Also, a new article I wrote for the Game Career Guide went up yesterday.  It’s an introduction to game engines for those of you that are unsure what they are. The article is located here.

One thing I’d like to elaborate on is the lack of specific recommendations of which engines or game makers to use.  You’ll notice that I even try to avoid mentioning specific engines, and the only provided links are to Wikipedia articles on the subject of game engines and open source game endings.  I did this on purpose because I feel like mentioning them or linking to them in an article like this, where I’m supposed to be the mentor, serves as an indirect recommendation of the product.  But, as much as I’d like to, I haven’t used 90% of the engines and game creators out there (even the free and open source ones), and I feel like it would be a disservice to my readers and the other engines if I showed any real favoritism.

My recommendation for people really interested in working with a free or open source game engine (which I can highly recommend) is visit the Wikipedia articles and get an idea of the capabilities of all of them.  Ask for advice on game development forums (GameDev.NET is perfect for this) and download the ones that come highly recommended.  In addition, look to see what engines your favorite free or indie games are using and try them out.  You’ll be supprised just how awesome some of those engines can be.