StepMania: The Open-Source Rhythm Game Engine, Its Forks, and Its Status in 2026
StepMania began as a DDR simulator and became the open-source engine behind arcade dance games. Here’s how it works, a real chart file, and which fork to use today.
Game Development Tutorials — Game Engines Explained, from Unreal and id Tech to Open-Source C++
Every game runs on an engine: the renderer, physics, audio, scripting and tools that turn code and assets into something playable. Studios have built their own engines to push their games forward, and those engines have shaped whole genres. The early first-person shooter grew out of id Tech, grand strategy runs on Clausewitz, and open-world action games run on Anvil. If you know how engines work, you understand how games are made.
MYCPLUS has covered game development since 2004, and this section is built around in-depth game engine profiles. They cover the in-house engines of the biggest studios, the open-source C++ engines you can download and build today, and the classic and discontinued engines that came before them. Each profile covers how the engine works, the version history, a checked list of the games built on it, and where it stands in 2026, including what to use when an engine is no longer available.
Alongside the profiles you’ll find guides to choosing an engine and a language, graphics programming with DirectX, and complete C++ game projects with tested source code. Whether you’re picking a toolset for your first game, studying engine source code or researching the technology behind a game you love, start here.
What You’ll Learn
- Choosing an engine and a language — a directory of 100+ C++ game engines and the games made with them, the best programming languages for game development, and practical guides to Unreal Engine, Unity 6 and Cocos2d
- The engines behind AAA games — id Tech, CryEngine, Frostbite, Anvil, Snowdrop, REDengine, Creation Engine and MT Framework: how studios build their own engines, and why some are moving to Unreal
- Engine family trees — how GoldSrc grew out of Quake and led to Source and Source 2, how the IW Engine began as id Tech 3, and how Dunia branched from CryEngine
- Open-source engines you can build — Torque 3D, OGRE and OGRE-Next, Panda3D, Pyrogenesis and Aleph One, plus which repository to use for each and how to build it
- Classic and discontinued engines — Looking Glass’s Dark Engine, SSI’s Gold Box, UDK, ShiVa and Marmalade: what made them important, and what to use instead today
- Graphics programming and C++ game code — DirectX from DirectDraw to Direct3D 12 explained in tested C code, and complete playable projects such as a C++ car race game
Why MYCPLUS: One of the web’s largest collections of game engine profiles, maintained since 2004. Every profile checks its game list against named sources, corrects the myths copied elsewhere, and states each engine’s status in 2026. For the language behind most of these engines, see the C++ Programming tutorials.
Construct Game Engine: Scirra’s No-Code Game Engine, Its Versions, and How It Works in 2026
Construct lets you make games with event sheets instead of code, in an editor that runs in your browser. Here’s how Construct 3 works, its history, pricing and games.
Irrlicht Engine: The Open-Source C++ 3D Engine, Its Forks, and Its Status in 2026
Irrlicht is a small, open-source C++ 3D engine that still runs inside Luanti and SuperTuxKart. Here’s what it includes, a working example, and whether to use it in 2026.
Gold Box Engine: SSI’s AD&D RPGs, Every Game, and How to Play Them Today
From Pool of Radiance to Unlimited Adventures, SSI’s Gold Box engine defined computer D&D. Here’s how it worked, every game built on it, and where to play them now.
Spring RTS Engine: History, Games, and Its Successor Recoil
Spring began as a 3D Total Annihilation remake and grew into an RTS engine. Here’s how it works, the games built on it, and why Recoil is where development lives now.
Cafu Engine: The Open-Source C++ 3D Engine, Its Tools, and Its Status in 2026
Cafu is an open-source C++ 3D engine with Lua scripting and a full editor, MIT-licensed since 2016. Here’s what’s in it, what’s been built with it, and the best alternatives.
Pyrogenesis: The Open-Source RTS Engine Behind 0 A.D.
Wildfire Games’ Pyrogenesis engine powers 0 A.D. Here’s how its C++ core and JavaScript game logic work, what Release 28 changed in 2026, and where it runs.
Marmalade SDK: The Cross-Platform C++ Mobile Engine and What Happened to It
Marmalade let studios ship one C++ game to every mobile platform, then vanished. Here’s how it worked, which games used it, and why you can’t use it in 2026.
Panda3D: Disney’s Open-Source C++ and Python Game Engine in 2026
The engine behind Toontown Online is still free, BSD-licensed and maintained. Here’s how Panda3D’s C++ core and Python layer work, with a tested example and the games built on it.
Unity Game Engine in 2026: Unity 6, C# Scripting, C++ Plugins and Pricing
Unity is built in C++ but scripted in C#. Here is how Unity 6 works, how to write a C++ native plugin, what Unity costs in 2026, and the games still shipping on it.
Cube Engine: Cube, Cube 2: Sauerbraten and the Tesseract Fork
Wouter van Oortmerssen’s Cube engine let players edit maps live. Here’s how Cube, Cube 2: Sauerbraten and the Tesseract fork differ, and which games still run on them.
Adventure Game Studio (AGS): The Free Point-and-Click Engine, Still Shipping Games in 2026
A profile of Adventure Game Studio: how the free engine works, what changed in AGS 3.6 and 4.0, the commercial games built on it, and when to pick another tool.