Awesome game engines

The list of 40 awesome game engines, game frameworks that you might be used to implement cool and awesome games. If you are looking for a game engines, or you are making your own game engine, then it's place for you. Here you can find interesting game engines and frameworks that are not well known or promote your own game engine. Also, it's the place to look for a new ideas and inspiration. Feel free to make a contribution.

Contents

A (1):

• Allegro - Allegro is a cross-platform library mainly aimed at video game and multimedia programming. It handles common, low-level tasks such as creating windows, accepting user input, loading data, drawing images, playing sounds, etc. and generally abstracting away the underlying platform. However, Allegro is not a game engine: you are free to design and structure your program as you like.

B (1):

• Bevy - A refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust Free and Open Source Forever! All engine and game logic uses Bevy ECS, a custom Entity Component System
  • Fast: Massively Parallel and Cache-Friendly. The fastest ECS according to some benchmarks
  • Simple: Components are Rust structs, Systems are Rust functions
  • Capable: Queries, Global Resources, Local Resources, Change Detection, Lock-Free Parallel Scheduler

C (4):

• Castle-engine - Cross-platform (desktop, mobile, console) 3D and 2D game engine supporting many asset formats (glTF, X3D, Spine...) and using modern Object Pascal.
• Cocos - Efficient, light-weight, cross-platform, all in one 3D development engine. Full coverage of various platforms,friendly and professional tools to create a virtual world.
• Construct 3 - Construct is an HTML5-based 2D video game engine developed by Scirra Ltd. It is aimed primarily at non-programmers, allowing quick creation of games through visual programming.
• Ct.js - ct.js is your new 2D game editor. ct.js makes learning programming fun and game development easy by its visual tools, good docs and flexible, modular library.

It is free, open-source, and is loved by hobbyists, professionals, teachers, and their students.

D (1):

• Defold - Defold is a completely free to use game engine for development of desktop, mobile and web games.

E (0):

F (4):

• FlatRedBall - A game development platform, built in C#, that's perfect for indies or big studios! The FlatRedBall game engine is cross-platform, focused on 2D game development and proven across multiple shipped game projects. It’s a perfect choice for small indies or large teams. Our tools save time. Glue, a core FlatRedBall, tool generates boilerplate so teams can focus on game logic. Plugins to load popular formats like Tiled, Spriter and the Gum UI system make integration easy. FlatRedBall enables native performance with the benefit of code reuse using Xamarin. Our performance tools find problems like memory allocation and render breaks for smooth mobile performance.
• Flax - Flax Engine is a high quality modern 3D game engine written in C++ and C#. From stunning graphics to powerful scripts - Flax can give everything for your games. Designed for fast workflow with many ready to use features waiting for you right now.
• FNA - FNA - Accuracy-focused XNA4 reimplementation for open platforms.
• Fyrox - A feature-rich, production-ready, general purpose 2D/3D game engine written in Rust with a scene editor. Formerly known as rg3d.

G (3):

• Game Maker - GameMaker accommodates the creation of cross-platform and multi-genre video games using a custom drag-and-drop visual programming language or a scripting language known as Game Maker Language, which can be used to develop more advanced games that could not be created just by using the visual programming features. GameMaker was originally designed to allow novice computer programmers to be able to make computer games without much programming knowledge by use of these actions. Recent versions of software also focus on appealing to advanced developers.
• GDevelop - Open-source, cross-platform game engine designed to be used by everyone. GDevelop is a full-featured, no-code, open-source game development software. You can build games for mobile, desktop and the web. GDevelop is fast and easy to use: the game logic is built up using an intuitive and powerful event-based system.
• Godot - Godot Engine is a feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface. It provides a comprehensive set of common tools, so that users can focus on making games without having to reinvent the wheel. Games can be exported with one click to a number of platforms, including the major desktop platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows), mobile platforms (Android, iOS), as well as Web-based platforms and consoles.

H (4):

• HaxeFlixel - Free, cross-platform 2D game engine powered by Haxe and OpenFL.
• Hazel Engine - Hazel is primarily an early-stage interactive application and rendering engine for Windows. Currently not much is implemented, however (almost) everything inside this repository is being created within YouTube videos.
• Heaps.io - Cross platform graphics for high performance game. Heaps.io is a mature cross-platform graphics engine designed for high performance games.It is designed to leverage modern GPUs that are commonly available on both desktop and mobile devices.
• HypeHype - HypeHype is a new revolutionary way to create, remix and play games on your phone. Our mission is to empower anyone to become a game maker through simple, fun and free tools on mobile devices.

I (0):

J (2):

• jle - A simple, yet powerful custom-made C++ game engine intended for PC games. The engine is developed alongside an unannounced game. [WIP]
• jMonkeyEngine - jMonkeyEngine is a modern developer friendly game engine written in primarily in Java. Its minimalistic and code first approach makes it perfect for deveopers who want the support of a game engine while retaining full control over their code with the ability to extend and adapt the engine to their workflow.

K (0):

L (4):

• LibGDX - Cross-platform Game Development Framework. libGDX is a cross-platform Java game development framework based on OpenGL (ES), designed for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, web browsers, and iOS. It provides a robust and well-established environment for rapid prototyping and iterative development. Unlike other frameworks, libGDX does not impose a specific design or coding style, allowing you the freedom to create games according to your preferences.
• LÖVE - Hi there! LÖVE is an awesome framework you can use to make 2D games in Lua. It's free, open-source, and works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android and iOS.
• LumixEngine - 3D C++ Game Engine - yet another open source game engine.

M (1):

• Monogame - MonoGame is a simple and powerful .NET framework for creating games for desktop PCs, video game consoles, and mobile devices using the C# programming language. It has been successfully used to create games such as Streets of Rage 4, Carrion, Celeste, Stardew Valley, and many others.

N (0):

O (3):

• OGRE - Since 2001, OGRE has grown to become one of the most popular open-source graphics rendering engines, and has been used in a large number of production projects, in such diverse areas as games, simulators, educational software, interactive art, scientific visualisation, and others.
• Open 3D - Open 3D Engine (O3DE) is an Apache 2.0-licensed multi-platform 3D engine that enables developers and content creators to build AAA games, cinema-quality 3D worlds, and high-fidelity simulations without any fees or commercial obligations.
• Orx - Orx is a 2.5D data-driven game development engine. It is open source, ultra-fast, multi-platform and full-featured for C/C++ programmers: beginners and experts alike.

P (1):

• Phaser - Phaser is a fun, free and fast 2D game framework for making HTML5 games for desktop and mobile web browsers, supporting Canvas and WebGL rendering.

Q (0):

R (4):

• RavEngine - A fast C++20 3D game engine for modern devices, with wide platform support.
• Raylib - raylib is a simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy videogames programming.
• Rebel Fork Framework - Rebel Fork Framework aka rbfx is an experimental fork of Urho3D game engine distributed under MIT license. Rebel Fork Framework is:
  • Free and Open Source Software, and it will stay this way;
  • Suitable for 3D games and applications;
  • Moderately lightweight and modular;
  • Supported for Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, iOS, Web and XBox (via UWP);
  • Just a C++ library with a couple of tools;
  • Also, there are experimental, optional C# bindings.
• Ren'Py - Ren'Py is a visual novel engine – used by thousands of creators from around the world – that helps you use words, images, and sounds to tell interactive stories that run on computers and mobile devices. These can be both visual novels and life simulation games. The easy to learn script language allows anyone to efficiently write large visual novels, while its Python scripting is enough for complex simulation games. Ren'Py is open source and free for commercial use.

S (4):

• SDL - About SDL Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D. It is used by video playback software, emulators, and popular games including Valve's award winning catalog and many Humble Bundle games.
• SFML - Simple and Fast Multimedia Library.
• Solar2D - Solar2D is a Lua based game engine with focus on ease of iterations and usage This is a fully open source project that is forked of the well established and widely used Corona SDK game engine, which is no longer commercially supported. Development is lead by Vlad Shcherban, former technical lead engineer at Corona Labs Inc.
• Stride - Stride is an open-source C# game engine for realistic rendering and VR. The engine is highly modular and aims at giving game makers more flexibility in their development. Stride comes with an editor that allows you to create and manage the content of your games or applications visually and intuitively.

T (1):

• Torque3D - Torque was first developed by Dynamix (Tribes, Tribes 2) in early 2000s, later acquired by GarageGames and open-sourced under MIT license.

U (2):

• Unigine - UNIGINE is a proprietary cross-platform game engine developed by UNIGINE Company used in simulators, virtual reality systems, serious games and visualization. It supports OpenGL 4, Vulkan and DirectX 12. UNIGINE Engine is a core technology for a lineup of benchmarks (CPU, GPU, power supply, cooling system), which are used by overclockers and technical media such as Tom's Hardware, Linus Tech Tips, PC Gamer, and JayzTwoCents. UNIGINE benchmarks are also included as part of the Phoronix Test Suite for benchmarking purposes on Linux and other systems.
• Unreal Engine - The world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool. With Unreal Engine, you can bring amazing real-time experiences to life using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation tool. From first projects to the most demanding challenges, our free and accessible resources and inspirational community empower everyone to realize their ambitions.

V (0):

W (0):

X (0):

Y (0):

Z (0):

See also: