Game integrated development environment

A Game Engine (game environment) is a specialized development environment for creating video games. The features one provides depends on the type and the granularity of control allowed by the underlying framework. Some may provide diagrams, a windowing environment and debugging facilities. Users build the game with the game IDE, which may incorporate a game engine or call it externally. Game IDEs are typically specialized and tailored to work with one specific game engine.

This is in distinction from domain-specific entertainment languages, where all is needed is a text editor. They are distinct from integrated development environments which are more general, and may provide different sets of features.

There is also a distinction from Visual programming language in that programming languages are more general than Game Engines.