Examples of video game engines

2D Engine: RPG Maker.

RPG Maker is a fairly cheap game engine that can be downloaded from the internet to make games for windows, RPG ones to be specific. The RPG maker has been around since its first appearance in 1992 for PC in Japan, it see’s the user of the engine using its premade landscapes and entities to create their very own Role Playing Game. All though most of the entities are premade for the user to freely place where ever they should feel the need to, but the engine also includes other editable things such as the capability to input and edit text boxes and edit battles. And at any time (as long as the user is using the PC version of the RPG maker engine) the user can also create/add new characters, events and tile pieces He or She wants. The RPG maker has had some published video games using its engine, a list of just a few of its 2D games are:

Dungeon Manjirou – MSX2

 Dungeon RPG Tsukūru Dan-Dan Dungeon- PC-9801

Chimes Quest-PC-9801

Dante 2- MSX2

(Note these games and consoles were released in Japan only and have not seen a worldwide release)

3D engine: Cry engine

The original Cryengine was designed and developed by Crytek to use in their original FarCry games, a huge open world FPS which takes place in a tropical setting. Some of the features of the first engine were: The Fully flexible day and night system (meaning the time of day changes naturally), Lots of dynamic shadows and very natural looking lighting, motion blur, Pathfinding, Deformables and body physics, facial animation editor and much more.

The use of the Cryengine was first seen in the fairly popular at the time game; Far Cry. The use of what the engine had to offer in combination of how the game was played and set came out for a very smooth and good-looking experience. A few of the games that use the Cry engine are:

Far Cry – Windows

Far Cry instincts – Xbox

Far Cry vengeance – WII  

Aion: The Tower of Eternity (an MMO) – Windows.

The Cry Engine has also updated twice, once to the cleverly named Cry engine 2, an engine that was essentially the same engine but with enhanced graphical capabilities and physics, this version of the engine also happened to be the engine that Crysis ran on. A game that for a fairly long time was the PC specs for most gamers, for whenever they asked the question; “can my PC run ___” they were asked the question “Can it run Crysis?”   

The third Cry engine simply improved on all the previous models of the Cry engine most noticeable of which is the graphics. 

  

Source engine

The source engine is an engine developed and made by valve for their various popular games such as Half-life 2 and Left 4 dead. The source engine isn’t just made with FPS’s in mind (despite the amount of first person games valve make) the engine can and has been used to make MOBAS, valve has shown this with the creation of Dota, but where the engine really shines is with how incredibly friendly it is will modders, happily letting them into the code so they can create their own wonderful games and modes. The mod Garry’s mod (or Gmod) is a clear example of this, as it takes everything inside of the files or every valve game and lets you do whatever you wish with them, you can even create your own mods and game modes within it. Making it one of the best mods ever created. A few examples of games made with the source engine are:

Team Fortress 2 – Windows, Ps3, Xbox 360 & MacOSX

Left 4 dead 1/2 – Windows, Xbox 360 & MacOSX

Dota 2 - Windows, MacOSX

Half life 2 /ep1 / ep2 / lost cost – Windows, Xbox, ps3, Xbox 360 & MacOSX

Portal 1/2 – Windows, Ps3, Xbox 360, MacOSX

  

The silent storm engine

The silent storm engine is an engine created by Nival interactive to originally be used on the game the engine is named after; silent storm. The engine was created to be used on silent storm for its turn based tactics system, the engine itself has the capabilities to quiet happily let the player enjoy how you can take cover anywhere they please, witness how nearly all character models and environment models can be destroyed, how bullets can ricochet off of things, how lighting will affect how well either the enemy can see the player or how well the player can see the enemy and many more cinematic experiences that were praised by media and players. The graphical system was also a very enjoyable part of the engine, and of course over the years the engine has been updated to make everything already in the engine better. The engine has been featured in other games after Nival noticed the potential; some of these follow as:

Silent storm: Sentinels –Windows

Hammer & Sickle – Windows

Day watch – Windows

Night watch – Windows XP

Jagged alliance 3 – Windows

Heroes of might and magic 5 – Windows, MacOSX