The Top 10 Video Game Engines

1

Unreal Engine

But what are some good engines for mobile games? You need to have a solid foundation on which to build on. Sure, you can use the Unreal Engine to create some seriously stunning visuals on your PC, but what is the ‘secret sauce’ for mobile design?

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2

Unity

Out of all the pros and cons, Unity is the one game engine that has earned critical and user acclaim across the board. It’s possible to create nearly any type of game, including some of the best 2D games out there, using Unity, and it’s learning curve isn’t too bad.

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3

GameMaker

GameMaker Studio 2 is an engine from Yoyo Games. It’s the second iteration of GameMaker Studio and comes with an import feature so your previous projects with the first one can be up and running in no time.

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4

GameMaker Studio

GameMaker Studio 2 is an engine from Yoyo Games. It’s the second iteration of GameMaker Studio and comes with an import feature so your previous projects with the first one can be up and running in no time.

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5

Godot Engine

The Godot engine is great for making both 2D and 3D games. The engine “provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.”

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6

AppGameKit

AppGameKit utilizes Vulkan as its coding language and doubles down on its cross-platform support. You can get started easily, have everything running quickly, and branch out to different platforms, achieving a large amount of exposure for your game.

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7

CryENGINE

In addition to the engine itself, CryEngine also provides plenty of free learning resources. Tutorials, forums, and documentation give you the tools you need to get started. Because of the power behind the engine, there’s a bit of a learning curve. YouTube and the official CryEngine resources are your friends, here.

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8

Amazon Lumberyard

Amazon Lumberyard is the engine built by Amazon (as the name suggests). According to the site, Lumberyard is “Free. Powerful. Fully Customizable.” The game engine has “no royalties or seat fees, frictionless integration with Twitch and AWS, plus much more on the horizon.”

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9

RPG Maker

The best thing about RPG maker is the same reason why it occasionally gets a bad rap—just about anyone can use it to create a game.

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10

LibGDX

The libGDX forums are alive as well, with topics that cover development with libGDX and tutorials for getting started. There’s also a “source guide” with demos and examples you can take advantage of.

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11

Urho3D

Urho3D also addresses its limitations, including the fact you’ll need skills in “C++ for performance-critical code and improving existing subsystems such as networking, physics, and animation, depending on your needs.” The brief limitations list is available in full on their site.

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13

BuildBox

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14

Corona SDK

Corona SDK uses Lua as its programming language, which can be a breath of fresh air for those game developers who need a little break from the more programming languages.

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15

Marmalade

Marmalade Games has had a hand in making some iconic adaptations of board games like Clue, Life, and Battleship for mobile devices, so you know what it is capable of. The engine’s philosophy is called ‘write once, run everywhere’, AKA writing the game assets and the like in one form and being able to run it on many different platforms.

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16

ClickTeam Fusion

Whether it’s Unity, Unreal, or Clickteam Fusion, there is truly an engine out there for every type of designer and creative type. Some are pricier than others, with some having proprietary licenses instead of being open source.

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17

Construct 2

What better than an HTML-based engine to wrap up the list? Construct 2 doesn’t hinge on your ability to code. Sign me up!

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18

Spring Engine

Using the specific code, Lua, Spring engine makes nearly everything customizable. For control freaks like me, that is a godsend! If you are a fan of RTS gems like Age of Empires or Halo Wars, Spring engine might be exactly what you are looking for when developing your title.

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19

Panda3D

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20

Cocos2d-x

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21

JMonkeyEngine

Right off the bat, the team boldly claims that using their engine will be easier than utilization and outright learning C++, which is true. C++ can be a hang-up for many not familiar with programming, and jMonkeyEngine can be a great option for those who want to create games without really breaking your back trying to learn a whole new language.

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