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The top 10 game engines revealed

The top 10 game engines revealed

Develop's essential countdown concludes

Develop's two-week run down of the top ten game engines concludes today, with Epic's Unreal Engine 3 taking the number one spot.

The full top ten is as follows.

No.10: Torque 3D
No.9: Vicious Engine 2
No.8: Bigworld Technology Suite
No.7: Vision Engine 7.5
No.6: Infernal Engine
No.5: BlitzTech
No.4: Unity 3D
No.3: CryENGINE 3
No.2: Gamebryo Lightspeed
No.1: Unreal Engine 3

To read our guide to the top 10, and to help you decide which to choose for your next project, click here.

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Id ?

posted by Tony Jun 26, 2009 at 11:39 am
1
Tony

doesn't Id still license their engine and isn't it used in some top level games ?

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Re: Id ?

posted by BC Jun 26, 2009 at 12:17 pm
2
BC

I can't think of any games that are using it, except for id games.

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Um.. u seam to be forgeting

posted by Daz Jun 26, 2009 at 5:34 pm
3
Daz

What about SOURCE? HL2, L4d, etc..

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Re: Um.. u seam to be forgeting

posted by Joolz Jun 26, 2009 at 10:29 pm
4
Joolz

Slow news week huh?

By which criteria has this list been cobbled together?

Sales? Number of different titles using said engine? Ease of use? Cost?

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Re: Re: Um.. u seam to be forgeting

posted by Chris K. Jun 27, 2009 at 2:11 am
5
Chris K.

Don't forget id's engine was used for Quake Wars which technically isn't an id game. There are many open source games using the id tech.

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Bizarre article

posted by Brett Seyler Jun 27, 2009 at 5:47 am
6
Brett Seyler

I think a top 10 list like this silly without some sort of ranking criteria. Or is it not a ranking, but just a listing of 10 engines? A survey of AAA game engines that doesn't include id Tech, Source, and HERO seems a little suspect, but again what is the criteria? If it's "quality shipped titles" you'd have to give the nod to Unreal.

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Re: Bizarre article

posted by Michael French Jun 27, 2009 at 6:24 pm
7
Michael French

It's not bizarre at all.

Firstly, all lists are subjective - remember that. But also, we write about these companies, the teams that invented them and/or talk to their users enough to have a fairly good grasp on whether a) the engine is any good, b) how popular it is, c) how innovative it is, d) what it's featureset is like, e) as Brett points out, quality of shipped titles, etc etc.

Secondly, the feature is clearly designed as a look at the engines **available to other developers**, not 'who has the best engine'. If that was the case, maybe Nintendo could have 'won' given that Wii Sports Resort looks so nice for that hardware's limitations, or Infinity Ward's tech, or Team Ninja's.

Thirdly, any such feature looking at third party engines has to take into account not just the prestige of its creator but the context of the moment. So to people crying out for id and Source, I ask: are they really viable concerns in the context of third-party tools? Yes, they have powered some great games, but their main users are still their owners. After years of availability they haven't really garnered the kind of reputation others have.

(Sure, Terminal Reality's Infernal Engine is on there - but with the Ghostbusters game just out and it only just on the market, we're giving it the benefit of the doubt. If it fails to catch on outside of its studio and we do this list in the next year or the year after, they probably won't be on there.)

So in total, if you're shopping around for an engine for your first project or your studio's next then we are confident that one of the ten listed are best for your needs, whatever it may be.

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Nice List

posted by Vince Jul 08, 2009 at 2:31 am
8
Vince

This is a really great top ten list, thanks for putting it together. Unreal Engine 3 looks incredible. Anyone can post their own list to our site toptentopten.com. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

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source?

posted by hmm Sep 03, 2009 at 5:21 pm
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id tech

posted by stephen Nov 11, 2009 at 4:21 am
10
stephen

yes, id does license there engine(s) (id tech 2, and 3) also i think for 250,000 you can get id tech 4. (on there website)

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are those the only?

posted by Piotr Feb 17, 2010 at 7:56 am
11
Piotr

I have the feeling, that there are some engines (good ones) missing. Like Chrome Engine.

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source

posted by ratchet Apr 27, 2010 at 1:39 pm
12
ratchet

Nothing beats source!

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Poor writing

posted by Raptor Jun 22, 2010 at 10:27 pm
13
Raptor

Regarding Michael French's post in defense of Will's article above: Will doesn't actually preface the list any parameters or qualifications, therefore, there's really no reason to pay attention to his list. Even for a quick list, I don't care how much or how little thought was put into it, a stated basis is important. Hey Will, here's an opportunity to issue a new list!

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ShiVa3D

posted by Andrei B Jun 30, 2010 at 1:19 am
14
Andrei B

What about ShiVa 3D...It's far better then Torque or Unity...

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I disagree

posted by Hank Jul 28, 2010 at 11:51 pm
15
Hank

I know Unreal and UDK front and back, and it is just not CAPABLE of a lot of different game types. It's souly a dungeon-based engine. All it can do is make things look pretty.
To be fair the best engines are one's made by a company specifically for their game, like uncharted and God of war.
Leadwerks isn't even on here, and i think it's CAPABLE of doing a lot...not that it's frequently used. I personally think Gambryo should be at the top though...just saying.

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X

posted by Simon Li Sep 23, 2010 at 8:42 am
16
Simon Li

Hey, where the f*** does Source engine go?

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what?

posted by kelvin Oct 04, 2010 at 9:09 pm
17
kelvin

wtf, those engines suck! unreal is good thogh, but one thing, WHERE is the source engine? thats one of the best engines in the world, ffs.. nothing can tip that!

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Insulting

posted by Stew Apr 01, 2011 at 2:02 pm
18
Stew

I think this list would be considered an insult by the makers of some of the better engines out there that you totally neglected. For instance, C4 Engine, Esenthel, Shiva3D. And would people who come up with these lists please stop including Torque? Torque is the biggest piece of crap engine to ever be made. Not to mention they went out of business recently (as did the makers of Gamebryo). But then their lying marketing department managed to get some sucker to buy them, so they're back to steal more money from more unsuspecting amateurs.

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Article date!

posted by Will Freeman Apr 01, 2011 at 2:13 pm
19
Will Freeman

Stew - With regards to your Gamebryo and Torque comment, it seems you missed the date this article was published (June 2009). Also, Gamebryo and Torque appear to be doing OK still: http://www.develop-online.net/news/37394/UK-studio-Supermassive-opts-for-Gamebryo and http://www.develop-online.net/news/36816/Torque-engine-saved-in-GarageGames-resurrection

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