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What are the best 100% free and easy game engines for beginners?

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65 Games Considered

65 Options ConsideredPriceDev platformsDesktop targets
Godot
Windows; OSX; LinuxWindows; OSX; Linux; HTML5
GDevelop
Windows; Ubuntu Linux;MacWindows; Ubuntu Linux;Mac
LÖVE
Windows, OSX, LinuxWindows, OSX, Linux, HTML5 (unofficially)
Unreal Engine 4
Windows, Mac OS X, LinuxWindows, Mac OS X, Linux, SteamOS, HTML5
Pygame
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Godot

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Jonathan
Top Pro

Cross-platform editor

•••
Editor works in Window, OSX and Linux as well as having a Linux CLI server version (useful for testing and build tasks).
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Built-in physics

•••
Physics can be added to 2D and 3D scenes, through rigid and static bodies, characters, raycasts, vehicles and more.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Free, open source and cross-platform

•••
Godot is licensed under MIT license. Anyone can grab the source from github.com/okamstudio/godot, and compile the engine him/herself. It targets Win/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS/BB10/HTML5.
Jonathan
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 p...
True
Top Pro

Fully dedicated 2D engine, no hacks

•••
Godot 2.1 has a improved 2d engine with many features used by modern 2D games.
Endi Sukaj
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 p...
True
Top Pro

Internationalization of the editor

•••
You can change the language shown in menus. Godot translations: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/godot-engine/godot/
True
Top Pro

The list of supported languages is growing

•••
Officially, Godot supported languages for now will be GDScript, C#(Mono), VisualScript and C++.
thermoplastics
Hirnbix
Top Pro

Helpful community

•••
The awesome engine programmers and game designers help new users and each other out. A very active IRC channel, and loads of discussion on a Discord server add to the great community feel. Everyone wants the engine to succeed.
Sebastian Pasich
Top Pro

Lightweight

•••
The executable is portable and less than 40 MB in size.
Laurent Ongaro
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.
rraallvv
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.
rraallvv
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.
rraallvv
Top Pro

User friendly UI for all your team

•••
Non-programmers (musicians, artists, etc) can join the development easily.
Sebastian Pasich
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.
rraallvv
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 pr...
rraallvv
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.
rraallvv
Top Pro

Instancing and node concept makes sense

•••
The node and the instancing concept work very well and helps developers to structure content efficiently.
rraallvv
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...
rraallvv
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).
rraallvv
Top Pro

Integrated animation editor

•••
Every property can be animated.
Belle
ProudNuliajuk
Top Con

Documentation is not user-friendly for game development beginners

•••
Godot has potential and will grow big just like Blender. By simply watching or reading tutorials, I can see how fast anyone can learn it. Unfortunately, for beginners like me, I find the provided documentation insufficient. Hopefully, in the future, there will be lots of documentation online. So fa...
True
Jonathan
Top Con

Incomplete documentation

•••
As is a new game engine, it documentation is incomplete.
Jake Stine
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 solut...
Sojan Janso
Top Con

Sluggish 3d engine

•••
Although the game engine is supposed to receive a Vulcan revamp within the next year, as of right now, it is rather slow and unable to render large scenes.
Jake Stine
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Self-designed scripting language

•••
Implementing new scripting language instead of using an existing scripting engine (such as Lua or V8 JS) looks expensive, but easy to learn.
Paolo
CheerfulNereus
Top Con

Stable version is not stable

•••
Hundreds of bugs are waiting to be repaired. The crashes never ends.
See 26 more Pros & ConsSee 26 more Pros & Cons

GDevelop

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Alex Bochis
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Open source and completely free

•••
GDevelop is free and open source, and anyone can enhance the software via the GitHub repository.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Powerful events system

•••
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"/"...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Multiplatform

•••
Available for Windows, Ubuntu, various linux distributions and MacOS port is on its way.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Add prebuilt 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 scr...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Strong community

•••
If you encounter any problem on the software, you can post your questions/problems/bugs to the forum, you are assured to have an answer in no time.
Endi Sukaj
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 a...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Android/iOS publishing via Intel XDK

•••
You can export your game to iOS and Android by exporting your game as HTML5 project and then using Intel XDK. Support for CocoonJS is underway.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Export to native code or HTML5

•••
GDevelop is indeed 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...
Alex Bochis
Top Con

A dead simple, no frills Go cross compile tool

•••
Endi Sukaj
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 8 more Pros & ConsSee 8 more Pros & Cons

LÖVE

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Endi Sukaj
Top 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 t...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Very good documentation

•••
The LÖVE wiki provides full documentation of its easy to use Modules, which are conveniently located on the side bar of the wiki. It took seconds to find the module for love.keyboard, which provided a list of all functions along with arguments and examples where the function could be used.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Open source

•••
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 b...
Endi Sukaj
Top 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...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Can develop within Android

•••
It is possible to develop games directly on a tablet or cellphone with the Android system by using the experimental Android branch.
Jonathan
Top Con

The community seems juvenile

•••
For example, some of the library include names such as HUMP, LUBE, AnAL.
Jonathan
Top Con

Binary compilation

•••
No way to compile into a binary under Linux. Source code has to be given away.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Mobile support is still experimental

•••
While it is possible to export LÖVE games to Android and iOS, it is still experimental so there might be hidden bugs and flaws that need to be addressed.
See 6 more Pros & ConsSee 6 more Pros & Cons

Unreal Engine 4

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Ray
SquarerFive “SquarerFive”
Top Pro

Easy to use

•••
Compared to Unity, Unreal Engine 4 is much more user friendly and has a blueprint system which will not require you code.
SquarerFive “SquarerFive”
Monika
SuccessfulManat
Top Pro

Super realistic graphics

•••
Unreal Engine 4 has photo-realistic rendering and has a visual scripting system called Blueprints.
Ray
SquarerFive “SquarerFive”
Top Con

Large update size

•••
The update size ranges from 2 - 8 GBs each update (4.17 to 4.18).
Chloe Montanez
DelightfulResheph
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Hard to download

•••
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Pygame

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Cocos2D

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Monika
MemorableNabu
Top Pro

Cross platform

•••
Your games can be published for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms.
Know any negative aspects of this option?

Corona SDK

Ed Maurina
Top Pro

Easy To Learn

•••
Learn a little Lua. Learn a few basic concept. Get rolling fast.
Ed Maurina
Top Pro

Easily Target Multiple Platforms

•••
With one source, you can target: iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, Apple TV, Android TV, and more ...
Barry Swan
Top Pro

Live builds (Develop while testing directly on devices)

•••
Instead of working in a simulator, then building and testing on devices, Corona lets you test directly on the device, whatever the platform. Or, indeed, test on all of them simultaneously. Just build once onto each device, and then in the future any changes to your project are reflected immediate...
Ryan
Paul Cardwell
BJ Milagro
Top Pro

Great support community

•••
Have questions? Visit the forums and ask questions. Just note the more information you provide in your question the better the answer.
Ed Maurina
Top Pro

Tons Of Examples

•••
Corona SDK comes with well over 100 examples (bundled with the simulator). As well, there are hundreds more examples to be found on gitHub and other internet repositories.
Elias Fares
Top Pro

Well supported

•••
Elias Fares
Top Pro

Live builds - update builds running on a device automatically

•••
With the live build feature, once you have created a build and installed on a device, you get lightning fast turnaround times because any change on the code or data is updated to the devices running the game (within the local WiFi) immediately. So changes can be tested on the real hardware within a...
Elias Fares
Top Pro

Corona Simulator

•••
Corona SDK ships with Corona Simulator, which runs your game/app directly on your PC/Mac and updates every time you make changes. It provides immediate feedback to your actions, you can see your changes right on the screen, without necessity to make build to device. Getting instant feedback really...
Elias Fares
Top Pro

Lua syntax

•••
Uses the great and easy-to-learn Lua programming language.
Elias Fares
Top Pro

Very simple to use

•••
Elias Fares
Top Pro

Free

•••
Corona SDK is completely free as of March 2, 2015. That includes pro-tier plugins.
Endi Sukaj
Ivan Aras
Top Pro

Produces APKs with a relatively small size

•••
Elias Fares
Top Con

Closed source

•••
Since you don't have access to the code, you can't make changes to the SDK. You even have to implement workarounds on issues that have long been reported, but never fixed.
Paolo
derloopkat
Top Con

Poor code editor

•••
It uses Sublime with an add-on for Lua. Autocompletion ignores the context and pops up kinda template you have to edit. Debugging tools are also poor. It's like writing your application in Notepad++ instead of using a proper SDK like Visual Studio, Android Studio, etc. Moreover Corona is not f...
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Blender Game Engine

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Bryan
Top Pro

Includes node based scripting

•••
Simple work like keyboard mapping, bullet physics, and animation players, can be set up without touching code, wich is great for people who want to slap up a rapid prototype, or simply can't code.
Bryan
Top Pro

Free and open source

•••
The BGE is feature of Blender, which is licensed under the GPL.
Bryan
Top Con

Difficult exporting

•••
Exporting games can be difficult for beginners in Blender. Exporting as runnable only runs on dev platform, and unmentioned files must be copied into the runnable folder in order for a computer without blender installed to run the game.
Bryan
Top Con

GPL complicates commercial distribution

•••
Any game published using the BGE runtime system is considered a derivative work under the GPL, which disqualifies it from some distribution channels including the Apple Store. The Blender Foundation considers this an unfortunate technicality, does not prosecute license violations, and provides seve...
Bryan
Top Con

Unintuitive interface for creating texture models

•••
The GUI required to make materials and texture models, is very hard to learn, and can be confusing; even frustrating at times.
Bryan
Top Con

Unoptimised

•••
A few particles and some basic meshes can make the frame rate drop drastically.
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CryEngine

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Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

Lots of learning resources available

•••
Crytek have put a renewed focus on making it easier to learn game development with CRYENGINE, including a completely retooled documentation and manual as well as dozens of new high-quality video tutorials.
Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

Great marketplace available

•••
Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

Primed for VR Development

•••
Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

Cross-platform

•••
Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

100% royalty free

•••
Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

Games built with CryEngine can easily be commercialized

•••
Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

Full source code available

•••
Endi Sukaj
JollyYucahu
Top Pro

All users will have the latest tools available at all times

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 7 more ProsSee 7 more Pros

GDevApp

Add Video or Image
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Can export your game as HTML5 and for Android

•••
Games can be packaged for Android without relying on any third party tool. You can also export your game and download it to host it on your server or let it be hosted on GDevApp.com.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Can download an archive of the game source

•••
Even though the tool depends on having a server up and running, you can download a copy of your game to run locally, or host somewhere else.
Endi Sukaj
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"/"...
Endi Sukaj
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 scr...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Based on GDevelop

•••
The entire webapp is based on GDevelop, an open source native game development software available for Windows & Linux, so it benefits from its advanced development.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Depends on a hosting service

•••
If the website goes down or closes down, you'll no longer be able to develop your games using this system (but you can download a backup of your game from time to time and open it with GDevelop).
See 4 more ProsSee 4 more Pros

GameMaker: Studio

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Chloe Montanez
Ben Peterson
Top Pro

Drag and Drop Programming

•••
Easy to understand drag and drop programming that transitions into their own simple programming language.
Chloe Montanez
Ben Peterson
Top Pro

All in one workflow

•••
You can make the art, code and build the scene all in the same environment, reducing the file juggling that impedes some other platforms.
Endi Sukaj
Paolo Oliverio
Top Pro

One of the fastest HTML5 engines available

•••
Endi Sukaj
Paolo Oliverio
Top Pro

From beginners to experts it's very productive to use

•••
The few limitations don't get in the way when it comes to productivity where Game Maker excels as it has just everything ready to just dive into it in seconds.
thermoplastics
Top Con

Free version is limited

•••
The free version of this engine only allows for basic features, while it can be serviceable for simple projects, the limitations may interfere with the vision of the user.
Alex
Jakob Stever
Top Con

It's expensive

•••
If you decide to purchase the full version of the software, it will cost you anything from $99 up to $1500.
Guest
Top Con

Outdated

•••
Now GameMaker Studio 2 is out. GameMaker: Studio is quickly becoming outdated.
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Monkey X Free

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Scratch

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Seth Petersen
ElatedPundjel
Top Pro

Easy to learn

•••
Simple drag and drop program with even an offline free download.
Know any negative aspects of this option?

Superpowers

Add Video or Image
Endi Sukaj
Stuff By Spencer
Top Pro

Supports 2D and 3D

•••
Stuff By Spencer
Top Pro

Cross-Platform

•••
Stuff By Spencer
Top Pro

Completely free

•••
Stuff By Spencer
Top Pro

Collaborative

•••
Stuff By Spencer
Top Pro

Open Source

•••
Stuff By Spencer
Top Pro

API Docs provided in the app for learning

•••
Endi Sukaj
Stuff By Spencer
Top Pro

Easy to learn programming language

•••
Uses Typescript.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 6 more ProsSee 6 more Pros

Panda3D

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thermoplastics
Top Pro

Flexible scene and object hierarchy system

•••
Creating weird world constructs is generally a breeze. The node system the engine runs with allows to build self-looping worlds and, on large scale, non-Euclidean scenes without having to introduce a huge amount of custom code.
thermoplastics
Top Pro

Powerful profiling and debugging tools

•••
Panda3D has a suite of powerful tools to help track down performance bottlenecks, memory leaks and examine internal state.
thermoplastics
Top Pro

Web plug-in for browser deployment

•••
Panda3D offers web plug-ins that allow deployment of an application to all major browsers. A WebGL port is in the works as well.
thermoplastics
Top Pro

Supports most popular physics engines

•••
Panda3D has in-depth integration with industry standard physics engines such as Bullet, NVIDIA PhysX and ODE, but also offers a simpler built-in physics engines that will cover more basic needs.
thermoplastics
Top Pro

Python scripting environment

•••
Although it's possible to use only C++ to program in Panda3D, all its power is available to the Python scripting language, while not trading in performance since the performance-critical parts are implemented in C++. It has a powerful binding layer that exposes the vast majority of the API via...
thermoplastics
Top Con

No unified editing program

•••
Unlike Unity and Unreal, Panda3D doesn't currently offer a single, unified editing program in which objects can simply be dragged in and assigned properties (although third-party solutions are available). Developers are expected to design their scenes in a modelling program like Maya or Blender...
thermoplastics
Top Con

Loading Panda3D will change your builtins to contain non explicit references to non-standard helper functions

•••
A lot of the pollution comes from storing global state. Instead, you can store and update the global state of a namespace instead. As for the built-in pollution, you can make a wrapper that backs up builtins, imports pandas and then restores builtins, though this may not work as pandas almost certa...
thermoplastics
Top Con

Direct3D support is behind

•••
Direct3D support not up to par with OpenGL support, only version 9 is supported
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Adventure Game Studio

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Urho3D

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Polycode

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BYOND

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thermoplastics
Laura Kyle
Tyruswoo
Top Pro

Easily teaches you to code

•••
You will learn object oriented coding easily.
Laura Kyle
Tyruswoo
Top Pro

Multiplayer online comes built in

•••
You can start hosting your game immediately! You just need to get your port forwarded.
Laura Kyle
Tyruswoo
Top Con

Coding language is specific to BYOND

•••
Although the code is exceptionally easy to learn, it is a language specific to BYOND. Read more about the language here.
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Engine 001 Game Maker

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133 Community Recommendations

Paolo Oliverio
Sojan Janso
Core Lord
Ed Maurina
BJ Milagro
Tyruswoo
Pixode
Hirnbix
Ivan Aras
Svoka Vlad
Barry Swan
+99
Request recommendations from the community
Ankush4135
Ankush4135
Contributor for 24 days
8
Total 
Recs.
130
Total 
Karma
Blender Game Engine
24 days ago
Very hard to understand
Con
 Difficult exporting
See full
SquarerFive “SquarerFive”
SquarerFive
Contributor for 5 months
1
Total 
Recs.
315
Total 
Karma
Unreal Engine 4
Recommended 5 months ago
I had a great experience developing my prototype FPS game in Unreal Engine 4. The blueprints system is simple but offers a lot of features. You can use blueprints to activate and trigger events such as firing your weapon and you can even script A.I using a behaviour tree inside of blueprints.
Con
 Large update size
Pro
 Easy to use
See full
Elias Fares
Elias
Contributor for 2 months
4
Total 
Recs.
375
Total 
Karma
Corona SDK
Recommended 2 months ago
Building my first 2D mobile game using this game engine and learning Lua as I go.
Pro
 Easy To Learn
Pro
 Easily Target Multiple Platforms
Pro
 Great support community
Pro
 Live builds (Develop while testing directly on devices)
Pro
 Free
Pro
 Very simple to use
Pro
 Lua syntax
Pro
 Corona Simulator
Pro
 Live builds - update builds running on a device automatically
Pro
 Well supported
Con
 Closed source
See full
SincerePyrrhichos
SincerePyrrhichos
Contributor for 4 months
4
Total 
Recs.
0
Total 
Karma
Blender Game Engine
3 months ago
Mobile export is complicated.
1See full
Core Lord
Core
Contributor for 5 months
1
Total 
Recs.
0
Total 
Karma
Unreal Engine 4
Recommended 5 months ago
Powerful And Easy
See full
Currently displaying 5 out of 133 total recommendations.
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