Eli5: How does a videogame engine work? What is its purpose?
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In software, an “engine” just means a set of commonly-used functions that can be packaged together and then re-used. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you decide to write a program if some of things you want to do with that program are already part of the engine you want to use.
For game design specifically, there are lots of functions that many games are going to want to use. Every 3D game will need a basic gravity simulation, for example. They’ll need a way to draw user interface elements on the screen. They’ll need a system for saving the state of the game and re-loading it. And so on. If you needed to re-make all of these from scratch every time, game development would take a long time. So instead, a “game engine” is just a set of these commonly-used elements packaged together for ease of use. Some are focused on certain types of game, and some are more general-use. Some are focused on one platform, while others are cross-platform. Some are proprietary, meaning you’ll need to pay a licensing fee to use it, while there are some open-source ones you can use for free.
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