What are the best JavaScript game engines?

Question

16

Options
Considered

201

User
Recs.

Jun 1, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 16 OptionsWhy?

Best JavaScript game engines	Price	Rendering	Special FX
90 Babylon.js	free	Physically based rendering	particles, postprocesses, lens, glow, etc..
-- GDevelop	Free	-	-
78 Phaser	-	-	-
-- Pixi.js	-	-	-
-- Cocos2d-x and Cocos2d Family	-	-	-

See Full List

15 Other Options Considered

GDevelop

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

Top Con

Still needs more tutorials

It has not bad documentation and forum but still needs more tutorials (although there are some good examples to learn from). See More

DevotedRhea's Experience

Easy to use but powerful. Excellent to create training and educational professional content. The HTML5 export feature is great and works like a charm on all platforms. See More

Specs

Languages:C++, JavaScript

License:MIT

Dev platforms:Windows 7+, macOS 10.11+, Linux, Web

Desktop targets:Windows 7+, macOS 10.11+, Linux, HTML5

See All Specs

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

Behaviours of Objects are rather generalized

Since it has a fully GUI editor, the objects you are allowed to add in your game are pretty generalized (PhysicsObject, TiledSprite, PlatformerObject, etc). This limits the freedom of a game developer while making a game, as the object msut follow the preset behaviours imposed on it. 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

No support for atlas/tilemap and character animation sheet

At this point, you need to separate the tileset maps or character animation sprite sheet before importing it to the engine, but the developers are working on this feature. See More

Top Pro

Multilanguage support

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

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

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 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

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

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. 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

Gdevelop non programming skills required

as an indie game developer, you can focus on the design and write javascript code only if you need it. everything works really well. See More

See All

Phaser

Top Pro

Beginner-friendly

Phaser keeps things simple and as such is easy to use by beginners. See More

Top Con

Poor code structure

There's little in terms of cohesiveness in classes, methods or patterns. Forced OOP structure over JavaScript prototypes. See More

DelightfulHanwasuit's Experience

4 years using Phaser v2; 1.5 years using Phaser 3 since alpha See More

Specs

Price:Open Source

Platforms:Web

Scripting language:Javascript, Typescript, ES6 Ecmascript

Top Pro

Open sourced

It has a community version and a bleeding edge version which is being developed to become simpler and faster. Phaser 3 is more modular and much easier to use, in fact. All the source doe for both editions are available on Github. See More

Top Con

Difficult to make the viewport responsive

SuccinctIdyia's Experience

I made a lot of game with ! Phaser is my life! See More

Top Pro

Targets mobile browsers

Built specifically for mobile web browsers. See More

Top Con

Poor documentation for Phaser 3

Phaser 3 is still in the early stages of creation, and hence is not fully documented. However, the community version is fully fleshed out and has an abundance of tuorials and docs. See More

Raghu Ranganathan's Experience

Phaser is an excellent, fully featured game framework that feels like actionScript. It's very easy to transition from flash development to Phaser because of the very reason. It works based on a stage, and has every feature that I've ever wanted in a JS game engine. Phaser has a community version (2.0) maintained by the people and a development version which is being developed actively by photonstorm in order to streamline the game creation process. It's very encouraging to see that this framework is evolving as I use it. See More

Top Pro

Extensive support for texture atlases and loading all kinds of content

Top Con

Poorly designed API; exposes everything

ProfessionalDianCecht's Experience

I've made many games with it. I can tell you that it is the easiest and more powerful 2D framework for games. See More

Top Pro

Built in camera support

Allows for camera shaking, flashing within the framework. See More

DeterminedGanymede's Experience

It's the most popular, but sadly also the most sloppy 2D JS game framework. The vast majority of all the available tutorial focuses on the basics and almost none on project structure or writing maintainable code. See More

See All

Impact

Top Pro

Excellent collision detection system

Impact provides 2 types of collision detection; static and dynamic collisions. Both of which are easily integrated into game development. See More

Top Con

Not being maintained

Impact is not being maintained anymore. Last release is from 2014. See More

Top Pro

Extendable

Many plugins are available, including one called Impact++ which adds features like pathfinding and dynamic lighting. See More

Top Pro

Level editor

Built-in map editor with support for tiling, collision layers, and actors. See More

Top Pro

Extensive documentation available to support development

ImpactJS has an active user community that busily produces tremendous resources including videos, books, tutorials, walkthroughs and more. There are also comprehensive class documentation available. See More

Top Pro

Truly cross-platform allowing developers to build for anything

Extending the reach of a game developed with ImpactJS is easy due to the cross-platform nature the framework. There are Considerations around performance, resolution and audio, however all can be appropriately addressed when in development. Works in the browser via Canvas, even on mobile. Easily translatable into a packaged app. See More

See All

Three.js

Top Pro

Feature rich

Effects: Anaglyph, cross-eyed and parallax barrier. Scenes: add and remove objects at run-time; fog Cameras: perspective and orthographic; controllers: trackball, FPS, path and more Animation: armatures, forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, morph and keyframe Lights: ambient, direction, point and spot lights; shadows: cast and receive Materials: Lambert, Phong, Standard, smooth shading, textures, PBR and more Shaders: access to full OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) capabilities: lens flare, depth pass and extensive post-processing library Objects: meshes, particles, sprites, lines, ribbons, bones and more - all with Level of detail Geometry: plane, cube, sphere, torus, 3D text and more; modifiers: lathe, extrude and tube Data loaders: binary, image, JSON and scene Utilities: full set of time and 3D math functions including frustum, matrix, quaternion, UVs and more Export and import: utilities to create Three.js-compatible JSON files from within: Blender, openCTM, FBX, Max, and OBJ Support: API documentation, public forum Examples: Over 150 files of coding examples plus fonts, models, textures, sounds and other support files See More

PlayCanvas

Top Pro

Powerful assets pipeline

Assets and content delivery is very different on a web platform comparing to native. So PlayCanvas challenges best practices to allow developers decide how their content is delivered and in what form. Async Assets download allows developers to load content as the app goes, instead of asking to download all assets in advance risking users to simply navigate away while staring at loading screens. Formats for 3D models and textures support covers all the popular tools. And the workflow is as simple as dragging and dropping your files right into the Assets Panel. The cloud will do the rest of the hard work optimizing and converting your files into runtime-friendly and compressed data. See More

Top Con

Must have Internet.

Powered by the backend therefore need constant internet connection. See More

Specs

Supported languages:JavaScript

Top Pro

Real-time collaborative online editor tool

PlayCanvas has an online editor that lets you build scenes and work with other people in your team in real-time. This is all done through the web browser without having to install any additional software. See More

Top Pro

Has hot code reloading

Real-time link between your launched app and the editor allows the developer to preview and play with their scene without needing to refresh the game after every change in the code to see the updated result. See More

Top Pro

Rendering engine runs on the browser

Has an advanced WebGL renderer that runs in the browser. See More

Top Pro

Very easy to use

Top Pro

Cross-platform support

PlayCanvas lets you build games that run in mobile, desktop browsers, and native mobile apps. PlayCanvas can even make games that can run inside mobile social media and instant messenger clients like Twitter and WhatsApp. See More

Top Pro

Integrated physics engine

PlayCanvas lets users integrate physics in their game rather easily, using the powerful Bullet Physics Engine (ammo.js). Should also be noted that the physics engine is delivered as an optional library, so by default being disabled it does not add any extra download size to your apps. See More

Top Pro

Open source

PlayCanvas is fully open source and is under active development. See More

Top Pro

Loads extremely fast

See All

Construct 3

Top Con

Free version is severely limited

Although a free version of the engine is available, it lacks features that are essential to creating a high quality product. See More

Top Pro

Cordova support

You can use Cordova plugins from the community See More

Specs

Languages:JavaScript

License:Proprietary

Dev platforms:Windows

Desktop targets:Windows; Macintosh; Linux

See All Specs

Top Pro

Simplicity - it is made for everybody to use and love

Construct 2 is a tool for not just programmers, but artists as well. You can create a game with only visual coding, which is easy to learn and doesn't require any previous programming knowledge. You can focus on making your game better instead of just coding. It has some limitations of course, but it's definitely worth it. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Built-in pathfinding

Has built-in solutions for pathfinding. See More

Top Pro

Built in behaviors make development workflows very efficient

Behaviors add pre-packaged functionality to object types. See More

Top Pro

Built-in animation/image editor

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

Top Pro

Runs great on mobile

Performs well on most devices and browsers. See More

Top Pro

Rapid development

After using a few quick tutorials you can quickly catch on to the event system this program uses and quickly be able to build any type of 2D game you want. You can download a few sprites from google and put together a working level of Mega Man with character movement / animation / enemies / collision detection / scoring / Tile map and AI within about 2 hours. The built in behaviors are incredible. It's amazing how Construct can simplify the most redundant tasks in game development. See More

Top Pro

Supportive devs

The developers are always available to help. See More

Top Pro

Allow server-less multiplayer game creation

Construct 2 uses WebRTC technology to support it's multiplayer functionality. The nature of the technology allows peer-to-peer connection which does not require game developer to create server side architecture to allow communication between games. See More

Top Pro

Free (feature limited) version available

A free version of Construct 2 is available. It's not time restricted in any way, but is feature limited. See More

Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Active plugin ecosystem

Construct 2 has an active plugin ecosystem providing behaviors and features that smooth the workflow for certain game types. See More

Top Pro

Available on Steam

You can also download Construct 2 on Steam. See More

Top Pro

Interface similar to that of MS office

This engine provides an intuitive workflow for people that are used to the Windows environment. See More

Top Pro

Supports camera, microphone, speech recognition and synthesis

Can use cameras in PCs and on mobiles. You can use the synthesis that can recognize your speech or you can write something and it can talk for you. See More

Top Pro

Export control for all major platforms

All platform exporters are part of the subscription. There are no additional fees and new exporters are added quickly and maintained well. Currently, 15 platforms are supported, including HMTL 5, iOS, Android, Windows, Chrome Store, PhoneGap and Scirra. See More

Top Pro

Easy to create particles and animations

With spriter file implementation and internal animation editor Construct 2 provides an easy way of creating particles and animations. See More

Top Pro

One-off cost

It's a one off cost for Construct 2 and all updates to the Construct 2 editor are free for life. See More

Top Pro

Little programming knowledge needed

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

Top Pro

Supportive community

Construct 2 has a supportive community. Their forums have tens of thousands of topics with ten times more posts. The core maintainers are very helpful and friendly and often reply to questions or issues that may be discussed in the forums. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Quick to pick up

Construct 2 is fast to pick up, get into, and belt out some pretty impressive games in a relatively small amount of time. Seems to be built for people who don't have a lot of programming skills, but want to make great games. See More

See All

CreateJS

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Blacksmith 2D

Desktop targets::Windows; OSX; Linux; HTML5

Mobile targets::iOS; Android; BlackBerry; Desktop; HTML5

Languages::JavaScript

Dev platforms::Windows; OSX; Linux

Platino

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Babylon.js

Top Pro

Actively developed

Babylon has great project health, with activity on Github daily for bug fixes and new features. See More

Top Con

It's no game engine

Specs

Rendering:Physically based rendering

Special FX:particles, postprocesses, lens, glow, etc..

Tech:WebGL1/2 + JavaScript or TypeScript

Top Pro

Powerful 3D Framework using WebGL

Top Con

Weak visual tools

Babylon.js has its own editor but it has been weakly developed and does not support a lot of features of engine. See More

Top Pro

Out of the box physics engine support (Cannon.js, OIMO.js)

Top Con

Young project

Babylon is quite young compared to many of it's competitors (released in 2013). The community is still somewhat small, however growing quickly. See More

Top Pro

Playground

Babylon.js comes with a really powerful playground page where you can try and learn with your browser only. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of tutorials and examples

Babylon provides a playground where you can explore examples and play with the code. The official documentation offers a wide variety of well-written tutorials on topics from beginner to advanced. Additionally, there are many tutorials written by the community available that you can find by doing a google search. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity as a foundation

Babylon.js is developed from the ground up to be extremely easy to use. Documentation site is kept up to date. See More

Top Pro

Helpful and friendly community

Thanks to the increasing popularity of Babylon, it has a growing community of helpful developers. It's easy to find help on their forum. See More

Top Pro

Support for native exporters for 3dsMax, Blender3d and Unity3D

Babylon.js files can be produced directly from well-known designer tools. See More

Top Pro

Support for physically based rendering

PBR rendering techniques aim to simulate real life lighting. See More

Top Pro

Has a built-in WebGL 2D Engine to build UI in screen space or inside the 3D world

The Canvas2D feature is a 100% WebGL based 2D Engine which allows to draw text, sprite, primitives (rectangle, ellipsis, complex lines..) with the possibility to interact and animate them. It also feature a grouping feature, positioning using margin/padding/alignment and different layout engine to position/size the 2D components. The Canvas2D can be create in Screen Space: over the 3D Scene, useful for UI or in WorldSpace as a rectangle which will be drawn into the 3D scene like any other kind of 3D objects. See More

Top Pro

Support for special effects

Babylon.js supports particles, lens flares, postprocesses, realtime reflection and refraction. See More

Top Pro

Excellent extensions

Extensions can be viewed here. See More

Top Pro

ShaderBuilder makes any shader in JavaScript

ShaderBuilder, a Babylon extension, is a shader text builder with useful functions that allows you a lot of flexibility when making shaders. See More

Top Pro

Open source

You would have to pay for on other platforms what is readily available for free, with the right amount of personal effort. See More

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The Best 1 of 16 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for Babylon.js

My Recommendation for Babylon.js

Actively developed

It's no game engine

Powerful 3D Framework using WebGL

Weak visual tools

Out of the box physics engine support (Cannon.js, OIMO.js)

Young project

Playground

Plenty of tutorials and examples

Simplicity as a foundation

Helpful and friendly community

Support for native exporters for 3dsMax, Blender3d and Unity3D

Support for physically based rendering

Has a built-in WebGL 2D Engine to build UI in screen space or inside the 3D world

Sponsored by Microsoft

Support for special effects

Excellent extensions

ShaderBuilder makes any shader in JavaScript

Open source

15 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for GDevelop

My Recommendation for GDevelop

Free and open-source

Still needs more tutorials

Online version available, compatible with iOS and Android

Behaviours of Objects are rather generalized

Quickly add behaviors to objects

No support for atlas/tilemap and character animation sheet

Multilanguage support

No cross-compiler

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

Lots of features to build games

Easy to use

Powerful events system to create games without programming

New documentation for gd5 is good for starting

Open source plugin SDK

Gdevelop non programming skills required

My Recommendation for Phaser

My Recommendation for Phaser

Beginner-friendly

Poor code structure

Open sourced

Difficult to make the viewport responsive

Targets mobile browsers

Poor documentation for Phaser 3

Extensive support for texture atlases and loading all kinds of content

Poorly designed API; exposes everything

Built in camera support

My Recommendation for Pixi.js

My Recommendation for Pixi.js

Supports WebGL w/ canvas fallback

Not a complete solution

Will be familiar to ActionScript developers

My Recommendation for Cocos2d-x and Cocos2d Family

My Recommendation for Cocos2d-x and Cocos2d Family

Mobile native performance

My Recommendation for Impact

My Recommendation for Impact

Excellent collision detection system

Not being maintained

Extendable

Level editor

Extensive documentation available to support development

Truly cross-platform allowing developers to build for anything

My Recommendation for Three.js

My Recommendation for Three.js

Feature rich

My Recommendation for PlayCanvas

My Recommendation for PlayCanvas

Powerful assets pipeline

Must have Internet.

Real-time collaborative online editor tool

Has hot code reloading

Rendering engine runs on the browser

Very easy to use

Cross-platform support

Integrated physics engine

Open source