What are the best code-free 2D game engines for beginners?

15

Options
Considered

20

User
Recs.

Jul 18, 2018

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

15 Options Considered

15 Options Considered	Price	Languages	Dev platforms
-- Stencyl	-	Haxe	Windows; Macintosh; Linux
-- Adventure Game Studio	-	AGS Script	Windows
-- GDevelop	Free	–	–
-- Construct 2	-	JavaScript	Windows
-- Duality	-	C#	Windows

Stencyl

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Top Con

Stencylforge has been discontinued

Many entries in Stencylforge are outdated and you can no longer submit anything new. See More

Top Pro

Block-based visual scripting resembles real code

Visual scripting in Stencyl is based on the MIT Scratch project, which was designed to teach programming. Script elements fit together like puzzle pieces, ensuring that data and function types cannot be mismatched. See More

Top Con

Doesn't compile to Flash and the HTML5 compilation is in beta

It's recommended to wait for 3.5 version before subscribing. See More

Top Pro

Easy transition between visual scripting and Haxe code

The visual scripting system is internally translated to Haxe. The resulting scripts can be viewed and edited, and there is also a "code block" object for including raw Haxe in visual scripts. This is great for learning to code, and also for advanced users who can further optimize the scripts if necessary. See More

Top Con

Annual subscription model

Publication to desktop targets requires an active Indie Stencyl subscription, priced at $99/yr. Mobile targets require Studio Stencyl at $199/yr. See More

Top Pro

Free for Flash publication

Starter Stencyl is identical to paid-plan versions except that it only allows publication to Flash, with a mandatory Stencyl splash screen. Commercial development is allowed with Starter Stencyl. See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows; Macintosh; Linux

Desktop targets:Windows; Macintosh; Linux

Mobile targets:iOS; Android

See All Specs >

Adventure Game Studio

Top Pro

Friendly community

An old, big and active community which would support newcomers not only in learning basics of the engine, but can help with every aspect of game making (including art, voice acting, moral support, etc). See More

Top Con

Natively supports only 2D

2D only native support, 3D could be supported with plugins though. See More

Top Pro

Lots of assets available

An extensive library of game templates and script modules accumulated over years. You can construct a simple game in hours (if you know what you are doing). See More

Top Con

Uses dated tech

Engine is based on the old technologies, which impose number of limitations and may cause problems on latest systems (level of annoyance varies depending on your priorities). See More

Top Pro

Used for a number of high-profile commercial releases

Adventure Game Studio has been used to develop games such as "Resonance", "Blackwell" series, "Gemini Rue", "Primordia". See More

Top Con

Graphics renderer is a bit dated

Graphics renderer is not well optimized for high-resolution games and complex effects. See More

Top Pro

Relatively well documented

Besides the manual there are multiple text and video tutorials and code samples written by community. See More

Top Con

Workflow is closely coupled with the editor

Workflow is very tied to the editor and custom file formats, which can cause problems for bigger, more professional projects (interfering with source control, parallel development, automated builds, etc) See More

Top Pro

Completely free and open source

AGS is licensed under Artistic License 2.0 and is completely free for use for creating both freeware and commercial games. See More

Top Con

AGS Script isn't as full-featured as other scripting languages

Its own scripting language has lower syntax capabilities compared to modern script languages. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn tool

Good for newbie game creators. Can be used for prototyping: on several occasions was used to make a demo/experimental version before creating a final commercial product on different engine. See More

Top Con

No visual editor for scripts

You have to actually write all scripts yourself. See More

Top Con

Assets cover almost exclusively adventure/quest genre

The features, script functions and game templates are very biased towards adventure/quest genre. The non-adventure games were made in AGS (2D shooters, platformers, turn-based strategies), but their development usually requires to write everything from scratch. See More

Top Con

Development is slow

Further development of the engine is currently slow, done by only few people in their free time. See More

Specs

Languages:AGS Script

Dev platforms:Windows

Desktop targets:Windows; Linux

Mobile targets:Android; iOS

See All Specs >

GDevelop

Top Pro

Online version available, compatible with iOS and Android

Thanks to its open source nature, GDevApp.com was built over the GDevelop engine. GDevApp.com is a complete game creator similar to GDevelop, available directly in your browser and compatible with iPad and most Android tablets and phone! The app is perfect for making games directly from your sofa and you can even start a game on GDevApp and export it to open it inside GDevelop. See More

Top Con

No cross-compiler

The Windows and Linux versions of GDevelop can each compile a native application; but the Windows version cannot compile for Linux, nor vice versa. See More

Top Pro

Quickly add behaviors to objects

Prebuilt behaviors can be added to objects. This is a very efficient way to add a physics engine or make a platformer game. Lots of behaviors are included, from the most advanced (Physics, platformer, top-down movement) to really simple one (like the behavior to destroy objects when outside the screen or the one to drag objects with mouse or touch). And you still have full controls over your game as behaviors can be modified using the events. See More

Top Con

Tiny amount of tutorials

Almost no tutorials on how to use it. See More

Top Pro

Lots of features to build games

The engine includes pathfinding, physics engine, multitouch support, custom hitboxes, platformer engine, tiled maps, multiple layers and cameras out of the box. All of these features can be used without programming knowledge, using the visual editors. See More

Top Con

GUI is slow to load

This makes doing the simplest things, like looking at one of your maps, hard to do. In looking into this program, it can stall a PC while trying to load a sample map. See More

Top Pro

Multilanguage support

GDevelop is available in many languages and even community can help in translations. See More

Top Pro

Open source plugin SDK

The plugin SDK is open source, so if you want to extend it, you can. See More

Top Pro

Support both native and HTML5 games (web and mobile development)

GDevelop is able to create HTML5 games that can run on web browsers and be exported to iOS and Android using solutions like Intel XDK or Cocoon.JS. GDevelop is also one of the only friendly game creator that is able to make native games for Windows and Linux, which are blazing fast and allow to make advanced games with lots of objects, effects and very large levels. See More

Top Pro

Powerful events system to create games without programming

No need for coding using this system which is clear and powerful: events are composed of conditions and actions. Actions are launched when conditions are fulfilled. This is a very friendly way of making games and is still efficient for advanced usage, contrary to most other "block"/"drag'n'drop" systems. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

The whole interface is intuitive and easy to learn: each part of the game can be designed using visual editors. The objects editor is used to create the objects of the game, the scene editor help you to build the levels of your game and the events editor allows to give life to the whole game without programming. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

GDevelop's runtime libraries are MIT licensed. It can be used freely for projects of any type and there are no royalties associated with publishing games developed with GDevelop. See More

Engine 001 Game Maker

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Top Pro

Great online community for support

Engine 001 offers a tight-knit community of fellow game designers, asset creators, and just general fans of games, that all come together to assist one another. See More

Top Con

Windows only

The editor is Windows only; no OSX or Linux versions are planned. See More

Top Pro

Visual scripting

By using pre-build behaviors\actions and more you can 'program' your game by simply 'linking' they in the editor. See More

Top Pro

Huge built-in 500+ asset library

Tons of objects ready to use to use, as well as support for easily importing your own resources. 3D files are also supported (with a subscription). See More

Top Pro

Light weight

An amazing minimal download size at around 100mb. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Engine 001 allows you to get to making games quicker since you aren't putting allot of time into figuring out complicated interfaces. See More

GameMaker: Studio

Top Pro

Cross-platform

GameMaker: Studio projects can be deployed to: HTML5, Linux, Windows, OS X, Windows Phone, Android, iOS and PS3/4/Vita. See More

Top Con

Development has been and will be cosmetic

The change from 1.x to 2.x was cosmetic, the engine and language stayed the same. The roadmap for future development is also cosmetic and includes updating the sprite editor, adding an audio editor, and adding a "mini map" for the IDE. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform multiplayer support

There is the possibility of creating games that interact with different platforms and is not that hard. See More

Top Con

Proprietary language forces expensive "lock in"

Because it uses GML, a very non-standard custom language, new users do not learn a transferrable language and become locked in. See More

Top Pro

It has an IDE used for loading all of the assets

It is very easy to manage all the resources you want to put in your game, the UI widgets for each assets (sprites, sounds, backgrounds, rooms, objects and shaders) are intuitive enough for when adding or even editing the properties of each your assets. The included editors are also good and easy to use (sprite/image editors, shader editor and room editor). See More

Top Con

Doesn't support the Switch

Console exports do not support the Switch. (Update: support for the Nintendo Switch is coming) See More

Top Pro

Assets can easily be found in the official marketplace

Yoyogames website has a marketplace which opens up an opportunity for people to sell or giveaway created assets and resources (sprites, scripts, sounds, extensions, full source codes, etc.) for use in GameMaker. This benefits people who needs quality assets for their games, and for creative people to provide these assets for extra income. The Marketplace has a rating system so it can eventually increase the quality and competitiveness of the assets submitted. See More

Top Con

Owned by a gambling company, Playtech

As opposed to other engines, which are open source or owned by game companies, GameMaker is developed by YoYoGames, which is owned by Playtech, a gambling software company. See More

Top Pro

Extremely stable

GameMaker: Studio has been around since 1999 and has been used and maintained during all this time. This makes it an extremely stable game engine. See More

Top Con

No GUI editor

The GUI must be hard-coded, leaving a lot of tricky calculations and jumping through hoops to accommodate different devices and displays; it's probably the least developed and hardest thing about GMS2 compared to comparable engines See More

Top Pro

Supports 3D

There is also 3D support that doesn't interfere with the primary 2D focus. See More

Top Con

Exporting to some formats costs extra

You need to buy extra modules to be able to export to platforms like Android, iOS, HTML5 and others. See More

Top Pro

Easy cross-platform shader support

Write your own shaders in one shader language and have it automatically ported to all platforms. You can even choose a specific shader language to wield the full power of the target device. See More

Top Con

Poor level editor

No marquee select, no layers, can be glitchy, no grouping, etc. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find resources/tutorials/assistance

GameMaker: Studio has a huge following, tons of people put up tutorial videos, and it's just generally easy to find help. It has a huge community. See More

Top Con

No built-in refactoring tools

There are no built-in refactoring tools - for example, you can rename a resource, but GM:S will not automatically change the mentions of it across the code to the new name. At the same time, however, all file formats are text-based, meaning that the effect can be achieved by simply doing "find & replace in files", which is a feature offered by pretty much every external code editor nowadays. See More

Top Pro

Extremely easy to learn

GameMaker: Studio is incredibly easy to learn. It requires almost no programming knowledge which means that those without the technical experience, such as designers or artists, can create their projects without the help of a programmer. See More

Top Con

The scripting language used is quite limited

Language does not support actual objects, structs, real data types, functions, overloading, even argument naming. Developers generally have to code around the lack of these features in very tricky ways. See More

Top Pro

Gives developers access to a more fine-grained controle over the logic through the Game Maker Language

Game Maker Language (GML) is the primary scripting language that is interpreted similarly to Java's Just-In-Time compilation used in GameMaker. It is used to further enhance and control the design of a game through more conventional programming, as opposed to the drag and drop system. See More

Top Con

Destructive DRM

In late 2012/early 2013, YoYo Games released a version of their new Studio IDE for cross-platform development that would import games and destroy all of the image type resources for some legitimate purchasers of the software by superimposing a pirate symbol on top of the image. This was due to a fault in their digital rights management software implementation which they use as a method of combating pirated copies of the software. Though the false positives bug is reported to be fixed, the DRM is still in place and may affect placeholder graphics, etc. YoYoGames publicly stated they would remove the DRM at a later point in time, but that other less-invasive DRM techniques would remain. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Game Maker Studios simple interface allows for rapid prototyping, and easy development. See More

Top Con

The cost to buy for development is outrageous

The cost for this tool is hindering for indie developers who have little money to work with. See More

Top Con

Expensive for what it offers

There are several options with more flexibility, better learning resources, and a lower price point. See More

Top Con

Tends to crash or not compile games properly

Top Con

Can't embed videos in game

Doesn't support embedding videos in a game. See More

Top Con

Bad history of ignoring critical bugs

In the past, the developer failed to update the software for iOS and Android when game-breaking updates were made to those platforms. See More

Top Con

This is very flat for games

They are not beautiful, for example, Undertale. See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows, Mac

Desktop targets:Windows, OSX, Ubuntu, UWP

Mobile targets:iOS, Android, Windows Phone ( via UWP )

See All Specs >

RPG Maker

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Top Pro

Easy to jump into using an intuitive WYSIWYG editor

It's possible to create a game with absolutely no art or coding skills, so even complete beginners can make something. See More

Top Con

No built-in realtime battle system

RPG Maker series has only turn based battle systems, unless scripts/Plugins made by the community are used. See More

Top Pro

Multi-platform

MV supports HTML5 exports, so it is easier than ever to make your game work on iOS, android, OSX,Linux or Windows. See More

Top Con

No 3D support

None of them have 3D support, it is possible only with manual scripting which could be difficult for beginners. See More

Top Pro

MV has HTML5 export

You can now HTML5 export your projects, so you could theoretically host your game on your webserver, and have your friends play the game without ever having to install a single thing. See More

Top Con

MV Does not have a "REAL" Android export.

MV has an export to HTML5 - which can run on any browser including android. It is however not a "native" app export. See More

Top Pro

A cheap license that allows using the software commercially

There are several versions of RPG maker, with MV being the latest and most fully featured: MV ($79.99), VX Ace ($69.99), VX ($59.99) and XP ($24.99), 2003 ($19.99). See More

Top Con

Inconsistent included visual assets

Included visual assets within MV have inconsistent presentation. Though RPMMV does contain enough to make a small basic title, the visual assets don't often look like they should be mixed on-screen. See More

Top Pro

Large and active community

The engine has seen multiple iterations since 1995, so a large online community exists that is always willing to help each other out. See More

Top Con

Conversion to MV difficult

Older iterations of RPG Maker use smaller sprite sizes that require manual conversion to use older RTP assets and older assets are more robust. See More

Top Pro

Greater Map layers

MV Mapping uses an additional layer to create better depth. See More

Top Pro

It's an open engine

It's possible to use custom editors from the community, edit libraries,include libraries,etc (MV Only) See More

Top Pro

Ruby / Javascript support provides depth to more experienced developers

With a script editor that uses a modified version of Ruby, it's possible to go well beyond the traditional RPG with this engine. Note: XP and VX use Ruby, the latest version "MV" uses Javascript for scripting. See More

Specs

Languages:JavaScript

Dev platforms:Windows, macOS

Desktop targets:Windows, macOS, Web

Mobile targets:Android, iOS

See All Specs >

GameSalad

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows; Macintosh

Desktop targets:Windows 8; Macintosh

Mobile targets:iOS; Android; Tizen

See All Specs >

Wintermute Engine

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GameSalad Creator

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GameMaker Studio 2

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Clickteam Fusion 2.5

Top Pro

Free version

A free version is available for download here. See More

Top Con

No native animator with curves, etc

Top Pro

Balanced feature set

An excellent compromise between ease of use, power, flexibility and ability to export to different platforms. Easy to learn for beginners with the ability to make complex things, of course, at the expense of a larger effort. Good rapid application development tool for making 2D games. See More

Top Con

Lack of native network multiplayer system, built-in database support, social media support

Top Pro

A great unofficial community for Spanish-speaking users

A great community in Spanish where you will receive all the help you need to solve your doubts and problems. You'll also find all kinds of resources and materials in Spanish. Una gran comunidad en español en donde recibirás toda la ayuda que necesites para solucionar tus dudas y problemas. También encontrarás todo tipo de recursos, tutoriales y ejemplos en español. See More

Top Con

Some features are really outdated and major updates are few and rare

There are some features that could make the software a lot more powerful but Clickteam does not have the staff resources to handle updating the software to be competitive with similar software. See More

Top Pro

Visual (HLSL) effects

Top Con

Need to copy & paste events into every frame

Events are not shared globally across multiple frames. In order to have the player going from one frame to the other, you need to copy and paste all the code from one frame to the other. This is obviously very tedious and time consuming. See More

Top Pro

Box2D physics engine

Top Con

Slow event system

Since the event system is interpreted, complex frames will start to slow down. This is also caused by poor code reuse, as usually, you need to copy+paste events with new conditions, making it impossible to cache intermediate results. See More

Top Pro

Great online store to get free and paid assets

Top Con

No animation/object hierarchy

You need to position/rotate objects manually. See More

Top Pro

Great for non-game apps, such as tools, utilities, multimedia projects, etc.

Top Con

Many event 'gotchas', especially with object selection

Many events have very unpredictable selection behavior, e.g. the 'Create' action (where the selection depends on whether a selection list already exists). There is also a lot of subtle selection behavior, e.g. implicit object pairs for actions when an object is used in an expression. See More

Top Pro

Permissive runtime license agreement

With the Developer edition of the product, there are absolutely no limits or requirements when selling your creations. You are free to make as much money as you want (this applies to the Standard edition too), and you don't have to include any logos or credits in your creations. See More

Top Con

No console/Linux exporters

Top Pro

Supportive, passionate community

Any time you have a question or a problem, the community and the software developers are there to help you out either on forums or steam. The devs repond quickly to private messages or instantly on ClickConverse (chat). Additionally, many users have support sites with open source examples and tutorials. See More

Top Con

Poor native movements

The native non-physical movements are practically unusable if you don't want to use Box2D physics in your game. See More

Top Pro

Not only is it the best, it is the original

This software has been around since 1994 (then called Klik & Play) and is still going very strong. Also, one of the founders of Clickteam was the developer of STOS BASIC and AMOS BASIC for the Atari ST and Amiga computers. See More

Top Con

Many extensions not available on non-Windows platforms

A lot of community-made extensions are only written for Windows, making it hard to port your game to other platforms. See More

Top Pro

Export native runtime for all platforms

Be it Windows EXE, Android APK, iOS, HTML5 and Flash SWF, Fusion 2.5 is able to export your game to fast, truly native runtime for specified platform with a click. See More

Top Con

Cannot script editor

You cannot script the IDE or editor with e.g. macros or custom functionality, like you can in other popular game engines. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive drag & drop interface & visual event editor

CF2.5 uses a straightforward drag & drop editor that allows for easy level, animation and event creation without having to write a single line of code. See More

Top Con

Its Event Editor can be cumbersome if you are working on complex projects

While Fusion's visual programming event system is great to simplify things, it can be much more cumbersome to work with it than reading lines of code when you are working on a complex project. Especially if your events involve many nested conditions and lots of objects on the frame. You are able to group events and objects, but it doesn't help at all if there's lots of conditions on an event and it becomes pretty hard to read. See More

Top Pro

Can also create Windows applications

CF allows creating Windows applications. Additionally, due to hundreds of available extensions, the process is quick. See More

Top Con

The free edition is severely limited

Top Pro

Box2D physics engine included on all platforms

Clickteam Fusion 2.5 brings to you the box2D physics engine. See More

Top Con

Need to write C++ extensions when existing extensions don't cut it

If you need e.g. a Steamworks extension or 3D display extension, you need to move out from the event system and create extensions in C++ with a cumbersome API. Fusion does not have FFI calls like other programming languages See More

Top Pro

Stable

Have used fusion 2.5 through all of its iterations, even when it was owned by imsi as CNC ( click n create ) it has been very stable and projects have been known to run on almost any Windows based computer. The projects you create even run on future versions of Windows with never many issues. See More

Top Con

Exporters are separate purchases, and they are not cheap

Top Pro

Community-driven extensive object repository

Click Fusion has a great selection of extensions submitted by the community. The extensions cover a variety of game-building tasks including parsing of strings using up to two alternating delimiters using the "Tokenizer Object", generating random numbers without reusing them from multiple lists which can be refilled and distinctively replenished with the "Random Multipool Object" among others. See More

Top Pro

Exports native mobile code, making great performance games

Top Pro

Great formula editor, which allows you to create complex maths and events with ease

Top Pro

Developers work so closely with the user base

Dedicated Bug tracking system linked to user forum for ease of access. See More

Top Pro

Well-optimized

Runs well under high object numbers, particularly on PC and iOS thanks to hardware acceleration. See More

Top Pro

Can create custom extensions

Top Pro

Great IRL user events

Clickteam holds user conventions for customers to come along, meet the staff and hang out with people who they've met online. This furthers the community spirit which is so prevalent around Clickteam's products and it's a fantastic weekend. See More

Top Pro

Upgrade discounts

If you buy Fusion 2.5, and later decide you want to upgrade to the Developer version, or in the case of moving from MMF2 to F2.5, the company offers upgrade discounts. See More

Specs

Languages:C; C++

Dev platforms:Windows, Mac

Desktop targets:Windows, Mac

Mobile targets:iOS; Android; UWP

See All Specs >

Buildbox

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Top Pro

Has many game templates

Buildbox has 20+ different game templates including templates for platformers, racing games and Flappy Bird clones. See More

Top Con

Stability Issues

The software has stability issues on Windows, with the preview window causing program crashes when simple functionality is added. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Top Con

Very expensive

Buildbox has a 15-day trial version, after that a $2675 license to use it must be bought. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for ads

You can add banner and interstitial ads from multiple ad networks, including AdMob, RevMob, Facebook. They can work with Amazon's, Microsoft's, Google's and Apple's app stores. See More

Top Con

You are restricted by it's limitations

For example, you can only make certain kind of games. See More

Top Pro

Drag - and - drop editor

Drag - and - drop editor without writing any line of code. See More

Top Con

Incredibly Expensive

At $1000/yr, or $99/mo, it is probably the least accessible piece of game development software in regards to price. See More

Top Pro

Develop once publish everywhere

Exporting iOS/Android/macOS/Windows/Steam/Amazon See More

Top Con

Not very powerful

You will be limited to using templates to build games. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn

Buildbox is a drag and drop engine, making it easy for beginners to pick up. There are many tutorials available to help get you started. See More

Top Pro

Great tutorials and community to help your game making process

Clear tutorials and a friendly community. See More

20 Community Recommendations

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EmpatheticKarora

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Live reload of code and assets

Very extensible

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Adventure Game Studio

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Scratch from MIT

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Adventure Game Studio

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Natively supports only 2D

Uses dated tech

Graphics renderer is a bit dated

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GameMaker Studio 2

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GameSalad Creator

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