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Game Development
.Net
What are the best 2D C# game engines?
10
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206
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Jan 14, 2024
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Best 2D C# game engines
Price
Languages
Mobile targets
--
MonoGame
Free
C#
Android, IOS, Windows phone
82
Unity 2D
Free+
C#
-
--
Godot
Free
-
-
--
Flat Red Ball
0
c#
iOS, Android
--
Duality
Free
C#
-
See Full List
--
MonoGame
My Rec
ommendation
for
MonoGame
My Recommendation for
MonoGame
All
14
Experiences
4
Pros
6
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
All the code is available to you ensuring you'll have the ability to make changes when you need to or even port to whole new platforms.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Slow rate of updates
Version 3.9 is overdue by a year, and version 4.0 is set to be released in 2040.
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RickZeeland's Experience
MonoGame is a C# framework based on XNA, it can run on Windows, Mac, Linux, Mobile, and Console targets.
See More
Specs
Languages:
C#
Mobile targets:
Android, IOS, Windows phone
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Top
Pro
•••
Good community
The community MonoGame has to offer is helpful and mature.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not for beginners
Aimed at experienced developers, specifically in C#.
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ConvivialSif's Experience
A bit of steep learning curve for newcomers but the freedom you get once you are proficient enough with C# is amazing. You can make whatever you can program, with great performance, to multiple platforms with ease.
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Top
Pro
•••
Performance on desktop
The performance on desktop platforms matches that of C++, but you still get all the pleasant features that C# has to offer.
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Top
Con
•••
Does not work on Visual Studio for Mac 2019
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DependableTyphon's Experience
After trying out many engines, frameworks, and libraries, both big and small, MonoGame is what finally gave me the perfect balance of control and abstraction.
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Top
Pro
•••
Well-known and documented API
The framework implements the XNA 4 API, so games made in XNA can be ported to other platforms using this. This was the same API used by the Xbox Live Indie Games platform so there's lots of documentation online for it.
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__'s Experience
MonoGame is a joy to work with. It does have a rather difficult-to-learn API for newcomers, but once you're used to it, it's yours to customize. Do keep in mind, however, that it is a framework and not an engine. When working on a large project, using an engine streamlines the process significantly. Building a custom engine is rather simple with MonoGame, and as a bonus, it will run on every platform that MonoGame supports.
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Top
Pro
•••
Managed code
By leveraging C# and other .NET languages on Microsoft and Mono platforms you can write modern, fast, and reliable game code.
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Top
Pro
•••
Cross-platform
Support for iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux, Windows (both OpenGL and DirectX), Windows 8 Store, Windows Phone 8, PlayStation Mobile, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and the OUYA console with even more platforms on the way.
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Hide
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Free
Recommend
31
2
82
Unity 2D
My Rec
ommendation
for
Unity 2D
My Recommendation for
Unity 2D
All
35
Experiences
2
Pros
26
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Great editor
The editor GUI is very powerful and intuitive. It allows pausing gameplay and manipulating the scene at any time as well as progress gameplay frame by frame. It also has powerful asset management and attribute inspection. This allows it to be more powerful than other, simpler drag-and-drop engines such as Game Maker Studio, although it can take a bit more experience to learn the workflow.
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Top
Con
•••
2D performance could be better
Performance can have real issues with 2D games. Since Unity is actually a 3D game engine, it drags a lot of overhead with because of this. For example, for mobile , one could never achieve the performance of more specialized 2D engines with Unity.
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Kiril Misnikov's Experience
This game engine is the perfect for mobile games & apps, only learn C# and go! Also, few GameJolt games are made in Unity like: Custom Pong 2020
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Specs
Languages:
C#
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Top
Pro
•••
As of Unity 5 all engine features are free for everyone
As long as the company makes $100k or less, Unity's free version can be used to release games without purchasing the pro version.
See More
Top
Con
•••
The official documentation isn't the best
Many video "tutorials" for new users, only explain the basic functions of Unity as they relate to the engine itself. None of them actually show you 'how' to do something, just what is possible in the UI. This makes it rather difficult for a new user to understand the program, and get started.
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PhilosophicalEuterpe's Experience
good Wank
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Top
Pro
•••
Provides access to a huge list of assets through Asset Store
There's an Asset Store, providing free and paid assets (including components). It also has powerful asset management and attribute inspection.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Mobile builds (Android, iOS) take about 8MB at least
Even a Blank Project, Needs 8MB for the APK file (on Android).
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Top
Pro
•••
Easy to learn
Because of its popularity, there are a great deal of tutorials available to help learn how to make great games. Even without knowing how to program there are assets in the asset store that can help with that by allowing linking scripts inside the game engine.
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Top
Con
•••
Most knowledge acquired by using Unity is applicable only to Unity
Unity3D uses very unique approach for doing things, most of knowledge acquired while using it, would completely non transferable to other engines.
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Top
Pro
•••
Works with 3rd party IDEs
3rd party IDEs, like Visual Studio, can be used to write code for Unity.
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Top
Con
•••
Closed source
Pretty much you're at the mercy of the developers wherever they decide to take the engine you must follow.
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Top
Pro
•••
Usable for small and large projects
Games have been made in Unity at all levels of the Video Game industry. If you want to make games, this is a great engine to learn. Learning Unity will teach you the basics for any engine, and if you want to get a job at a big studio there is a chance that you will be working in this engine there as well.
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Top
Con
•••
Comparatively high learning curve
Although C#, JS, and Boo have documentation available online, it could still be difficult to wrap your head around the library and Unity's component based system.
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Top
Pro
•••
Royalty-free, one-time licensing fee
Once a license is bought there are no additional costs that need to be taken into consideration.
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Top
Pro
•••
Great community
Great Community support through Forums and Unity Answers.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cross-platform
Unity 3D supports 12 platforms in all, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, iOS, Android, and even consoles.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very popular
Unity is a proven game engine. It is used by a wide range of developers - from small indies to triple-A companies such as Microsoft, Paradox, Square Enix and Sega.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Over 20 platforms
Unity offers over 20 platforms for publishing including mobile, console, web, VR, and more.
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Top
Pro
•••
Very optimized
Unity runs very smoothly even on systems that are considered "weak" by today's standards.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lots of resources to learn from
Unity3D provides an exhaustive documentation where everything is given a full description supplied by a number of examples as well as video and text tutorials and live training sessions to understand the ins and outs of the engine. In addition there's an ever-growing community that can offer advice to help resolve any situations that may arise. Along with the official Unity resources, there are many high quality (and often free) third party tutorials available.
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Top
Pro
•••
Versatile
Not tailored for specific types of games, so it won't get in your way if you want to make something unique.
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Top
Pro
•••
Has a great animation system
Unity provides a great state machine animation system called Mechanim allowing to separate animation from the model and assign the same animoations to different models.
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Top
Pro
•••
Allows for rapid prototyping
Unity's modular system and usability allows for quickly developing a prototype of an idea. It has features like drag & drop editing, shaders, animation and other systems already in place to allow diving right into developing a game.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lots of assets can be found in the Asset Store
For those developers who can't afford an artist, or aren't skilled enough to create their own art, Unity features an Asset Store full of a wide variety of free and paid assets that can be easily added to a game. The Asset Store has more than just music and art. It also has code and modules that can be added to games including unique lighting or GUI systems. It also has powerful asset management and attribute inspection.
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Top
Pro
•••
Can create custom forms and tools
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Well structured
Overall, a coherent engine with a rational approach. People who complain a lot about being forced to hack around it usually do not read the docs, like the one that describe orders of execution, or specific functions hooks and such. Some like to say it lacks raw power where people who are used to standard optimizations have no problem. For example It is not uncommon to encounter users who complain about low FPS but forgot to activate occlusion, flag static elements, activate animations culling, and so on. As for complaints about C#, people who are transitioning from C++ were already bad at C++ before being bad at C#. They often come from the PC world where the sheer power of today's machines is very forgiving compared to the platforms we had to develop for in the 80s~90s. One of their errors is for example to never read this doc.
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Top
Pro
•••
OUYA support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful standard shaders
The built in standard shader in Unity 5 is incredibly optimized and supports PBS/PBR.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Flexibility is provided by a strong component programming model
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy learning curve
The way the editor is structured, by setting scripts on objects, and the use of a high-level language, C#, makes it easy to learn.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Allows a choice of scripting languages to use
Unity provides a selection of programming languages depending on preferences or knowledge. C# (CSharp) is arguably the most powerful, although the majority of tutorial languages are for Javascript.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Completely good and better choice for Android Developers!
Even though it requires 8MB to Download, it'a a best and good choice for Android Developers!
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Art Asset pipeline supports a lot of tools
Assets can be imported from many different formats including .FBX, .OBJ, .Blend, .Max
See More
Hide
See All
Free+
Recommend
46
6
--
Godot
My Rec
ommendation
for
Godot
My Recommendation for
Godot
All
36
Experiences
2
Pros
25
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Beginner Friendly
Godot is very welcoming as a Game Engine. It wouldn't take anyone more than an hour and a half to get comfortable with the Engine. It has many already implemented Physics options (much like Unity).
See More
Top
Con
•••
NoAdmob or other AdNetwork support
Godot has no native support for implementing advertisements into your game.
See More
Weatherby's Experience
As of writing this Godot 3.0 (The first version supporting C# , VisualScript, etc,) is still in alpha 2. So that means that the documentation is not ideal and not as simplified as some people would like it (Let alone the massive lack of video-tutorials).
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
Popular Language Bindings:
GDScript, C#, C++
Top
Pro
•••
Built-in physics
Add physics to 2D and 3D scenes, through rigid and static bodies, characters, raycasts, vehicles and more.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Lack of tutorials
The 3.0 version is difficult to get into without a proper tutorial for the advanced stuff (be it video, article, etc.) and because the 3.0 v is very new - it doesn't have too much video tutorials.
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__'s Experience
C# isn't production-ready, so this is probably not a good bet (yet) to develop full-scale video games in C#.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Lightweight, yet powerful
The game engine is really small in size, but it doesn't lack anything compared to GameMaker (Another Great Engine which sadly doesn't support C#) and other famous Game Engines.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Difficult to optimize
Godot has an OOP architecture. Everything is an object internally and data is spread among many classes, thus it's difficult to optimize (i.e. not cache friendly, difficuly to vectorize or paralellize, etc). Read about "Data Oriented Design" for more info about the problems and solutions.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free and open source
Godot is licensed under MIT license. Anyone can grab the source from https://github.com/godotengine/godot, and compile the engine themselves.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Poor documentation
As of now 3.0 is not yet released and so it lacks a big portion of documentation needed to get to speed with C#.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Under constant development
This engine barely released one year ago has more than 1000 forks on github and about 100 developers. Not only that just a bit of browsing trough issues you will quickly find out the dev community loves new esp free technology and does not shy away from completely rewriting parts of the engine. The audio engine is being completely rewritten to use threads and so forth.
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Top
Con
•••
If it's not 3.0 - don't count me in
The GDScript Language that Godot comes with is pretty simple (It shares a lot of similarities with Python) and that's an issue if you don't like Python.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Uses independant 2D and 3D Engines
Compare it to the elephant in the room - Unity. Unity is much better documented and has manier tutorials for different matters, but when it comes to the 2D engine - it just uses its 3D one and thus creates a lot of performance issues.
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Top
Con
•••
OSX app is a mess
Instead of one contained folder/file with an icon per normal it is a mess of files which is not at all suitable or distributable without further work after every compilation.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fully dedicated 2D engine, no hacks
Godot has a mature 2D engine with many features used by modern 2D games.
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Top
Con
•••
No built-in way to import atlases
Godot does not have an easy and automatic way to import atlases created by other tools. However, there are plugins that can be used to import atlases from other engines.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Instancing and node concept makes sense
The node and the instancing concept work very well and helps developers to structure content efficiently.
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Top
Con
•••
Tileset management could be more efficient
The tileset creation and management is lacking common features found in more developed tileset managers. However, it features support for Tiled - the only downside being that it is an external program.
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Top
Pro
•••
Editor and runtime are fully cross-platform
You can run Godot on all 3 major operating systems (Windows/Mac/Linux) and build your game to all available platforms from each without any platform-specific work needed. All platforms including Linux are supported first class.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lightweight
The executable is portable and less than 40 MB in size.
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Top
Pro
•••
Friendly towards Version Control Systems
The engine is build not only to support version control but to really use it. Scene files for example which usually get compiled into some sort of unreadable data stay in a text format - that way you can actually see your changes in a version control system like Git.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Really good community
The community is great and really cares about the engine. It is easy to get help and to be part of Godot's future.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
User friendly UI for all your team
Non-programmers (musicians, artists, etc) can join the development easily.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Drag & drop interface
Many parts of the editor allow you to drag & drop, which makes working with assets and scene trees a joy.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fun to use
An important aspect that can't be grasped without using the engine for a few days. The Interface is evolving nicely and making games is just fun.
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Top
Pro
•••
Can be deployed to multiple platforms
Deploy games to desktops (Windows/OS X/Linux), smartphones (iOS/Android/BlackBerry), and the web (HTML5 via Emscripten).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Integrated animation editor
Every property can be animated.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Unified game editor interface
All the game developing work is done inside one program: the engine editor. This feature is something only high end engines have. Even the scripting is done in the same program. No need for Eclipse or other front end editors.
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Top
Pro
•••
Simple and readable codebase
The engine's source code is easy to read and understand with a self-documenting approach to code design. You don't have to wait months or years for other people to fix an engine bug that is important to your game. Often times, you can spend an hour or two of your own time to fix whatever problems you encounter yourself.
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Top
Pro
•••
Built-in documentation linked to the internal ScriptEditor
The editor has a fully searchable index of class API documentation for everything the engine offers (NOT just a web interface). You can easily open the documentation for any class by Ctrl-clicking the class's name in the in-engine text editor for scripts.
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Top
Pro
•••
The list of supported languages is growing
Officially, Godot supported languages for now will be GDScript, C#(Mono), VisualScript and C++.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Supports C#
Since October 2017, Godot supports C# as a scripting language.
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Top
Pro
•••
Easy to learn scripting language
Godot has their own scripting language called GDscript. The scripting language is easy to learn with python-like format, but it is not python. More like a mix of Javascript, PHP, C++. It's very powerful, easy to learn, and it's free of unnecessary things because it's designed for this purpose. It can be used to add custom behaviors to any object by extending it with scripting, using the built-in editor with syntax highlighting and code completion. A built-in debugger with breakpoints and stepping can be used and graphs for possible bottlenecks can be checked.
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Top
Pro
•••
Internationalization of the editor
You can change the language shown in menus. Godot translations: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/godot-engine/godot/
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Top
Pro
•••
VisualStudio
You're not limited to using the implemented text editor (Though you have to navigate your way to the VS project that Godot creates for you).
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Free
Recommend
26
6
--
Flat Red Ball
My Rec
ommendation
for
Flat Red Ball
My Recommendation for
Flat Red Ball
All
9
Experiences
1
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to use
See More
Top
Con
•••
Difficult to install on GNU/Linux
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SplendidLahamu's Experience
nice entry
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Specs
Languages:
c#
Mobile targets:
iOS, Android
Dev platforms:
Windows
Supported languages:
C#
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Source is available
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Deployment options
Syncs projects to Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Xbox.
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Top
Pro
•••
Extremely good documentation
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Top
Pro
•••
Live chat room
You can ask questions and get answers in the chat room with a vibrant small community of developers.
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Hide
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0
Recommend
20
--
Duality
My Rec
ommendation
for
Duality
My Recommendation for
Duality
All
12
Experiences
1
Pros
8
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Very extensible
Because both Core and Editor are completely plugin-based, Duality not only incorporates a clean and modular design, but is also very extensible. In fact, most of the standard editing capabilities come in form of Editor plugins.
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Top
Con
•••
Requires windows for development
Duality only supports Windows for a development environment.
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DreamerMagec's Experience
Was able to develop a complete 2D strategy game. I
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Specs
Languages:
C#
Dev platforms:
Windows
Desktop targets:
Windows
License:
MIT
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
The full source code is available on GitHub, where the framework is actively developed. All of the editor, core and plugin code is written in C#.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not enough plugins for common cases
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Top
Pro
•••
Live reload of code and assets
Supports live reloading of code and assets whenever on of those two is changed.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Friendly to version control systems
It can be configured to serialize all data in a text-based format, which has been structurally optimized for version control systems.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Built-in physics and lighting
Duality has built-in support for physics and lighting.
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Top
Pro
•••
Nice community always ready to help
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Top
Pro
•••
Used in commercial projects
It has been used in a production environment without burning the place to the ground. Supposedly artist-proof editor workflow with an API for tailoring the system to fit your team.
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Top
Pro
•••
Great editor
Duality includes a powerful visual editing system that can be used for previewing, integrating, editing and testing game content.
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Free
Recommend
20
16
--
Stride
My Rec
ommendation
for
Stride
My Recommendation for
Stride
All
1
Specs
Specs
Languages:
C#
Mobile targets:
Windows Phone, iOS, Android
Dev platforms:
Windows
Desktop targets:
Windows, OSX, Linux
See All Specs
Hide
FREE Get It Here
Recommend
3
--
Wave
My Rec
ommendation
for
Wave
My Recommendation for
Wave
All
8
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Open source
See More
Top
Con
•••
Cannot compile natively for Android and iOS devices
For iOS and Android Building, you need to use Xamarin for compiling.
See More
Specs
Languages:
C#; VB; F#
Mobile targets:
iOS; Android
Dev platforms:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX; Linux
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Supports coding in C#, F# and Visual Basic
Wave Engine explicitly supports all three core .Net Platform languages.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Extensive learning material
In addition to online API documentation, the Wave Engine team provides tutorials via IndieDB, plus sample projects and "QuickStarters" via GitHub.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Integrates with popular IDEs
Wave integrates with Visual Studio on Windows, Xamarin Studio on Windows and Mac, and Monodevelop on Linux.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Many components are open source
Several core components and official extensions of the Wave Engine are publicly hosted on GitHub.
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Top
Pro
•••
Oculus Rift support
The Wave Engine team provides an official, open-source Oculus Rift extension via GitHub.
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Free / paid
Recommend
7
--
FNA
My Rec
ommendation
for
FNA
My Recommendation for
FNA
All
8
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Performance
FNA is incredibly performant on desktop platforms.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not exactly a "game engine" by definition
It provides you with everything you need to make a game engine, but isn't one in itself.
See More
Specs
Languages:
C#
Mobile targets:
iOS
Desktop targets:
Windows, macOS, Linux
Console targets:
Xbox ONE, Switch, Stadia
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Near-exact reimplementation of XNA 4
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Rapidly evolving
With a very active development team, FNA has support for OpenGL and Metal, with Direct3D 11 and Vulkan support on the way, as well as more platform support.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Barely contains bugs
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Proven tool
FNA has been used in a multitude of titles, ranging from Mercenary Kings: Reloaded, Terraria and Escape Goat, all the way to Celeste, Streets of Rage 4 and Fez.
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Top
Pro
•••
MonoGame-compatible
FNA projects are very compatible with MonoGame.
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Free
Recommend
9
--
UDK
My Rec
ommendation
for
UDK
My Recommendation for
UDK
All
5
Pros
3
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Triple A track record
UDK is an engine used by many big name companies for popular games such as the Gears of War series.
See More
Top
Con
•••
DevKit only runs on Windows
Even though UDK can deploy games to run on multiple platforms, including Mac, it does not feature support for development on Mac.
See More
Specs
Languages:
C++; C#; UnrealScript; Cg
Mobile targets:
iOS
Dev platforms:
Windows
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Good lighting support
UDK has great lighting support.
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Top
Pro
•••
Large toolset
UDK has an extremely large toolset that allows creating almost anything without having to use a 3rd party tool or plugin.
See More
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Get it
here
Recommend
9
4
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Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4
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Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4
My Recommendation for
Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4
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1
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