In the wake of Unity setting everything on fire with their new revenue model for developers, here's a reminder on what other game engines and tech is out there for developers to look into.
There's actually absolutely loads out there, this is just a small slice of others developers can look into. So this is not an exhuastive list, not even close, because there is quite literally thousands of different pieces of tech developers can use.
Full Game Engines
Godot Engine - Free, open source, no royalties at all. There's W4 Games for commercial support.
- Supports: Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, HTML5/Web.
Game Pictured - Cassette Beasts, made with Godot Engine.
Defold - Free, full source code access. Not open source under the OSI definition, but incredibly open. Mainly not classed as open source due to their custom license, that forbids anyone to charge for the game engine (even themselves).
- Supports: Linux, macOS, Windows, PlayStation 4, Switch, iOS, Android. Planned: Xbox (Q1 2024), PlayStation 5 (Q3 2023)
Solar2D - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: iOS, tvOS, Android, Android TV, macOS, Windows, Linux and HTML5/Web.
Ren'Py (visual novel engine) - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Android, Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS.
Solarus - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Nintendo Switch
HaxeFlixel - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, HTML5/Web.
Unreal Engine - Free, no royalties until you earn $1 million USD. Full source code access (but not open source). Epic also confirmed they can't just change the licensing on you.
- Supports: Windows PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, macOS, iOS, Android, ARKit, ARCore, OpenXR, SteamVR, Oculus, Linux, and Steam Deck.
Castle Game Engine - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch. Planned: Xbox, WebGL.
GDevelop - Free, open source, no royalties at all. Uses an events system instead of traditional programming.
- Supports: Windows, Linux, macOS, HTML5.
Adventure Game Studio - Free, open source, no royalties at all but there's a few things to note for commercial games.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux. The editor is only available for Windows.
Bevy - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux, Web, iOS. Planned: Android.
O3DE - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS.
Heaps - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, tvOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, HTML5.
Frameworks
LÖVE - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS.
FNA - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, tvOS, Xbox (One, Series S|X), Nintendo Switch.
MonoGame - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS/iPadOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
LDtk (2D level editor) - Free, open source, no royalties at all.
- Supports: Windows, macOS, Linux
There's a lot more to game development than Unity. However, switching game engine mid-way through a multi-year journey certainly isn't easy or even feasible at all for some.
Feel free to give over your suggestions in the comments. These are just some choice picks for developers wanting to try out something different.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
https://www.orx-project.org/ - Open source, C++ engine where you make games by writing a bunch of .ini settings. Very well organised templates. Most of the time you just gotta fill in your own variables.
https://dragonruby.org/ - Not open source, but has a free license that does everything for PC games. Cheap licenses for lil bit of extra features like mobile framework.
robertosf92 Sep 13, 2023
Mr. Pinsky Sep 13, 2023
It's not a complete engine but it has been used for 3D rendering in commercial games, for example in Hob by Runic Games.
Has everything you need to create maps, voxel models, sounds, dialogs, etc.
Or reuse a game that has been open sourced such as id Tech 4.
Quoting: EhvisI think the biggest problem with most engines is the lack of console support. I imagine that is a big breaking point for a lot of devs. And Godot is a prime example of the difficulties in managing that.Sadly the blame is entirely on Sony and Microsoft, who keep a tight grip on all the SDK stuff for it. Quite ridiculous really.
Linux_Rocks Sep 13, 2023
ssj17vegeta Sep 13, 2023
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