What is a game engine?
I’ve heard many valid answers to this question, but I prefer to think of a game engine as a set of specific tools. If you were to build a car, you’d need a lot of tools. It is possible – although not very efficient or easy – to build a car with general-purpose tools. Even doing so, you’d need to order car parts to assemble the car. But of course, the first cars were built before the first assembly lines, so you can build cars at a “low level”. Similarly, you can develop games at a “low level” using general-purpose tools like a programming language and some libraries for displaying graphics on the screen. This can be a little tougher than using a game engine, but it can be done with a little work. For example, picking up a DirectX book and working through it and then developing a game can be challenging, but not impossible. To return to the car analogy, as time has passed, car manufacturers have developed tools specialized for building cars. Car factories have countless machines, each d
