While the world population skyrockets to 8 billion, almost half of it plays video games. Hailing from the favorite old-time origin, Nokia's snake, we've been long accustomed to two-dimensional pixelated screens and limited sound effects. While today, cutting-edge graphics and extended reality are definite elision visions of players. Primarily, the dawn of smartphones has embarked on a wave of gaming. And thanks to that, the mobile gaming industry is predicted to generate $189 billion by 2024.

Speaking of the advancements within the gaming industry, these advancements don't limit to the in-game features. Instead, technology has contributed mainly to enhancing easiness within the field, resulting in a massive inclination towards Python game development - with 63% of PC game developers currently focusing their careers towards it. 

On top of that, game development is proclaimed to be a demanding profession. Bear in mind that an immersive game can take 2 to 4 years to complete. To facilitate this complex challenge, game developers can take advantage of a wealth of app game development platforms and engines available. And that's all that this article is about!

Here's everything that contributes to mobile game development, the best game development engines in 2023, and how Python game development can be useful for your custom game.

Let’s dive in!

Best Mobile Game Development Software and Engines

Here's the list of the top 15 PC and mobile game development engines and software designed to support creating mobile games process:

1. Unity

Unity is a 2D and 3D game engine launched in 2005. The unreal engine game development team and Unity Technologies aim to provide developers with accessible tools. Not to forget, it offers a "white canvas" to translate a sketched-out concept into an immersive reality.

Throughout its launch, Unity has evolved and become more user-friendly than ever - keeping up with the latest development practices and technologies. The prominent popularity of Unreal engine game development is due to its versatile, inexpensive, and efficient developer tools. 

Additionally, Unity's good name boasts more pros than cons. Here's a glimpse into that.

Features

• 2D and 3D graphics support.
• Easy-to-understand game architecture.
• Cross-platform build support. 
• VR and AR capabilities.
• Versatile asset store. 
• Pipeline rendering options. 

Pros

• It's affordable, and the basic plan is free of charge. 
• Easy cross-platform deployment.
• Unreal Engine game development is tailored to mobile game customizations. 
• It's performance intensive.

Cons

• There are asset store limitations.
• Asks for game optimizations, i.e., development tools.

2. Unreal

Developed by Epic Games, the Unreal game engine was first released and displayed in 1998; in the first-person shooter game Unreal. Initially, Unreal engine mobile games were targeted to be first-person shooter games. But as it successfully gained a name in the gaming industry, it's been effectively used for other genres, such as RPGs and MMORPGs. 

Unreal engine game development accepts C++ game development. Plus, it offers high portability - making it a significant choice among the community of Unreal engine mobile games.

Features

• Unreal engine mobile games offer virtual shadow maps. 
• It comes with a lumen global lightning and reflection system.
• Enables realistic character illustration through the MetaHuman Character tool for mobile game development.
• Allows developers to create large maps through the World Partition tool. 

Pros

• Wide range of tools and functionality, such as visual editors.
• It asks for fewer coding efforts for mobile game development. 
• It offers easier game prototyping.
• Impressive visuals with cutting-edge graphics of Unreal engine mobile games.

Cons

• It's unsuitable for single-person games.
• It's structured for complex game development. 
• There's a requirement for a licensed copy. 
• It asks for 5% of the game's profits after its launch.

3. Cry Engine

CRYENGINE has won acclaim for its stunning visual results for mobile game development, making it the best game development tool for creating a visually stunning game. Flowgraph and other features add to the game's potency and aesthetic appeal.

Developers can access various handy tools to develop mobile games with total ease. To elaborate, here are the top features, pros, and cons that CRYENGINE wins an acclamation from:

Features

• It offers an in-built dominant physics solution to develop mobile games. 
• It's a performance incentive through which developers can accomplish real-time visualizations. 
• It features Sandbox - a suite of tools that support the creation of simulative gaming experiences. 

Pros

• It enables artist-level programming, powering a life-like gameplay experience. 
• It's easy to understand and simple to learn.
• It provides extensive developer support. 

Cons

• It offers lesser developer tools than other game engines.
• Complex gaming structures are put in the category of C++ game development. 
• It could be more beginner friendly when you’ve to develop mobile games.

4. Amazon's Lumberyard

As the name suggests, Amazon Lumberyard is one of the best mobile game development software. You may make any mobile game on this open-source framework, and the developed game may be launched rapidly on several platforms because the engine supports multiple systems. 

With Amazon's Lumberyard, developers now have innovative tools for game apps development capable of easily engaging consumers thanks to Twitch integration - all within the process of this C++ game development.

Features

• It offers a lumberyard Cloud Canvas. 
• It provides cloud-connected features through Cloud Gems Framework. 
• It comes with an AWS SDK integration for C++ game development. 
• It has an integration with Amazon GameLift. 

Pros

• Best for game apps development that rely on cloud computing.
• It's free with no hidden strings.
• It comes with a Twitch integration, making it easier to gain a fanbase.

Cons

• It's still in its infancy. 
• It has limited cloud support for game app development.

5. Cocos2d

Facebook owns the software suite Cocos2D-x, used for 2D app game development. As a Facebook product, its information is freely accessible, and the tool's comprehensive documentation and active user base make it accessible to anybody interested in reading it. It's a content-centric development platform that supports scripting, entity components, and data-driven programming. 

Game designers can use its robust suite to create high-performance titles. It has a unified, customizable editor that streamlines tasks like asset management, game debugging, playtesting, and cross-platform distribution.

Features

• It supports Sprite Sheet Animation, Skeletal Animation, coordinate systems, and more.
• Its performance incentive helps auto-batching.
• It comes with C++ 11 features.

Pros

• It provides community support during app game development.
• It has a larger audience to sell game scripts.
• It offers high-quality plug-ins.
• Offer audio and physics support.

Cons

• It's cheap but not free to use.
• The programmers need more work to understand and carry out complex workflows during game apps development. 
• Doesn't allow bug fixes within the framework.

6. BuildBox

Games may be made with BuildBox quickly and easily. Using BuildBox, making a game is as simple as choosing the assets, importing them, and giving them the appropriate responsibilities. Creating a game app doesn't require you to know how to code. 

With the BuildBox engine, modifications to the game may be tested in real-time to see how they perform. It's user-friendly for those who need to become savvier with computers.

Features

• It offers an image drop wheel.
• Users can avail of asset monetization options.
• It provides game physics that changes with time. 

Pros

• Over 20,000 graphics, sounds, and animations are available in your games with BuildBox.
• The most recent version of BuildBox allows for the creation of 3D games without coding.
• Drag-and-drop features simplify the development process.
• Ads may be easily integrated with BuildBox.
• Game templates are available to make a new game as simple as possible.

Cons

• It's not free. 
• It requires a developer license.

7. Construct3

Construct is your best bet for an editor if you're starting out with game development. It is also used in educational settings to introduce students to the fundamentals of game design. Scirra's Construct is an HTML5 engine made with non-developers in mind. 

The virtual scripting approach that Construct3 employs further simplifies its use for newcomers. Due to its focus on layers and events, android game developers can utilize Construct's block-based structure to implement logic into your game. JavaScript is also supported by Construct.

Features

• It comes with backward compatibility.
• It offers new behaviors and plug-ins.
• It offers an in-game mess distortion.
• It allows JavaScript coding.

Pros

• It's a user-friendly UI and offers a robust set of capabilities. 
• The visual and code editor makes creating original artwork for your game easy. 
• It provides different plug-ins and utilities that android game developers can utilize.

Cons

• It could be more feature-rich compared to other best mobile game development software.
• Making mobile games can be complicated for beginners.
• Android game developers can’t integrate third-party tools. 

8. GameMaker Studio 2

Yoyo Games has released GameMaker Studio 2, a 2D game development engine. The language is simple, and making a game is as easy as dragging and dropping blocks in this engine for android games. 

Since the GameMaker Studio 2 tool is inexpensive, you won't need to spend a fortune on the engine. Users may configure their development environment and workspace to tailor the platform to their needs.

Features

• This engine for android games offers an array of literals that can be initialized using syntax.
• Allows GPU, light, and camera functionality.
• It comes with a larger variety of resources. 

Pros

• GameMaker Studio 2 is a versatile engine for game app development where you can create games in any genre or design.
• The efficiency of Gamemaker Studio 2 makes it the go-to gaming engine for newcomers.
• It's a straightforward tool that makes game creation nearly code-free for android game developers, thanks to its plug-and-play architecture.

Cons

• The free version doesn't allow the creation of executables. 
• This engine for android games has a steep learning curve. 

9. Titanium

Appcelerator's Titanium is one of the best mobile game development software that lets you write JavaScript for mobile apps and then compile them into native apps for different operating systems. The Titanium Game Development engine for android games facilitates the creation of games that are both innovative and aesthetically pleasing. It's a free and adaptable framework for making games run on several platforms. 

API Builder (previously Arrow) is a cloud service that combines a powerful foundation for creating APIs with the scalability of the cloud.

Features

• Fully functional on all major platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows.
• 5000+ Native APIs are supported.
• Framework is compatible with both AJAX and JavaScript.
• This JavaScript SDK is enabled.
• Offers full compatibility with a variety of platforms.
• Several programming languages are supported.

Pros

• The time required for game apps development can be reduced by writing code in fewer lines and opting for more adaptable fashion.
• It has released a public marketplace for acquiring, distributing, and exchanging modules to assist developers.
• Thanks to Appcelerator's community of over 200k coders, users can access extensive resources.

Cons

• It comes with flexibility limitations.
• It's hard to detect errors until runtime. 

10. SpiritKit

SpritKit is a framework created by Apple for 2D mobile game design. The framework supports Objective-C as well as Swift language. The developers may construct high-performance mobile game design employing the framework's wide range of capabilities.

Features

• It comes with OpenGL ES lighting and shaders. 
• It allows integration with SceneKit. 
• It has advanced physics features and animations. 

Pros

• Just drag & drop your photographs into Xcode, and the program will automatically generate a texture, atlas, assets or a mobile game design.
• The presence of in-built physics game engines simplifies game developers' lives.

Cons

• There is no predictable game physics.
• It offers no custom shaders for mobile game design. 
• It comes with limited accessibility.

11. Corona SDK

The Corona Software Development Kit is a 2D gaming engine scripted in the Lua language. This is a relatively simple language to pick up. Because of its convenient 2D capabilities, creating a 2D game using Corona SDK is a breeze. The Corona marketplace has many different plug-ins available for creating mobile games. 

Corona SDK is widely used because of its extensive documentation and helpful community. The developers can observe the effects of their modifications in real-time thanks to the simulation.

Features 

• It offers easy language embedding for creating mobile games. 
• Developers can use API or any native library. 
• It reflects transparency.

Pros

• It's more efficient than writing separate programs for each platform because it only requires a single code base.
• With built-in banner ad support, monetization is simple.
• Corona's frame rate is significantly higher than other software development kits (SDKs).

Cons

• It has an isolated framework and performance. 
• Low flexibility. 
• It's closed source.

12. Haxe

Haxe is a high-level, cross-platform, open-source game creation engine. Moreover, it includes a set of universally supported standard functions, such as textual, binary, and numeric data types. Haxe is a programming language similar to C++, PHP, or AS3. 

A library that includes a range of frameworks, functions, and processes is provided with Haxe. You can start making mobile games by selecting any from its library.

Features

• It allows class code structuring for making mobile games. 
• It's an object-oriented language.
• It comes with a conditional compilation. 

Pros

• Haxe can be easily used for making mobile games if you are familiar with JavaScript or ActionScript.
• Since the Haxe compiler is incredibly quick, you can create your game quickly.
• Very tight type checking is included in Haxe, which facilitates robust game development.
• Haxe also enhances target platforms' linguistic capabilities that need to be improved.

Cons

• It comes with difficulties using native AS3 libraries.
• It's still in its infancy, which can lead to errors.
• It can be hard to debug errors after language errors.

13. Godot

Games in 2D and 3D are created using the Godot engine. It is an open-source, cross-platform engine and was made available under the MIT license. Godot can be used even on different operating systems like Windows, Linux, and macOS. 

Aside from some content production tools, Godot may be used for creating mobile games from scratch (art assets, music, and more). Instead of being stored in a database, the computer file system saves scripts, graphic assets, and all other game materials.

Features 

• It features a viewport node, i.e., you can blend 2D and 3D together.
• It comes with tile sets and game physics. 

Pros

• Godot enables language binding and several languages.
• Godot is an easy-to-use and extensible design tool because of its node system.
• Whatever you make using the game engines will belong to you and is free to use.
• It is relatively lightweight and has its own IDE.

Cons 

• It needs consistent terminology.
• It comes with weak 2D physics.

14. Marmalade

A cross-platform game engine called Marmalade creates both 2D and 3D games. Games are made with C++ programming, and it is a very common option among developers because it enables you to develop native apps for desktop and mobile devices. "Write once, run anywhere" is its main tenet.

Marmalade includes libraries and code examples that you can utilize, making the development process more convenient. Applications can be tested and released on a variety of platforms.

Features

• It comes with high functionality with 2D support.
• It offers a 3D rendering library. 
• It has an extensible resource library.

Pros

• If you use Marmalade for game creation, you have just a single source for your application, independent of the platform.
• You can also incorporate libraries from outside sources.
• For optimum speed, directly compile the game using CPU native instructions.
• Able to create games without the use of virtual machines or cross-language programming.

Cons

• It has occasional bugs in SDK.

15. Defold Game Engine

Defold is a 3D game production engine that aids in creating incredible 2D games. It is powered by the Lua Language, renowned for its adaptability, speed, and simplicity. The engine has much potential for developers' creativity because it supports 2D and 3D programming and is an engine for cross-platform development. 

Also, it is an all-in-one game development engine because it has everything needed to create a game in one location. It is far more powerful because of the custom configuration capability.

Features

• Code completion and syntax highlighting are built into the editor.
• Step through code and analyze variables with the built-in debugger.
• Low-level access rendering pipeline that is fully scriptable.

Pros

• It's more time-efficient and a performance incentive. 
• It supports game animations.
• It's specially designed for 2D games.

Cons

• HTML5 game engines are more efficient.

FAQs

What Programming Language Is Pubg?

The PubG game uses C++ coding language. 

Can I Make Games Without Coding?

You can make basic games without coding or learning the Python game development process. It can be done through drag-and-drop features of app game development tools and software—for example, Google Game Builder and Quick App Ninja.

What Platforms Are Best for Developing Games On?

Unity and Unreal are the top game engines to develop games. 

What Engine Are Most Mobile Games Made On?

Today, 45% of games are made on the Unity game engine. 

How Much Does It Cost to Develop Mobile Games?

The cost of developing a 2D mobile game can range from $ 4,000 to $ 15,000, but if the game has more features, it might cost as much as $40,000 to $ 25,000. 

A 3D game is more expensive than one with 2D graphics. This type of game has a starting price of $15,000 and can cost as much as $200,000.

Final Note

In conclusion, each game engine and platform has a variety of advantages. And no game development platform is better than another. Simply put, it depends on your use case, budget, desired app platform, and other factors. For example, this can be through Python game development or any other language.

Meanwhile, considering the rise of game app development, it's easier than ever to reach out to a game app developer and get a custom game app developed. Or, head towards Distinguished, a B2B service-providing platform where you can connect with top game app developers today.

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