[gypsyharlot]

Quake 3 has 230.000 lines of code. If Quake 3 is considered basic, then any studio with less than 100 developers can probably reach for C.

The Unreal Engine is far more than a modern game. You wouldn't call Clang and editor just because Vi was compiled with it.

[gmueckl]

The Unreal Engine is less than a modern game. The actual game is obviously missing. Also, you need engine specific editing tools to make a 3d game that looks more advanced than minecraft. It is a mistake to exclude them just because the don't have to be shipped with the final product.

And Quake 3 was made by a team of roughly 20 people. Id Software was quite small until they started to work on Rage.