A game engine allows developers to create video and computer games that provide realistic experiences in virtual spaces. Developers use game engines to create scenes, organize assets like sound files and test games. Finally, the developer can use the game engine to build the game to run on VR, Mac, Windows or any other platform. All in all, game engines are pivotal in computer and video game programming.
Game engines allow developer teams to assemble 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional experiences as executable applications.
Game engine editors allow developers to create scenes by placing game objects in the virtual space. These scenes include hierarchies of game objects and the properties that define them. Game Objects can have mesh shapes and material textures. They may have sounds. They may have physics. Game engines take care of these and other complex functionalities by having reusable functionality, including for graphics, sound, game physics. Developers can attach the default packages for these, or they can modify them for more custom functionality. The Game Objects will then behave as the developers specify.
Game engines also allow developers to organize assets, which are files that are used by the engine. This can include images that are used as textures, or 3D object files that are used for meshes, or sound files for in-game audio. The scene file itself (with the object hierarchy) is itself saved as an asset file. Game engine editors allow developers to place these assets into different folders. Developers can create their own organizational systems with how they want to group and name their assets.
The game engine also lets the developer test their game by pressing a “play” button, which gives the developer a view of how the experience looks and plays. The developer can also read console logs that have error or debug messages so they can suss out any issues with the experience.
After the developer is happy with the experience, the game engine can build the game to an executable application. These executables can be built to run on VR headsets, Mac computers, Windows computers, Android smartphones, iOS smartphones and game consoles. The application can then be uploaded to websites to be accessed directly by different users or be distributed by different app stores.