Game Engines

From GPWiki

The game engine is generally the library of core functions used in the game, usually related to graphics, input, networking and other systems. Another way to understand what a game engine is would be considering them as the non game-specific part of the game, so we can have several games ranging from RPGs to FPSs using the same engine. In small projects, it's sometimes common for the game engine to get messed up with the game itself, but having them separated allows the engine to be re-used more easily. World of Warcraft, for instance, used the same (but improved) engine of Warcraft3.

Engine Overview

Game engines
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
3DCakeWalk Python Windows/Linux commercial 2D/3D via DirectX and OpenGL Yes No Python scripting with 3DCW helpers Many
A6 Game Engine C-script like language/C++/Delphi Windows Commercial 3D via DirectX Yes Yes Custom C-Script scripting language Physics
Adventure Game Studio (AGS) C++ Windows (Mac & Linux ports available) Free Allegro Yes Yes Custom C-Script scripting language Supports user-made plugins and modules Immense user community, including Beginners' Forum
AgateLib .NET Windows / Mono Free 2D via Direct3D or OpenGL Yes No No
AGen C++ Windows Indie/Commercial Hardware accelerated 2D via Direct3D or OpenGL Yes Yes Lua Physics Scene management, high-level framework, automatic memory management Not cross platform yet
AGL Engine C++ Windows Commercial 2D via DirectDraw, Direct3D or OpenGL Yes No No High-level game states framework Easy to start, several layers of abstraction, automatic resources management, custom filesystems support
Allegro C DOS, Unix, Windows, BeOS, QNX, MacOS Free (Open Source) 2D and 3D Yes No No
Artificial Engines .NET Windows Free 3D via DirectX Yes Yes
Asphyre Delphi / Delphi .NET Windows Free 2D/3D via DirectX No Yes No GUI Editor Versions later than v3.1 are only for BDS and Turbo Delphi
Avalon C++ Windows, Linux, Mac Free 2D Yes No LUA Many
Axiom website .NET Windows / Linux / MacOS LGPL 3D via OpenGL/DirectX/XNA No No No Based on the very popular OGRE rendering engine.
Baja Engine C++/Lua Windows, Mac Os X Free 3D via OpenGL Yes Yes Lua Professional Results, Includes all tools Shaders, Shipped a Commercial game, Easy to use, Flexible As far as I can see, the site does not indicate source is included with the download (or for that matter, is available) Hard to use art pipeline, no community.
Blitz3D Basic Windows Commercial 2d/3D via DirectX7 Yes Yes BlitzBasic Big community, a lot games Easy to start, support BSP, 3DS, better for shareware games No OOP, basic syntax
BlitzMax Object Basic Windows, Linux, MacOS Commercial 2d via OpenGL Yes Yes BlitzMAX Script Has many modules (GUI, 3D, Sound, Physics, etc ). Easy to start Fast 2D engine, better for casual games(Arcanoids, Puzzles etc.), OOP, LUA Bind Has no 3D module
Blox Game Engine C++ Windows Free 2D via Direct3D Yes No No Color Blending, Alpha Blending, and many more. Free. Easy to use. Fully object-oriented. Includes basic collision detection. Choose between 2 different rendering systems(Software, Hardware).
[http:// chrisk.free.fr/cariboost2/ Brume Game Engine] .NET 2.0/3.5 (C#) Windows (XP/Vista/Seven) Free 3D via DirectX 9/DirectX 10 Yes No No Have more modules (GUI, Sound, Physics, Collisions, Animations, Effects (Hardware Shaders), Terrains, etc ). Easy to start Easy to use, object oriented, animation system, integrated physics
C4 Engine C++ Windows, Mac, PS3 Commercial 3D Yes Yes Visual Scripting Voxel terrain, shader editor, more Active development, good support, clean architecture Incomplete physics
Chingu Ruby Windows, Mac, Linux Free 2D via OpenGL Yes No Game states,plugginable game logic.. game engine features Available on github, 16+ bundled examples.
Cipher Game Engine C/C++ Windows Commercial 3D Yes Yes Collision Detection, AI
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
ClanLib C++ Windows, Linux, MacOSX Free (Open Source) Accelerated 2D Yes Yes No Open Source. Excellent lightweight networking
Clockwork (Unfinished) None needed Windows 2000-Vista Indie/Commercial 3D via OGRE (OpenGL render system) via OpenAL Planned. May use RakNet. Lua Will include physics engine, GLSL shaders (and editor), OGRE material editor. Self-contained system (one multi-purpose application for nearly all tasks). Only requires 3rd party applications for game resource creation (levels, models, audio, etc). Uses OpenGL 2.x.x, and GLSL for shaders. Will have physics engine, using PhysX. Editor written in C#(.NET 2), engine written in C++. Still in beta; not finished.
CRM32Pro C++ Windows, Linux (Port to MacOS X x86 in 2007 aprox.) Closed Source; LGPL announced on site 2D via SDL/glSDL and optimized MMX blitters API built on top of SDL_mixer API built on top of SDL_Net No XML parser, Log, propietary file system to package your resources with full protection and useful EditorDPF to manage them, graphics primitives, cursors, tiles, sprites, fonts, several FX effects, GUI system, accurate timer, MPEG-I video, full support of OGG,modules,WAV and VOC, useful network API and more... Full documentation (english and spanish). Cross-platform. Heavily optimized for each current CPU (MMX and SSE). Available as a DLL or static library(only Win32). EditorDPF, a resources manager. SetupProyect, a customizable config system. Everything is free!
Crystal Space C/C++ Linux, Windows, MacOS X Free (LGPL) 3D via OpenGL Yes No Python, Perl or Java
DaBooda Turbo Engine v1.5.4 VB(COM)/FreeBASIC(VTable) Windows Free (GPL) 2D(and old school style 3D) via DirectX8 Yes Yes -dp p2p and winsock as of v1.5.2a Maybe? DBT uses an inline customizable console, DBTC complete 2D game development environment. Supports VB,VB .Net, FreeBASIC AutoMove(ala Zelda1),Sprites,Overlays,Maps,Audio,Network,Counters,

Key,Joy, FreeBASIC supported through IDispatch, DBFE, or Vtable Documentation in chm, plenty of tutorials and examples..

Final Build, FreeBASIC build in transition, see DBOS, DBHGE at our site
Daimonin C (server), C++ (client), java (editor) Linux, Windows, MacOSX GPL 2d/3d via SDL and OGRE3D Yes Yes Lua complete MMORPG engine
Delta3D C++ Linux, Windows, MacOSX Free(LGPL) 3D via OpenSceneGraph (OpenGL) Yes Yes - Client/Server and HLA Python ODE Physics, STAGE Game Editor, Much More A well-supported open source project. Built upon other open source projects (OSG, ODE, OpenAL, etc.). Great for games, simulations, or other graphical applications. Supports massive terrains. Used by many large scale companies (e.g., Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc.), educational institutions, and small developers.
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
DarkbasicPro Basic Windows Shareware 2d/3D via DirectX9 Yes Yes Darkbasic Big community, a lot games Easy to start, support BSP, 3DS, better for shareware games No OOP, basic syntax
DizzyAGE C++ Windows Free 2D via DirectX Yes No GS9 scripting language Tool used to create Dizzy games, in the classic adventure style
DXGame Engine VB6 Windows Free 2D+ via Direct3D Yes No No Automated Sprites, 2D Tile Map (Unlimited Layers), Collision Checking, Explosions, Basic Particle Engine, High Level
DxIce VB6.0 and VB.NET Windows Free (closed source) Mostly 2D and some 3D DX9 Yes No No Various functions/methods to aid in RAD Great for 2D, many helpers for common game routines Limited 3D support
dx_lib32 2.0 VB 6.0 (also VB.NET) Windows Free 2D hardware via DirectGraphics (D3D8) Via DirectAudio (DSound8) for sound effects and DirectShow for music playback No No Draw 2D textures with isometric or caballera perspective in one call, support movie playback (include DivX formats), easy imput handling class, PAK File format support (Quake/Half-Life format), basic Timers counters, support for Timers Events for multithreaing routines (like Timer control of VB but without control interface and instance of this) and more... Single light DLL (VB6 Runtime and DirectX API only dependency), simple interface, easy to start, several layers of abstraction, automatic resources management, full documentation of all functions No full OOP interface, ActiveX DLL (need register in the system), all documentation and web site are in spanish (this a problem? maybe... if you aren't

spanish ;-) )

ScriptENGINE:Lua 3D Engine 100% lua scriptdriven Windows Commercial SDK/Free Demo 2D/3D via OpenGL/DirectX DirectAudio/Software UDP/TCP support 100% scriptable Includes 2D/3D graphics, newtonian physics, 3D sound, cryptography, threading, world management, gui controls, gui skins, event management, key-mapping, special fx, dynamic lighting, 3D animation, multi-language support. Software Development Kit includes World Editors, GUI Editors, Code Editors, Programmer's Reference and more... 100% scriptable - No compilers required!, Completely extensible and flexible, Can create any type of program
EasyWay Game Engine Java Windows, Linux, Mac OS opensource GPL 2D/3D via OpenGL OpenAL coming soon No Easily extendible, perfect pixel collision, PathFinding, special effects, automatic engine that don't draw what you don't see, engine anti bug very simple: you can write a game in very few lines of code; You can extend simply the game engine with your function the API documentation isn't completed yet
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
Epee Engine C++ Windows,Linux,Mac,homebrew console planned zlib/libpng 2D SDL but 3D planned using OpenGL Yes Not yet but planned Not yet but planned see web site Very easy to use and fast rendering Engine is still in the early stages
Entropia Engine VB6/C Windows, and works perfectly with Wine on Linux (tested version 0.9.44) LGPL 2D using DirectX 8.1 Yes (Via DirectSound or FMod, or DirectShow for music/video) No No See Web Site (or the SDK) Very easy to use, fast, lots of utilities for a rapid game development, particle engine, sprite engine, map engine and dynamic lights engine (in development but works, see SDK), tiler, console, PAK file format (Quake PAK's), compression , MD5, and much more! Web site in Spanish (engine 95 % in English, will fix this soon)
ephLib C++/Io OS X (Others in progress) GPL/Other 2D/3D via OpenGL Soon, via OpenAL High level soon, sockets available Fully scriptable with the IoLanguage Constrained particle and rigid body physics, scalable polygonal and continuous collision detection Easily modifiable, suitable for prototypical development Under development, not yet feature-complete
Espresso3D Java Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free and Commercial 3D via LWJGL 2D and 3D via OpenAL Soon No Many
Fenix Project (beta) language hibrid between Pascal and C Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Solaris, BeOs, DreamCast, GP32X Open Source 2D via SDL Via MikMod Via SDL_Net No Perfect Pixel collision, path finding routine, music modules and Ogg Vorbis Support, cross plataform, very similitudes with Div Game Studio: compatibility with more of file formats (FPG, MAP, PAL, etc...) and a few compatibility with the syntax and other functions of the Div language Very easy syntax, documentation and web site in english and spanish, a complete game of functions, easy for newbies, the evolution of Div Game Studio! No oficial IDE (but exists alternatives), 2D via software, no OPP language, few bugs
FIFE - the Flexible Isometric Free Engine C++, Python Win32, Linux, MacOS X, BSD Free of charge / open source (LGPL 2.1) 2D software renderer via SDL, hw-accelerated mode via OpenGL Yes (OpenAL audio backend) No Yes: Python support out of the box, Lua and a couple of other languages supported in theory via SWIG. Ingame console, GUI framework pychan based on guichan, custom XML-based file formats One of the few open source 2D isometric game engines available Not feature complete at this point but ready to create game with it nevertheless
FlatRedBall 2.5D .NET Windows Free 3D via DirectX Yes Soon No Template, Collision Detection, Physics, Skeletons
G3D C++ Linux, Windows, MacOS X Free (BSD) 3D via OpenGL No No No
G3DRuby Ruby Windows, Linux Free 3D via OpenGL No No No
GameBrix No Programming Web-Based Free 2D Yes Some Script Editor for Action Script 2.0 No programming required for making quick 2D web-based Games and Animations
GameCore C++ Windows, Mac, Commercial, Free trial 3D Yes Yes AngelScript WYSIWYG World Editor provides Terrain editor, FX design, Physics editor, Pathfinding editor, Procedural geometry Active development, good support, knowledgeable community
Game Maker Delphi Windows Free and Commercial 2D/3D Yes Some Its own scripting language(GML) Terrific for making quick 2d tile-based games with easy scripting interface, slow 3D support(via DirectX)
GameSalad No Programming Mac OSX / iPhone Free and Commercial 2D Yes No Visual Scripting Language Physics, Particles Visual system allows for rapid development. Mac OS X on Intel only.
Genesis3D C++ Windows Free/Commercial 3D via DirectX
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
GhostEngine C++ Windows (Mac and Linux support is on the works) Engine code is Zlib/libPNG-licensed 3D via OpenGL/DirectX, with DirectX support in the works Not (in progress) Yes (UDP) Lua and Pawn support on the works None in particular As of 5-28-2008, the project has been marked as no longer under development.
Goblin 2D+ C/C++ Windows Freeware, Shareware and Commercial Mainly 2D via D3D but has support for .X and .MD2 3D models Yes - Own No No Many. Small footprint and able to make standalone execuables. (no DLL) Active development - stable Windows platform only
Golden T Game Engine Java Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free 2D via OpenGL Yes
Gosu C++, Ruby Windows, Mac, iPhone, Linux Free (MIT licensed itself, but relies on FMOD or SDL_mixer) 2D via OpenGL Yes, via FMOD or SDL_mixer Yes (C++) No Integration with many Ruby libraries Modern C++, rather minimalistic
HGE (Haaf's Game Engine) HGE at SourceForge HGE C++ Windows Open Source (Zlib/libpng license) 2D via DirectX Yes, via BASS No No Authoring tools, lightweight Easy to start, good engine structure No multiplatform
Horde3D C++, C DLL interface Windows Free (LGPL) 3D via OpenGL No No GLSL Shaders Shader based design, skeletal animation, animation blending, morph targets, post processing effects like HDR or DOF, COLLADA support Lightweight next-generation engine with clean design
Irmo C Linux Free Yes Ruby
Irrlicht C++/.NET Windows, Linux, Mac OSX Free (zlib/pnglib) 3D via DirectX(8,9), OpenGL or various software renderers No No Lua script Collision Detection, HDR, PARALLAX Big Community, a lot examples and tutorials Active development - Stable
ika C++ Windows, Linux Free (GPL) 2D via OpenGL Yes No Python very low overhead...
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
Jad Engine - C# + MDX Game Engine C# Windows LGPL 3D via Managed DirectX MDSound? And Vorbis .NET No No Focused to graphics cards that support shaders 2.0 or better, It uses Newton Physics Engine to generate realistic movements and responses, HDR support (the graphic card must support floating point blending), FirstPerson and SelfDriven (exported from 3D Studio Max) cameras support, Animation Skeletal animation using channels, Imports directly MD5 files..., Postproduction system integrated in the engine, AI Engine: Genetic Programming Framework Very more easy and intuitive interface, documentation and support are in english, a simple DLL No full documentation
Jamagic 1.2 Jamascript Windows Commercial(Withdrawn from sale) 3D Yes Yes Yes Inbuilt editors Easy to Learn, online games like flash No longer supported
JEngine SSE C++ Windows, Linux Free (GPL) 2D via OpenGL Yes Yes Lua Collision detection,Cg&GLS effects,GUI,etc. Contains full 2D open source framework with editor.
Jet3D C/C++ Windows Free 3D via DirectX Yes
JGame Java Windows, Unix, MacOSX Free (BSD) 2D Yes No No
jMonkey Engine Java Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free (BSD) 3D via LWJGL Yes - OpenAL Sound Yes - JGN and jme-networking Yes - jMonkey Scripting Framework A Java scene graph based 3D game engine. See the latest release notes
Joge Java Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free (Creative Commons License) 2D via LWJGL Yes No No
JOGRE Engine Java Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free (BSD) 2D  ? No No Java Online Gaming Real-time Engine.
Lightfeather 3d engine C++ Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free (zlib/libpng) 3D via OpenGL No Yes No

GLSL and Cg shaders, HDR rendering, MRT , Portals, occlusion culling, PVS, Skeletal and Morphing Animation, Exporter for Blender to lfm format, Post-Processing Framework, Paging terrain with splatting, Built-in GUI, Particlesystem-editor, Terrain-editor, Terrain-generator |more..

LÖVE Lua Windows / Linux zlib/libpng 2D via OpenGL Yes No Yes
Multimedia Fusion 2 Custom - none scripting Windows Commercial 2D Yes Yes Lua ActiveX, Dll, many plug-ins, movement extensions Easy to Learn, a favourite with younger developers, online games like flash
neabEngine PHP Windows, Linux Free / Commercial 2D (AJAX) No Yes Yes Comes with the full source code, allows to add/edit modules.
NeL C/C++ Windows, Linux Free/Commercial 3D via DirectX or OpenGL Yes Yes CEGUI Integration
NemoX 3D Engine VB/Delphi/.NET Windows Free 3D via DirectX DirectX Yes easy to use
NeoEngine C++ Windows, Linux Free (MPL) 3D via DirectX or OpenGL Yes Yes Lua
Novashell Game Creation Lua Windows, Linux, OS X zlib/libpng ClanLib (OpenGL) OpenAL No Lua Fast Game Creation with Lua sector based partitioning, easy editing files, level editor Beta
OGE - Open Game Engine C++ Windows (VC, mingw), Linux (gcc) Free (LGPL) / Commercial 3D (OGRE hence DX + OpenGL) Yes OpenAL Soon RakNet Yes Lua (later Squirrel) Multithread and pluggable design, MyGUI, Physics (Bullet), Unicode, OGEd - Game Editor Multithread, Plugin-based, Clean OO, Early stage of development Early stage of development
OGRE C++ Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free (LGPL) / Commercial 3D via DirectX or OpenGL No No No Super 3D Engine, Support All HighEnd 3D Technologies, Plugin structure Big Community, A lot examples and tutorials, made severals big games (like as air simulation, 3d adventure, 3d action), Open Source too big source code
ORE VB6 Windows Free 2d via DirectX7 / DirectX8 Yes Yes Yes
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
Orx: Portable Game Engine C/C++ Windows (mingw/vc), Linux, MacOS X, GP2X (WIP) Free (LGPL) 2.5D, hardware accelerated Yes No, planned No, planned Plugins. Portable. Data driven. Very easy to use. Extended unique features (animation graph, hierarchical config files, independent clocks, hierarchical objects, differential scrolling, ...).
Ovorp Engine .NET Windows Free 2D via DirectX Yes
PAB game engine VB Windows
Panda3D C++, Python Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, iPhone Free 3D via OpenGL, DirectX or TinyGL Yes (FMod or OpenAL) Yes Python, C++ Free models, documentation, simple installation Used by Disney to make ToonTown, easy learning, very stable
Photon C++ Linux, Windows zlib 2D via OpenGL Yes, with OpenAL No No State, Resource Management, Math Routines Good License, Great C++ API, Good Documentation Early in development, uncertain future
PLib C++ Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOSX, MacOS9 Free (LGPL) 2D and 3D via OpenGL Yes Yes Yes
Popcap Framework c ++ Windows Free 2D Yes N/A N/A Super Game Engine for developing super games like as Zuma have great game ZUMA Not 3D
PowerRender C++ Windows, XBox Commercial 3D via DirectX Yes No Custom C++ Script scripting language Physics, Collision Detection, HDR Easy to start, flexible engine Bad working with shadowing
PTK Engine C++ Windows, Mac Free and Commercial 2D Yes No No Font, TTF, Spline, Tar files Lightweight and Crossplatform
PPTactical Engine For RTS games C++ Windows, Linux Free (LGPL) 2D
PureBasic Basic Mac OS X, Linux, Windows Commercial
PySoy Python Linux, Mac OS X, Windows Free (GPLv3) 3D via OpenGL Yes, with OpenAL and Ogg Yes Yes Integrated Physics No proprietary dependencies Still in Beta (lacks features)
Quake Engine C DOS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X GPL, Commercial Software, OpenGL Yes Yes QuakeC
Quake II Engine C Windows, Linux, Mac OS X GPL, Commercial OpenGL Yes Yes
Quake III Arena Engine C Windows, Linux, Mac OS GPL, Commercial OpenGL Yes Yes
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
Raydium 3D C Windows, Linux Free (GPL) 3D via OpenGL Yes, via OpenAL Yes embedded PHP, Python bindings Physics via ODE
Ray Game Designer 2 None needed Windows Free 3D via OpenGL or Direct3D Yes No Yes Collision Detection, Translucency, Lighting Requires no programming, very easy to use, includes most needed tools Very limited gameplay options, outdated graphics engine, very small community
The RealFeel Engine VB6 Windows XP/Vista Free (Closed Source) 2D Yes Yes No Powerful 2D MMORPG Engine
Reality Factory None needed Windows 3D via Genesis3D (DirectX) Yes Yes? Yes
RealmForge Game Engine C# (.NET) 3D via Axiom (OpenGL) Yes Yes Yes
RetinaX Completelty .NET 2.0 (C#). No wrapped C++ Libraries. Free (BSD) 3D via Managed DirectX Yes No No User Interface Easy to start programming DirectX. Framework is well structured and you can modify it to your liking.
Revolution3D VB/C++/.NET Windows Free 3D via DirectX Yes No No
RPG Maker 2003 C/Delphi Windows Shareware 2D Yes via DirectX Yes Ruby Level Editor Easy to use Not open source
RPG Maker XP C/Delphi Windows Shareware 2D Yes via DirectX Yes Ruby Level Editor Easy to use Not open source
PTK Engine C++ Windows, Mac Free and Commercial 2D Yes No No Font, TTF, Spline, Tar files Lightweight and Crossplatform
Saq2D C# Windows Free 2D engine via XNA Soon Maybe Not Yet
Sprite Craft VB/C++/Delphi Windows Free 2D VBScript/JavaScript
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
Source Engine C++ Windows, Linux (server-side) Commercial/Free Direct3D Yes Yes lua(disabled by default)/custom Havok Physics, Valve Faceposer Technology, VGUI, HDR, Steam Community,SDk
Sphere RPG Engine Javascript Windows, Linux, MacOS X GPL 2D via software or hardware (OpenGL or DirectX) rendering Yes Yes Javascript Map editor, tile editor, image editor, imports RPG Maker resources Very good map/tile engine, cross-platform, imports many resources, and fully featured to make your own SNES/Genesis style game.
The Nebula Device 2 C++ Windows Free 3D via DirectX Yes Yes Yes
Thousand Parsec Framework Python, C++, others Windows, Linux, MacOS X Free (GPL) 2D/3D No TP Protocol Yes Framework for online turn based space strategy games
TNT Basic Basic MacOSX Free (GPL) 2D Yes No No
Torque C++ Windows, Linux, MacOS X Commercial 3D via OpenGL OpenAL Yes Custom Torque Script Mission Editor, Terrain Editor, Mac and Linux Support, WYSIWYG GUI Editor, Particle Engine, Theora Video, Multiple Language Support Source Code Included, Large Community, Many 3D modeling exporters
Torque2D C++ Windows, Linux, MacOS X Commercial 2D OpenAL Yes Custom Torque Script
Truevision3D VB/Delphi/C++/.NET Windows Free for learning/Commercial 3D via DirectX DirectX Yes VBscript, Python, Java Script Physics, Plugins for popular modeling packages, Active user base, Normal Mapping, Relief Mapping, and complex shaders
UnrealEngine2 / 2X / 3 C++ Windows, Linux, MacOS X, PS2, Xbox, PS3, XBOX 360 Commercial 3D Yes Yes UnrealScript Physics, HDR (UE3) high cost
UnrealEngine2 Runtime C++ Windows, Linux, MacOS X, PS2, Xbox, PS3, XBOX 360 Non-Commercial / Educational 3D Yes Yes UnrealScript Need to be a 'serious developer'. Still pricey. No source code.
Unigine C++ Windows, Linux Commercial 3D Yes Yes UnigineScript lika C++ Physics, HDR, PRT, Pixel and Vetex Shaders (3.0) , soft shadows Great 3D Engine, image quality like as Doom3, Unreal, small cost, more tools, gui
Unity C++ Mac (development), Windows, web, Nintendo Wii Commercial 3D via DirectX or OpenGL Yes Yes .NET based JavaScript, C#, Boo, or C++ DLLs Ageia PhysX, terrain engine, extensible shaders, JIT compiled scripts, soft shadows, collaboration tools, realtime networking, friendly community, most file formats supported Amazingly smooth workflows, lots of powerful tools, complete documentation Source code is a separate license
Verge Lua or VergeC Windows, Mac, Linux Free (BSD license) Software 2D Yes Yes Yes Friendly community, tile-based map editor tool, fully scriptable game Extremely easy to rapidly prototype something, simple-to-use software graphics. Requires some knowledge of scripting. Does not have hardware accelerated graphics.
XtremeWorlds VB6 Windows Free (Closed Source) 2D Yes Yes No Designed towards ORPG and MMORPG design
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
vbGORE VB6 Windows Free (Open Source) 2D via 3D Yes Yes No Designed towards ORPG and MMORPG design
NetGore C# Windows Free (Open Source) 2D Yes Yes Yes Open source, multiplayer (MMORPG) support, very active development
Name Language Platform License Graphics Sound Networking Scripting Other features Plus Minus
[Valve] Python Windows/Linux commercial 2D/3D via DirectX and OpenGL Yes Soon Python scripting with 3DCW helpers Many
Visual3D Game Engine C# (.NET) Windows, Web*, Xbox 360* Commercial, Free for Open Source and Educational Use 3D via XNA Yes Yes C#, IronPython, VB, JavaScript, C++, Visual Scripting, Behavior Trees (State Machines)* All-in-one Game Development Toolset with Next-Gen Graphics (HDR, Per-pixel, Parallax, Dynamic Soft Shadows, God Rays, SSAO*), Entity/Model/Material Editor, Particle Editor (Explosions, Volumetrics) , Advanced Physics (Rag Dolls, Vehicles), Terrain Editor (Procedural Generation, Massive Full-Globe Terrain, Land Cover Painting, Geodata), AI and Pathfinding, Multiplayer Networking, Cinematics/Path/Road Editors, Real-time In-Game Scene/Mission Editing, Script/Conversation Editor, 3D Audio, Day-Night Cycle, Free Starter Kits/Asset Libraries, C# Shaders, UI Editor, Web Deployment*, Collaborative Editing* (* coming soon)
YAKE Engine C++ Windows, Linux Free 3D via OGRE (OpenGL), Direct3D9 OpenAL Yes Lua GUI via CEGUI, physics via ODE
Yage D Windows, Linux Free (LGPL) 3D via OpenGL OpenAL No No
Wild Pockets C++ Windows Free 3D via OpenGL Yes No Lua Integrated Physics
Art import from 3DS Max and Maya
Global art/script library
Transaction system to sell games
Shader support
Free
Web based, send games with url link.
Zak Engine C++ Windows Free 2D via DirectX 8.1 and 9.0 Yes Yes AngelScript Tiles Maps (AnaConda Map Editor), Sprites, Particle Systems, Bitmap Fonts Very stable, easy to use, fast games development
ZFX Community Engine C++ Windows, Linux, BSD Free (LGPL) 3D via DirectX and OpenGL Yes Yes Lua
Edge2d Engine C++ Windows, Linux Open Source Library independent(both DirectX and OpenGL etc Yes No No very object-oriented and plugin-based, you can create your own graphics plugin without modified base library
Phoenix Engine C# Windows, Mono Beta SDL.NET Yes Yes No IronPython Map Editor, Sprite, Plugin system, e.t.c
Weaver C Linux Free (GPL) 2D Yes No No Ogg Vorbis support, complete framework, collision detection Easy to start, learn and use. Fast 2D engine. Self-contained system.

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