A game engine is the software layer every game is built on: the renderer, physics, audio, input, scripting and tools that turn assets and code into something playable. Knowing how engines are built — and why some lasted decades while others vanished — is one of the fastest ways to understand real-time C++ programming.
MYCPLUS has been documenting game engines since 2004. This section profiles commercial, open-source and historical engines one at a time. Each one gets a look at its architecture, its scripting model, its license, and a checked list of the games actually built on it, so you don’t have to rely on the attributions copied around the web.
Every profile covers the engine’s status in 2026: whether it’s still maintained, which fork carries it forward, and what to use instead if it has gone. Whether you’re picking an engine for a project, studying engine source code or researching a classic game, start here.
Why MYCPLUS: Engine profiles that check every game attribution against a named source, correct the myths repeated elsewhere, and state each engine’s 2026 status, from the site that has covered game development since 2004. For graphics programming and C++ game code, see the Game Development hub.
GarageGames stopped selling Torque years ago — and the engine is still shipping commits. Here’s who maintains it now, which repository to clone, what it actually descends from, and how it compares to Godot and Unreal.
C++ runs under the hood of nearly every landmark game. This directory maps 100+ engines, and the famous games each one powered, to help you choose the right one.
Moai gave indie studios a C++ core with Lua on top, and powered several notable games before development stopped. Here’s the verified status — including the date of the last commit — and the Lua engines to move to.
Snowdrop is the in-house C++ engine behind The Division, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws. Here’s the verified game list, the technology, and a straight answer on downloading it.
Brian Barnes’s dim3 was an Apple staff pick and one of the friendliest ways to build a 3D game on a Mac. Here’s what it did, why development stopped after 2014, and what its creator builds now.
Cocos2d isn’t one engine but a family — the Python original, the famous C++ Cocos2d-x (now deprecated), and the rewritten Cocos Creator that replaced it. Here’s the untangled version history, the genuinely Cocos-built games (Geometry Dash yes, FarmVille no), current 2026 status, and how it stacks up against Unity and Godot for 2D.
The Creation Engine is Bethesda Game Studios’ proprietary C++ engine behind Skyrim, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and Starfield — a Gamebryo fork rewritten almost beyond recognition over fifteen years. Here’s the verified version history, the newly announced Creation Engine 3 powering The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5, and why Bethesda keeps saying no to Unreal.
Bork3D was a commercial C++ engine from two-person studio Bork 3D LLC, powering early iPhone and iPad games before being open-sourced in full — engine, game and art — in 2015. Here’s its verified history, the games actually built on it, and why the dormant codebase is still worth reading.
id Tech built the FPS genre: Doom, Quake, and thirty years of Carmack-grade engineering, now at id Tech 8. Every version, every game, all in one place.
PhyreEngine quietly powered Journey, Gravity Rush, and Falcom’s RPGs. How Sony’s free engine worked, who used it, and where it stands today.
Dark Engine gave Thief its shadows and System Shock 2 its scares. How Looking Glass built gaming’s smartest AI in 1998 — and why it still runs today.
REDengine carried The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 to glory, then CD Projekt Red retired it for Unreal Engine 5. The full story of a landmark engine.
