// Game Engines

So, you want to make a game but have no idea where to start? Well, picking the right game engine is the best place to start. But first, what is a game engine?

A game engine is software that is used to create games. They handle a lot of the backend work such as rendering, physics, sound and scripting. Using a game engine is highly recommended as it just makes life so much easier. For example, if you wanted to make a circle just show up on the screen, you would have to tell the computer to create a circle, what dimensions it is, the exact position it is at when you have a game engine you could simply just drag a circle onto the screen and the engine will do all of that for you.

Back in the early 70's, if you wanted to make a game, you would have to make an entire computer dedicated to running that game. This is why arcades where the best way to go. It wasn't until the mid 1980's when large development companies would make in house game engines. These are private game engines made by one game studio, having full creative control over their games. These are still widely used today, like EA's Frostbite or Ubisoft’s Anvil. However, in 1993 id Software released Doom Engine to the public, allowing people to create their very own games without having to create an engine from scratch. Today, there are plenty of game engines that are available to the public. I will be going over some of the largest game engines and some of my personal recommendations. 

 

 

#1) Unity Unity is where I started as a game developer. It is like the swiss army knife of game engines, allowing both 2d and 3d games. There are countless games that use Unity as its not only free but allows free licensing for games, meaning you are allowed to make money off your games without having to pay a premium. It uses C# as its main programming language, which is not that complected but still has a learning curve. As an engine, its quite easy to pick up and there are countless tutorials online for you to use.

 

#2 Unreal Unreal is a game engine that is specifically designed for high quality 3D games. A lot of AAA games use this engine such as Fortnite, Hogwarts Legacy and Bioshock. The engine is free to use and will only charge royalties after a product hits over $1 million in lifetime revenue. Although I do not recommend this for starting out unless you want to start learning 3D games immediately as 2D games are a lot easier to make.

  

#3 Godot Godot, to put it simply, is Unity 2.0. It is an Open Source project, meaning you can access the files, code and every aspect of the engine for free. With it being Open Source, Godot has no royalties attached to it meaning if you make billions off your game, you get to keep all of it. As for coding, Godot allows for almost every coding language due to its open source nature. However, this makes Godot more advanced and harder to learn than Unity. Its definitely a solid choice when it comes to your first game.

 

#4 RPG Maker RPG Maker, as the name implies, is specifically made to make Role Playing Games. These games are defined by the classic, top down heros adventures such as Final Fantasy. RPG Maker does a lot to simplify the game making process and is definitely the easiest to use out of all of these options. I must warn you, the engine has a free trial but is not free, coming in at $80 for the most current, up to date version. However, this is only a one time purchase and because you pay for it, there are no royalty fees attached. If you are serious about making a career out of gamedev, I highly recommend this for starters.

 

#5 GameMaker Finally, we have my personal recommendation and what I will be using for this blog, GameMaker. GameMaker is a 2D engine specifically designed for Indie gamedev. It has a custom coding language that is extremely starter friendly. It was used to create games like Undertale, Shovel Knight and Fields of Mystra. However, there is one major downside. That being if you want to make any money off of your games you need to pay a $100 fee for the pro version, but unlike RPGM you can use everything for completely free, just not able to make any money.

 

These are just some of the most popular game engines out there. There are plenty more that I have not covered such as Roblox, Scratch and Visual Novel Creator, but I highly recommend all 5 of these. Going forward, I will be showing off my game design philosophy and using GameMaker to create a playable prototype for a small project.