Games are a big part of our life nowadays. Even if you don’t play one, chances are your coworkers, friends and family have some games on their devices or even a gaming console as an amusing pastime, often generating hundreds upon hundreds of hours of fun.
Like a cell is the fundamental building block of life, its counterpart in the gaming realm is the game engine. Broadly speaking, they are software frameworks for game designers and developers to create games for computers, mobile devices and consoles. Without one, programmers would have to code everything from scratch – from the physics involved in their games to an animation engine in order to convey the idea of motion.
However, with many world-renowned game engines like Unity, Godot and Unreal Engine on the market, does it make sense to make a engine from ground up? How much does a game engine cost? How expensive can they get? And what about using game engines that already exist?
In this post, we will talk about the time and costs involved in the making of a game engine and the use fees of some of the best free game engines!
What is the cost of a game engine?
It depends heavily on how many features and tools your video game needs. The price tag could go from tens of hours of solo coding to multiple millions of dollars in the case of an AAA game. Developing a game engine is a very time-consuming process. As it requires deep understanding spanning multiple areas of knowledge, it also poses a great challenge to beginner game developers.
Bigger gaming companies, such as EA, Blizzard and Bungie, usually have the time and money to invest into making a game engine of their own, allowing developers to easily fix, tweak and augment the code without having to rely on a third-party software like Unity and Unreal Engine.
This practice also enables big gaming studios to avoid paying royalties and licenses to their public counterparts. All in all, albeit being very expensive, the development of an “in-house engine” ends up paying for itself in the long run as the profits far make up for the initial investment.
On the other hand, smaller teams and solo developers usually don’t have the hours and the resources to spend into making a new game engine from scratch as they would have to code multiple components from the ground up, which would end up being very costly. Speaking of which, do you know what they are?
Main components of a game engine
Graphics engine
Being one of the most significant parts of a game engine, the graphics engine allows scenes to be rendered in 2D or 3D so they can be displayed on your monitor. A good game engine will have a rendering engine that is compatible with multiple import formats and work on multiple platforms!
Physics engine
The physics engine is another important part of the game engine equation. They are responsible for the handling of collisions, simulations, gravity and many other aspects within a game. Thanks to that, they allow for real-time actions and reactions to take place, and getting them right is essential for most games – especially simulation-based ones.
Sound engine
Also known as an audio engine, it controls the music and sound effects the player will hear when entering certain zones, completing an achievement or interacting with the world. It’s responsible for loading, optimizing and then playing the sound effects.
Networking
The popularization of the internet has allowed a more interactive gaming experience through the use of networks, which are responsible for connecting you with other users so that, for example, an Overwatch or League of Legends match will occur.
Scripting/artificial intelligence (AI)
And finally we have the scripting/AI engine, which is responsible for adding behavior to NPCs, objects and entities in your game, allowing for more immersive and complex games. One such example is the behavior of NPCs in Skyrim and how they react to a dragon attack – some will scream and run, while others might draw weapons and help you take it down. The logic contained in those NPCs are usually implemented through scripts written by developers.
How much does it cost to use existing game engines?
Unity
A staple of the game making industry, Unity is an extremely beginner-friendly game engine which enables you to develop both 2D and 3D games with exceptional performance. It’s a favorite between indie developers as it’s completely free for individuals and teams making less than $100k USD in revenue or funding in the last 12 months!
As your game (and, with it, your revenue) grows, you will be required to upgrade your license as follows:
- If your revenue in the past 12 months surpasses $100,000 USD, you’ll have to spend $400 (or $40 per month) per seat every year;
- If your revenue in the past 12 months surpasses $200,000 USD, you’ll have to spend $1,800 (or $150 per month) per seat every year;
- For large game studios, there is the Enterprise license, which requires you to contact Unity. As of September 2022, the price per seat is $2,400 USD every year.
Unreal Engine
Like Unity, Unreal Engine’s royalties policy is very generous: if your game makes less than $1 million USD, you or your company owe Unreal Engine NOTHING! If it ends up making more, you’ll have to pay Epic Games 5% of your game’s quarterly sales unless the sales amount to less than $10,000 in that period.
Another interesting thing about Unreal Engine’s policy is that it is applied per game and not for the whole company. This means that, even if you have a game that generated over $100 million in sales, you won’t have to pay royalties for games that made less than $1 million!
GameMaker Studio
A favorite of the 2D game developers, GameMaker Studio has a mix between free, one-time and recurring licenses, which depend entirely on what platform you’re making a game for.
GameMaker Studio is only free for those who are trying it out and those who want to publish games on GX.games, and, while the free version is limited, it still gives you access to almost all features within the engine.
If you intend to create shareable executables of your games, you will need to get a Creator subscription, which will set you back by $49.99 a year. In order to be able to export your games to web and mobile, you will need to spend $99.99 a year for the Indie subscription.
Just a note: the price of GameMaker Studio subscriptions also change based on where you are located. Give it a look on their website to access all the details.
Godot
Initially released in 2014, Godot is a completely free and open-source game engine launched under the MIT license. One of its main selling points if that there are no royalties, no licenses, nothing! This means that whatever revenue you make with Godot engine is yours to keep no matter how much you’re making.
So, should I make my own game engine?
All in all, committing to the creation of your own game engine can be a very expensive and/or time-consuming endeavor and should only be done by those who are interested in a career in game engine writing or hobbyists.
People who want to focus on the actual making of the game (like game designers) and beginners, on the other hand, shouldn’t write their own game engine. They should instead look for an already consolidated engine like the ones mentioned above.
We understand, as experts in the game development industry, how choosing the most suitable game engine to work with can be an arduous task. Choosing the wrong engine for your purposes could set you back significantly, so making the best choice right away is essential.
At MainLeaf, we bring fantastic games to life on demand, and we would be happy to do so for you. Go to the top of the page and get in contact with us by requesting a game quote!
