What are the best 2D game engines for rapid development?

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Jul 18, 2023

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GDevelop vs LÖVE vs cocos2d-x

vs Unity 2D vs Construct 3 vs BYOND vs Defold vs microStudio vs Construct 2 vs Unity

Specs

Languages

C++, JavaScript

License

MIT

Dev platforms

Windows 7+, macOS 10.11+, Linux, Web

Desktop targets

Windows 7+, macOS 10.11+, Linux

Mobile targets

Android 5+, iOS 11+

3D

2D

Yes

Supported languages

Visual programming, JavaScript

Distributed targets

HTML5

Graphics API

WebGL

2D physics

Box2D

Notable games

Hyperspace Dogfights, Lil BUB's HELLO EARTH, Vai Juliette!, Swamp, Squaremoji, The Mighty Rune

Console targets

Platforms

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

C++, Lua 5.1

License

zlib

Dev platforms

Windows Vista+ , macOS 10.7+, Linux, Android 4.0+

Desktop targets

Windows Vista+, macOS 10.7+, Linux

Mobile targets

Android 4.0+, iOS 8+

3D

Poor support (no abstraction over OpenGL)

2D

Yes

Supported languages

Lua 5.1 with some 5.2 / 5.3 features

Distributed targets

HTML5 (WebAssembly, community maintained)

Graphics API

OpenGL 2.1/3.3, OpenGL ES 2.0/3.0

2D physics

Box2D

Notable games

Move or Die, Kingdom Rush, Blue Revolver, Bytepath, Pocket Rumble, Mari0, Oh My Giraffe, …

Console targets

Platforms

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

C++; Lua; JavaScript; TypeScript (Creator only)

License

MIT

Dev platforms

Windows; macOS

Desktop targets

Windows; macOS; Linux; HTML5 (Creator only)

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; (deprecated: Windows Phone, Tizen)

3D

2D

Supported languages

Distributed targets

Graphics API

2D physics

Notable games

Console targets

none

Platforms

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

License

Dev platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

3D

2D

Supported languages

Distributed targets

Graphics API

2D physics

Notable games

Console targets

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

License

Dev platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

3D

2D

Supported languages

Distributed targets

Graphics API

2D physics

Notable games

Console targets

Platforms

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

License

Proprietary

Dev platforms

Windows

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

3D

2D

Yes

Supported languages

Distributed targets

Graphics API

2D physics

Notable games

Console targets

Platforms

Price

Free to use. Free to publish your games.

# Players

Multiplayer Online

Player platforms

Windows, or web browsers on any device.

Isometric

Yes

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

Lua

License

Dev platforms

Windows; Linux; OSX

Desktop targets

Windows; Linux; HTML5; OSX

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; FB Instant Games

3D

2D

Supported languages

Distributed targets

Graphics API

2D physics

Notable games

Console targets

Nintendo Switch

Platforms

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Lua

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

microScript, Lua, JavaScript, Python

License

MIT

Dev platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

3D

2D

Supported languages

Distributed targets

Graphics API

2D physics

Notable games

Console targets

Platforms

Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, Pi

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Languages

JavaScript (engine)

License

Proprietary

Dev platforms

Desktop targets

Windows XP+, UWP, Mac OS X 10.6+, Linux

Mobile targets

Android 4.0+, iOS 8.0+

3D

Some

2D

Yes

Supported languages

Visual programming, JavaScript

Distributed targets

HTML5

Graphics API

WebGL, Canvas 2D

2D physics

Box2D

Notable games

The Next Penelope, Cosmochoria, Angvik, Dreaming Sarah, Airscape The Fall of Gravity, Artillerists, Lunar Mission, …

Console targets

Xbox One, Wii U

Platforms

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Event list (per-object)

Logic model

Pre-built behaviors

Languages

C#, C++

License

Proprietary

Dev platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

3D

2D

Supported languages

Distributed targets

Graphics API

2D physics

Notable games

Console targets

Platforms

Price

# Players

Player platforms

Isometric

Scripting language

Behavior trigger

Logic model

Pros + Cons

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Multilanguage support

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

Comment

Pro
Online version available, compatible with iOS and Android

Thanks to its open source nature, GDevelop-App.com was built over the GDevelop engine. GDevelop-App.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 GDevelop-App and export it to open it inside GDevelop.

Comment

Pro
New documentation for gd5 is good for starting

A new doc is improving for gd5 that is nice for beginners and after that you can learn more from examples. Also, gd4 wiki is still there.

Comment

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!

Comment

Pro
Constant updates

New releases and bug fixes are consistent. New updates are released anywhere within 2 weeks or 1 month from the last one. Its auto-updater also does it job very well making life a lot easier.

Comment

Pro
Open source plugin SDK

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

Comment

Con
It's very slow

Although suggested otherwise, GDevelop doesn't compile the games - it just adds wrappers so each OS can run the HTML5 game it creates. That means it runs much, much slower than other engines that do compile games.

Comment

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.

Comment

Con
Optional subscription not mentioned on main site

While the engine is free and open source as stated on the main website, it does not mention that some optional features and services are actually activated through a paid subscription (two tiers: 2€ and 7€). Those features are: no nag screen shown when debugging, additional metrics available on games dashboard, access to more than 2 cloud exports per day (unlimited local export can be done without subscription, provided the right packaging tools are installed and configured), easy removal of GDevelop splash screen (can be done manually without subscription).

Comment

Pro
Great for prototyping

You can learn the basics very quickly and start making simple games in no time, even if you have no previous Lua knowledge. If you're a little experienced with LÖVE, you can prototype a 2D game with it in no time.

Comment

Pro
Uses the fantastic Lua for scripting

Lua is an embeddable scripting language designed to be lightweight, fast yet powerful. It is used in major titles such as Civilization as well as a lot of indie games. Lua is very popular because it provides "meta language" features. You can implement object-oriented structures, or pure procedural functions, etc. It has a very simple C interface, and gives the engine developer a lot of flexibility in the language itself. Artists tend to love Lua too because it's very approachable, with plain and forgiving syntax. Lua is free open-source software, distributed under a very liberal license (the well-known MIT license).

Comment

Pro
Active and very friendly community

The LÖVE forums are extremely helpful. With people checking the forums every day, it won't take long to receive answer to your questions on the Support board, receive feedback on games you post in the Projects board, as well as have a chat about the LÖVE engine while learning tricks to use in the very active General board. If you need an immediate answer though, or just want to chat, there is a very active and helpful IRC channel.

Comment

Pro
Cross-platform

Supports Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android and iOS.

Comment

Pro
Open source and free

The LÖVE engine is licensed under The zlib/libpng License (which is very short and human readable) which allows you to use the source code and even modify it as long as you do not claim that the original source code is yours. You can obtain the code at this bitbucket repository and even help fix bugs and participate in the development of LÖVE.

Comment

Pro
Easy to learn and use

LÖVE is great for rapid prototyping, because it uses Lua as the language, and it's very easy to learn, and you can start and finish development in a short time frame. You can even see your changes live. It only requires three simple llines to get a "Hello world" in a graphical window running.

Comment

Con
Absolutely no GUI (no graphical interface)

This has no graphical interface at all, you have to know how to read script in order to know what you're looking at. After you've written the script for everything, you compile it to see the result. It's a very poor way to create a game, given how even most professional tools out there give you a GUI to work with and debug on the go. The lack of a GUI slows down the work by ten-fold, and it's just an inefficient use of your time.

Comment

Con
The community seems juvenile

For example, some of the library include names such as HUMP, LUBE, AnAL.

Comment

Pro
Well documented

A lot of product documentation, forum offers great support, huge amount of guides.

Comment

Pro
Able to use different languages

C++, Objective C, HTML, Lua are some of the languages that can be used allowing for users to go with what suits them best.

Comment

Pro
Easily create cross platform games

Using languages such as HTML5 or Lua one can create non platform specific code, though using C++ -may require some.

Comment

Pro
Open source

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Comment

Pro
Proven to work

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Comment

Pro
Allows advanced use of scripting languages for prototyping game-play mechanics

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Pro
Allows fast prototyping in cocos-creator utility with little need for scripting

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Pro
Removes the need to know much about underlying level graphics technology

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Comment

Con
Configuring Windows C++ build process isn't that obvious

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Comment

Pro
Easily change sprites dynamically

Usually used for character customization, programmers can change any sprite in a bone animation at runtime easily by referencing the bone and loading the new sprite from the resources folder.

Comment

Pro
Integrates with Mecanim

Mecanim brings state machines and blending to 2D bone animation. The state machine editor allows for designers and programmers to visually create a Finite State Machine (FSM) to control when animations should play. Mecanim also allows for blending so an animation can transition smoothly between two states without the need of in between frames made by an animator.

Comment

Pro
Built into Unity 4.3+

2D game creation was a major feature request from the Unity community and was added with version 4.3. 2D is provided in both the Pro and Free distribution of Unity.

Comment

Pro
Sprite Sheet and Bone based animation supported

Both types of 2D animation for game development are supported in Unity’s system and can be used interchangeably in the timeline.

Comment

Pro
No installation required

As it runs in the browser you can load it on any computer and show your friends your work really quickly.

Comment

Pro
Timeline

It has a timeline feature which allows you to make amazing animations.

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Pro
Works on Chromebooks

Construct 3 works on a Chromebook without any issues.

Comment

Pro
Fast and small

Construct 3 loads really fast.

Comment

Pro
Easy to learn, fast prototyping, fast development for 2D games

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Con
Subscription based

It is subscription based pricing. Prices are reasonable but it might not be for everyone.

Comment

Pro
Runs in the browser

If I don't have my Chromebook, Construct 3 will run in the browser.

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Pro
Abundant features

BYOND handles all networking for you, and provides you an environment for editing code, and even a built-in map editor and image editor. An interface editor for customizing your window's interface is even included. Mouse and keyboard input are easy to customize. BYOND also has default procedures that handle collisions, basics of pixel movement, and many other procedures at your disposal.

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Pro
DM coding language

Easy to learn coding language, DM (Dream Maker). This easy language may be perfect for new or indie developers. For experienced coders, this may be a negative to learn a new language, but you will pick it up quickly.

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Pro
Completely free of charge

Software and online dashboard are free of charge.

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Pro
Easy to learn

Defold uses Lua, which is regarded as an easy to learn language by most.

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Pro
HTML5 export

Export your project as a standalone HTML5 app.

Comment

Pro
Great for beginners

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Pro
Free

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Con
Poor mobile performance

Construct 2 is focused on Javascript. Javascript isn't as fast as native code, which results in poor performance on mobile.

Comment

Con
Constuct 2 has no moved to Construct 3 and is now rentware costing $100/year

So you need to keep paying to maintain an old game.

Comment

Con
HTML5 Only is extremely limiting

If the software could export natively to mobile devices and PC/Mac/Linux it would be extremely powerful. The developer's choice of sticking to only HTML5 has created a bottleneck for anyone wanting to develop with this software.

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Pro
Very fast preview

In Construct 2 you can preview your games instantly at any time. There’s no need to wait for compiling or other time consuming processes.

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Pro
Built-in tilemap object

The tilemap object allows tile-based games to be designed more easily. The object's tilemap can also be edited in the layout view using the tilemap bar.

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Pro
Built-in pathfinding

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Pro
Built-in animation/image editor

Basic sprites and tiles of 2D games can be made with engine's built-in tools.

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Pro
In-depth event system

Construct 2's event system allows for deep, detailed control over all aspects of your game. You aren't limited to just a few options. Rather, Scirra has thought of nearly everything in advance with access to any desired parameter of any object all paired with simple and intuitive ways to interact with them. Your events can be organized with event sheets (that can be included in other sheets), event groups, sub-events, loops, and functions that make the coding portion of your game as efficient as possible. You don't need any programming knowledge, but if you do have some, you'll feel right at home with the freedom C2 offers.

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Pro
Built-in physics system

Thanks to the great power of Erin Catto's Box2D, Construct 2 is able to make physics games which are similar to Cut the Rope and Angry Birds.

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Pro
Powerful drag & drop editor

Using Construct 2 requires very little programming knowledge as it's all drag'n'drop, intuitive, visual and event-driven instead of code-only.

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Con
Editor is Windows only

Although Construct 2 is able to export projects to Windows, OS X and Linux, the program itself currently only runs on Windows.

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