What game engine should I start with?

Becoming a game developer can sometimes feel like a lot, especially when, like most of us, you're trying to figure out how to get from A to B in the most efficient way. Like everything, there will be a lot of trial and error to get to know what works for you and what doesn't. Some things could work for one person and be absolutely terrible for another, so you have to know that you'll never find 100% of your questions online and that a lot of the questions/doubts you may have, you just need to go ahead and do it in order to get rid of those questions. However, a good guide to get started can really help you figure out some of the questioning you'll be wondering early on and can help with some of the decisions you might have to face.

Which game engine is the best for beginners?
Let's dive deeper this time into your choice of game engine. Well, before we answer that question, what even is a game engine? A game engine is a specific software framework that is primarily designed for game development. That means it holds libraries, plugins and programs that will most likely be helpful for your game creation. Programming a game requires a lot and a lot of code. Thankfully a lot of the things that are in other games have already been written and you can use these pieces of code to simplify your coding experience tenfold. These code pieces (or libraries) can be used as many times as you want for free. Some obviously cost money. So every game engine will have access to different libraries that'll give them the possibility to do different things. Most likely, you'll notice that a lot of the basic ones will be in every game engines. ie. PlayerController (controller on a player), Camera Controllers (controllers on the cameras), Input Controllers (controllers of inputs) and so on. Because these are fairly basic and save a ton of time when you have them, you'll most likely have a library for it in whatever game engine you decide to use.

When you start, you want to go with a game engine that is very versatile and not focused on on thing specifically, and that's because when you start, you might not know right away what you want and what you want to specialize in. First, the language that it uses is crucial. You don't want to go with a low level language like C or even C++ (i.e.. Unreal Engine, id tech or spring Engine) , as they are considered as hard programming languages to learn, but rather, aim to start with higher level languages (the higher they are, the further they are from computer code [binary 0s and 1s] so the easier it is for you) like Python, C# or Javascript. (i.e.. Unity, Game Maker Studio, Godot). Some of the engines have their own languages, and these are good as well but it's a double-edged sword since you can become really good using it but you'll be stuck using this and not all the skills will be transferable to another engine whenever you'll be ready to move on. But the good side is that they're usually easier to learn and they usually have a lot of wrappers that help you write code very quickly, if any. Some of them, like Game Maker Studio, you could make a full playable game without coding a single line of code.


What are the best game engines to use for game developers
Based on what is previously said, there a few that stand out depending on your specific needs and wants. The most popular ones are obviously always good to go with since they have a lot of documentation and that's really important when you're trying to debug something. Going with something general like Unity Engine, Game Maker Studio, or Godot will assure you that all your basics should be covered and you'll find libraries and extensions for anything you need. Going with something like Cry Engine, Unreal Engine or C4 Engine may have more challenge since you might find yourself coding a lot more things. The good side of that is that in that manner, you get to fully customize and personalize your code and have your game exactly how you want it!


If you still want more...
Here's a list of most game engines out that you could possibly try now. Feel free to look some of these up and make sure you remember what we talked about and make an educated decision before starting your adventure towards making your first game!

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