Game engine

Lore & Background

Before game engines, games were typically written as singular entities, with little reuse between titles. The rapid advance of arcade hardware meant most code had to be discarded for later generations.

Through the 1980s, game designs were often hard-coded with small levels and graphics data. A notable early in-house engine was the smooth side-scrolling engine developed by Shigeru Miyamoto's team at Nintendo for the NES, first used in Excitebike (1984) and later reused and adapted for Super Mario Bros. (1985). While third-party engines were uncommon until the 1990s, several 2D game creation systems appeared in the 1980s, including Pinball Construction Set (1983) and the RPG Maker engines from 1992 onward.

Did You Know?

• Game engines are sometimes called 'middleware' because they provide a flexible, reusable software platform with core functionality needed to develop a game application.
• Game engines have found uses in scientific fields because they are optimized for consumer-grade computing equipment and simplify graphics, networking, and interactivity.

History

Before game engines, games were typically written as singular entities with hard-coded rules, especially on platforms like the Atari 2600 where the core display routine (called the kernel) had to be designed from the bottom up. Memory constraints and the rapid advance of arcade hardware made reuse difficult, so most games through the 1980s were built with limited levels and graphics.

In-house engines began to appear, such as Nintendo's side-scrolling engine used in Excitebike (1984) and later Super Mario Bros. (1985). Third-party engines became common in the 1990s with the rise of 3D graphics, though 2D creation systems like Pinball Construction Set (1983) and RPG Maker (1998) existed earlier. The term "game engine" emerged in the mid-1990s, notably with Epic Games' Unreal Engine (1998) and id Software's Doom and Quake, which separated core engine code from game-specific content, allowing licensing and specialization.

Game engines as an industry

Game engine producers decide how users can access their products, with pricing ranging from subscription fees to license payments. Unity and Unreal Engine are currently the two most popular choices for developers. Although differences between engines blur as tools are built on top of them, developers may stick with a familiar system or be attracted by the benefits regardless of cost. Free and open-source engines like Godot have gained popularity, especially after the 2023 Unity pricing controversy, which drove developers and studios to seek engines with permissive licenses.

Game middleware

Game engines themselves can be described as middleware, but in video games the term often refers to subsystems within an engine. Some middleware does only one thing but does it more convincingly or efficiently than general-purpose middleware.

Widely used middleware packages include RAD Game Tools' Bink (video rendering), Miles (audio), and Granny (3D rendering); Firelight FMOD (audio library); Havok (physics simulation, animation, and behavior); and Scaleform GFx (Flash UI and video playback, with an IME addon for Asian chat). Other middleware like Simplygon optimizes level of detail meshes, and Umbra adds occlusion culling. Some middleware provides full source code or an API reference, and licensing options vary.