A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games. Developers use them to create games for consoles, mobile devices and personal computers. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine includes a rendering engine for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection, sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, localization support, scene graph, and may include video support for cinematic. The process of game development is often economized, in large part, by reusing/adapting the same game engine to create different games, or to make it easier to "port" games to multiple platforms. Here below Top 8 Best Game Engines listed, read on:
10 Best Game Engines to use
1. Unity 3D
Unity 3D is a cross platform game creation system developed by Unity Technologies, including a game engine and integrated development environment. It is used to develop video games for web sites, desktop platforms, consoles, and mobile devices. First announced only for Mac OS, at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 2005, it has since been extended target more than fifteen platforms. It is now the default software development kit (SDK) for the Nintendo Wii UI. Unity is a truly affordable option for a game developer, and it has some unmatched merits that other engines don’t. Unity is notable for its ability to target games to multiple platforms. Within a project, developers have control over delivery to mobile devices, web browsers, desktops, and consoles. Supported platforms include BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8, Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, Unity Web Player, Adobe Flash, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, and Wii. It includes an asset server and Nvidia’s PhysX physics engine.
Features:
Direct3D on Windows and Xbox 36
OpenGL on Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS
Mapping (Bump, Reflection, Parallax, Shadow maps render-to-texture)
Screen space ambient occlusion
Best licensing terms in the game industry. Gotta pay for the license once.
Easy to use and compatible with every game platform (Low learning curve)
Great community support (Popular option among developers)
2. The Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs, and other RPGs. With its code written in C++, the Unreal Engine features a high degree of portability and is a tool used by many game developers today. Unreal Engine is one of the top ranked game engines to develop high-end triple-A titles. It was this engine which had been utilized to develop world famous games such as: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Gears of War, Mass Effect, and many other blockbusters.
Features:
The current release is Unreal Engine 4, designed for Microsoft's DirectX 11 and 12 (for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Windows RT);
OpenGL (for OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, iOS, Android, Ouya and Windows XP); Vulkan (for Android); Metal (for iOS) ;and JavaScript/WebGL (for HTML5 Web browsers).
Unreal Engine comes with several lifetime hours of video tutorials and resources are accessible
Best support and update mechanism of all engines, with a new tool introduced with each new update.
A plenty of easy maneuver tools a number of them are so simple that could be handle by a child. There is widest range of easy to maneuver tools up under its sleeve.
So many developers using it, Unreal offers the largest community support.
3. Rage Engine
Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a game engine developed by the RAGE Technology Group at the video game developer Rockstar San Diego with contributions by other Rockstar studios. The engine has been used on several different platforms such as Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. RAGE initially evolved from the Angel Game Engine originally developed by Angel Studios for use in the sixth generation console era versions of the Midnight Club series and other Rockstar San Diego games. This is one of the unique engines that offer a wide range of powers. The multi-functionality is one of the basic reasons behind its vast popularity. This engine is responsible for developing games like Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption and many other blockbusters.
Features:
Great capability for handling large streaming worlds and weather effects.
Unmatched in handling complex A.I.s.
Multitude of gameplay styles for the developer to work upon.
Fast network code.
Very attractive graphics.
4. CryEngine 3
German/Turkish game studio Crytek announced that it would introduce CryEngine 3 at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, held from March 25 to March 27. The new engine was being developed for use on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. As for the PC platform, the engine is said to support development in DirectX 9, 10, and 11. As of June 1, 2009, it was announced that Crysis 2 would be developed by Crytek on their brand new engine. CryEngine 3 was released on October 14, 2009. This game engine has received praise for beautiful graphics output. If you have a knack for pretty game visuals, this can be the ideal game engine for you.
Features:
CryEngine 3 makes the game ambience pretty with its artist level programming capability in its Material Editor, Flow graph, Track View Editor tools
Real time soft particle system & integrated FX editor: Procedural Placement Tools & Cover and Integrated vegetation & terrain cover generation system, Road & river tools, Vehicle creator.
Streaming, Performance Analysis Tools, Visual Budget System, Multi-core support and UV Mapping Editor & PBR (Physically Based Rendering)
The game engine also offers the easiest A.l. coding tech: Fully Flexible Time of Day System, Real time dynamic global illumination
Integrated multi-threaded physics engine, Deformables and soft body physics, Interactive & destructible environment
It has the most powerful audio tool: In-game sound mixing & profiling, Dynamic sounds & interactive music, Environmental audio
5. Havok Vision Engine
Havok Vision Engine is a cross-platform game engine that provides a powerful and versatile multi-platform runtime technology ideally suited for all types of games and capable of rendering extremely complex scenes at smooth frame rates. Havok SDK was unveiled at the Game Developers Conference in 2000. The current release, Havok Version 2011.2, released in September 2011, is known to work on Microsoft Windows, Xbox and Xbox 360; Nintendo's GameCube and Wii; Sony's PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable; Linux; and on Mac OS X. In March 2011, Havok showed off a version of the Havok physics engine designed for use with the Sony Xperia Play, or more specifically, Android 2.3 During the Microsoft's //BUILD/ 2012 Conference, Havok unveiled full technology suite for Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8.
Features:
Providing a well-designed, clean and object-oriented C++ API, the technology includes a variety of features to help developers break through technical barriers
Havok Vision Engine is multi-threaded and optimized for Windows (DX 9, DX 11), Windows 8, Xbox360, PlaySTation3, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, iOS and Android It is also an ideal solution for online distribution via XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare.
Large, Customizable Feature Set with High-Performance and Stability
Engine Extensibility, Customizable, Streaming
Licensees are given access to most of the C/C++ source-code, giving them the freedom to customize the engine's features, or port it to different platforms although some libraries are only provided in binary format.
6. HeroEngine
HeroEngine is a 3D game engine and server technology platform originally developed by Simutronics Corporation specifically for building MMO-style games. At first developed for the company's own game Hero's Journey, the engine won multiple awards at tradeshows, and has since been licensed by other companies such as BioWare Austin. This game engine has earned wide acclaim in massive multiplayer and online game circles: you can see its results in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The licensing terms seems a bit heavy for new developers and startups, but it’s worth considering if you have a really ambitious project in hand.
Features:
HeroEngine also works with technology from third-party vendors, such as FMOD, PhysX, SpeedTree, Wwise, Scaleform, and Vivox, as well as having plugins for 3D Studio Max and Maya.
The engine has online creation. Example, 1 developer can be creating a house and the entities inside, while another 1 works on the landscaping and terrain around it. Each sees the other's work in real time.
It offers several open-world maps and lively instances. It also offers a seamless transition between them.
Offers fairly robust A.I.s. And Cloud support for client server with HeroCloud.
Easy and handy mapping tools and integrated tool set.
The scripting is powerful enough to help you develop complex missions, crafting, and gathering resources.
7. ShiVa3D
ShiVa3D is a 3D game engine with a graphical editor designed to create applications and video games for desktop PCs, the web, game consoles and mobile devices. Games made with ShiVa can be exported to over 20 target platforms, with new export targets being added regularly. Numerous applications have been created using ShiVa, including the Prince of Persia 2 remake for Mobiles and Babel Rising published by Ubisoft. Games for the ShiVa Engine are made with the ShiVa Editor, a WYSIWYG RAD tool designed to let developers create 3D games and application in a fraction of the usual time. ShiVa Editor 1.x runs exclusively on Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1. Since not all platforms have SDKs for Windows, the Authoring Tool is available for Mac OS X as well as Windows.
Features:
Engine runs natively on a wide variety of target platforms, including Mobiles, Desktop PCs, Web Browsers and Game Consoles
Support for both 32bit and 64bit operating systems: Lua API with native C++ completion support
Rendering in OpenGL, DirectX 9 or 11, and OpenGL ES modes
Mealtime point and directional lights with screen space blurred cascaded shadow maps, Full light map control and Mealtime mesh modification API with morphing support, Chunked terrain and ocean rendering
Material overrides, particle systems and Polygon Trails, post processing effects like Bloom, Depth of Field, Motion Blur and Camera Distortion
8. Project Anarchy
Project Anarchy is a powerful game engine is acclaimed by many game developers for its vivid and comprehensive documentation. It has absence of Mac and Linux development environment. Plus It’s costly for a new developer and startups.
Features:
Project Anarchy offers free game development on mobile (on major platforms including iOS, Android, and Tizen).
Project Anarchy has strong debugging tools.
Solid documentation and sample is accessed through the editor and active developer community and forums.
Project Anarchy has robust Havok A.I.
Lots of customization options for developers with vForge.
9. GameMaker: Studio
GameMaker: Studio is a proprietary game creation system created by Mark Overmars in the Delphi programming language. GameMaker accommodates the creation of cross-platform and multi-genre video games using drag and drop action sequences or a sandboxed scripting language known as Game Maker Language, which can be used to develop more advanced games that could not be created just by using the drag and drop features. GameMaker was designed to allow novice computer programmers to be able to make computer games without much programming knowledge by use of these actions.
Features:
Simple and straightforward for all basic and advanced elements.
One programming language (GML) to involve with. No need to deal with memory management or tasks like multithreading.
GameMaker accommodates redistribution on multiple platforms.[10] The program builds for these platforms: Windows, Windows 8, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, HTML5, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, Tizen, Xbox One, and Playstation.
It is used to further enhance and control the design of a game through more conventional programming, as opposed to the drag and drop system.
GameMaker primarily runs games that use 2D graphics, allowing the use of limited 3D graphics. It supports the ability to create particle effects such as rain, snow and clouds, however not natively in 3D except through use of Dynamic Link Library.
10. GameSalad
GameSalad Creator is an authoring tool developed by GameSalad, Inc; aimed primarily at non-programmers for composing games in a drag-and-drop fashion, using visual editors and a behavior-based logic system. It is used by consumers and creative professionals such as graphic designers, animators, and game developers for rapidly prototyping, building and self-publishing cross-platform games and interactive media. The application runs on Mac OS X for producing games for iPhone, it also runs on Windows which is optimized for producing games on Android devices although games developed on Windows have to be converted to Mac OS files to be published to the App Store, web browser-based content in HTML 5, and Android applications.
Features:
GameSalad has one common web-based interface for publishing to multiple platforms such as the iPhone or Mac. GameSalad can also publish to Android-based devices such as the Nook, to Windows 8 as a Metro style application, and to the web as an HTML5 widget.
Real-time editing - Users can edit a scene while the game is running.
Game preview - GameSalad has a specific preview mode for debugging and testing the performance and memory usage of games on the desktop and the iPhone.
Integrated physics - GameSalad uses a rigid-body physics simulator for handling realistic motion and collision.
Expressions - For advanced users, GameSalad has an expression editor to define complex behavior and state changes with mathematical expressions and a library of functions.
So which one you are going to use, don't forget to mention :)