There’s a lot of discussion these days about the development of video games and one of the areas that I find most interesting has to be video game engines. These are such intrinsic and essential parts of video game development that can often shape the strengths and limitations of a video game and I think it’s important that we take a look at what these engines are, how they add or subtract from a video game and a concern of mine when it comes to a lack of competition.
Let’s start with the history of video game engines and the purpose that they serve. By the 1980s, video games had become significantly more complicated than they had been in previous decades. This meant that, rather than developing the tools needed to develop games on a game by game basis, some developers began to reuse development tools between games in order to more efficiently develop games. A notable example of this would be the 1985 classic “Super Mario Bros.” which reused the game engine that was developed for Excitebike, a game which had been previously released in 1984, in order to achieve the acceleration of Mario’s runs. However, one of the biggest shifts in the history of video game engines occurred with the release of the 1993 first-shooter classic “Doom”. The engine was very impressive from a technological perspective and many other developers became interested in using it themselves for their own games. As time went on, companies began to make more and more use of engines such as id Tech, Unreal Engine, etc. by buying a license to use the engine in order to develop games more quickly and efficiently. Thus, a new market emerged where some developers would develop game engines with the intention of licensing them out to other developers.
Since then, numerous game engines have been developed by various developers in order to be able to create their games. However, one of my greater concerns in the modern game industry is how a few game engines have ended up becoming increasingly dominant. Since id Tech 5, the id Tech engines are no longer licensed to other developers, and this has had the effect of strengthening Unreal Engines dominance over the video game engine market. A friend of mine half-jokingly stated that every game these days is made with Unreal Engine and, while that’s an exaggeration, it’s not far from the truth.
To be honest, the only other game engine that is anywhere close to competing with Unreal Engine for market dominance is Unity. Developed by Unity Software Inc., it was originally intended to be used for video games developed for MacOS but later expanded to other platforms. While historically associated with mobile games, many PC and console developers have also been making use of Unity to develop games such as Ori and the Blind Forest, Yooka-Laylee, Fall Guys etc.
A video game engine that I’m hoping will shake things up a bit is Source 2, an engine that’s developed by the Valve Corporation. Source 2 is the successor to Valve’s previous game engine, Source, which was used for many of Valve’s games as well as others like The Stanley Parable, Zeno Clash, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic etc., and has been in development for over a decade. Several of Valve’s more recent games such as Artifact, Dota Underlords and, the VR killer app, Half-Life: Alyx were made using Source 2. Valve have made their intention known that they intend to make Source 2 free to use as long as the game is available for purchase through Steam. However, we still have no idea when they intend to put this into practice with the only non-Valve game known to be using the engine being Sandbox from Facepunch Studios, a developer who has worked closely with Valve in the past.
The last thing I would like to bring up are engines that developers develop for their own games. There are still many developers who develop their own proprietary engines with examples including the Luminous Engine, the Dragon Engine, the Hedgehog Engine etc. However, I want to bring particular attention to Frostbite, the game engine used by Electronic Arts for most of their modern games. Originally developed by DICE for their Battlefield games, EA made it their intention that all of their games would be developed using Frostbite. However, this has proven an issue for several of their developers, particularly Bioware. Bioware are a legendary game developer who are known for developing some of the greatest video game RPGs ever made such as Knights of the Old Republic, the Mass Effect games, the Dragon Age series etc. However, the move to the Frostbite engine proved to be a nightmare for them as the engine had not been developed for RPGs and was missing many basic functions such as saves, dialogue systems, inventories and many others. Bioware had to spend a lot of time adding these components to the engine while struggling with the updates that DICE was making to Frostbite. While they managed to cobble together a well-received game in the form of Dragon Age: Inquisition using Frostbite, both Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem proved to be plagued with technical issues that detracted significantly from the experience.
I find video game engines and the way that they impact game development to be an incredibly interesting area that I wish was discussed more by the gaming public. In particular, I hope that more game engines are developed and released that can compete more aggressively against both the Unreal Engine and Unity while I also want to emphasise that just because a game engine looks pretty doesn’t mean that it’s one size fits all as evidenced by Bioware’s experience. Let me know your thoughts on video game engines, whether you find them interesting as well, your thoughts on the current video game engine market, what you think of the trouble Bioware ended up going through because of the Frostbite engine and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.