# Is it possible to use the engine for development without installing any games?

**URL:** <https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/is-it-possible-to-use-the-engine-for-development-without-installing-any-games/1561>\
**Category:** support\
**Created:** [November 15, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/is-it-possible-to-use-the-engine-for-development-without-installing-any-games/1561 "2020-11-15T22:40:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![init\_1](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.ioquake.org/init_1/32/556_2.png) [@init\_1](https://discourse.ioquake.org/u/init_1)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/is-it-possible-to-use-the-engine-for-development-without-installing-any-games/1561/1 "2020-11-15T22:40:15Z")

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Hi, first of all apology for my bad English.  
I’m 16 and I only learned to build games in Python with cocos2d-python / pygame by myself.  
I thought you can simply import the head files then use functions in it to write game logic in that specific programming language. Does the same logic work for ioquake3? Do I import a \*.h file then start to write code? Or do I compile the engine, then download games? How can I get the engine to work?  
Please send help, like, how do I write a basic Helloworld with ioquake3, thanks! :3

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**Author:** ![zturtleman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.ioquake.org/zturtleman/32/718_2.png) [@zturtleman](https://discourse.ioquake.org/u/zturtleman)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/is-it-possible-to-use-the-engine-for-development-without-installing-any-games/1561/2 "2020-11-23T03:05:25Z")

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For Quake 3 you have to take and modify the existing code instead of just importing headers and calling Quake 3 functions. I wrote some suggestions for creating new games at [Ioquake3: Where do I get started? (dev)](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/ioquake3-where-do-i-get-started-dev/1369/3) and creating Quake 3 mods (requires install Quake III Arena) at [Learning quake3 modding](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/learning-quake3-modding/1384/2).