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Game Development3D2DVisual Scripting

What is the best game engine with visual scripting?

11

Options
Considered

134

User
Recs.

May 8, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

10 Options Considered

Best game engine with visual scripting	Price	Dev platforms	Desktop targets
-- GameMaker: Studio	-	Windows, Linux, macOS, ARM	Windows, Linux, macOS, Windows UWP, HTML5
-- GDevelop	Free	Windows, Linux, Mac, Web	Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, Web
-- Construct 3	-	Windows	Windows; Macintosh; Linux
-- Stencyl	-	Windows; Macintosh; Linux	Windows; Macintosh; Linux
-- Unreal Engine 4	-	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, SteamOs, HTML5

GameMaker: Studio

Top Pro

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 get create their projects without the help of a programmer. 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

TruthfulOxomoco's Experience

Very Easy Engine and Visual Scripting! Your choice if you wanna Code In GML Or Visual Script with DND See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows, Linux, macOS, ARM

Desktop targets:Windows, Linux, macOS, Windows UWP, HTML5

Languages:GML (JavaScript-like)

Mobile targets:Android, iOS, (depricated: Windows Phone, Tizen)

Top Pro

Battle-tested

It's been around since 1999. See More

Top Con

Code editor not friendly to indented code

While the editor of course has features for intending code such as auto indent and smart tabs that can be turned on or off, these features work in unusual ways and, overall, the editor is not very adaptable to various typing styles. Also, Home always takes you to position 0 and never to the beginning of the text no matter how many times you hit it. Thus, if you hit Home and then Enter a new line, with auto indent on, it will always mess up the indentation on the line following the new line leaving you to fudge around to fix it manually. If you prefer tabs over spaces, forget it. Finally, if you leave the GameMaker app and try to click back into the code editor, the code editor will not fully get the focus sometimes leaving you with the ability to type but not tab. It usually takes two clicks to fully focus the code editor from outside the GM app. See More

Top Pro

Has a free version that still allows for creative game development

Game Maker Studio uses a tiered service beginning with its free option. This standard edition of GM Studio has all of the features of the professional edition, minus the additional export modules for cross platform releases. The free standard edition also comes with a non-removable "Made with Game-Maker" splash screen. All other features are unhindered by the free version. 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 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

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 Pro

It has an IDE used for loading all of the assets

It is very easy to manage all these 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

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

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

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

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

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

Access to the GML scripting 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

Lacks a cross-platform dev environment

The dev environment only runs on Windows. 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

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 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

Tends to crash or not compile games properly

Top Pro

Has a 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

Poor level editor

No marquee select, no layers, only one undo, glitchy, poor manipulation of scale/rotation, can't manipulate draw order, no grouping, etc. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

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

Supports 3D

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

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 way to activate or use existing modules

Support entirely focused on new iteration depriving even basic functionality of this version with any purchase that hasn't already been activated. It is still possible, thought not intuitive, to download this version on the trail screen for GM S 2. But no purchased (wildly expensive) module can be added any longer. 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

Can't embed videos in game

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

Top Pro

Easy to add native code to GMS

Good extension support. You can do anything with gms! You just need to know how to code natively in the respectively export (like Android). See More

Top Con

Poor accessibility and integration

Documentation and resources largely focus on proprietary scripting language, which is necessary for achieving full potential of the software due to poor drag and drop integration. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for pixel-perfect collisions

Enabling pixel-perfect collisions on 2D sprites is so easy many will likely turn it on when maybe they might be better off without it. Regardless, it simplifies small and/or retro console-like game work. This is a feature fairly unique in this class of game engines. 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

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

This is very flat for games

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

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GDevelop

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 Con

No support for atlas/tilemap and sprite 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

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Web

Desktop targets:Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, Web

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 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

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

Construct 3

Top Pro

Easy learning curve

Seems a bit overwhelming at first, but it is very quick and easy. See More

Top Con

Only extensibility is with code

JavaScript is required to extend the engine. However there are plenty of templates for making your own plugin or behavior, or simply using the Javascript to import libraries inside the project itself. Is NOT A BIG CON, if you know Javascript which by 2019 almost every web developer or developer enthusiast, is trying to have this particular skill. Then shouldn't be a big problem. See More

DependablePholus's Experience

very bad for the pro games developpers! See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows

Desktop targets:Windows; Macintosh; Linux

Languages:JavaScript

Mobile targets:iOS; Android

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 Con

Does not export to native mobile code

Construct 2 builds to HTML 5 only, which can cause performance issues on mobile devices depending on the HTML5 engine that the OS is using since that will be the biggest bottleneck. Even though it's not really the engine's fault, it still is at a disadvantage compared to native game engines. See More

Top Pro

No coding required

Construct's powerful 'Event System' allows you to make thing happen without code. Example: When Space is Pressed -> Player Jumps. See More

Top Con

HTML5 is very dependent on browser performance

Theoretically all browsers should run HTML5 pretty much the same way, but thats not always the case. Something that worked fine on Chrome, for instance, might malfunction on Firefox (or vice versa). And there's nothing the devs of Construct 2 can really do about it, but to hope next Firefox update might fix it. Internet Explorer is not even recommended. Add to that the fact that exporting to mobile or desktops rely on these sort of stripped down versions of web browsers (Node webkit, Crosswalk, Ejecta) that you pack with your game, and you can have a real headache if you're trying to make your game work properly through multiple platforms. See More

Top Pro

Built in behaviors make development workflows very efficient

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

Top Con

Tilemap object could be better

C2 requires that there's a tilemap objects for each tilemap layer meaning each tilemap object has to be updated when modifying any layer. This could be simplified by adding layer support for tilemap objects. 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 Con

Dependency on 3rd parties for all exports

Unless you are creating a game strictly for browser/HTML5 usage, exporting to desktop or mobile is risky, as Scirra have no control over your final export quality. Since desktop uses NodeWebkit and mobile is Crosswalk, Phonegap or CocoonJS there is no guarantee that your final export performance and quality will be up to scratch for pro level 2d games. These 3rd party "browser wrappers" are very prone to breaking and introducing lag and bugs that can't be controlled from Scirra's side. See More

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 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. 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 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

Top Con

Not so good visual editor

he uses loops and if clauses like if it was events See More

Top Pro

Available on Steam

You can also download Construct 2 on Steam. 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

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

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

New features are released constantly

Developers provide regular updates (usually bi-weekly) with new features and bug fixes. 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

Affordable with robust runtime license agreement

There are three editions of C2: Free, Personal and Business. The Free edition has some limits in functionality, and prohibits you from making money from your C2 creations. With the Personal edition ($129.99), you get more features and are free to make up to $5,000 with your C2 creations if you're an individual. If you haven't reached $5,000, you don't need the Business edition ($429.99). Non-profit organizations also don't need the Business edition. After you've made $5,000, you must upgrade to the Business edition ($299.99); but once you've made $5,000, this should be easily affordable. If you're a for-profit business, you must purchase the Business edition, unless your company hasn't made $5,000 business revenue. There is no difference in terms of features between the Personal and Business editions, just the runtime license agreement. There is also an education license specifically for educational institutes, where they offer site licenses and take-home licenses. 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

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

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

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

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

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

Supportive devs

The developers are always available to help. 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

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

Runs great on mobile

Performs well on most devices and browsers. See More

Top Pro

Built-in pathfinding

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

Stencyl

Top Pro

No coding required, great drag & drop interface

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

PerfectSilvanus's Experience

Easy to use and the coding blocks are intuitive. See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows; Macintosh; Linux

Desktop targets:Windows; Macintosh; Linux

Mobile targets:iOS; Android

Top Pro

Free version available

CapableShurpanakha's Experience

Top Pro

Allows sharing prebuilt behaviors

Top Pro

Built-in tileset support

Top Pro

Allows user-written engine extensions

Top Pro

Easy to use built-in level editor

Top Pro

Cross-Platform

Publish iOS, Android, Flash, Windows and Mac games without code. See More

Top Pro

Haxe scripting available for advanced users

Power users can also write code in Haxe (similar to Actionscript 3) to create their own custom classes and extend the engine. See More

Unreal Engine 4

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Developers have full control of the engine and source code

UE4 gives full access to the C++ source code allowing editing and upgrading anything in the system. See More

Top Con

C++ - oriented development cycle: slow turn-around times

The Unreal Editor is the main place to do stuff (of course), so if someone wants to do a lot of C++ stuff, the compilation and linking turn-around times can be painful. Still they probably are quite fast in comparison to the provided featureset. Still, they are far from optimal. See More

ExcellentTsovinar's Experience

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Desktop targets:Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, SteamOs, HTML5

Languages:C++, Blueprints (Visual Scripting)

Mobile targets:iOS, Android

Top Pro

A visual scripting system for non-coders enables quick prototyping

Blueprints are authoring tools designed for non programmers so designers and other team members can help tweak and prototype. UE4's Blueprint scripts resemble flowcharts where each box represents a function or value, with connections between them representing program flow. This provides a better at-a-glance indication of game logic than a simple list of events, and makes complex behaviors easier to accomplish and games a lot faster to prototype. See More

Top Con

Extremely long build times

Making a full rebuild, including engine can take a good 30minutes. If you plan to use Unreal professionally, you better get some licenses for Incredibuild as well. See More

Top Pro

Lots of resources to learn from

Epic provides multiple official video tutorials, lots of free example projects and content, an extensive wiki and regular streams showing how to use latest features. See More

Top Con

Very high build size

A blank project will build in to a minimum of 200 MB. See More

Top Pro

No coding experience needed

Top Con

Steep learning curve

Especially when compared to its primary competitor, Unity. See More

Top Pro

Quick release-cycle

New feature releases can be commonly expected about once a month. See More

Top Con

Tutorials do not go in-depth enough

The blueprint tutorial just teaches how to turn on a light when you press f. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use animation blueprints

Unreal Engine 4 is one of the best game engines. It is super easy. It dosent require any use of coding due to Animation Blueprints See More

Top Con

Hard engine for beginners

This engine not easy for beginners. See More

Top Pro

Free development license, including source code

The engine, including full access to source code, is licensed to developers for 5% royalty on resulting revenue if it exceeds $3000 per quarter. Update: It's now $1,000,000. See More

Top Con

Poor source control support

Merge tool is not working. See More

Top Pro

Dynamic global illumination with voxel cone tracing decreases the computational power needed

Voxel cone tracing is a similar algorithm to ray tracing, but uses thick rays instead of pixel thin rays to be able vastly decrease the amount of computational power needed. See More

Top Con

Bad support

The epic games team only assists with billing and account issues, not bugs. See More

Top Pro

Powerful material/shader system

Allows a texture/material artist or VFX artist to create amazing effects from the ground up. See More

Top Con

No drawcall batching, performance is very bad on mobile

There's no dynamic batching support to minimize drawcalls. There's InstancedStaticmesh concept in UE4, but it's 3d only, functionally limited and requires hardware support which rules out most mobile devices. See More

Top Pro

Active community

Forums have many active and friendly members that are quick to respond and help out. Even staff is very active on forums. See More

Top Con

C# not supported

Top Pro

Spectacular lighting visuals

Top Con

Poor quality assurance on their releases

After each release they almost immediately release a hotfix. And another one. And another one. See More

Top Pro

Fast compilation for quick iteration

Recompiling an entire game to test a small change takes up a lot of time. UE4 quickly compiles in seconds instead of minutes improving iteration time by an order of magnitude. See More

Top Con

They spend more time adding features than fixing existing ones

Top Pro

Cross-platform editor and export

This engine exports for a big range of platforms including Linux. The editor can be run on Windows, MacOS, and Linux (Early Access). See More

Top Con

Poor documentation

Most of the "documentation" for code is actually just automatically generated from the source. If you're interested in knowing how things are supposed to work, you must either go to their answers site or pay for UDN. Often their examples won't even compile, since they were written for now outdated versions. See More

Top Pro

Professional feature set for all aspects of game development

Almost everything a game developer wants has a deep and sophisticated tool waiting for them in UE4. No external plugins are needed to make powerful materials, FX, terrain, cinematics, gameplay logic, AI, animation graphs, post process effects, lighting etc. See More

Top Con

Slow

Compared to other engines, UE4 seems to perform various actions considerably slower. Actions like starting the engine, opening the editor, opening a project, rebuilding shaders, updating references, calculating lightmaps, saving projects, etc take long enough to get irritating and end up wasting precious development time. See More

Top Pro

AAA Ready

This is ready to make the next AAA game. See More

Top Pro

Realistic graphics

Top Pro

Proven track record

Unity3d

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Visual Scripting

The AssetStore gives the user a lot of different Visual Scripting tools (some even being free), as opposed to only one language for most game engines. The most used one (Bolt) is well-documented as the devs provide tutorials and sample projects to work with. See More

Top Con

Not open-source

You are limited by what the engine can do, as you cannot modify it. See More

Top Pro

Exports to most modern platforms

You have access to most platforms for free, including WebGL, Windows/Mac/Linux, TvOS, Android/iOS and other ones. You can export to game consoles like Playstation/XBOX/3DS/WiiU/Switch by requesting licenses or developer accounts to their respective companies. See More

Top Pro

A lot of learning resources

You can learn to work with the platform for free with tutorials on their site and videos on the Youtube channel. They also offer paid courses (they are free if you pay subscription). See More

Top Pro

Free and paid versions are available

You can download a free version and start working right away. If needed, you can always choose a subscription plan with extra functionality. See More

Buildbox

Add Video or Image

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 Con

Free Version is lacking

The free version has less features, only one world can be created, and the maximum amount of scenes you can have is 5. That's not a great free plan. I don't see this becoming the most popular game engine to use. See More

HealthyGilgamesh's Experience

i m working on RPG game with See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker, BSD

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

Free to use

Game Salad and Amazon's Lumberyard (more 3D here) are better choices to learn with. These game engines are free to use and also have a low learning curve. Before you invest in any game engine, you need to see if its right for the game you have in mind to build. See More

Top Pro

Drag-and-drop editor

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

Top Con

Very expensive

$60 a month ($720 annually) for the pro version. See More

Top Pro

Fast for prototyping

If you know Buildbox well, you can make a fast prototype. No code required at all. See More

Top Pro

Great tutorials and community to help your game making process

Clear tutorials and a friendly community. See More

Clickteam Fusion 2.5

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

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

CromulentAdikia's Experience

it is a great engine for starters to use as it doesn't need real coding See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows, Mac

Desktop targets:Windows, Mac

Languages:(Visual Editor)

Mobile targets:iOS, Android, UWP

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

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 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 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 Pro

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

Top Pro

Free version

A free version is available for download here. 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

GameGuru

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Friendly GUI

Awesome friendly GUI, and quite easy to use. See More

Top Con

Currently in beta

FPSCR is currently a beta product with features potentially important to a specific project still in the roadmap. Obviously this is expected of a beta product, and new features are constantly being added, but should be taken into consideration when choosing a game engine for a game right now. To see what's currently implemented, being implemented and in the roadmap go here. See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows

Desktop targets:Windows

Mobile targets:none

Console targets:none

Top Pro

Awesome tech support

Top Con

Windows only

There is only one supported platform. No macOS/Linux or mobile. See More

Top Pro

Royalty free

Games you publish with GameGuru can be sold without any restrictions or commissions. See More

Top Con

Lack of user-interface

Although you can customize a lot, the user-interface does not show that. But plans are in place to improve this with some front facing GUI into the LUA scripts so you don't need to code as much. See More

Top Pro

Building editor

Currently in development but already looking very good! Easily create big and customized buildings with default building blocks and share them with others. Also very easy to use in the designer: The buildings are treated like entities but still directly available in the 'building editor mode'. See More

Top Pro

Active and helpful community

Users share ideas, help, and advice through the official forums. The community also provides a wealth of free assets, and the GameGuru Assets Store sees constant additions. See More

Top Pro

Powerful scripting language

Uses Lua. See More

Top Pro

Designed for ease of use

Simplicity and accessibility are the core design goals of FPS Creator Reloaded. See More

Top Pro

Optimised engine for editor

The game engine is optimized for efficient use of memory. See More

Top Pro

Massive community of users

The gamer creator forums have a large number of users, developing games, making models for sale and to give away for other users. They answer questions, help each other with problems in their games, and can make using this software so much more fun and easy. See More

Top Pro

Feature priorities are chosen by the community

The Game Creators team frequent the forums and ask the community for feeback and suggestions both there and via an open poll on the website. They have a great history of reading suggestions, viewing screenshots, and generally working with the community. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use your own custom assets

Easily import your own 3D models with the built-in importer and create custom characters with the Character creator. Custom weapons are much more difficult, though. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use editor

An easy 3D editor to create your own maps in seconds with drag-and-drop function. See More

Top Pro

Continuous development and updates

News and improvements are released on a monthly schedule. Interaction between The Game Creators and project backers is excellent. See More

Top Pro

Large asset store

A store where you can buy various assets for your games like sounds, 3D models, weapons... Very good prices and a lot of assets are even free. See More

Defold

Top Pro

Fast results

Going from idea to result is very important for the creative process. See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows; Linux; OSX

Desktop targets:Windows; Linux; HTML5; OSX

Mobile targets:iOS; Android; FB Instant Games

Top Pro

Great community

A very active and friendly community in forums. See More

Top Pro

Very performant

Being crossplatform it is important to work on low end devices. See More

Top Pro

Visual editor

Top Pro

Easy and fast export for various platforms

Top Pro

Collaborative

You can invite friends from the dashboard and create games together. See More

Top Pro

Good combination of visual editing + code (Lua)

You can do a lot with drag and drop, but you're not limited -- the code (Lua, which is easy to learn) allows you more power than just visual editing usually gives you. See More

Top Pro

Completely free of charge

Software and online dashboard are free of charge. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn

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

Verge3D

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