Game Engines are at the foundation of our favorite video games. But what really are they, and which ones are the most used to develop the best video games out there?
If you’re a gamer you’ve no doubt heard a bunch of talk around game engines, what games use what engine, which one is better, proprietary vs. third party, and so on and so on. On the opposite side, if you’re an aspiring game developer, hobbyist, or professional, you’ve likely had to make some hard choices about which engine to learn and use (a frequent game engine rivalry would be Unity vs Unreal Engine). Well, while those are the big third-party engines, there are many more out there, and I figure doing a quick overview might be beneficial if you’re trying to figure out which will be the best game engines for you to develop in, or if you just want to know what the most popular game engines are.
But let’s take a step back, what are game engines? Well to put it simply they are a development framework (or software if you will) that brings together a heap of systems in the background to streamline and simplify video game development. As a game developer using a game engine, you’ll no longer have to worry about things like hardware resource allocation, physics calculation, graphics rendering (though you’ll certainly tweak it), audio, inputs, and more. Video game engines combine all these systems into a more user-friendly interface allowing the developer to focus on creating the systems and content that make their game unique.
Unity
First is Unity, by far the most popular engine for indie game development, and for mobile development, even from larger companies like Gameloft, EA, Activision, etc. But that’s not to say you can’t build large PC and console AAA-style games with it, look no further than games like Escape from Tarkov, Subnautica, Genshin Impact, and more. In fact, check out the best games made in Unity list I compiled a while ago for more. For developers Unity offers an incredible amount of documentation, tutorials, and guides, a great language in C#, and multi-platform development that allows you to publish games to anything from high-end gaming PCs to smart toasters.
Unreal Engine 5
At this point the dominant force in the video game industry, Unreal Engine has always been one of the most third-party engines available to developers. However, it reached a whole new level of popularity with the launch of Unreal Engine 5 and its revolutionary features like Lumen and Nanite. The nature of game development cycles means that once a new technology becomes widely available it takes a few years before we start seeing big releases utilizing the new features, but games like Stalker 2, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, and Black Myth: WuKong are on the way and looking amazing.
Id Tech 7
Practically the grandfather of 3D FPS-focused game engines, Id Tech is a series of historic proprietary engine technologies used to make classics such as Doom and Quake, and recently with Id Tech 7 the new Doom and Doom Eternal. The quality of games possible on the engine speaks for itself just with those two examples, but sadly if you’re hoping to see it branch out or want to develop on it yourself it is unfortunately proprietary to Id Software/Bethesda and will likely remain so. Still, the legacy as well as modern achievements has earned Id Tech a place on this list.
Godot
Another darling engine of indie game developers, Godot doesn’t quite have the following and fanbase of Unity, and isn’t even trying to be in the same space as something like Unreal or CryEngine. What it does do however it does at a world-class level: 2D games. Brotato, Legend of Lumina, Cassette Beasts, and even Sonic Colors: Ultimate are all made with Godot. Like Unreal Engine and Unity, Godot is publicly available for anyone to develop their game in.
CryEngine
Not as popular as Unreal Engine or Unity, Cryengine is nonetheless a formidable engine capable of producing visually striking and realistic-looking games. Titles like Hunt: Showdown, Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, Kingdom Come Deliverance, and of course the Crysis series have all been made in the engine, proving that if nothing else it can make games that give your machine a real workout. You won’t find any 2D games here, and most developers who use CryEngine choose to go for a hyper-realistic art style, but if that’s what you’re into CryEngine offers up some of the best visuals in the business.
Frostbite
Basically, EA’s go-to engine, Frostbite is another extremely powerful engine, at least on the visuals front. Developed by DICE, the studio behind the Battlefield series as well as Star Wars Battlefront and Mirror’s Edge, Frostbite impressed the heads of EA so much that they decided to expand its use beyond first-person shooters, and now you can expect any and all EA games to have been developed in the engine. Recently games made in it include the aforementioned DICE games, but also any new Madden, Fifa, and Need for Speed games. If you’re a developer it’s a proprietary engine so you won’t be working with it unless you work for EA, but then again, they are one of the biggest employers in the industry so you just might at some point.
Source Engine 2
Of course, I couldn’t leave Source Engine 2 out, much like Id Tech it’s an engine with a lot of illustrious legacy but isn’t an engine that’s used for all that much outside of Valve’s own games (which are few and far between these days). But what Source Engine does have is an incredibly active modding community, whether it’s Machinima, complete community-made games, or mods to existing games like CS:GO, Half-Life, or Portal; dedicated gamers and modders from all over the world constantly pump out impressive new content. For full games check out this list of upcoming Source Engine 2 games for more.
And that’s it there are of course a lot of other engines out there, you’ve got Amazon’s Lumberyard, Sony’s Decima Engine, Take Two’s Rage Engine, Bethesda’s Creation Engine, and publicly available indie 2D engines like Game Maker Studio and RPG Maker, but these are all far less well known or less prolific so I’ve decided to relegate them to honorable mentions here. If you want to start developing games using one of these engines, make sure to check out the ‘Video game development: How and where to get started’ guide on Razzem.
