What Game Engine Is Stormworks Build And Rescue

What Game Engine is Stormworks: Build and Rescue?

Have you ever wondered how the cool boats, planes, and rescue vehicles in Stormworks: Build and Rescue actually work? It’s all thanks to something called a “game engine.” Think of a game engine like the super-powered toolbox that video game creators use to make their games. It’s filled with all the tools and pieces they need to build the world, characters, and everything else you see in the game. For Stormworks: Build and Rescue, the magic behind the scenes comes from a special game engine they created just for this game, it is called custom engine.

Why a Custom Engine?

You might be thinking, “Why not just use an existing game engine that’s already available?” That’s a great question! Many games use popular engines like Unity or Unreal Engine. These are fantastic choices for many types of games, offering a ton of ready-made features. However, Stormworks: Build and Rescue is a special case. Its developers had some really specific ideas in mind, and to make those ideas become a reality, they felt they need to build everything from scratch.

Here’s why using a custom, or self-made, engine was important for Stormworks:

• Complex Physics: Stormworks is all about building vehicles that behave like real-world machines. This means things like how boats float, how airplanes fly, and how engines work all need to feel accurate. A custom engine lets developers have really fine control over how physics work in the game. They can tweak every little detail.
• Unique Building System: The building system in Stormworks is very special. It allows you to create vehicles using a large amount of different blocks and components, which can be connected in thousands of ways. To do this the game needs to track the connections, weight, and capabilities of each part. To build this kind of building system they needed to create everything from the ground up.
• Specific Needs: The game’s focus on rescue missions and complex simulations requires a lot of custom-coded mechanics. The game’s developers had specific requirements that an existing engine may not have easily handled. By making their own, they could make sure the game played exactly as they envisioned.

Key Features of the Custom Engine

So, what makes the custom engine of Stormworks so special? Let’s dive into some of its most important parts:

Advanced Physics Simulation

The physics in Stormworks are not just some simple bouncing balls. The engine can handle a really big range of physical interactions. For example, the engine simulates the following things:

• Buoyancy: How well an object floats or sinks.
• Aerodynamics: How the air pushes on the vehicle.
• Hydrodynamics: How water affects the vehicles.
• Mechanical Interactions: How different components interact with each other.

All these calculations are done on every vehicle in the world at the same time, which makes the world feel alive and realistic.

Modular Building System

The building system in Stormworks isn’t just about sticking parts together; it’s about building vehicles that actually work. The game engine needs to keep track of all the following things:

• Connection Points: How different blocks can connect to each other.
• Component Interactions: How the different parts work with each other.
• Power and Fluid Systems: How to simulate engines, fuel, and electricity
• Weight and Balance: How the vehicle’s weight and balance affect its stability and performance.

All these parts work together and require a custom solution to make sure that everything is working.

Dynamic Damage System

In Stormworks, damage isn’t just a simple health bar that goes down. Instead, the engine calculates damages realistically and with the following details:

• Impacts: Where the vehicle is hit, and with what type of force.
• Material Properties: What parts of the vehicle are made of and how they break.
• Functional Damage: How damage affects how the vehicles work (like breaking a propeller).

All of these things are affected by the building system, physics, and damage calculation. Therefore, it is needed to integrate them together to make the game work.

Realistic Simulations

The game engine in Stormworks also has to keep track of many other simulation factors, such as:

• Weather: How wind, rain, and storms affect the vehicles.
• Time of Day: How lighting and weather change during the day.
• Environmental Factors: How the terrain, water, and other objects in the world affect vehicles and gameplay.

To get all these systems to work together in a dynamic and convincing way, the developers need deep control over all the different pieces that make the game world.

The Benefits of a Custom Engine

Choosing to build a custom engine instead of using a ready-made one might seem like a lot more work, but it gives the developers many important advantages:

• Greater Flexibility: The developers can fine-tune every part of the engine to work perfectly for Stormworks’ special gameplay. This means they have complete freedom to make the game exactly how they want it.
• Optimized Performance: Since the engine is built specifically for Stormworks, the game runs smoother and more efficiently, and this allows even very detailed vehicle to perform well in the game.
• Unique Features: The developers are not limited by what’s available in existing engines. This allows them to create new and innovative features that are not found in other games.

The Challenges of a Custom Engine

Even with all its benefits, building a custom engine also has its own challenges. It’s like building a house from the ground up instead of buying a pre-built one. It takes a lot more work and effort. Here are some difficulties the developers had to deal with:

• Increased Development Time: Building an entire game engine is really hard work. It takes a lot longer than just working with an existing one. This can mean the game takes more time to finish.
• Higher Costs: More development time usually means higher costs. The team needed to hire people who know how to build a game engine to make the project succeed.
• More Technical Issues: Because the game engine is custom-made, there might be some unique bugs and problems. Therefore the team needs to be able to fix these problems without relying on the support that ready-made game engines have.

Custom Engine vs. Ready-Made Engine

Let’s compare the approach of using a custom engine with using a pre-built engine:

The Future of the Engine

Now you have an idea of what the custom game engine is about, and why it is needed for this game. The developers at Stormworks are constantly trying to improve the engine. They keep adding new features, making it faster, and fixing any bugs. As they work on new content and updates for the game, they continue to refine and improve the custom engine that powers it. This means that even though the game engine is already very capable, the developers are always trying to make it even better. This constant work will allow for an even better gameplay experience for everyone playing the game.

By making their own engine, the developers of Stormworks: Build and Rescue have crafted a very special game. This game is a complex simulation that allows players to express their creativity through building intricate machinery and carrying out exciting rescue missions. The custom engine is the key part that makes all these things possible.