Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
engines and middleware to game developers, spend some time understanding your
specific needs, research on the Internet to find the engine that best fits those needs,
then get that engine and begin developing your game. You will find this process easi-
er, faster, and cheaper than building your own tools from scratch.
What engines can do
As we said, there are several engines to choose from. Some are very easy to pick up
and learn, though limited in their capabilities, which makes them excellent tools for
educational purposes. Others target a single platform, as it is with Cocos2D, which in
its first versions only allowed game development for the iOS. Most game engines, on
the other hand, target multiple platforms, as is a more profitable marketing strategy
to widen the potential gamers audience as much as possible. There are even en-
gines which are considered genre-specific, as it is the case with the Unreal Engine,
which many people regard as the perfect tool for crafting only 3D shooters, although
several unconventional games showed that with good ideas and a little bit of pro-
gramming, almost any game genre can be developed with a professional tool.
There are several functions that all game engines share. In the following sections,
we will list the most important.
Importing graphic assets
: All game engines offer the possibility to import graphics
assets for games. 2D-oriented engines allow users to import sprites and
spritesheets, tilesets, and background images, while 3D engines import 3D models,
materials, textures, and animations. Depending on the specific characteristics of
each game engine, not all file formats may be supported. When choosing the game
engine for your next game, be sure that
*.png
files are supported for 2D assets and
that a 3D engine supports the
*.fbx
file format, as this format imports 3D meshes
together with materials, textures, and animations, in a single operation.
Creating game levels and environments
: Regardless of whether they are 2D- or
3D-oriented, game engines offer the possibility to design game levels with the graph-
ic assets imported from a third-party software. It can be the disposition of platforms
for a 2D game or the terrains of a 3D game. Clearly, the creation of game levels
with a 3D engine is far more complex than assembling levels for a 2D platform, as
3D requires, for example, to deploy light sources, which is a task of its own. It is not
by chance that people working at the creation of 3D game levels are called environ-
mental artists!
