How to Create Your Own Game Engine
- 1). Determine the sorts of games you will want your engine to support. If your game engine will be used to build games of all types, it will need to be designed that way. However, if you wish only to create a small subset of games, you can simplify your design to limit the amount of time and work needed.
- 2). Create the basic components. These include a memory manager, which will be used to track the program's memory usage; a logger, which tracks what the program does by noting its tasks in text files; and the kernel, which contains the main game loop and determines the next task to perform.
- 3). Design the engine's architecture. The main components to any engine are the input handler, the game state updater, and the rendering engine. You should decide early on how complex you want each piece to be.
- 4). Create the input handler. This is the piece of software that reads keyboard, mouse and joystick input and translates it into commands that your game engine understands.
- 5). Develop the game state updater. This component interprets the user input and updates the state of the game based on that and the previous game state. This can be a very complex piece, as it will handle all the game rules, game physics and network communication.
- 6). Build your rendering engine. This component updates the users' screens, and some developers will want this to be the largest piece of their engine, especially if they want to create realistic 3D games. However, developers of simpler games will want to spend less time on this portion.
- 7). Develop ways to test and debug each component. You will want to test each piece individually, as well as how they interact. Simple test programs often suffice, and you may wish to create a simple game that uses each part to ensure that they behave as intended.