What exactly is a game engine? Is it possible to make a game without one? I'm a game programming newb who has only re-done tetris and is currently working on a Astroids-type game. Thanks for the help!
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What exactly is a game engine?
Started by Wade Berkn, May 30 2007 07:34 PM
3 replies to this topic
#2
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Posted 30 May 2007 - 10:09 PM
An engine is everything in the game, except for the actual game-play itself.
It is perfectly fine to make a game without an engine. It has been a lot of debate wether using an engine is more productive or not.
You can think of an engine as a generalization of several similar games. They could probably share the same code (the engine) for graphics, networking, physics, AI, etc.
It is perfectly fine to make a game without an engine. It has been a lot of debate wether using an engine is more productive or not.
You can think of an engine as a generalization of several similar games. They could probably share the same code (the engine) for graphics, networking, physics, AI, etc.
#3
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Posted 30 May 2007 - 11:30 PM
Continuing from what geon said:
A game engine is a system or an "environment" in which different objects can interact. Here's an example of a game engine for Asteroid:
There is a two-dimensional world. There are two kinds of objects: a ship object and an asteroid object. Asteroid objects move in random directions and at random speeds. The ship can turn in any angle and can move forward.
In Object-oriented terms, the engine described above would be implemented with a world object that has a list of asteriods and a ship object (or a list of ship objects for multiple players). The engine (or specifically, the world object) would have all the logic of determining end-game conditions.
Let's say you wanted to make an ice-planet game where a sled had to dodge boulders... you would take your engine (being general and all) and simply replace the ship object with a sled and replace asteroids with boulders.
geon said:
You can think of an engine as a generalization of several similar games. They could probably share the same code (the engine) for graphics, networking, physics, AI, etc.
A game engine is a system or an "environment" in which different objects can interact. Here's an example of a game engine for Asteroid:
There is a two-dimensional world. There are two kinds of objects: a ship object and an asteroid object. Asteroid objects move in random directions and at random speeds. The ship can turn in any angle and can move forward.
In Object-oriented terms, the engine described above would be implemented with a world object that has a list of asteriods and a ship object (or a list of ship objects for multiple players). The engine (or specifically, the world object) would have all the logic of determining end-game conditions.
Let's say you wanted to make an ice-planet game where a sled had to dodge boulders... you would take your engine (being general and all) and simply replace the ship object with a sled and replace asteroids with boulders.
Imagine.
#4
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Posted 01 June 2007 - 07:12 PM
When I was taught Software Engineering the definition of a Engine over Framework/Library is that following the association of the word (as in engine of a car) the engine is the concept that drives the application where as the framework is the support functions that helps you to develop the engine.
So using that definition the most basic game can be considered to have a "game" engine and is a concept to help describe/realize rather than implie any specific functionality.
So using that definition the most basic game can be considered to have a "game" engine and is a concept to help describe/realize rather than implie any specific functionality.
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