Free easy to learn game engines

But Monogame is still a popular choice with those who know how to use it. And an active community is there to help beginners get started.

Check Out Corona. Beginner friendly and fun to learn, Corona is completely free with no hidden royalties. That is huge considering so many game engines do require payments for commercial products.

They also have a small but helpful subreddit that you might browse through. It combines a marketplace of users with a publishing service and a game engine all rolled into one. The idea is that developers can focus more on making games and less on the hassle of promoting and selling their work. Check Out Phaser. Phaser is based heavily on Flixel , a free flash game library.

This engine lets you develop HTML5 games for desktop and mobile right from the browser. Developers with a background in web development and Flash now Adobe Animate will appreciate Phaser the most.

Those without the funds to unlock the extra features will be stuck with a rather limited free solution. But the license is free. Games that you develop with Phaser are yours to release and sell. Check Out GameSalad. This is a game engine that uses creation as a teaching method. For developers, GameSalad offers an incredibly simple way to create and publish games. Absolute beginners will be surprised at how easy it is to create behaviors using the drag-and-drop scripting feature.

No prior coding knowledge is necessary to make games here although learning to code is handy! That said, you may not be able to achieve the level of detail you want for a finished game. If you do build something then GameSalad can export your game as playable for PC, mobile, web, and some other platforms. All totally free. Check Out GameMaker. GameMaker is designed to be easy on beginners but powerful enough to fill the needs of a large studio.

With a dynamic physics engine and a custom scripting language , GameMaker is a good choice for hobbyists and professionals alike. Check Out Lumberyard. Lumberyard is a free game engine designed to integrate directly with Twitch. The goal of Amazon Lumberyard is to build games that are as fun to watch as they are to play, so quality visuals and stellar performance are key focus points.

It provides a feature-rich experience that includes cloud integration, built-in multiplayer deployment with online tools, and mod-friendly support. Smaller indie studios or lone game designers have the advantage of keeping everything under one roof. With Amazon handing bandwidth and the cloud, you can focus on making beautiful environments and compelling characters with fun, engaging storylines.

Technical artists will find a suite of tools at their disposal including physically-based shaders, dynamic global illumination, particle effects, and volumetric fog. For instance, 10 years ago, nobody would have dreamed of creating a website without programming knowledge. Now everyone can do it in minutes. You can even build a smartphone app in the same way! So what about creating computer games? There are now more and more solutions for complete beginners who have never written a line of code in their life.

Sounds good to you? You will also know that you need to download and install them on your computer. Roughly speaking, they offer 4 main kinds of features:.

Of course, the closer you get to code, the steeper the learning curve gets. But also remember there are other factors to consider. These could be:. The Unity export window — choose where you want to port your game. The short answer is yes. But some genres will definitely require scripting. Simple 2D Games: These easy enough to create. You will need to invest time in learning how to use the game engine, and of course in creating your levels, artwork and concept. A few genres are particularly popular with drag and drop game engines, and these are:.

Complex 2D Games: games that rely on physics, AI, multiplayer games or with many features. You should also be able to create them, but expect to spend a lot more time learning the basics for:. Simple 3D Games : Things start getting a little bit more complicated when you work in 3D.

The game engines are a lot more powerful, and therefore a lot more difficult to learn. You can expect to spend between 3 months — 1 year learning the basics by really studying how to make things happen for:. So what about complex 3D games?

Expect to spend a few years of your life studying how to create games such as:. Just remember that the amount of time you put in will always result in better long-term knowledge. Also: the Internet is your best friend in terms of technical resources — there are even full game templates you can download to see how things work under the hood. In fact, GameSalad even market their platform at educators who want to teach student how to create games in the classroom.

Of course, it is quite limited in terms of features, but it should be enough for mobile apps and addictive 2D casual games.

Buildbox is slowly making a name for itself as the engine used for some true hits in the last few years. Their philosophy is to provide users with ready-made templates that let you get started with a game in minutes. However, this puts restrictions on the amount of freedom you can have, and also tends to help create game clones rather than original concepts.

Luckily, you can also take control of your game mechanics with more advanced features. Watch how to get started with Buildbox in 20 mins. Construct 2 is a very intuitive drag and drop for creating 2D games. The learning curve is super fast, and the interface looks a lot like Microsoft products, so it makes it an ideal tool for PC users who have never looked at a game engine before.

This means that they need to be converted with a 3rd party service to work as native apps for Android or iOS, which comes at a cost in terms of performance.

Watch how to make a basic game in Construct 2 in 20 mins. But Unreal gains a competitive edge as it is more user-friendly. CryEngine is one of the premium 3D game engines in our list of recommendations. If you are looking for the best graphics and breathtaking visuals, this game engine will not disappoint. Using CryEngine can seem challenging to beginners, but the learning curve gets more straightforward with the help of:.

One of the advantages of using CryEngine is that you get unparalleled VR support. It packs all the tools you need for creating AAA games. Some of the popular games that have been created using it are:.

CryEngine has many win-win features that you are bound to love. Here is a list of some of its features that convinced us to include it in our list of recommendations:. Phaser is one of the most straightforward game engines in this list. It is an open-source framework that allows you to build HTML5 games for mobile and desktop straight from your browser. It relies significantly on Flixel. If you are a beginner who wants to learn 2D game development, Phaser is the perfect game engine for you. Phaser has many tutorials and examples to help you learn and master an array of game development skills.

If you have some experience in Flash and web development, using this engine will feel like a piece of cake! It is an open source framework with a community comprising of thousands of games. NET languages, developing games using MonoGame will feel like a walk in the park!

If you are a beginner, you can benefit from the active community of MonoGame users. One of the most popular games that have been created using this game engine is Stardew Valley. Despite its many features, MonoGame does not provide adequate features and tools for non-coders to use it.

If you do not have coding knowledge, using this game engine can be a real hassle initially. Corona is an excellent cross-platform 2D framework for game development. When you opt for Corona, you get some excellent benefits like:. It is ideal for creating apps and games for desktop and mobile devices. We especially liked the option to view and monitor projects instantly across multiple devices with the help of Live Builds.

You can use Corona to publish your developed games to a variety of significant platforms without having to rewrite the code. The Corona Simulator instantly responds to changes in the code. Game Maker Studio supports both 3D and 2D game development.

Some of the popular games created using this engine include:. Whether you want to create simple 2D games or AAA 3D games, this game engine has the tools and features to get the job done.

One of the most versatile engines on this list, it works perfectly for beginners as well as professional game studios. GameSalad is the perfect game engine for beginners. Even if you have zero knowledge of coding, you will not find it challenging to create and publish games using this engine.