Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8. Mobile Game Engines
A game engine is a software used to develop and run games. It is based on a collec-
tion of tools to create or import all assets and elements of a videogame, and pull them
together to make them work as a whole. Rendering, materials and lighting, physics,
particle effects, collision detection and management, AI and gameplay scripting, GUI
design and game controls: a good game engine either allows to directly create such
game elements and functions, or offers the possibility to import elements and assets
from other software. For example, 3D models are usually created with third-party pro-
grams such as 3D Studio Max or Maya, and are then imported with a specific file
format (such as
*.fbx
files) in the game engine
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
• What a game engine is
• What engines can do
• The main characteristics of the most popular game engines
• The first part of the tutorial to create a game with Unity 3D
For quite a long time, game companies used to create their own game engines and
then used that technology to develop a series of titles to recoup the costs and speed
up the development process. Lucas Arts' SCUMM engine which powered so many
graphic adventures, the id Tech engine developed by
John Carmack
(id Software) for
the Quake saga, or the Unreal Engine are examples of popular game engines created
and used by game companies to develop their own games.
As the costs to build a game engine from scratch improved with the quick advance-
ment of computer technologies, many developers began licensing their engines or
even turned their whole business towards the creation of game engines and other
game-related middleware, rather than games. At the same time, smaller companies
found the opportunity to invest their money in buying the license of an already crafted
and bug-proven engine, rather than developing their own, resulting in saved time and
money, and the opportunity to begin development from day one.
This aspect is especially true for mobile indie teams, there are so many full-featured
engines available today which target single or multiple platforms, each with its own
strengths (and weaknesses), that there is really no reason for not using them. We
strongly suggest you to follow this advice, unless your goal as developers is to sell
