TASK 17: Game Engines...

Argh, this one's a toughie...Taken me a while to actually get around to it...

A lot like an engine in a car, game engines are vital to the whole, and without one games simply wouldn't work. Game engines determine everything and anything that can happen in the game world as well as user interfaces, controls and such.

Developers have the option of either creating an entirely new game engine for their games or re-using an already existing engine. The benefits of creating a new engine are that improved or new and never seen before content can be added, possibly giving the game more of an edge. However, this can be costly and time-consuming so a lot of the time, especially with the smaller developers, game engines from other games are re-used to reduce the cost and get their game on the market quicker. Examples of popular engines include the Unreal Engine, Source Engine and the Doom 3 Engine.

Developers that buy into proprietary technology have the advantages of not having to spend time developing a new engine but are restricted by copyright and so is closely guarded by the owner and certain aspects cannot be changed.

The terms subtractive and additive in games creation refers to the ways in which a world within a game is created. Subtractive means that something is "cut-out" of a solid world, while additive involves creating space in an empty world.

As games advance, their engines are getting more and more complex. As you'd expect, this results in a longer production time and even higher costs for developers.