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Gaming
Development
Game Development
Software
Game Engine
What is the best engine for creating a Tactical RPG?
5
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Recs.
Sep 25, 2023
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5
Games
Considered
Best engine for creating a Tactical RPG
Price
Platforms
Popular Language Bindings
75
Godot
Free
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
GDScript, C#, C++
60
Unity 2D
Free+
Windows, Linux, Mac
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RPG Maker
-
Windows, macOS
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libGDX
Free
-
-
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Construct 2
$129.99
-
-
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75
Godot
My Rec
ommendation
for
Godot
My Recommendation for
Godot
All
15
Pros
12
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Built-in physics
Physics can be added to 2D and 3D scenes, through rigid and static bodies, characters, raycasts, vehicles and more.
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Top
Con
•••
Sluggish 3d engine
Although the game engine is supposed to receive a Vulcan revamp shortly, as of right now, it is rather slow and unable to render large scenes.
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Specs
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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.
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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.
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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
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.
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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).
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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
Pro
•••
User friendly UI for all your team
Non-programmers (musicians, artists, etc) can join the development easily.
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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
•••
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
•••
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
•••
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
•••
The list of supported languages is growing
Officially, Godot supported languages for now will be GDScript, C#(Mono), VisualScript and C++.
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Free
Recommend
30
60
Unity 2D
My Rec
ommendation
for
Unity 2D
My Recommendation for
Unity 2D
All
6
Pros
3
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Very easy to use
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Top
Con
•••
2D engine is reportedly badly optimized
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Specs
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Top
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.
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Top
Con
•••
Not suited for beginners
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Top
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.
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Free+
Recommend
26
2
--
RPG Maker
My Rec
ommendation
for
RPG Maker
My Recommendation for
RPG Maker
All
19
Pros
9
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Engine imposes arbitrary limits
Engine imposes arbitrary limits. For example, it only supports resolution up 640x480.
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Top
Pro
•••
A cheap license that allows using the software commercially
There are 3 versions of RPG maker: VX Ace ($89.99), VX ($59.99) and XP ($29.99).
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Specs
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Top
Con
•••
Valuable features only exist thanks to user-created plugins
If you want pixel perfect movement, collision detection, lighting effects, non-grid mapping, resolution changes, an options menu, graphical changes to key components like the menu and the combat system, in-game item placement, multiple tileset support, grid size changes, changing animation frame counts, and so much more all must be done by plugin, rather than being offered as an option out of the box.
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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.
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Top
Con
•••
Cost of entry
Compared to other engines that are free to download and work in, RPG Maker requires an up-front payment. There are trials available but only for a limited amount of time (3 weeks to 1 month) before it will force you to pay for a license.
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Top
Pro
•••
Plenty of premade assets to get you started
Super high quality art assets get you making a game quickly without it looking terrible.
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Top
Con
•••
No engine-based lighting
Lights and shadows must be "faked" in game using overlays of shadow and lighting graphics, rather than a true lighting engine. This can cause perspective issues with in-game lighting. There are some lighting and overlay plugins that exist, but none of them are native to the engine, and due to engine limitations, they may not satisfy what you're needing.
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Top
Pro
•••
Simple Scripting Implementation
Quickly script simple events with a few clicks. This powerful part of the editor allows you to get through the tedious amount of content for quests and other in game sequences quickly.
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Top
Con
•••
"Cookie cutter" look to most games
Due to the general appearance of RPG Maker games, a vast majority of games released on the engine all look nearly identical. Because of this, even some of the better games released in RPG Maker can be dismissed due to it's shovelware issue.
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Top
Pro
•••
Steam support
Get a ton of great assets for the community by the community through Steam’s Workshop support.
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Top
Con
•••
Consoles support is nonexistent
While RPG Maker can allow for games to be released on PC, Mac, Lixux, and mobile devices, any desire to create a game for consoles of any kind is simply not a possibility.
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Top
Pro
•••
Ruby 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.
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Top
Con
•••
Multi-user development can be a hassle
RPG Maker was not really intended for multi-user support. There are a few tactics but for those of you who are used to with multi-user development may get annoyed.
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Top
Pro
•••
Ton of customization options
Create things quickly with things like the character customizer or the experience curve editor. RPG Maker is made to let you change every single thing in your game swiftly and simply.
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Top
Con
•••
Only one tileset per map
While a tileset in RPG Maker can encompass many files it also can be a hassle if you want to use multiple tilesets on a map. You can switch tilesets through code for multi-world game though.
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Top
Pro
•••
Creating maps is simple
Choose a tileset and get to mapping! Supported tiles will connect automatically to help you speed through the mapping process. Setting events on tiles is easy to do and populating your world with NPC’s and other items is easy to do. UpdateComment 1 0···
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Top
Con
•••
Isometric not out of the box
Want to make a tactics game? Well you’re going to have to do some extra work to get those awesome isometric tiles in your game.
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Top
Pro
•••
Powerful Database for everything you need
Everything you make is done through this powerful expansive database. You customize every character, weapon, enemy, and skill through this and so much more to make a designer's life easier.
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here
Recommend
11
--
libGDX
My Rec
ommendation
for
libGDX
My Recommendation for
libGDX
All
12
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Great performance across devices
While it may not always have the best performance for a particular device or system, it's one of the few engines which consistently performs very well across different platforms.
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Top
Con
•••
A bit difficult to use
This engine is not well put together. Is made from various free modules each with their own peculiarities. At times it feels you need to learn a couple of libraries rather than just one. Is not an engine for beginners as it requires coding. Lots of coding. You need to be intermediate to advanced in Java to develop in LibGDX.
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Specs
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free, Open Source & Permissive License
libGDX uses the Apache License 2.0. Not only libGDX is free and open source but also it's license gives you a lot of power over the engine. As long as you provide a copy of the license, give credit, do not hold devs liable and do not use libGDX logo in any engine forks you can do pretty much anything you want.
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Top
Con
•••
Documentation could be better
Other than a brief installation / getting started overview, libGDX's documentation consists of an official wiki with several incomplete pages, and automated Javadocs. The community recognizes these shortcomings, and new users are encouraged to ask for help.
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Top
Pro
•••
Doesn't force a specific design
Unlike some engines, which only allow you to make your game in a few specific ways, libGDX allows you to design any type of game you wish as it is extremely customisable.
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Top
Con
•••
Does not create compiled code
LibGDX runs entirely on Java and does not create executable binaries.
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Top
Pro
•••
Interfacing with platform specific code
Sometimes it is necessary to access platform specific APIs, e.g., adding advertisement services or leaderboard functionality provided by frameworks.
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Top
Con
•••
Performance issues related to Java and the JVM
libGDX is written in Java. While there are ways to build it into native binaries, its intended and supported use is with the JVM, which has performance ramifications.
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Top
Pro
•••
Can use any JVM language
Since it's built with Java and runs on the JVM, any language that compiles to Java bytecode can be used to develop games with libGDX.
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Top
Pro
•••
Allows you to migrate from 2D to 3D within same framework
LibGDX supports both 2D and 3D game development. This allows developers to migrate from 2D to 3D with ease without having to switch the engine they are using or having to learn a new API.
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Top
Pro
•••
Active and helpful community
The libGDX community, in the official libGDX forum is extremely helpful and approachable for any kind of question regardless of the its quality or difficulty. The forums themselves are a very helpful resource for any issue or guide simply by searching past posts in there. In addition to the forums, there's also the official #libgdx IRC channel on Freenode.
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Free
Recommend
2
--
Construct 2
My Rec
ommendation
for
Construct 2
My Recommendation for
Construct 2
All
4
Pros
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Very easy to learn
See More
Specs
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to use
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Top
Pro
•••
Steam support
See More
Hide
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$129.99
Recommend
2
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