Game engines are a special class of software. Each company uses its own, guarding all secrets with exceptional jealousy. Most often all the iconic “features” of a successful game are due to the possibilities of the engine and not to the skills of the programmers. Therefore, to give the license to someone else means to get a strong competitor.
Take car racing, for example: how will it be implemented weather conditions? Just fog is easy enough, but it is necessary to have raindrops of rain or wet snow falling on the windshield, and interact with the flow of oncoming air, depending on the speed. If you are overtaken on a wet track, it means you should be covered with mud. Add more realistic reflection in the mirrors, and think how much work is there for the programmer. If all of this will be available at engine level, it means that the work is quite able to cope with a specialist of an average hand in quite a foreseeable time. As a result, a one-of-a-kind game runs the risk of being clobbered unashamedly.
That’s why the game engine remains the studio’s main treasure. It is both a calling card and a striking weapon in marketing. The engines of the most popular projects no one ever saw or held in their hands, but all they do is write about them thoughtful expert opinions.
The question arises: why learn game engines? Because the situation in the game industry has been changing radically in recent years. Licensing approaches are changing, the level of available content is changing, and the labor market in IT is changing.
We make games on engines:
CryEngine
Godot
Unity
Unreal Engine