What is a games engine

[Mors]

I was at some point writing an MFGG Starters Guide where I went into detail about that stuff. I can show some of it but keep in mind that it's still WIP and I plan to continue it one day.

Game Engines

The very first thing you need to make a game is a game engine. To simplify it, game engines provide the base for you to create games, and (most of the time) provide you some tools to make the process easier. They can handle a lot of things that are common in most video games, such as rendering, input, audio, and so on.

Some examples of game engines would be GameMaker, Unity, and Unreal Engine, but we will get into more detail with those shortly.

Each game engine is tailored towards specific types of games, and one thing one game engine excels at might be lacking in another game engine. Because of this, there is no "definitive" game engine to use, instead, you gotta choose the one that's best for the type of games you want to make. You might want to even learn how to use multiple engines if there isn't a single game engine that covers all kinds of games you may wanna make, but for beginners, it's recommended to stick to 1 engine before jumping into another.

In the rest of this, I go into detail for each one of popular game engines but it's very incomplete but I'm not showing it.
But there's also this part that may help you clear the confusion.

Frameworks

Some of you might say, "Okay, but I've heard about Hello Engine too, how good is that one?" and the answer to that is a bit complicated. Hello Engine isn't exactly a game engine, it's more of what I'd like to call a "framework". Frameworks (sometimes also just called "engines" erroneously) are codebases made for existing game engines that you can use to build your game upon. Most of the time they even come with graphics and sounds, as well as menu templates, and so on! They can be really useful at making your dream game a reality.

...if used right that is.


Hello Clones

There was a time when Hello Engine was the most popular framework for fangames out there. It had a ton of features, and it came with everything you might ever need for an SMB3 styled Mario fangame. Heck, you could even make your own fangame just by downloading Hello Engine, changing the level design, and then giving it a different title.

There's a quote Hello likes to use to describe his engine, though I think it was something he himself made up.

"I love making games using the Hello Mario Engine. No programming needed! It can just be used like an editor to make Mario games effortlessly! Wheee!"

And that's what people ended up doing. MFGG was flooded with fangames that looked the same, sounded the same, and played the same. This is why they were called "Hello Clones". They were just clones of each other!

This might be obvious, but Hello Clones weren't received well by the community back then, and people still don't like them. And one thing to keep in mind is that Hello Clones don't just refer to games made with Hello's framework anymore. Over time it has evolved into a term referring to any fangame that was made with a framework without much effort.

So, how can you avoid making a Hello Clone? Simple, do some changes to the graphics, the music, the sound, add your own mechanics, your own gimmicks... etc. Your options are endless, and it's not even that difficult! It just needs effort, but you can't make good video games without putting in any effort, can you?


Should I Use a Framework?

That's up to you! There are both upsides and downsides of using a framework.

Upsides:

• It speeds up the development a lot in most cases.
  
• It allows you to create complex fangames without having extensive knowledge of the game engine.
  
• The features the framework has might be better than what you can create on your own.
  

Downsides:

• Just like game engines, frameworks don't always come with everything you may need, and sometimes it can be easier to just make your game from scratch only using an engine than to learn how a framework works and add your own stuff in it.
  
• Your fangame might end up being similar to other fangames that use the same framework as yours.
  
• It limits creativity, as people tend to use whatever the framework already gives them, rather than to add their own custom assets.
  

Overall I'd say that there are good reasons for using and not using a framework, so the choice is yours.

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