Game Development Engines

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.

Official web

Unity

For PC, mobile and console.

Proprietary. It is developed by American company Unity Technologies.

It was released initially in 2005.

Unity Official Website

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.

Godot Official Website

GameMaker

GameMaker was first released in 1999.

Gamemaker official website

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.

Construct official website

GDevelop

GDevelop is aimed to non-programmers.

It is free and open source (FOSS), under an MIT license.

GDevelop official website

Scratch

Scratch is aimed for kids and absolute beginners.

Scratch official website

RPG Maker

RPG Maker is focused on RPG development.

Of this list, it is probably the least flexible.

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External references

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