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Game Development

What are the best game engines?

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7 Options Considered

7 Options ConsideredPriceLanguagesDev platforms
libGDX
JavaWindows; OSX; Linux
Construct 2
JavaScriptWindows
LÖVE
–
Lua(LuaJIT), C++, CWindows, OSX, Linux
Unreal Engine 4
C++, Blueprints (Visual Scripting)Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Duality
C#Windows
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libGDX

Paolo
Top Pro

Great performance across devices

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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.
Paolo
Top Pro

Allows you to migrate from 2D to 3D within same framework

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LibGDX supports both 2D and 3D game development. Allowing 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.
Paolo
Top Pro

Lots of resources to learn from

•••
Lots of references, tutorials and open source code to learn from.
Paolo
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 for...
Paolo
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.
Paolo
Top Pro

Free, open source & permissive license

•••
libGDX uses the Apache License 2.0. Not only is libGDX 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...
Paolo
Top Pro

Scene2d support

•••
Paolo
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.
Paolo
Top Pro

Very easy to customize

•••
Paolo
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.
Paolo
Top Pro

Constantly improved

•••
Paolo
Top Pro

Uses Box2D

•••
A Java port of the Box2D physics engine is included in libGDX.
Paolo
Top Pro

Support for 3rd party tools

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libGDX has built in support for many 3rd party tools, including (but not limited to) Bullet Physics, Box2DLights and the well-praised Tiled Map Editor.
Paolo
Top Pro

Across platform support

•••
You can write once and run anywhere (Android, IOS, Desktop, Browser) also lately came with lib to deal with VR.
Paolo
Top Pro

Lots of tutorials to get you going

•••
Even though the official documentation might be lacking, there are many tutorials on YouTube for libGDX.
Paolo
Top Pro

Similar to the Microsoft XNA framework

•••
Old XNA users may like libGDX since it's API is actually very similar to XNA's.
Paolo
Top Pro

Excellent font rendering support

•••
Very good tools for rendering fonts.
Paolo
Top Pro

Focusing on object pool patterns, to control memory without pointers

•••
Unlike Unity or other engine, it allows to optimize a language that uses garbage collector when using patterns of objects you can control the use of memory without needing a language like C / C ++, getting the same speed in a more productive language.
Paolo
Top Con

Not starter friendly

•••
Even default applications fail to load in Android. It doesn't have any documentation on errors either.
Paolo
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.
Paolo
Top Con

Build system is clunky

•••
LibGDX uses Gradle, which is very demanding of memory and makes IDEs freeze on anything if your computer is not powerful enough.
Paolo
Top Con

Does not create compiled code

•••
LibGDX runs entirely on Java and does not create executable binaries.
Paolo
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...
See 21 more Pros & ConsSee 21 more Pros & Cons

Construct 2

hrill favour
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.
hrill favour
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.
hrill favour
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.
hrill favour
Top Pro

Runs great on mobile

•••
Performs well on most devices and browsers.
hrill favour
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 up...
See 3 more ProsSee 3 more Pros

LÖVE

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Jonathan
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.
Jonathan
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
Jonathan
Miguel
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...
Jonathan
Miguel
Top Pro

Great performance

•••
Endi Sukaj
Jonathan
Miguel
Top Pro

Simple to use/understand

•••
Lua2D handles loading the resources, reading input, playing sounds and displaying stuff on the screen. Only the logic is left for the developer to write. It also removes the overhead of having to use and learn a GUI game editor. All you need is a knowledge of Lua and your favourite text editor or I...
Jonathan
Miguel
Top Pro

Integrated physics

•••
Jonathan
Miguel
Top Pro

Open source and free

•••
The LÖVE engine is licensed under The zlib/libpng License (which is very short and human readable) which allows you to use the source code and even modify it as long as you do not claim that the original source code is yours. You can obtain the code at this bitbucket repository and even help fix b...
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.
Jonathan
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 8 more Pros & ConsSee 8 more Pros & Cons

Unreal Engine 4

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Duality

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Adam
Top Pro

Very Extensible

•••
Because both Core and Editor are completely plugin-based, Duality not only incorporates a clean and modular design, but is also very extensible - even if it wasn't Open Source. In fact, most of the standard editing capabilities comes in form of Editor plugins.
Adam
Top Pro

Open Source

•••
The full source code is available on GitHub, where the framework is actively developed. All of the editor, core and plugin code is written in C#.
Adam
Top Pro

Great Editor

•••
Duality includes a powerful visual editing system that can be used for previewing, integrating, editing and testing game content.
Adam
Top Pro

Used in Commercial Projects

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It has been used in a production environment without burning the place to the ground. Supposedly artist-proof editor workflow with an API for tailoring the system to fit your team.
Adam
Top Pro

Live Reload of Code and Assets

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Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 4 more ProsSee 4 more Pros

Crafty

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CraftStudio

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9 Community Recommendations

Фёдор Стуров
Adam
Paolo
Stuart Kearney
jacob prosser
hrill favour
Miguel
RationalKingu
OpinionatedNjordr
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hrill favour
hrill
Contributor for 2 months
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Construct 2
Recommended 2 months ago
i am an expert in it i have been using since i was 4 now i am 155
Pro
 Runs great on mobile
Pro
 Quick to pick up
Pro
 Little programming knowledge needed
Pro
 Free (feature limited) version available
Con
 HTML5 is very dependent on browser performance
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Currently displaying 1 out of 9 total recommendations.
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