ABSTRACT
This chapter will introduce the concepts behind Game Engines.
It is possible to make a game from scratch. Some projects will create everything they need, custom-built to the needs of the game.
This has the advantage that your game is designed and optimized specifically to do what you need. However, this takes a lot of time, money, and experience. Think of this as like making your own custom Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), so that you can make an album in exactly the way that you want.
An alternative solution is to use a pre-made Engine. This provides you with all of the tools you need, so you can then spend your efforts making the actual game. Obviously, there are financial considerations (you will have to pay the Engine developers a license fee).
In this chapter, we’ll start by looking at the function of a Game Engine, and see how we’ll be using Unity to create our game. We’ll also see how to register, download, and install the necessary software.
