Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of Ken's Labyrinth, for 3D Realms. Like the Doom engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.
The Build Engine is generally considered to be a 2.5D engine since the basic world geometry is two-dimensional with an added height component, allowing each sector to have a different ceiling height and floor height. Playing the game shows that some floors can be lower and some can be higher; the same is true with ceilings (in relation to each other). Floors and ceilings can hinge along one of the sector's walls, resulting in a slope. With this information, the Build Engine renders the world in a way that looks three-dimensional, unlike modern game engines that create actual 3D environments.
Though the Build Engine achieved most of its fame as a result of powering the 1996 first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D, it was also used for many other games.
