What is a game development engine?

Question

Game development

I went to see how games are made, just out of interest. Because I was not interested in this topic at all and I am engaged in other things at all. So I saw a video on YouTube where they used the Unreal Engine, there with all sorts of components, textures, a screen where it's all placed and TD. So, the question is, are all games done this way? In terms of whether they are all made on engines? Or to put it another way - with screens where you need to place the characters, set some parameters such as gravity and the like? Or maybe it's so-so and normal games are made in a completely different way and all these engines are like website builders in the web world?

Answer 1

"Engine" is a slang term for very different things, from a collection of code libraries to what you see in Unity.
Not all games are developed on a similar basis. Just because a game is developed using a publicly available engine doesn't make it bad. Just because an engine is available to everyone doesn't make it "obsolete". Not all in-house engine developments end up being published. This is more the exception than the rule.

Answer 2

The last option is correct.
No one will ever put their commercial "engines" (AAA + class) in public.
As soon as the engine becomes obsolete, it appears in the public for everyone.

Answer 3

A game engine is like a framework for a website, just a higher level of abstraction.

Answer 4

So, the question is, are all games done this way?

lot

In terms of whether they are all made on engines?

all

Or to put it another way - with screens where you need to place the characters, set some parameters such as gravity and the like?

part

Or maybe it's so-so and normal games are made in a completely different way and all these engines are like website builders in the web world?

any game has an engine
It may not be as advanced as UE/Unity Builders
are used to create locations to make work easier and not waste the time of skilled developers
Positioning characters and creating maps takes a lot of time, but this is not the only problem in game development

Answer 5

In a broad sense, an engine in game development is a set of software and utilities that can be represented as a single combine in the case of Unity, Unreal Engine, CryEngine, or a set of different software and utilities, the results of which are combined using game libraries and frameworks. in such a way that the game is obtained.
In a narrow sense, a game engine is that part of the software that
1) combines multimedia resources
2) game logic
scripts 3) scripts of any business logic (analytics for example)
And most importantly - 4) input controller and 5) output of the resulting game frame.
If the platform is a certain computer with a certain operating system, then in fact the engine is software that runs on it and does all of the above. This includes PCs, consoles, smartphones, gaming handhelds, and even Brick Game and Just You Wait, in which a wolf catches eggs.
If the platform is a browser, then the engine does the first three steps, the browser takes care of the rest.
If the platform is a messenger or a terminal, then there is practically nothing from the engine, except for the game logic.
There are different engines for different specializations, for example, there is an engine for interactive books - in such engines, even a simple visual block DSL is enough, you just insert text, pictures, music, timings and the game is ready. If you set a goal, then you can use office software as a gaming software: presentation designer, spreadsheet processor (there are games on Excel).
Combined game engines can do everything, or, if the source code is closed, then almost everything. Specialized game engines can do anything within the limits of genre specialization. The difference is usually in the GUI, API, implementation language, platform focus, and usage license (which, by the way, can be discussed privately)

Answer 6

You can make a game even without an operating system and a programming language. And what? Theoretically, this is possible. Just write directly in the machine code of the processor. Somehow you create a bootable flash drive - and voila, a client game without an OS, without blackjack and without everything.
The engine makes development faster and more convenient. As a rule, the engine is made by some people (with the expectation of a large class of games), and the game itself is made by others. That is, developers use what is already ready and do not waste time on inventing a bicycle. Therefore, creating a game becomes a quick and easy process.
Unity is a masterpiece by modern standards. Now the development of new features has been slowed down a bit and they are more involved in improving stability, because this is already a trinket. In second place Unreal. I would not consider the rest of the engines to create something serious.
But that's about programming. I'll tell you a secret that game development is not limited to programming. Everything is much more complicated. And if you plunge headlong into this area, you will understand how difficult everything is.