Hey scratchers out there, would you like to create games that the world can see and notice? Well if yes then you got to build your games on things called Game Engines. A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games. Video game developers use them to create games for video game consoles, mobile devices and personal computers. There are hundreds or even thousands of game engines in the world today, from complex 3d engines to simpler 2d ones. With so many to pick from where should you start? I have decided to make a list of some the top game engines of the modern age.

1. Unity
Unity is one of the easiest 3d/2d engines to use. Many games with incredible graphics and astonishing gameplay experiences have been made using Unity like this one. Unity requires c++ , a programming language much like JavaScript, but the multiple tutorials and beginner lessons lead to the quick understanding of c+ and Unity itself. It is way harder than Scratch, but Scratch will help you script in JavaScript, C#, and Boo. This is a Minecraft - like game using blocks. So far you can only select blocks, place and break them. There are 5 blocks and 1 tool including: wooden planks, bricks, cobblestone, grass, glass, and a wooden pickaxe. Aiming is kind of hard when you try to build because it can go out of the block it's supposed to go in and can go through the player. There is only a flat generated world that is 20x5x20 blocks. Unity was used to make Temple Run 2 and Mojang's Scrolls. If you would like to learn this, first practice on Scratch then lean towards tutorials, lessons and even Youtube for learning Javascript, C# or Boo. There are many, many games that have been created with Unity. Here is a picture of the Minecraft game:



Here are some pictures of unity games





2.Unreal
Unreal is one of the most popular game engines to develop high-end triple-A titles for years now. Gears of War, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect, and many other blockbuster games were developed with this engine. Here are its pros and cons.

Pros

-There is widest range of easy to maneuver tools up under its sleeve. There are few tools that can be maneuvered even by a 9 year old.

-With so many developers using it, Unreal offers the largest community support. Several lifetime hours of video tutorials and assets are available.

-Best support and update mechanism of all engines, with a new tool introduced with each new update.

Cons
-Some developers complain a lot about the tools that involve a bit of a higher learning curve.

3.Rage
Few game engines can match the wide range of strengths that Rage offers. Naturally, some of the all-time used this multifaceted game engine. Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption, and many other famous and acclaimed games have been developed with this. Here are some of the notable pros and cons.

Pros

-Great capability for handling large streaming worlds and weather effects.

-Unmatched in handling complex A.I.s.

-Multitude of gameplay styles for the developer to work upon.

-Fast network code.

-Very attractive graphics.

Cons

-Interface is poor compared to other top-notch engines.

-Controls are less optimized for keyboard and mouse.

4.GameMaker: Studio
As a game developer, if you are looking for a simple and straightforward gaming engine to start with, GameMaker: Studio should be the ideal one. It is said to be a little expensive but there are various positive aspects that worth the price. Here are the pros and cons of this game engine.

Pros

-Simple and straightforward for all basic and advanced elements.

-One programming language (GML) to involve with.

-No need to deal with memory management or tasks like multithreading.

-Independent of any platforms.

Cons

-In case of memory issue debugging can be a problem.

-A bit expensive compared to other engines of the same stature.

5.Ogre3d
Ogre3d , open-source 3D rendering engine. It is a mature, stable rendering engine that has a very large user base. We used it in our projects. It is easily integrated with OIS for input, has bindings for Newton, PhysX, ODE & Bullet physics engines. (sorry for the lack of information, I don't know to much about this engine)


6.DimensioneX Multiplayer Engine
DimensioneX is an Open Source and totally free Multiplayer Engine designed for beginners and for quick development. Aimed at producing browser-based multiplayer games and environments in general, it has been around since 1999 and has been used for MMORPG games, research, education and promotional applications. Written in Java and supporting a number of languages including eastern languages such as Chinese and Russian, DimensioneX has been supported by SourceForge.net since its beginning.

• The game world is defined via a simple dedicated language, named DXW (DimensioneX World) format. The syntax lets the programmer to define quickly rooms, doors/links, items, characters.
  
  
• All the remaining necessary interaction is then added via an object-oriented scripting language that is very similar to Visual Basic/VBScript.
  
  
• The engine is not a graphics engine, the client is a combination of a server-generated combination of HTML, Javascript. Scene graphics is obtained by stacking static images and icons provided by the programmer.
  
  
• The engine supports in-game sounds and music, as well as flash files and other types of files.

7.Delta3D
Delta3D is an Open Source engine which can be used for games, simulations, or other graphical applications. Its modular design integrates other well-known Open Source projects such as Open Scene Graph, Open Dynamics Engine, Character Animation Library, and OpenAL. Rather than bury the underlying modules, Delta3D integrates them together in an easy-to-use API – always allowing access to the important underlying components. This provides a high-level API while still allowing the end user the optional, low-level functionality.


8.Flexible Isometric Free Engine
The Flexible Isometric Free Engine (FIFE) is an open source, cross-platform game engine written in C++ with Python scripting abilities. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which allows creating independent commercial games.


9.GamePlay Engine

• Full-featured OpenGL(desktop) and OpenGL ES(mobile) based rendering system
  
  
• Shader-based material system with built-in common shader library
  
  
• Node-based scene graph system with support for lights, cameras, models, particle emitters, and physics collision objects
  
  
• Heightmap based terrains with multiple surface layers and LOD
  
  
• Declarative scene bindings (materials) and node attachments (particle emitters, physics collision objects, 3D audio sources)
  
  
• Declarative particle system
  
  
• Easy-to-use text and sprite rendering
  
  
• Physics system (using Bullet physics)
  
  
• Declarative UI system with support for themeable 2D and 3D forms. Includes the following built-in core controls and layouts:
  
  
• Fully extensible animation system with skeletal character animation support
  
  
• Complete 3D audio system with WAV and OGG support
  
  
• Full vector math library with 2D/3D math and 3D object culling support
  
  
• Mouse, keyboard, touch, gestures and gamepad support
  
  
• Lua script bindings and binding generator tool
  
  
• AI state machine

10.Panda3D
Panda3D is a game engine that includes graphics, audio, I/O, collision detection, and other abilities relevant to the creation of 3D games.
Panda3D is open source and is, as of May 28, 2008, free software under the revised BSD license. Releases prior to that date are not considered Free Software due to certain errors in the design of the old Panda3D license. Despite this, those older releases of Panda3D can also be used for both free and commercial game development at no financial cost. Panda3D's intended game-development language is Python. The engine itself is written in C++, and utilizes an automatic wrapper-generator to expose the complete functionality of the engine in a Python interface. This approach gives a developer the advantages of Python development, such as rapid development and advanced memory management, but keeps the performance of a compiled language in the engine core. For instance, the engine is integrated with Python's garbage collector, and engine structures are automatically managed. The manual and the sample programs use Python, although the developers are working on translating the manual to C++ and providing C++ sample programs. A developer using Panda3D typically writes code in Python, but it is also possible to directly access the engine using C++ code.


11.Godot
Godot is an open source MIT licensed game engine. It has a visual-oriented workflow that can export to PC, mobile and Web platforms. It contains an editor and tools developed by OKAM Studio. Godot had a different approach to making games, combined with the other features, allowing single developers and teams to be more efficient. Godot has its own scripting language called GDScript, which is similar to Python. It's a high level, dynamically typed programming language. It also has a built-in editor with auto indenter, syntax highlighting, code completion and debugger that supports breakpoints and stepping. The graphics engine uses OpenGL ES 2.0 for all supported platforms, and an upgrade to Vulkan backend is in the roadmap. The engine supports transparency, normal mapping, specularity, dynamic shadows using shadow maps and full-screen post-processing effects like FXAA, bloom, DOF, HDR, gamma correction and fog. Godot also has its own built-in physics engine for both 2D and 3D aspects of the engine, supporting collision detection, rigid body, static body, characters, vehicles, raycasts and joints. Godot has a sophisticated animation system with full support for editing, skeletal animation, blending, animation trees, morphing, realtime cutscenes, calling functions and animating just any property exported by any node. Godot supports deployment to multiple platforms. Within a project, developers have control over delivery to mobiles, web, desktops, and consoles. Godot also allows specification of texture compression and resolution settings for each platform the game supports.
Currently supported platforms include Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, BlackBerry 10, HTML5, Flash, NaCl, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS. There is an upcoming support for Windows Phone 8.


12.ClanLib
ClanLib is a cross-platform C++ game SDK, currently supporting Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, with partial support for mobile platforms. It has full hardware accelerated graphics support through OpenGL, and also a software renderer. ClanLib also helps in playing sound, using the Vorbis or MikMod libraries, and has classes for collision detection, GUIs, XML, networking, and other things that may be helpful to a game programmer.


13.Dim3
Dim3 includes four applications: Engine, Editor, Animator, and Setup.

• The Engine is the deployment application that runs games created in dim3. The games (or “projects”) are cross-platform and only require the proper engine to run on the proper platform. The engine runs on Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, iOS, and can be compiled on Linux. All versions can play network games with each other. The Editor is used to create levels by importing various 3D models into it. The Editor is capable of per-pixel lighting, bump and specular mapping, real-time lighting and/or baked lighting, particles and other special effects, skeletal animation, and customization through javascript.
  
  
• The Animator is used to add loop animations and effects to models used with dim3. The Animator is used to add bones, setup poses for the bones, and to combine those poses into animations. The Animator uses a skeletal animation system. This makes character movement simplistic yet very realistic.
  
  
• Setup is a utility that is used to change all other settings in the project, for example, the HUD, network, or particle settings.
  
  
• A data folder, representing the game, contains all the maps, models, artwork, sounds, and scripts required to create a game in dim3. Each game is self-contained in up to 3 data folders, though only one is actually needed. All non-editor data is in standard formats: PNG, WAV, and mp3. A demonstration “game” is added to dim3, though it is not really a game in itself but shows most of the engine's capabilities.

14.Cafu Engine
The Cafu Engine is a game engine developed by Carsten Fuchs. It is portable across platforms and currently runs under Windows and Linux, with plans to be adapted to Mac OS. The engine's source code is freely available under the GPL, but can be obtained under a proprietary license.


15.Blender Game Engine
The Blender Game Engine is a component of Blender, a free and open-source comprehensive 3D production suite, used for making real-time interactive content. The game engine was written from scratch in C++ as a mostly independent component, and includes support for features such as Python scripting and OpenAL 3D sound. Features:

• Graphical logic editor for defining interactive behavior without programming
  
  
• Collision detection and dynamics simulation now support Bullet Physics Library. Bullet is an open source collision detection and rigid body dynamics library developed for PlayStation 3
  
  
• Shape types: Convex polyhedron, box, sphere, cone, cylinder, capsule, compound, and static triangle mesh with auto deactivation mode
  
  
• Discrete collision detection for RigidBody simulation
  
  
• Support for in-game activation of dynamic constraints
  
  
• Full support for vehicle dynamics, including spring reactions, stiffness, damping, tire friction etc.
  
  
• Python scripting API for sophisticated control and AI, fully defined advanced game logic
  
  
• Support all OpenGLTM lighting modes, including transparencies, Animated and reflection-mapped textures
  
  
• Support for multimaterials, multitexture and texture blending modes, per-pixel lighting, dynamic lighting, mapping modes, GLSL vertexPaint texture blending, toon shading, animated materials, support for Normal Mapping and Parallax Mapping
  
  
• Playback of games and interactive 3D content without compiling or preprocessing
  
  
• Audio, using the SDL toolkit
  
  
• Multi-layering of Scenes for overlay interfaces.

16. PlayCanvas
PlayCanvas is a cloud-based HTML5 games development platform designed for the creation and release of 3D HTML5 titles. No download or installation is required, and developers can collaborate in real-time using the tool. Users can develop commercial games for free. Up to two collaborators can work on a project, and can use disk space up to 200MB. Free projects cannot be developed in private however, but content created publicly can still be marked as private and can’t be ripped by other users.


People play games everywhere — consoles, mobile devices, and even smart TVs — so it’s important for developers to find an engine that works not just for their skills but also their goals. This why finding the proper game engine is important, especially for new developers — and a good way to tap into this growing, $20 billion-a-year industry.

Want to learn more?

• Imagine GameDev Group Studio
  
  More about Unity
  

Citations

• en.Wikipedia.org/List of game engines

Hold on, wasn't the build engine from the Mid-90's? I don't see how it fits here with stuff like Unreal and RAGE.

Superandultra wrote:

Hold on, wasn't the build engine from the Mid-90's? I don't see how it fits here with stuff like Unreal and RAGE.

Oh… I don't really know the dates on the engines, but thanks for telling me. I'll replace it with something differrent

Processing.org is another good one. Check my signature.

Nice list!

Firedrake969 wrote:

Nice list!

Thanks!

scratchisthebest wrote:

Processing.org is another good one. Check my signature.

Cool! Did you create this game because it's amazing

Free feel to tell me of more top (whatever it is) lists I should do

I spent 3 hours straight making this gigantic list

Bump

Bump

eclipse, flashdevelop. processing is good for trying out stuff.

Bum

*bump

I actually make games on unreal 4 and Unity 5 and I use modeling programs such as Sketchup and 3d max. I think kids on here should learn these programs because it shows them how to actually make games

Are there any that you don't need to download?

Correction for the OP: C++ needs to be replaced with C#. You can also use UnityScript which is a derivative of JavaScript.

This is an awesome list! Thanks for all the pointers!
I think I'll bookmark it for a while just in case I ever need it again.

(If I wanted to make a 2D game with some fancy graphical effects such as intricate lighting and maybe some particles and things, which do you think would be best?)

PullJosh wrote:

This is an awesome list! Thanks for all the pointers!
I think I'll bookmark it for a while just in case I ever need it again.

(If I wanted to make a 2D game with some fancy graphical effects such as intricate lighting and maybe some particles and things, which do you think would be best?)

It really depends on the type/genre of the video game you are creating, I've never made a 2d game on any of these game engines, (most of my 2 dimensional games have been created from Scratch) although I might try GameMaker. Even though I haven't ever used GameMaker I hear it is a very good engine for 2d games and that a lot of today's 2d games or created on GameMaker, But the engines above also work