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Game Engine

lastmod 2026-09-02created 2014-11-0457 edits

A game engine is the core software component used to build interactive applications with real-time graphics, such as computer and video games. It provides the underlying technology for computer game development, which shortens the development process and also lets games run on a variety of platforms. Because game engines are designed with reuse in mind, they are developed so that they are not tied to a single game and can be used for many kinds of games.

Key features provided by game engines include a rendering engine ("renderer") for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine, collision detection and collision response, sound output, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, and scene graphs.

Categories

  • DOM Event Architecture - Architecture reference for DOM event propagation, usable when implementing UI event propagation.

List of Game engines

  • [Recommended] 93 Top Game Engines Compared (Ranked Mar 2024) - Easily filter by category: language/platform/graphics (2d, 3d)/price.
  • [Recommended] Game Engines Database - A game engine database with an organized list of game engines.
  • Unreal
  • AndEngine
  • Cocos2d
    • Cocos2dx - A multi-platform framework for building 2d games, interactive books, demos and other graphical applications. (MIT)
  • ClanLib
  • GameKit
  • Leadwerks
  • Irrlicht
    • Jirr
  • LumixEngine
  • Lwjgl
  • Ogre3d
  • Oxygine: A cross-platform 2D C++ game engine. (MIT)
  • PyGame (Python)
  • LOVE (Lua)
  • Lumberyard (amazon)
  • Unity3d
  • libgdx
  • Moai
  • Solarus
  • Acid: A high speed C++17 Vulkan game engine. [MIT]
  • Allegro: A cross-platform library mainly aimed for video games and multimedia programming. (zlib)
  • Atomic Game Engine: A multi-platform 2D and 3D engine with a consistent API in C++, C#, JavaScript, and TypeScript. (Commercial)
  • Banshee 3D: Modern C++14 game engine with Vulkan support, fully featured editor and C# scripting. (LGPL3/Commercial)
  • delta3d: A robust simulation platform. (LGPL2)
  • GamePlay: A cross-platform native C++ game framework for creating 2D/3D mobile and desktop games. (Apache2)
  • Godot: A fully featured, open source, MIT licensed, game engine. (MIT)
  • The Mirror - The open-source Roblox & UEFN alternative giving you freedom to own what you create. An all-in-one, real-time, collaborative game development platform built on Godot.
  • Grit: Community project to build a free game engine for implementing open world 3D games. (MIT)
  • Halley: A lightweight game engine written in C++14 with a "true" entity-component system. (Apache 2.0)
  • KlayGE: a cross-platform open source game engine with plugin-based architecture. (GPLv2)
  • OpenXRay: a community-modified X-Ray engine used in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series. (Modified BSD/non-commercial only)
  • Panda3D: A game engine, a framework for 3D rendering and game development for Python and C++ programs. (Modified BSD)
  • PixelGameEngine: The official distribution of olcPixelGameEngine, a tool used in javidx9's YouTube videos and projects. (OLC3)
  • Polycode: A cross-platform framework for creative code in C++ (with Lua bindings). (MIT)
  • Torque2D: An open-source and cross-platform C++ engine built for 2D game development. (MIT)
  • Torque3D: An open-source C++ engine built for 3D game development. (MIT)
  • toy engine: toy is a thin and modular c++ game engine and offers simple expressive c++ idioms to design full featured 2D or 3D games in fast iterations.
  • Urho3D: A free lightweight, cross-platform 2D and 3D game engine implemented in C++. Greatly inspired by OGRE and Horde3D. (MIT)
  • raylib: A simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy videogames programming
  • GameMaker
  • Buildbox
  • GameSalad
  • Sparrow (ios)
  • Superpowers
  • Delta Engine
  • ClickTeam Fusion
  • microStudio - Free online game engine
  • Adventure Game Studio (AGS; Korean: 어드벤처 게임 스튜디오) - Open-source software for making adventure games

Python

In this chapter of our ongoing Game Engines by Language series, today we are going to look at the game engines, both 2D and 3D, available for Python.

For others, see Python:RenderingEngines.

JavaScript

In this chapter of our ongoing Game Engines by Language series, today we are going to look at the game engines, both 2D and 3D, available for JavaScript.

Haxe

In the Haxe ecosystem, many frameworks are build on top of other frameworks, so we will be covering them in order, from lowest level to the highest.

  • Lowest Level
    • NME: Native Media Engine
    • Lime
  • Intermediate Level
    • Kha
    • OpenFL
  • High Level 2D
  • High Level 3D
    • Away3D
    • Heaps
    • Armory3D

Lua

Today we are going to look at game engines using the Lua programming language. This doesn’t mean the game engine was created using the Lua language, instead we are covering engines that can be scripted using Lua.

  • 2D Lua Engines:
  • 3D Lua Engines:
    • Spring RTS
    • GameGuru
    • Shiva
    • Leadwerks
    • Lumberyard
    • Roblox Studio
    • Urho3D: (*Needs to be enabled)
    • Stingray: 3DS Interactive
  • Defunct:
    • CryEngine (Deprecated)
    • Cocos2D (Undocumented)
    • PolyCode (Seemingly abandoned)
    • Marmalade (Deprecated)

C/C++

Due to it’s popularity in the professional game industry, I get all kinds of requests for C++ based game engines. That is exactly what this guide is, a collection of game engines that use C++. This is not about game engines that are written using C++, many if not most game engines are at least partially written using C++, instead it covers engines where you (can) primarily use C++ in developing an actual game using the engine. So without further ado, let’s jump into the list of (3D only) game engines that (can) use C++ to develop games.

C#

Today we are going to look at C# game engines. We are using the same criteria as the last list, the engine must be 3D, actively under development and programmable using C# (regardless to the language used to write the actual engine). Over time I have covered several of these engines, in which case I will add a learn more link when applicable.

Rust

  • rg3d
  • Bevy - Open-source 2D/3D game engine based on Rust

Flutter

Game Support Engine List

Just a simple list of libraries.

Lighting

Path & AI

UI

Sound & Video

Network

Face Animation

Level Editor

ETC

AI-based

Metaverse

Entity System

Game Off 2022

  • Into JavaScript? You might be interested in Phaser.
  • Comfortable with C++ or C#? Look at Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine.
  • Raving about Rust? You might like Bevy.
  • Proficient with Python? Check out Pygame or Godot (Godot uses GDScript, which is similar to Python).
  • Dangerous with Java? Take a look at libGDX.
  • In love with Lua? Check out LÖVE or Defold. Like retro games too? Drop everything and check out LIKO-12!
  • Fond of Flutter? Take a peek at Flame.
  • Gearing up with Go? You might want to look at Ebitengine.
  • Do you really like retro games? Maybe you can…
    • Hack on a Roguelike dungeon crawler in JavaScript or Haskell.
    • Crank out a text adventure in or some interactive fiction with Clojure or Ink (similar to Markdown).
    • Craft that 8-bit console game you always fantasized about with PICO-8, Pixel Vision 8, TIC-80 (Lua), BASIC8 (Basic), or Pyxel (Python).

See also

Favorite site

Libraries

Articles

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