I''ve been programming for a while but I still don''t understand what they are... There''s no town drunk here, we all take turns.

The game engine is the core code that handles the common game loop of:

- get input
- update game state
- render

Read the Enginuity series of articles currently posted on GameDev.net. It is likely too advanced for you, but it does cover game engines.

Google "game engines", and buy yourself some books - there are plenty of game dev books at BN, Amazon, etc. Also, you might want to post this in the beginners forum.

I think this is one of those terms that is really open to interpretation and very much depends on the actual game you apply it to.

I consider the "engine" of a game to be the main game code that ties the graphics to the sound to the input to the network to the user interface to the... The cement in the conglomerate that is a computer game. The code that turns it from a collection of libraries and modules into a game that can interact with a player.

The game are the things like the modells, levels, AI and physics that your user is going to see. You want to construct a new game and the only thing you have to do is design some modells, make a few levels, create some game play and voila you''ve got a new game(a little bit simplistic but ok :D)..

The engine is the thing which is running the game. Initialising your window and d3d/opengl is done by your engine, also keeping track of all the resources(scene managment) is something your engine does for you..

The engine is the base of a game, it doesn''t have any parts that could be different from one game to another but it does contain all the stuff that you need to get it running..

think "quake" engine. or "unreal (2k3)" engine. =\ note how all games based on those engines have similar graphics rendering styles (ie. bump-mapping, lightinig, texture bits, etc.), the way it starts up (quake w/ its console window and then a gray window with a mouse cursor), console, etc. ;x

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shurcool
wwdev