02
The Engine
Tools, builds and iteration time.
Most of an engine is tooling nobody outside the studio ever sees. How long it takes to see a change decides how many times anything gets tried, which decides how good the game ends up.
Most of an engine is tooling nobody outside the studio ever sees.
Photo: olia danilevich / Pexels
In this section
Every entry is a budget and what gets cut from it- 01Iteration timeHow long it takes to see a change is the single biggest lever on how good the game gets.
- 02Build timesA full build that takes hours changes what anybody is willing to try.
- 03Editors and toolsMost of an engine is a tool nobody outside the studio ever sees.
- 04ProfilingMeasure before optimising — intuition about where time goes is usually wrong.
Every entry is a budget and what gets cut from it. Worked examples, never rules.