A game engine is a software platform that provides a set of features and functionalities for creating and running games. It usually includes graphics, physics, sound, input, networking, scripting, and other components that are essential for game development
Do not confuse a game engine with a game framework. You can read more about game frameworks on this post.
This post lists some popular game development engines.
List of Game Development Engines
Non-exhaustive list of game development engines featured on this post:
- Unreal Engine
- Unity
- Godot
- GameMaker
- Construct
- GDevelop
- Scratch
- RPG Maker
AAA games are usually done with Unreal Engine or Unity. They are probably the professional choices.
Godot is a popular choice among indie games.
Unreal Engine
For PC, mobile and console.
Proprietary. It is developed by American Company Epic Games.
Unity
For PC, mobile and console.
Proprietary. It is developed by American company Unity Technologies.
It was released initially in 2005.
Godot
For PC, mobile and console.
It is mostly used for indie games, not AAA.
It is free and open-source (FOSS), under an MIT license.
It was released initially in 2014.
You can read an introduction to Godot on this post.
GameMaker
GameMaker was first released in 1999.
Construct
Construct is a HTML5-based 2D engine aimed to non-programmers.
It is proprietary and non-free.
It is developed by British company Scirra Ltd.
GDevelop
GDevelop is aimed to non-programmers.
It is free and open source (FOSS), under an MIT license.
Scratch
Scratch is aimed for kids and absolute beginners.
RPG Maker
RPG Maker is focused on RPG development.
Of this list, it is probably the least flexible.
You might also be interested in…
- Introduction to Godot
- Game Development Frameworks
- Introduction to Pygame
- Cross-platform Programming Toolkits
- Cross-platform Application Frameworks
- Multimedia Libraries
- Graphical Libraries
External references
- OpenWebinar; “Cursos de videojuegos“; OpenWebinar
- LinkedIn; “How do you learn and master a new game engine or a game framework quickly and efficiently?“; LinkedIn
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[…] These modules allow to make basic computer games, but they are quite limited if you are looking to develop commercial or AAA video games. If so, please have a look at popular video game development engines on this post. […]