Given the origin of mobile devices, everything has changed around us, and we all are eyewitnesses. There was a time when gaming console and PC games were a craze for millennials. Ever since Mobile Game Development Tools came into the game development ecosystem, it has shifted gamers’ preferences to play games.
Presently, the App Store and Play Store are filled with numerous games and making the most revenue out of these gaming apps. Mobile Gaming has become one of the largest industries in the world, and many people are ready to enter and leverage the prolific industry.
Are you one of them? If yes, then the blog is going to be a great help in achieving success for your desirable game.
Although success for game creation is not limited to gameplay and storyline, game engine and graphics play the same meaningful role. Luckily, you are in the right place as we have compiled a list of the Top Mobile Game Development Tools right here, all for you.
Top Mobile Game Engines And Development Platforms
1. Unity
On the trail of studying the top 10 mobile game development tools, we found plenty of praises for the Unity game development platform. We dug into the deep and unearthed why it should be on the top for game development, and here you go.
- You can create amazing gameplay sequences with its 2D & 3D design tools and a robust animation system;
- Create simple to AAA-class games for multi-platforms with rapid editing and iteration;
- A forefront game development tool of the growing VR ecosystem
- It is an estimated 90% use of Unity in Samsung Gear VR Games;
- Besides a flexible free version, it offers a wide range of assets to purchase right from its store;
- Strong community, a significant number of tutorials and guides come in handy for any beginner developer or amateur to start the development;
It is contingent that you may discover many other benefits of Unity rather than these all while you start your game development with this noble tool.
Developers: Unity Technologies
Backed Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, and Tizen
Price: For personal it’s free, Subscriptions start from $25 to $125 for Plus & Pro Edition
Developed Game: Super Mario Run, Angry Birds 2, Pokémon GO, Wasteland 2
2. Unreal Engine
Want to build something spectacular for your audience? For – Most Successful Video Game Engine, Unreal Engine, has won several awards, including the 2014 Guinness World Record. The engine allows you to create a high-class game using Unreal Engine’s comprehensive suite of real-time 3D tools.
Have a glance at some of its specifications.
- The toolset of Unreal Engine includes C++ code view, scripting with full source code access, hot reload functionality, virtue auto system, visual effect creation tool, customized artificial intelligence;
- Majority platforms and OSs support games built on Unreal engine;
- Easy to work, the possibility to test the game inside the platform;
- Best for large sophisticated and strong 3D animation required games;
- Unreal Engine 4.25 released with updated features involving Niagara VFX and Chaos physics and destruction, and many more possibilities;
Developers: Epic Games
Backed Platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, macOS, iOS, Android, AR, VR, Linux, SteamOS, and HTML5.
Price: the engine is free to use; however, 5% royalty charged once you crossed $3000 revenue per product, per quarter
Developed Game: Batman: Arkham Origins, Infinity Blade 3, Marvel Heroes, WWE Immortals, and more.
3. Marmalade SDK
Marmalade uses the C++ code for game building. It allows you to create anything from 2D single-player games to 3D multiplayer quickly and run it anywhere you want. With Marmalade, you can create native games for mobile and desktop both. It offers many libraries, code samples, documentation, and tools to develop, debug, and lunch games easily.
Features of Marmalade include;
- OpenGL graphics using Marmalade Studio layer;
- It offers quick conversion, high-performance, open architecture, and many open-source components;
- Marmalade Juice tool that supports easy porting of iOS games to Android ecosystem;
Developers: Marmalade Technologies Limited.
Backed Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone8, Tizen, Blackberry, Connected TV Platforms
Price: $600 per license
Developed Game: Plants vs. Zombies, Need for Speed: Shift, Cut the Rope, many more
4. Corona SDK
Corona SDK, also known as “The 2D games engine,” is a Tool for Mobile Game Development that allows you to create extraordinary 2D games effortlessly. The SDK uses Lua scripting language that is easy to learn and code and builds faster. The vast number of community features, APIs make it pretty easy to get started and turn your dream game into reality.
Let’s shed some light on its specification;
- 1000+ built-in APIs, plugins and native extensions;
- It brings real-time simulation that lets you see the change preview in real-time;
- 300k+ developers community and crystal clear documentation;
- Create a graphical environment and design different levels and understand the interaction between objects;
- One of the Best mobile game development tools for cross-platform game development;
- The SDK is free, still, to optimize game features you require to opt for enterprise model for native libraries and APIs;
Developers: Corona Lab Inc
Backed Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Kindle, Apple / Android TV
Price: Open-source (free), $76/month for Enterprise and $199/month for unlimited Enterprise
Developed Game: Gunman Taco Truck, PKTBALL, I Love Hue, etc
5. Cocos2D
Like Corona SDK, Cocos2D also has OpenGL as a rendering engine that allows it to interact with graphic processing units. Cocos2D uses C++ to build games along with support for Lua and JavaScript. It is open-source and used to build cross-platform GUI based interactive games.
Let’s see Cocos2D specialties;
- It works with Swift and Objective-C both and supports iOS and OS X;
- Using Android plug-in SpriteBuilder, you can prototype and build games;
- Various classes of Cocos2D come in handy while developing cross-platform mobile games. CCAction class for the move, rotate and scale; CCDirector and CCTransition class for performing scene management; CCParticleSystem to support particle systems; CCTiledMap class for tilemaps;
Developers: MIT License
Backed Platforms: OS, Android, Linux, OS X platform
Price: Free
Developed Game: Dragon City, BADLAND, Castle Clash, Big Fish Casino, many more
6. Haxe
An open-source programming language similar to Java, C++, and PHP equally supports Android and iOS platforms. Easy peasy to learn and use for building cross-platform native code. Haxe compiler seamlessly compiles thousands of classes to enable speedy game development.
It has a wealth of game frameworks and libraries and a vast range of features and APIs to create masterpiece mobile games. Given the fact that Haxe is fast enough to work all the way excellently through the development, game developers prefer Haxe.
Developers: Haxe Foundation
Backed Platforms: iOS and Android
Price: Free initially and has different Support plans
Developed Game: Northgard, Dead Cells, Pocket KIngdom, many more;
7. SpriteKit
If your motive is to develop and deploy a game only on Apple, then you could not find the best framework like SpriteKit. SpriteKit is Apple’s proprietary game engine to create 2D games. It is available on iOS and OS X and supports both Objective-C and Swift languages. A wide range of features comes in handy to create high performing battery-efficient 2D titles.
Here are some SpriteKit’s specifications;
- No need to download extra libraries or external source as Apple itself supports it;
- Perfectly match with all Apple’s products including latest;
- SKView makes scene management a piece of cake;
- SKAction class helps to move, scale, or rotate various game objects and support sound and custom codes as well;
- It has Box2D for physics engine with a built-in camera through SkCameraNode class making navigation easy;
Developers: Apple
Backed Platforms: iOS
Price: Free
Developed Game: Squashy Bug, Trestle and Accelebo
8. Amazon Lumberyard
Amazon Lumberyard wrote in C++ and Lua scripting language and launched by Amazon. It is a cross-platform AAA game engine based on CryEngine with easy AWS and Twitch integration. Lumberyard is free, and it doesn’t require seat licenses, royalties, or subscriptions but only standard AWS fees for acquired AWS services.
Have a look into the Amazon Lumberyard useful factors;
- Lots of free tools and cross-platform functionalities to develop the finest games;
- Leverage integrated AWS web services by hosting multiplayer games on AWS cloud infrastructure;
- Developers are able to engage with gaming community using Twitch that also provide features for social games including Twitch ChatPlay, Twitch MetaStream, TwitchJoinIn;
Developers: Amazon
Backed Platforms: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Developed Game: Breakaway, Star Citizen, Everywhere, The DRG Initiative, and more
9. MonoGame
MonoGame toolkit used to develop multi-platform games. It is a C# framework that implements the API of XNA (Microsoft’s late-game development toolset, which is alive through MonoGame and other smaller open-source frameworks) and also supports all .Net languages. So if developers have C# and .Net knowledge, it would not be difficult to develop games with MonoGame for them.
MonoGame’s benefits are;
- One of the most preferred tools for mobile game development MonoGame is flexible, versatile and highly customizable;
- It offers great 2D development functionalities;
- Makes it easier to build cross-platform games;
- C# makes MonoGame ideal for coders and helps for faster iteration;
Developers: MonoGames.
Backed Platforms: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Price: Free
Developed Game: Skulls of the Shogun, Bastion, Fez, Wizorb, Infinite Flight, and more
10. AppGameKit
AppGamekit shares a similarity with Marmalade of “write once and run anywhere.” It uses its own scripting language that is quite easy to learn as it is similar to C++. The game development tool is user-friendly and caters to every type of developer from beginners to experts.
Some of the benefits of AppGameKit;
- Compile your games and transmit to your mobile devices instantly for testing;
- Allows you to build games with C++ with AGK IDE that includes color schemes, debugger, code folding, compiler, editor;
- You can sell your developed products anywhere using the engine’s guide;
- It offers different pay once model to start developing games and apps for beginners, hobbyists, Indie developers;
- AppGameKit has commands to deal with all possible aspects of 2D and 3D game development;
Developers: The Game Creators, Ltd
Backed Platforms: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
Price: SDK costs $39 – $99, Extra bundles and DLC available at separate costs
Developed Game: Na4, Towerbots, Squashies World, Bad Robot, and more
Let the Game Begin
The list of the top 10 mobile game development tools ends, and your game development journey starts from here. It is a mission-critical decision to choose a game engine when you intend to develop something breathtaking. Nevertheless, you must take into account your budget, game idea genre, requirements, and expectations from a player viewpoint.
As an ahead-of-state Game Development company, we come across many inquiries related to 2D, 3D, iPhone, Android, AR & VR game development, and many more. We provide the best possible solution after analyzing the overall requirements. In case if you need a hand to determine the best tool for your game, you can count on us.
