List of beginner-friendly game engines and frameworks
This is a list of beginner-friendly game engines and frameworks that either requires no coding or very simple to code. The list does not include any tools that run inside the web browser only. The ones at the top of the list are the most simple to use and the ones toward the bottom of the list are more advanced but still relatively simple.
RPG in a Box is designed to be a set of tools for easily creating 3D grid-based, voxel-style role-playing and adventure games—everything you will need for building and sharing your own game, all packaged together in a box, so to speak! This "box" will contain an assortment of editors (centered around a map editor and a voxel editor) that will allow you to make your game the way you want. I will be striving to make the software user-friendly so that no knowledge of programming, computer graphics, or modelling will be required, all while still maintaining as many customizable aspects as possible so that your game can be unique.
GDevelop is an open-source game creation software, allowing to make games for the web (HTML5), desktop or mobile phones (iOS/Android). No programming or coding skills are required! It is easy to use and powerful enough for advanced users.
What makes GDevelop unique and so easy to use are the events. Events are a powerful way to express the logic of your game, without having to learn a programming language.
Sprites, particles engine, physics engine, platformer engine, pathfinding and many others features are available. Any kind of 2D games can be created with GDevelop.
Games can be exported in one-click for Android, uploaded online or packaged for iOS, Windows, macOS or Linux.
The RPG Maker software series is a set of game creation suites aimed at easy 2D role playing game creation. With an emphasis on JRPG gameplay mechanics, the suites typically include map, tile and sprite editors, character, encounter and dialog tools, among countless other elements to cover practically every facet of game building.
Bring your game ideas and concepts to life with 001 Game Creator, which gives you the power to create a variety of game genres. With simple point-and-click scripting, and high customisability of characters, monsters, items and magic, you can make anything possible. Will soon support mobile platforms.
[Multimedia Fusion 2 has been replaced by Clickteam Fusion 2.5.]
Game and software creation has never been easier or quicker than with Clickteam Fusion 2.5!
With Fusion 2.5’s amazing event editor system you are able to quickly generate games or apps.
Within your first hour you will have learned the basics of the tool. Compile a windows app with a mouse click, Or target additional platforms like iOS, Android, Flash, XNA with the purchase of our optional exporters.Harness the power of Clickteam Fusion 2.5 today.
Welcome to the home of GameMaker, the fastest and friendliest cross-platform game development technology out there. GameMaker has been completely redeveloped with usability and efficiency at its core, allowing developers to create games within a single code base and then publish them to run natively across multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, HTML5, PS4, Xbox One, Windows Desktop, macOS, Ubuntu, Windows UWP and Nintendo Switch.
Scirra Construct is a 2D game development engine with a focus on building games visually. No programming is required though the software uses a visual method for event handling that relies on programming concepts like variables, loops and conditions. It provides a powerful form of scripting that's as easy as clicking, dragging and dropping.
Construct exports to HTML5 with export options for online sites like Kongregate and Scirra Arcade as well as exports for PhoneGap for mobile games.
The software is available in two version: Construct 2 - a Windows-only software with a one-time purchase. Construct 3 - a web app using a subscription for access.
The opensource Construct Classic is also available, but it is retired and no longer developed.
Buildbox is a breakthrough game creation experience. Creating games is as easy as dropping images into the software, making changes to their properties and hitting play.
Every tool you need to complete your game is included inside Buildbox. You have access to complete management of your assets, integrated level editor, game menu system, advanced ad and in app purchase solution, font editor, gameplay settings and more. Buildbox was used to created the hit iOS game Phases in only 2 weeks. Phases hit #28 on the app store and has over 1.4 million downloads.
GameSalad Creator is an authoring tool developed by GameSalad, Inc. (formerly Gendai Games) aimed primarily at non-programmers for composing games in a drag-and-drop fashion, utilizing visual editors and a behavior-based logic system. It is used by consumers and creative professionals such as graphic designers, animators, and game developers for rapidly prototyping, building and self-publishing cross-platform games and interactive media. The application runs on Mac OS X and can produce iPhone , web browser-based content in HTML 5, and mac applications.
CopperCube is a 3D editor for creating interactive 3D applications or simple games for Flash / Stage 3D, WebGL or as application. No programming is necessary for this. Simply import your 3D models, specify camera controllers and behaviors, and hit 'publish'.
It is intended to be used for creating 3D educational programs, architectural visualizations, military simulations, product configurators, games, e-learning applications and 3D prototypes. And it can be used to convert 3D models to WebGL or Flash Stage 3D / Molehill.
This is the light edition of CopperCube, limited to 10 scenes per file, but otherwise, it is fully functional:
- It supports the import of 22 3D file formats such as 3D Max .3ds, AutoCAD .dxf, Maya .obj, COLLADA .dae, Lightwave .lwo, Truespace .cob and .scn, and many more: .ply, .stl, bps, lmts, .mesh, .x, .ase, .oct, .dmf
- Realtime 3D character animation, with an unlimited amount of joints
- Supports the features of the latest Flash Player 11 as well as older players
- Renders using OpenGL, Direct3D, WebGL or Stage 3D
- Simple, pre created Game AI behaviors included
- Various camera controllers included: for third person cameras, first person shooters, model viewers, panorama views
- Includes a global illumination lightmap renderer
- Supports 3D sound
- Scripting via JavaScript and ActionScript 3
Welcome to GameGuru, the easy game maker. Our mission is to create the easiest and most enjoyable game creator. Join us and our great & enthusiastic community on this journey.
Imagine creating a world that you and your friends come together and play... and creating it could be a matter of minutes with no technical jiggery-pokery needed at all! Of course you can happily spend hours, days..even weeks creating your masterpiece, the great thing about GameGuru is, you won't be held up by learning strange alien languages or using complex modelling tools. The time you spend with GameGuru is all about creating and having fun whilst doing it.
With GameGuru you can make a multiplayer game in a few minutes, including hosting and sharing your game online via Steam Multiplayer!
GameGuru comes with 10+ ready-made game demos for you to play and enjoy. They will show you the sort of games that can be created and how they were done, plus you can adapt these pre-made games and make them into your own games version. You’re then ready to go and design your own unique game!
We believe there is nothing on the market which is so easy to use and so quick to allow you to share your creations with others.
MANU is an easy to use Video Game Maker. Making your own 3d arcade games with MANU is easier than ever. No code. No limits. Save a lot of development time and enjoy convenient and joyful way to develop game mechanics. Have fun while creating. User-friendly system with no coding! Customize and launch animations the way you want it, either from the beginning of the game or after specific events. Set up and modify any custom values on the go, including health, ammunition and speed of character or object movement. Use simple tools to create and reuse animation sequences that will improve your development process and ease the workflow.
Create your own 2D or 3D shoot ‘em up using a powerful graphics and audio engine. A few seconds and you have a game - creating a game can be as simple as choosing and placing a player model, choosing and placing an enemy model and clicking ‘Play’. Designed and created by games industry professionals who have worked on titles such as Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassins Creed and Far Cry 2. Create graphics and sound any way you want. Build levels using your own models or drawings, or use the ones provided. Control the Physics settings and watch nVidia’s PhysX simulate your world. Use shaders to create powerful visual effects. Create eye-catching particle effects. Add music to your games and create sound effects. Customise behaviours using an easy-to-use tool which allows you to control events.
3D RAD free 3D Game Maker! Create 3D game content by visually placing intelligent objects together! Learning how to make a 3D Game has never been faster!
FPS Creator sets a new benchmark in the game creation market by providing an easy-to-use yet highly flexible editing environment. As its name implies this is a tool for creating action-packed FPS games with no programming or 3D modelling knowledge required.
Using an intuitive and visual Windows interface you literally paint your game world into the scene. A vast range of 3D elements are included allowing you to paint hallways, corridors, gantries, walls, doors, access tunnels, ceilings, lifts, transporters, stairs and more. Segments intelligently attach themselves to each other - paint two corridor pieces side-by-side and they'll snap together seamlessly. Switch to 3D mode and you drop in on your scene for pixel perfect placement of 3D entities. Place a light-switch on the wall and it'll intelligently control the dynamic lighting in the room.
Game Editor is the open source game design software that gives you the power to create the games of your dreams, and, unlike other game creation tools, gives you the chance to get and change the source code of the game creator and design and develop 2D games for iPhone, iPad, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile-based Smartphones and GP2X.
If you like playing 3D games, you might like to create your own game with custom scenes, characters, weapons and design your own gameplay. Silent Walk FPS Creator is a tool which helps you design and build your dream 3D game - without a single line of code!
Stencyl's drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor pays homage to the successful MIT Scratch project. They greatly extended Scratch's simple block-snapping interface with new functionality and hundreds of ready-to-use blocks. Power users can create and share their own blocks, extend the engine through code, import libraries and write their own custom classes that interact seamlessly with block-based Behaviors.
Games created in Stencyl can be published on the following platforms: iOS (iPhone/iPad) Android Windows Mac Linux Flash HTML5
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.
Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
As you probably know by now, LÖVE is a framework for making 2D games in the Lua programming language. LÖVE is totally free, and can be used in anything from friendly open-source hobby projects, to evil, closed-source commercial ones.
AppGameKit is a simple cross platform game development tool that runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS and Raspberry Pi. A version to run on Android and iOS is also available. With AppGameKit you can use a simple Basic like programming language to develop cross platform applications, 2D and 3D games and deploy to many platforms such as Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, Android, HTML5 and even develop AR and VR applications for desktop and mobile without need to change any of your code. The same code runs everywhere. The best part is, you can preview and run your application on the target device right from the IDE through WiFi with access to all device features such as camera, sensors and touch. It is allow you to test your applications on the target device at any point during development without need to manually compile, export and install it on the device.
You can also use C++ to code your applications to get better performance or implement 3rd party libraries and tools and even add your own features and share it with the community if you want. This is how it become possible to use community made implementations of AppGameKit to code in C#, Python or any other languages. Some of the extra features available today are also developed by 3rd party using the C++ library and offered as a DLC to add even more functionality.
PlayBasic is a game programming language that gives new programmers the flexibility and feature set for rapid game development, without the complexity or cost. So everybody can experience the challenge of game programming again!
PlayBasic provide a wealth of graphical features at your finger tips. Ranging from Mapping (Creating worlds), Sprites, Image effects, Cameras, Vector Shapes, Polygons (Texture Mapping) through to a full set of traditional 2D vector art (Dots / lines / Circles, Boxes etc).
PlayBasic's sprite engine supports Rotation / Scaling / Flipping and Sprite Depth, as well as various real time image effects such as Alpha Blending (Variable, Additive, Subtractive), Tinting (Diffuse), logical masking through to Raster Bar and real time Colour Replacement just to name a few.
Collision detection in game programming can be challenging, So we've built in support for map and sprite collision methods. Including Pixel Perfect Collision,Rect, Rotated Rect, Circular , Polygonal, Sliding and Sticky modes. Collision methods can be rotated / scaled and even mixed. Allowing vector collision methods to be used along side pixel perfect collision and vice versa
GLBasic is a cross-platform programming language aiming at game development with OpenGL. We can develop 2D and 3D games for Mac, Linux, Windows, Android, iOS, HTML5, Xbox, Pandora and GP2X using a simple and easy to learn Basic language that compile directly to C++ so we get native performance on all platforms. Also due to the fact Basic compile to C++, we can even use C++ code in-line.
GLBasic comes with a complete 2D and 3D engine. Support for images, animated and static 3D meshes, physics, networking, dynamic lights, shaders, keyboard, mouse, joystick input and more.
Create anything you can imagine with Roblox's free and immersive creation engine. Roblox Studio lets you create anything and release with one click to smartphones, tablets, desktops, consoles, and virtual reality devices. Connect with a massive audience by tapping into an incredibly enthusiastic and international community of over 50 million monthly players. Creators like you are getting paid for what they love to do. Our top developers are earning over $2M a year by providing in-game purchases. Roblox Studio's features are accessible to a variety of skill levels ranging from a novice to an experienced programmer. Tools range from simple manipulation of objects or terrain, to entering complex scripts and game functions. Studio also allows you to test your games in an isolated environment before uploading them to the Roblox website.
Developing games is as fun as playing them using S2 ENGINE HD! Its simplicity and a powerful, just-ready, all-in-one toolset let hobbyists – and game enthusiasts – turn on their computers and create amazing visuals in minutes just as if they were professionals.
The editor of S2 ENGINE HD has been specifically designed so you can immediately see the changes you make to the virtual scene: no more waiting for pre-processing operations (such as lightmaps or BSP), in S2 ENGINE HD every change takes effect immediately : the shadows will move if you move the light, day will become night if you will bring forward the time, the rigid bodies will fall to the ground while respecting the physics laws if they are placed in the scene.
Thanks to GameMachine, a node-based visual scripting system, designed on well-known State, Event and Action concepts, all, even not programmers, can do awesome things using S2ENGINE. Advanced users can also use a C like scripting language to create their game logic.
We are indie and hobbyists just like you, we know what it means making games with a small team. S2 ENGINE HD is developed with a very clear goal in mind: to let people have full and easy access to AAA development. All-In-One Editor, Physically Based Rendering, HDR, Visual Node-Based Scripting System, High-Quality Post Processing, Animation Blending, Advanced AI, Physics, Weather and Atmosphere effects are only some of the features you will find in this amazing product.
Leadwerks Game Engine provides the smoothest learning curve to take you from beginner to full-fledged game developer. Use the visual editor and the flowgraph system to set up game interactions without code. Use Lua to write your own game scripts. Advanced users can even program in C++ with the Professional Edition. Leadwerks Game Engine uses an OpenGL 4 deferred renderer to display detailed scenes with real-time lighting at maximum speeds to power desktop and VR games.
Unreal Engine is a professional suite of tools and technologies used for building high-quality games across a range of platforms. Unreal Engine’s rendering architecture enables developers to achieve stunning visuals and also scale elegantly to lower-end systems.
Revolutionary new workflow features and a deep toolset empower developers to quickly iterate on ideas and see immediate results, while complete C++ source code access brings the experience to a whole new level.
Unreal Engine technology powers hundreds of games as well as real-time 3D films, training simulations, visualizations and more. Over the past 15 years, thousands of individuals and teams and have built careers and companies around skills developed using the engine.
Unity is a multi-platform game development tool, designed from the start to ease creation. A fully integrated professional application, Unity offers the free Personal Edition with all features, a Plus subscription at 25$ a month and a Pro subscription at 125$ a month with extra services such as Cloud building.
