The top 14 game engines: HeroEngine 2

Company: Idea Fabrik
Platforms: PC
Used in: Star Wars: The Old Republic
www.heroengine.com

Idea Fabrik’s HeroEngine is an integrated client and server platform for developing MMOs and virtual worlds. Its customers include the likes of EA and Above & Beyond.

At the end of 2012, HeroEngine 2 arrived. It has more emphasis on graphics, HDR rendering and customisable shaders.

HeroEngine aims to take care of the most frustrating aspects of developing an online game by building a client-server platform that integrates the core networking systems into a single, unified game creation and editing environment.

Idea Fabrik’s director of business development Cooper Buckingham says the key issue with mobile and console vendors rests with their own operational infrastructure.

And it’s because of this that he claims the challenges for his company aren’t technical, but business related.

“Mobile and console platforms don’t typically have a good business model around the requirements of connected MMOs you find on the desktop with Windows or Mac. That leads to very few MMO games on those platforms,” he says.

“As the next generation of platforms approaches we’re looking forward to more changes on the business side to enable larger scale games.”

You can view all of the top 14 game engine profiles as they are published here.