Game Engines

This page attempts to list alternatives to the popular game development program, Game Maker.

Free/Libre and Open Source Alternatives

The following alternatives are free/libre and open source software (FLOSS), as defined by the Free Software Definition and the Open Source Definition. This does not necessarily mean that they are non-commercial.

Blender Game Engine

Link: http://www.blender.org

Blender is a popular FLOSS 3-D modeling program; the Blender Game Engine is a 3-D game engine for Blender. Yo Frankie! is an example of a game created with this engine.

Construct Classic

Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/construct/

Construct Classic is a 2-D game engine bundled with an IDE similar to the Clickteam programs.

Construct Classic only works on Windows due to a dependency on DirectX. The developers have stated that they have no intention to fix this problem.

ENIGMA

Link: http://enigma-dev.org

ENIGMA is a project to replace the Game Maker with a FLOSS Game Maker compiler. It is paired with LateralGM, a Game Maker-compatible IDE written in Java. ENIGMA is currently in alpha, so some features are broken or missing.

Game Editor

Link: http://game-editor.com

Game Editor is a 2-D game engine bundled with an IDE. It is not a good choice for platformers due to its collision system, but works well for games that have simpler physics.

LÖVE

Link: https://love2d.org/

LÖVE is a 2-D game engine for the Lua programming language.

Stellar Game Engine

Link: http://stellarengine.nongnu.org

The Stellar Game Engine is a 2-D game engine for the Python programming language. An IDE and universal level editor for it is currently in development.

Proprietary Alternatives

The following alternatives are proprietary, i.e. they are not free/libre and open source software. This does not necessarily mean that they are commercial.

Unity

Link: http://unity3d.com

Unity is a popular 3-D game engine.