It’s still being used by Valve for inhouse development, but I remember back when HL2 was release it was as big as Unreal. What happened?
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Answer: The Source engine isn’t really an engine. It’s just HL2. When Valve gives you the Source engine they just give you a copy of HL2 with most of the levels and characters and dialogue stripped out. They give you the whole game code and say go nuts. In Source engine games like Stanley Parable, you can see and feel some remnants of HL2 – like the sound when you press E on a wall.
The assumption that you press E to use the thing in front of you is baked into the Source engine because it was baked into HL2. Source engine games all have a system for choosing a weapon and drawing a viewmodel for a weapon, because HL2 does – even if they have no weapons. Source engine games all have a system for changing levels when you touch a certain map area, because HL2 does. Though the game developer can try to delete the system from the code, it’s easier if they just don’t use the parts they don’t want to.
Unreal is designed as a real engine for people to build any game based on. You can build anything you want. You don’t have to have a button that you press to use the thing in front of you. You don’t have to have weapons, levels, or anything else. You choose everything about the game.
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