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 the engine level, it means that the work is quite able to cope with a medium-sized specialist in quite a foreseeable time. As a result, a one-of-a-kind game runs the risk of being unashamedly clobbered.
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.
There are programmers who can write the game without an engine, or even first create your own engine, and then the game. But why when you can make a game right away? Because every company has an HR specialist who will not allow the management to make a fatal mistake and make the project dependent on one person. These programmers do not suffer in terms of salary and create the most comfortable conditions, but to make a game without the engine is not allowed under any circumstances.
In fact, each proprietary game engine – a unique closed framework, built on its own standards, using its own terminology. Because of this, the programmer working in a famous studio is chained to the engine like an oar on a galleys. All of his experience and qualifications are in demand only here, and nowhere else.
This begs the question: why study game engines? Because the situation in the game industry has changed radically in recent years. Licensing approaches are changing, the level of available content is changing, and the labor market in IT is changing.
In fact, there have always been affordable and free engines. However, if you look at the ready-made projects, it’s clear why it’s free: using the tools you offer, you will never compete with anyone. In short, with all the richness of choice, you can consider four engines worthy of attention: CryEngine, Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine.
Each has its own specifics, but there are common features that put them in a special category. Being available to the individual developer, they all allow you to create AAA-class projects. Until recently, such a combination was considered impossible. As a consequence, it is possible to find “Godot/UE/Unity Developer” vacancy in the labor market as often as “C++ Programmer”.