so theres a bit of a kerfuffle with unity lately, huh. something of an oopsy-fucko. if you're just now getting into game dev and hearing this news about unity, or if you've invested a lot of time into unity and aren't sure how to proceed, it might be very daunting for you! luckily, there are a LOT of options for making all kinds of badass games in ways that don't ask you to pay twenty cents every time someone plays your game
it sounds like this calls for a master post! and who better to write one than me, a creature who has never finished making a game in its entire life
i'll (subjectively) rate each tool based on its skill floor (how much expertise you need to make a basic game) and skill ceiling (how far you can push it to do extra stuff). 1/10 is like, "i don't know how to code at all", 5/10 is "expects you to have a handle on code and asset usage", 10/10 is "wizard master" or "professional studio type shit". i'll also put some quick notes about what each engine is capable of
the big engines
these are the ones worth a serious look if you just want something comparable with unity
unreal engine | free to use, commercial | 2d, 3d | pc, consoles
code-free, c++
floor 6 -----ooooo 10 ceiling
probably the most professional engine of the ones accessible to the average dev, and the most direct unity competitor! it powers a lot of AAA titles. it's built on C++, which makes it very powerful, but also means it expects you to use C++. (i have been reminded it also has a visual programming language called blueprint!) a little harder to get something basic going than unity but the sky's the limit
godot | open-source | 2d, 3d | web, pc
custom language (gdscript), other languages (with different builds of the engine)
floor 6 -----ooooo 10 ceiling
examples: Cassette Beasts, Cruelty Squad, EX-Zodiac
the one you've been waiting for 🥁 it's an open-source up-and-comer, still lacking in polish and documentation but posed to be a serious competitor with unity and unreal
gamemaker studio | commercial | 2d, limited 3d | web, pc, consoles
code-free, custom language (gml), lua (with addons) (i think)
floor 2 -ooooooooo 10 ceiling
examples: Undertale and Deltarune, Wandersong, Chicory: a Colorful Tale, Rivals of Aether, so many more
there's a good chance a significant fraction of the indie games you've ever played were made with this. their pricing model is kind of wack and some of their design choices are also kind of wack but the results speak for themselves
fantasy consoles
for when you want to work under constraints but don't want to learn assembly code
pico-8 | commercial | 2d | web, pc, consoles
lua
floor 5 ----ooooo- 9 ceiling
examples: Celeste (the original one)
someone would have hunted me if i didn't include pico-8. you know pico-8, it's where celeste comes from. very famous and for good reason, though you've gotta not be afraid of lua coding if you want to try your hand at making games for it
tic-80 | open-source, free, commercial | 2d | web, pc
lua, javascript, some other languages
floor 5 ----ooooo- 9 ceiling
pico-8's big cousin. not nearly as well-known, but more powerful and similarly cute and neat! surprisingly popular in the demoscene too if that's a thing you care about. it wants you to know how to code too, but unlike pico-8 it supports javascript and a few other scripting languages in addition to lua
there are more fantasy consoles out there but those are the two best ones for if you're not an ultra mega nerd about obscure game dev platforms like i am
the underdogs
general-purpose engines that are less well-known
clickteam fusion 2.5 | commercial | 2d, limited 3d | pc, mobile, web
code-free, lua (with a component)
floor 2 -ooooooooo 10 ceiling
examples: Baba is You, Freedom Planet
over a decade ago, i cut my teeth on a very old version of this. fusion has been around for a long, long time; some of the earliest really popular indie games (Within a Deep Forest, Knytt Stories) were made with it, and it stays relevant to this day with the likes of Freedom Planet and Baba is You. i have no idea how it stacks up against gamemaker et al these days, but it's got a free trial and claims an easy learning curve, so it's worth a shot!
construct 3 | 2d, 3d | pc, mobile, web
code-free, javascript
floor 2 -ooooooooo 10 ceiling
i don't know a whole lot about this one but i keep hearing it come up in these discussions. it looks pretty snazzy! it runs in your web browser and promises code-free visual scripting as well as javascript support. give it a try and see for yourself
EDIT sep 18, 2023: gdevelop free, commercial | 2d, 3d | pc, mobile, web
code-free, ?
floor 1 ooooooo??? ? ceiling
i just learned about this one today, i heard about it from one of the many posts from people denouncing unity. i don't know much about what it's capable of, but it claims code-free development and looks pretty powerful
EDIT sep 18, 2023: defold | free, open-source | 2d, 3d | pc, web, consoles
code-free, lua
floor 1 oooooooooo 10 ceiling
another one i just heard about from that same post. looks snazzy, a lot of console support, and a code-free low end with lua support for more complex behavior. i'm definitely gonna give this one a shot to see what it can do
EDIT sep 18, 2023: dragonruby | commercial | 2d | pc, web, mobile, some console support
ruby
floor 5 ----oooooo 10 ceiling
i think i picked this one up from an itch.io bundle once. it looks neat! it's 2d-only, and it's built on the Ruby programming language and expects you to write your own code, but it's small and lean and seems very promising if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty with some coding. also it costs a hell of a lot less than gamemaker studio, lol
EDIT sep 18, 2023: fna and monogame | free | 2d, 3d | pc, console
.net (c# for example)
floor 5 ----oooooo 10 ceiling
examples: Axiom Verge and its sequel, FEZ, Streets of Rage 4, many more
hey, remember xbox live arcade? microsoft used to have a set of tools and libraries called XNA to help develop games using their .NET stuff. it's discontinued now but this FNA project aims to reimplement it in free and open-source and cross-platform ways for porting those XNA games into the present day. and if you're looking to make a game from scratch with these technologies, you'll want to look at the closely related monogame. once again, you gotta write some code, but it's worth a try if you're good with .NET stuff like C#
EDIT sep 20, 2023: haxeflixel | open-source | 2d | pc, web, mobile
haxe
floor 3 --oooooooo 10 ceiling
back in the days of flash, there was a toolkit called flixel that lived on top of flash and actionscript and provided an easy way to make games that could live on the web and on other platforms. flash itself is pushing daisies now, but apparently the flixel dream lives on with this project, which uses a programming language called haxe that i know very little about. worth a look!
EDIT sep 20, 2023: luxe | free (but it's not out yet) | 2d, 3d | pc, web, limited console
floor ? ?????????? ? ceiling
this one gets an honorable mention because it's not available for general use yet, but it's in closed beta and looks very cool. keep an eye on it!
i don't know how to code
simple engines for making simple games
twine | open-source | text adventures | web
code-free, html/css, javascript
floor 1 oooooo---- 6 ceiling
examples: Birdland
an open-source tool for making html text adventure games in the style of choose-your-own-adventure books! you can get pretty fancy with code, but the barrier to entry is very low, which has made it a popular tool for would-be game devs with mostly writing experience - since most of what you're going to be doing is writing and maybe some html
bitsy | open-source | 2d | web
code-free
floor 1 ooo------- 3 ceiling
super simple little tool for making tiny tile-based games with dialogue and interactables and different places to explore. it's deliberately very easy to use, but that also means it's hard to spread your wings beyond what the engine is built for. there are some hacks you can use to add extra capabilities, but they're not super well documented and you're not gonna get a whole lot more out of it anyway. still, it's fun to just make a little thing you can wander around in
retro and beyond
aka the "i wonder if i can make games like the games i liked when i was a kid" section
inform 7 | open-source | text adventures | web, pc
proprietary language (inform 7)
floor 4 ---ooooo-- 8 ceiling
examples: Counterfeit Monkey (the play online button is on the top right of that page)
hey, remember zork? or the hitchhiker's guide text adventure? or any other brutally unfair infocom game where you had to type in stuff like GO NORTH and GET LAMP? inform 7 is a tool that lets you make "parser-based interactive fiction" (as it's called) just like that, with a snazzy programming language that's made to look and sound like a very strict version of english. it does ask some coding of you, but the included tutorials are quite good in my experience and you can get pretty complex with the rules and behaviors of items and things
adventure game studio | point-n-click adventures | pc i think?
floor ? ?????????? ? ceiling
i gotta be honest, i don't know anything about this one. but if you like point and click adventure games like monkey island and such, and you're not afraid to venture into the unknown, maybe give AGS a try? tbh please tell me if you do, i'd love to hear about it
gb studio | open-source | web, gameboy, gameboy color
code-free
floor 2 -ooooooo-- 8 ceiling
you read that right: it's a tool for making gameboy games! not "gb-style" games, actual legit gameboy games that will run on an actual gameboy or in an emulator. it comes with the limitations you'd expect from being able to run on real hardware, but it's pretty impressively batteries-included, so you're not gonna have to write any Z80 assembly code or anything like that to get a game up and running
EDIT sep 20, 2023: decker | free | 2d hypercard-likes | web, anywhere you can embed web pages
code-free, custom language (lil - apparently it's a bit like lua? also Q, a functional programming thing)
floor 1 oooooo---- 6 ceiling
hey, remember hypercard? i don't, but that's because i didn't grow up with classic macos. a lot of people did, and if that's you, this will probably give you some warm fuzzies - it continues the hypercard lineage and the look'n'feel of classic black and white macos to let you make "interactive documents" quickly and easily. that dithered monochrome look is very striking, i gotta say
doom modding | open-source, i guess | pc, web i think?, your toaster probably, idk
floor 2 -oooooooo- 9 ceiling
no authoritative link for this one because there are a bunch of tools and like ten thousand different doom engines out there that all have slightly different support for things and i'm not plugged into it enough to point you in a good direction, but it's worth bringing up. a quick google search suggests ultimate doom builder for making maps and SLADE3 for both making maps and doing more general editing of the WAD files. if you fell under the spell of myhouse.wad recently, then maybe it's time to try making your own realm for the doomguy to poke around in
niche and misc
tools for specific types of game, and other odd ducks
zelda classic | free | 2d zelda-likes | pc
code-free, custom language (zscript)
floor 1 oooooo---- 6 ceiling
oh wait i guess it's called ZQuest Classic now? probably because of nintendo. anyway it's an engine for 2d arpg dungeon crawlers like the 2d zelden of the nes and snes and gameboy. honestly i'm not sure why this one isn't more popular? this is one of my favorite game genres ever so i'm always gonna be for anything that lets folks make them more easily. you can make a zelda-like with no coding, or you can use their ZScript thing to add functionality
ren'py | open-source | 2d visual novels | web, pc, mobile
python
floor 2 -oooo????? ? ceiling
examples: Doki Doki Literature Club
it's the visual novel one! i would have been remiss not to include it. if something like doki doki literature club is your jam (please forgive me i dont know anything about visual novels i just know ddlc was made in ren'py) then this is the entry for you. pretty much everything i've heard about ren'py has been positive if the specific thing you want to do is make VNs. according to the site it has a simple scripting system for regular ole VN functionality, and it's built on python in such a way that you can make it dance for your amusement if you have something more complicated in mind
rpg maker | commercial | 2d rpgs | pc, mobile
code-free, ruby, javascript (depending on version)
floor 1 oooooooo-- 8 ceiling
examples: OFF, Space Funeral, probably some more straightforward rpgs i can't think of right now
one of THE most famous/infamous game dev tools of all time. it's geared toward making classic "japanese-style" (i hate that term) rpgs, like your finals fantasy or your dragons quest, and if that's all you want to do with it then i think you can make a basic game with no coding at all. but im pretty sure most versions of rpg maker have some form of scripting with ruby or javascript or something else for if you want to make additions, and you can get pretty wild with it. hey, did you know there was a version of rpg maker for super famicom all the way back in 1995? that doesnt have any relevance here i just think its a cool fact
puzzlescript | open-source | 2d puzzle games | web
proprietary language (puzzlescript)
floor 2 -ooo------ 4 ceiling
puzzlescript is a tool made by increpare to make it easier to make tile-based puzzle games. i originally described it as "sokoban-likes" but that's a bit misleading, the rules you can make for how stuff interacts are a lot more generic than that. but if you're a puzzle-game nerd like me and want a quick way to try out game concepts without having to brew up fancy graphics for everything, this is the tool for you
mega man maker | free | 2d mega man levels | pc
floor 1 oo-------- 2 ceiling (i might be wrong on that?)
it's what it says on the tin - kind of like mario maker but for mega man stages. what it appears to lack in scripting it makes up for in sheer breadth of content from the various dozens of mega man games that have come out over the years. it got showcased at gdq recently if you want an idea of what kinds of things it's capable of
zzt | open-source | 2d, level editor | dos (emulatable on web)
code-free, proprietary language (i forget what it's called)
floor 1 ooooo----- 5 ceiling
hi asie and dosmeow! okay, so zzt is a text-mode ms-dos game and engine made by tim sweeney and the first game ever published by the company that would become epic games. the link above is to a github page where asie reconstructed the source code; the readme on that page has lots of relevant links that explain how you can give zzt a try today, as well as various editors and things for more easily making zzt worlds in $modern_year
megazeux | open-source | 2d, level editor | web, pc, mobile, some consoles
code-free, proprietary language (i forget what it's called)
floor 1 ooooooo--- 7 ceiling
megazeux was first released a few years after zzt and has some pretty clear influence, also being a text-mode game with a built-in engine. the community is quite small but very passionate about making cool stuff. if you like the idea of zzt but think it's too limited or too hard to get working on modern systems, megazeux might be more your speed
knytt stories (and knytt stories plus) | open-source, sort of | level editor | pc
code-free
floor 1 ooo------- 3 ceiling
hey i mentioned this game in the clickteam fusion entry! knytt stories is a platformer video game that comes with its own level editor, which was pretty easy to use and allowed anyone to make their own levels with custom tilesets and music and (still-image-based) cutscenes. looking for KS levels brought me to the nifflas forums, which brought me to irc.esper.net, which made me a furry, and the rest is history... ahem. anyway at some point the source accidentally leaked, and some intrepid forumgoers made mods of the game and editor to add new functionality. by far the most popular is egomassive's knytt stories plus, which i have linked above - it doesn't add anything wild like lua scripting, but it extends the original game's features significantly. give it a try, and play some classic KS levels while you're at it!
baba is you | commercial | level/pack editor | pc, switch, mobile apparently
code-free, lua (in levelpacks)
floor 1 oooooo---- 6 ceiling
my favorite game ever and, in my opinion, a serious contender for greatest game of all time. if you like puzzle games at all, pleeeease play it. it's on this list because it comes with a level editor, and you can share your levels via codes, and the codes can be used on any version of the game! now, if you specifically have the pc version and really want the special sauce, people are making entire level packs with their own maps and stuff, and you can use lua scripting to introduce custom objects and words and other behaviors and it gets absolutely buckwild. if any of that piques your interest, give hempuli some of your dollars and give it a shot
yes i know lots of games have level editors and mods and stuff. i am not going to list them all here, ks and baba are just two that are close to my heart and pretty easy to get into making levels for. feel free to list more in the comments!
okay i'll give you just one more because i just remembered it exists:
lexy's labyrinth | open-source | level editor | web | it's just chip's challenge
code-free
floor 1 oooo------ 4 ceiling
eevee made a chip's challenge emulator and it has a level editor. if you like chip's challenge then you will probably enjoy lexy's labyrinth, and if you like the idea of making custom levels for chip's challenge then you'll probably enjoy the editor
beyond engines
if you're hardcore, or just unhinged; if your dev tool of choice is just a text editor; if you're a second degree black belt in command-line-fu; ... well then you probably already know this, but most languages worth anything have libraries for making games, or at least libraries for making graphical applications that you can twist into using for games. go look at your favorite language's library repo, you might be surprised what's out there even for stuff you would think is too obscure or not fit for this purpose
EDIT sep 20, 2023: love2d | open-source | 2d | pc, mobile, limited web
floor 5 ----oooooo 10 ceiling
love (sorry, LÖVE) is a framework rather than a full graphical tool, so you'll want a text editor or IDE and a decent amount of comfort coding in lua before you can use it to make games, but it deserves special mention here because it always comes up in these discussions and is very batteries-included (i.e. it comes with stuff for all the common tasks, graphics and input and sound and whatnot)
well i'm getting very sleepy so i think it's time to hit post on this one. if y'all can think of any i forgot just let me know in the comments and i might add them to the main list with edits and other such chicanery
