question: when a game says it is made on a engine what does that mean and what’s the difference between using a certain engine than another
comment: A modern game engine is a large toolset. It has tools for AI, animation, sound design, even scripts or dialgue and, most shiny, the graphic renderer and all other tech that hangs on the graphical side. This is basically all that means: those two games had the same tools used when built. Now come the details: Some engines might limitations, that then limit what the game maker can do. Maybe the renderer is not advanced of another engine. Some engines might make modding harder, etc etc. The tools might favor some type of game, i.e. if you get an engine that is made for shooters, i.e. CryEngine then it might be easier to make an shooter, because the tools are all made for that, but this does not mean you cannot do a RTS. The game maker just had to develop their own workflow. At times the game-maker might even modify parts of the engine/the tools to make *their* game support something the stock-engine does not have or to have tools that allow them to easier make the game they want to make. But modern (major 3D) engines are usually so powerful that all can make good looking games or one that have a simpler look due to limited money for the game-maker to create textures. GameMaker for example is an engine to easily make 2D games of all sorts. Obviously, you could not do a graphical heavy shooter with that. But if you played some space-ship-sidescroller or some sort of simple oldschool RPG, you could not tell they both were made with Game Maker unless the screens told you.
passages: In the broader sense of the term, game engines themselves can be described as middleware. In the context of video games, however, the term "middleware" is often used to refer to subsystems of functionality within a game engine. Some game middleware does only one thing but does it more convincingly or more efficiently than general purpose middleware. For example, "SpeedTree" was used to render the realistic trees and vegetation in the role-playing video game "" and "Fork Particle" was used to simulate and render real time particle system visual effects or particle effects in Sid Meier's Civilization V.
   The engine's primary element is an IDE with built-in editors for raster graphics, level design, scripting, paths, and shaders (GLSL or HLSL). Additional functionality can be implemented in software's scripting language or platform-specific native extensions. In GameMaker Studio 2, you can choose whether to export the game as an NSIS installer, or a .zip file containing the game, the data.win file, and any files added under the "Included Files" tab in the editor.
  
  Section::::Overview.:Supported platforms.
   The engine was developed in Ukraine by a set of people who split off from GSC Game World a year before the release of "", notably Oles Shishkovtsov and Oleksandr Maksimchuk, the programmers who worked on the development of the X-Ray engine used in the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." video game series. The engine itself is capable of running on PC, the Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3.
   Most of the OHRRPGCE's games are amateur and made by novice game developers. However, other games are full-length RPGs, some of which have been released commercially. Sidescrollers, puzzle games, arcade remakes and first-person dungeon crawlers have all been made with the engine. The game editor (commonly called 'Custom'), which includes graphics, map and numerous other editors, is fully keyboard-based, though also supports using a mouse for most tasks. The game editor can be used on any supported platform except for Android.
  
  Section::::Description.:Limitations.
   Section::::Game engines as an industry.
  
  Producers of game engines decide how they allow users to utilize their products. Just as gaming is an industry, so are the engines they are built off of. The major game engines come at varying prices, whether it be in the form of subscription fees or license payments. 
   As it happens, one of the earliest games distributed with Game-Maker was GameLynk's "Barracuda: Secret Mission 1", a user-derived project that is most distinguished by its presentation whereby its file structure is hidden by LHarc compression and the portable Deluxe Paint Animation player is tacked onto the Game-Maker executable to provide intro and exit animations.
  
  Section::::Limitations.
  
  Through its history several aspects of Game-Maker's engine, design interface, and feature set have experienced scrutiny from its user base.
   Part of the development work that the firm does is supporting other game developers (like Vicarious Visions and A2M), collaborating with other developers on a larger platform penetration strategy, and working with publishers and licensors to create games based on licensed properties.
  
  Section::::History.
   However, most of engines capable of these effects are evolutions of engines from the previous generation, such as Unreal Engine 3, the Dunia Engine and CryEngine 2, id Tech 5 (which was used with "Rage" and makes use of the new Virtual Texturing technology).
  
  The first games using Unreal Engine 3 were released in November 2006, and the first game to use CryEngine 2 ("Crysis") was released in 2007.
  
  Section::::Timeline.:Early 2010s: Graphic technique mixes.
   Engine Software
  
  Engine Software is a Dutch video game developer, located in Doetinchem, the Netherlands, which specializes in handheld video games and digital platforms. They have also developed middleware for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
  
  Engine Software was founded in 1995, and with that is the oldest game developer in the Netherlands still in business. They have worked on developing games for the Super NES, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Pocket PC, PC, digiBlast, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo 3DS.
   Most video and computer games are developed by third-party developers. In these cases, there may be external and internal producers. External producers may act as "executive producers" and are employed by the game's publisher. Internal producers work for the developer itself and have more of a hands-on role. Some game developers may have no internal producers, however, and may rely solely on the publisher's producer.
   The engine has been distinct from the id Tech 3 engine on which it is based since "Call of Duty 2" in 2005. The engine's name was not publicized until IGN was told at the E3 2009 by the studio that "" would run on the "IW 4.0 engine". Development of the engine and the "Call of Duty" games has resulted in inclusion of advanced graphical features while maintaining an average of 60 frames per second on the consoles and PC.
   Section::::Games using the Diesel engine.
  
  BULLET::::- 2001 - "Ballistics" (engine v1)
  
  BULLET::::- 2003 - ""
  
  BULLET::::- 2004 - "Flatout" (Xbox, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows)
  
  BULLET::::- 2006 - "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter" (Microsoft Windows version only, engine v6)
  
  BULLET::::- 2007 - "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2" (Microsoft Windows version only, engine v7)
  
  BULLET::::- 2008 - "Bionic Commando Rearmed" (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows)
  
  BULLET::::- 2009 - "Bionic Commando (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows)
  
  BULLET::::- 2009 - "" (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows)
  
  BULLET::::- 2009 - "Terminator Salvation" (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows)
   Section::::Methods.:Source code ports.
  
  Occasionally, as was the case with some of the engines/game cores in ScummVM, the original developers have helped the projects by supplying the original source code (those can be then called source ports). This is the best case, optimal for accuracy and minimizing the effort. An example is "Beneath a Steel Sky".
  
  Section::::Alternatives.
   Engine Software BV was founded in 1995 by several friends who met and worked together previously in the active Dutch demo scene for the MSX home computer. After seeing their first game, developed for the Super NES, unreleased, the company was asked by fellow game developer Vicarious Visions to support them in the development of several Game Boy Color games. The relation between Vicarious Visions and Engine Software lasted another generation of handheld consoles, the Game Boy Advance, after which the companies each went their own way. Engine Software still often works or has worked with other developers, most notably A2M, 1st Playable Productions, and PopCap Games. In 2011 the studio switched from being a handheld developer to a full multi-platform development studio developing games for iPad, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Vita. In 2012 Engine Software was signed by 505 Games to bring the highly rated indie title Terraria to consoles, followed by a Vita release of the same game in December 2013.
   The term "game engine" arose in the mid-1990s, especially in connection with 3D games such as first-person shooters (FPS). ("See also:" first-person shooter engine.) Such was the popularity of Id Software's "Doom" and "Quake" games that, rather than work from scratch, other developers licensed the core portions of the software and designed their own graphics, characters, weapons and levels—the "game content" or "game assets". Separation of game-specific rules and data from basic concepts like collision detection and game entity meant that teams could grow and specialize.
   Due to the discovery of effective toy combinations, Zimmerman and Lantz coined the term "engine" to describe them. The engines were given names including Punching Roaches, Bomb Shield, and Perpetual Motion. Toy attributes were set to make certain engines possible, although most were discovered as development progressed. The artificial intelligence (AI) included engine-based heuristics so the AI was aware of advantageous combinations. Engines were not written into the game's rules, but were playing patterns that arose from the attributes that defined the toys. During the testing, Zimmerman and Lantz kept increasing the difficulty so the game would challenge them, and at one point made the game too difficult.
   Teams have an option of building their own engines or they may run a specification engine, similar to what is used in many short tracks. Both engines are V8, pushrod, 12:1 compression motors. "Built" motors are built to team specifications using any configuration of pieces as long as it still meets NASCAR specifications. The spec engine is built using NASCAR-Approved pieces that may be purchased from an approved supplier. The engines may be purchased as a kit or pre-assembled. All of the spec pieces are individually encrypted with a barcode for verification and tracking purposes and can be checked during the inspection process with an encryption reader. NASCAR has a specification supplier for the series-specification engine.
   Game Engines are a framework which developers can use to create games. They consist of a software suite with a multitude of components, such as a rendering engine, Audio engine, Physics Engine, and Artificial Intelligence. Companies create these engines for the purpose of allowing developers (with or without charge) to create games. However, because of limitations or certain peculiarities of an engine, some designs or passive-background tasks may occur in a particular way for every game made using that engine. This particular feature (regardless of how central it may be to a game) essentially the same in all games created with that engine, which takes it outside the scope of copyright. This reasoning would also apply to games made with the same engine which share source code—this would not constitute copying because the games' similarity is inherent to the tools. Large video game houses/publishers can sidestep this limitation by developing in-house engines.
   Teams have an option of building their own engines or they may run a specification engine, similar to what is used in many short tracks. Both engines are V8, pushrod, 12:1 compression motors. "Built" motors are built to team specifications using any configuration of pieces as long as it still meets NASCAR specifications. The spec engine is built using NASCAR-Approved pieces that may be purchased from an approved supplier. The engines may be purchased as a kit or pre-assembled. All of the spec pieces are individually encrypted with a barcode for verification and tracking purposes and can be checked during the inspection process with an encryption reader.
   Section::::Methods.:Bottom up.
   Diesel is a game engine developed and used by Grin. The engine was originally developed for their game "Ballistics" and has been used, albeit with modifications, in a number of other games since then. The first installment of the engine was developed in close collaboration with Nvidia, aimed to showcase the capabilities of their latest graphics chip at the time, the GeForce 3. The engine is currently in use by Overkill Software, former owners of the now defunct developer Grin. Overkill's game, "Payday: The Heist", uses a modified version of this engine. "Payday 2" and "" are using the second generation Diesel engine 2.0.
   First released on 19 August 2014, "" became the first game of its series to run on Frostbite. On 18 November, the game engine made its debut in the action role-playing genre of video games with "". On 17 March 2015, "Battlefield Hardline" became the second game of its series to run on Frostbite 3. On 14 July, the game engine was introduced to the sports genre of video games, being put to use on "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour". In November, "Need for Speed" and "Star Wars Battlefront" were both released under Frostbite.
   Section::::Games.
  
  Section::::Games.:Internal Usage.
  
  Pie in the Sky Software made several games on the engine and its predecessors, first its own shareware products and later examples for the "Game Creation System",
  
  Section::::Games.:Internal Usage.:Corncob 3D.
   When game engine recreations are made in a top down development methodology, in the first step the general game's functionality is programmed and the structure is defined. Then, in later steps, the resulting engine is adapted to the specific detail behaviour of the original game, often by reverse engineering, debugging and profiling the original. An example is OpenRA based on specifications contributed by the community by clean-room re-implementations without dis-assembling the original executable, which result in game engines whose behavior differs from the original. Another example is the Total Annihilation engine remake "Spring Engine", which resulted in being used for many more games. Typically, this approach results in an approximation of the original behaviour only and not a "clock cycle wise" identical behaviour. On the positive side, running code exists faster, and the finally resulting source code is less specifically tied to a specific, single game and can be reused as a general game engine for other games.
   Since the release of "Max Payne 3", the engine supports DirectX 11 and stereoscopic 3D rendering for personal computers. "Max Payne 3" also marked the first time in which "RAGE" was capable of rendering the same 720p resolution on a game, both on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This benefit has been achieved also in "Grand Theft Auto V", which renders at a 720p resolution on both consoles.
  