as many artists as actual programmers.[14]

First-person shooter games remain the predominant users of third-party game engines, but they are now also being used in other

Burnout
franchises.

Need For Speed at 100 Hz versus Forza Motorsport 2
at 360 Hz.

Although the term was first used in the 1990s, there are a few earlier systems in the 1980s that are also considered to be game engines, such as Sierra's

Freescape engine (in 1986[15]). Unlike most modern game engines, these game engines were never used in any third-party products (except for the SCUMM system which was licensed to and used by Humongous Entertainment
).

As game engine technology matures and becomes more user-friendly, the application of game engines has broadened in scope. They are now being used for

DHTML).[17]

Additionally, more game engines are being built upon

indie game development. Microsoft developed XNA as the SDK of choice for all video games released on Xbox and related products. This includes the Xbox Live Indie Games[19] channel designed specifically for smaller developers who do not have the extensive resources necessary to box games for sale on retail shelves. It is becoming easier and cheaper than ever to develop game engines for platforms that support managed frameworks.[20]

Game engines as an industry

Producers of game engines decide how they allow users to utilize their products. Just as gaming is an industry, so are the engines they are built off. The major game engines come at varying prices, whether it be in the form of subscription fees or license payments.[21] Unity and the Unreal Engine are currently the two most popular choices for game developers.[22] Although the differences among the different game engines blur as they build their own tools on top of them, different game developers may be too used to a system to change, or attracted by the huge benefits of such engines regardless of pay-walls.

Game middleware

In the broader sense of the term, game engines themselves can be described as middleware. In the context of video games, however, the term "middleware" is often used to refer to subsystems of functionality within a game engine. Some game middleware does only one thing but does it more convincingly or more efficiently than general purpose middleware.

The four most widely used middleware packages

Input Method Editor
(IME) add-on for in-game Asian chat support.

Other middleware is used for performance optimisation—for example '

occlusion culling
optimisations to 3d graphics.

Some middleware contains full

library
. Some middleware programs can be licensed either way, usually for a higher fee for full source code.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9783319480244
    . Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  2. ^ "Common game development terms and definitions | Game design vocabulary | Unity". Unity. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-06. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  3. ^ Tan, James. "Introduction - Unreal Engine (Canterbury Software Summit 2013 slides)" (PDF). Unreal Engine. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  4. ^ "What is a Game Engine?". GameCareerGuide.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  5. ^ O'Neill, John (January 15, 2008). "My Turn: The Real Cost of Middleware". Gamedaily.com. Archived from the original on August 30, 2009. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  6. ^ Report on Use of Middleware in Games[usurped]
  7. doi:10.1145/502269.502288
    .
  8. ISBN 978-1-317-50381-1
    .
  9. ^ "War Game Construction Kit". Oh!FM. Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2012. Alt URL
  10. ^ "Thunder Force Construction". Oh!FM. Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2012. Alt URL
  11. ^
    S2CID 213694676
    .
  12. ^ Weinberger, Matt. "The CEO behind 'Fortnite' says it's 'evolving beyond being a game' and explains the company's ambitious vision". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  13. ^ Bramwell, Tom (2007-08-09). "id Tech 5 Interview • Page 1 • Interviews •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  14. ^ "Game Development Team Composition Study - Changes over time". Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  15. ^ "Freescape Engine". Universal Videogame List. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  16. ^ "Video Games Starting to Get Serious". Gazette.net. 2007-08-31. Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  17. ^ "Gaming: Mobile and Wireless Trends for 2008". M-trends.org. Archived from the original on 2011-01-08. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  18. ISBN 9781592003518
    . Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  19. ^ "xboxlivecommunitygames.org". xboxlivecommunitygames.org. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  20. ^ "Microsoft to Enable User-Created XBox 360 Games". Retrieved 2017-05-05.
  21. ^ "The 10 Best Video Game Engines | 2018 Edition". The Ultimate Resource for Video Game Design. 2017-03-11. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  22. ^ "The Two Engines Driving the $120B Gaming Industry Forward". CB Insights Research. 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  23. ^ "Gamasutra Engine and Middleware Technology Survey". Gamasutra.com. 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2011-01-17.


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