Game Engines.

Game engines, in their most basic form are the foundation of any gaming title. They determine the rendering, physics, sound artificial intelligence, networking and interface of the game, they are the skeleton of any production and the artists flesh out the body with thousands of ingame assets. Many developing houses use exisiting gaming engines such as the Unreal Engine, which has been used for games such as 'Gears of war' and 'Shadow Complex.' The benefits of using a pre-existing engine is that you can jump straight into the creation process with very little need for a coding team, but in the modern market many developers prefer to heavily alterate engines or design their own to gain an edge over there competitors.

Game engines play a large role in the gaming indsutry as they differ widely, from the cryengine which has numerous features such as advanced particle systems and shader capabilites which are often utilized when creating large scenes which huge scope. Unreal on the other hand, is more focused on detailed, linear environments and body physics.Games such as 'Just Cause 2' would use an entirely different engine to create those sweeping landscapes than a game like 'Mass Effect' which has a very concentrated and highly detailed game universe. Each developer needs to choose the engine which most appropriate for the genre of game they are creating and is a key decision made earlier on in production.