Awesome Game Engines

Overview

Awesome Game Engines is a curated collection of game engines, frameworks, tools, and learning resources for game developers across all skill levels and target platforms.

2D Game Engines

Open Source

• Godot - Fully open-source engine for 2D and 3D
• Defold - Professional 2D game engine
• Phaser - HTML5 game framework
• Cocos2d-x - Cross-platform 2D game framework

Commercial

• GameMaker - Accessible 2D game development
• Construct - Visual game creator

3D Game Engines

Professional Engines

• Unreal Engine 5 - AAA-quality engine with Nanite and Lumen
• Unity - Industry-leading multi-platform engine
• Godot - Open-source 3D capabilities
• CryEngine - High-fidelity graphics engine

Specialized Engines

• Source 2 - Valve's engine for Source games
• Amazon Lumberyard - Free AAA engine from AWS

Frameworks & Libraries

Programming Language Specific

• MonoGame - C# game framework
• LibGDX - Java game framework
• LÖVE - Lua 2D framework
• Raylib - C library for game programming
• Pygame - Python game development

Modern Frameworks

• Bevy - Data-driven Rust game engine
• Amethyst - Data-oriented Rust engine

Learning Resources

Official Platforms

• Unity Learn - Official Unity learning platform
• Unreal Engine Academy - Official Unreal courses
• Official Godot Tutorials - Godot documentation and guides

Community Resources

• YouTube tutorials
• Game development books
• Online courses (Udemy, Coursera)
• Game jams and communities

Tools & Utilities

Level Editors

• Tiled Map Editor
• LDtk (Level Designer Toolkit)

Asset Creation

• Blender - 3D modeling and animation
• Aseprite - Pixel art tool
• GIMP - Image editing

Platform Support

• Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Mobile (iOS, Android)
• Web (HTML5, WebGL)
• Consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch)
• VR/AR platforms

Features

• Multi-platform deployment
• Visual scripting options
• Physics engines
• Asset pipelines
• Multiplayer support
• VR/AR capabilities

Use Cases

• Indie game development
• AAA game production
• Mobile games
• Web games
• Educational games
• Game prototyping

Pricing

• Godot: Free and open source
• Unity: Free tier, Plus ($40/month), Pro ($150/month)
• Unreal: Free with 5% revenue royalty
• GameMaker: $4.99-$79.99/month
• Defold: Free and open source