List of game engines
Several tools called game engines are available for game designers to easily code a game quickly without building from the ground up.
Free engines
These game engines are free software:
- Agar (engine) – A high-level graphical application framework used by 2D and 3D computer games
- Allegro library – A free crossplatform C/C++ game programming library, provides functions for graphics, sounds, input, timers, fixed and floating point, 3d, compressed datafile and a GUI.
- APOCALYX 3D Engine – A free LGPL game engine based on OpenGL and several open source libraries.
- Axiom Engine – A fork containing the core of the OGRE graphics engine written in C#
- Game Blender – flexible node based game logic engine blender 3d
- Boom – A port of the Doom source code by TeamTNT
- ClanLib – A free cross-platform (including Mac OS X), object-oriented C++ game programming library.
- Crystal Entity Layer – An extension of the Crystal Space 3D Engine
- Crystal Space – A general framework for developing 3D applications
- Cube – Powers the computer game of the same name
- DarkPlaces – One of the most advanced free software Quake engines
- Delta3d – Integrates other well-known free software projects into an easy-to-use API, originally developed by the U.S. Navy
- Doom engine – The now free software engine originally used for the hugely popular Doom and Doom II
- DXFramework – A simple, pedagogical 2D/3D DirectX-based game engine for Visual Studio
- Eternity Engine – A source port of the Doom engine
- Exult – A free software reimplementation of the Ultima VII game engine
- FIFE – A free software 2D isometric CRPG engine supporting the assets of Fallout 1 & 2.
- GZDoom – A source port of the Doom engine based on ZDoom
- GemRB – A free software implementation of the Infinity Engine
- Genesis3D – A real-time 3D engine for Windows
- Genesis Device Is a powerful LGPL engine
- id Tech 2 – Formerly known as the Quake II engine, the original open-source engine from id Software
- id Tech 3 – Formerly known as the Quake III engine, the original open-source engine from id Software
- ioquake3 – A cleaned-up, bugfixed and updated fork of the original id Tech 3 engine
- Irrlicht Engine – A cross-platform and lightweight three dimensional graphics engine.
- jMonkeyEngine – An open-source, BSD licensed Java scenegraph engine.
- Jogre – A Java based client/server game engine and API for online real time games such as chess, checkers, etc.
- KallistiOS – A free, BSD licensed development library for the Sega Dreamcast, by Dan Potter.
- Lightfeather 3D Engine - A cross-platform, zlib licensed, real-time 3D graphics engine.
- Nebula Device – A realtime 3D game engine developed by German game studio Radon Labs.
- OGE - Open Game Engine - A cross-platform open source engine combining the components used to make games.
- OGRE Engine – A very popular object-oriented graphics rendering engine. Also called OGRE3D
- Panda3D – A relatively easy to use python-driven game engine made by Carnegie Mellon University. Disney uses it to produce some of their games.
- PLIB – A game engine – includes 3D, Audio, Music, GUI, Window manager and is portable Linux/Windows/Mac OS X.
- ProQuake – A modified Quake engine
- RealmForge – An open-source game engine for the Microsoft .NET Framework, predecessor to Visual3D.NET
- Retribution Engine – A game engine to make first person shooter games
- Sauerbraten – A upgraded engine forked from the Cube engine
- Spring - a full 3D free/open source RTS game engine
- Stratagus – A cross-platform real time strategy game engine
- Telejano – A modified Quake engine
Freeware engines
These engines are available free of charge:
- Adventure Game Studio – Mainly used to develop third-person pre-rendered adventure games, this engine is one of the most popular for developing amateur adventure games.
- Build engine – A first-person shooter engine used to power Duke Nukem 3D
- BYOND – Short for "Build Your Own Net Dream." 2D system suitable for producing a variety of styles of game. Programming, drawing etc. are all done using a single IDE, making the system easy to use.
- DGD – An object-oriented programmable MUD engine
- dim3 – Freeware 3D javascript engine for the Mac (although finished games are cross platform).
- DX Studio – Real-time professional 3D engine and editing suite produced by Worldweaver Ltd
- Flatredball – A 2.5D XNA and MDX game engine.
- Game Blender – A sub-application of Blender for creating games
- Game Maker Lite – Object-oriented game development software with a relatively complex scripting language as well as a drag-and-drop interface
- Jogre - (Java Online Gaming Real-time Engine) - Open sourced Java based multiplayer gaming engine.
- M.U.G.E.N – A 2D fighting game engine
- Panda3D – (Releases prior to May 28, 2008) A relatively easy to use python-driven game engine made by Carnegie Mellon University. Disney uses it to produce some of their games.
- World Builder – A pre-Mac OS X game engine.
- Wintermute Engine – A runtime and development tools for creating 2D and 2.5D point'n'click adventure games.
- PhyreEngine - A cross platform(PC & PS3) graphics engine from Sony Computer Entertainment.
Commercial engines
- A7 – The engine behind the Gamestudio Authoring system
- Aurora Engine – For Role-playing games
- BRender – A real-time 3D graphics engine for computer games, simulators and graphic tools
- C4 Engine – An emerging next-generation computer game engine created by Eric Lengyel
- Coldstone game engine – An old game creation suite for Macintosh/Windows to create role-playing or adventure-style games
- CryEngine, CryEngine 2 – The game engine used for the first-person shooter computer game Far Cry. CryEngine 2 is a new generation engine developed by Crytek to create the FPS game Crysis.
- Crystal Tools – Square Enix's proprietary seventh generation game engine.
- Dagor Engine 3 – A high-tech cross-platform game engine (3D, physics, game logic) with rich toolset for content development
- Dunia - Is currently under development by Ubisoft and will be used in the first person shooter Far Cry 2. In Arabic and it means world or earth
- id Tech 4 – (Also known as Doom 3 engine) Used by the games Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey and Quake Wars (Will become Open Source at a later date)[1]
- id Tech 5 - Currently in development by id Software as engine for their games, Doom 4 and Rage, and as a general purpose engine to be licensed
- DX Studio – Engine and editing suite that allows rapid creation of real-time games and simulations
- Earth-4 Engine – The graphics engine used in Earth 2160
- Electron engine – Currently in development by Obsidian Entertainment for their game Neverwinter Nights 2, based on the Aurora engine
- Elflight Engine – High-performance cross-platform 3D streaming game engine designed from the ground up for use over the Web. Games can play in a web browser window, in a separate window or full-screen. Java and OpenGL based.
- Enigma Engine – A real-time tactics game engine, used in Blitzkrieg.
- Euphoria – A real-time motion synthesis engine by NaturalMotion
- Explorations – 2D MMO creator
- FPS Creator - A game engine by The Game Creators. It lets the user create their own First Person Shooter without any knowledge of scripts.
- Frostbite Engine – Game engine used for the next-gen title Battlefield: Bad Company
- Gamebryo – A cross-platform game runtime engine and associated tools coded in C++
- Glacier, Glacier2 – Developed by IO Interactive and used for the Hitman series of games. Glacier2 being a new generation engine currently in development for upcoming games.
- GrimE - Used in LucasArts graphical adventure games starting with Grim Fandango
- Havok – High-tech cross-platform (PC, PS3, Xbox 360 etc) middleware engine
- HeroEngine - 3D game engine by Simutronics for building MMOs in a live collaborative environment
- IMUSE – Specifically designed to synchronize music with visual action
- INSANE – Used in LucasArts games
- Infinity Engine – Allows the creation of isometric computer role-playing games
- Jade engine – Developed by Ubisoft, originally for Beyond Good & Evil
- Jedi – A game engine developed by LucasArts for Star Wars: Dark Forces and Outlaws
- Kaneva Game Platform – A full featured MMOG engine for independent and professional game development
- Kinetica - A game engine developed by Sony for PlayStation 2.
- Leadwerks Engine - Leadwerks Engine is a high-performance 3D engine for rendering, sound, and physics in real-time games and simulations.
- Lithtech – A competing alternative to the id Tech and Unreal engines.
- Lithtech Jupiter Ex – A new generation Lithtech engine developed by Monolith Productions to create the game F.E.A.R.
- Medusa – A C++ 3D game engine developed by Palestar and used in the DarkSpace MMO. It features distributed world simulation, single tool version control and asset realisation, cross-platform compatibility and an integrated client/server network system.
- MMFusion
- Monumental Technology Suite – A MMOG platform, including server and client technology and development / live management tools.
- Multiverse Network – An MMOG platform, including server, client, and tools. (Free for development and use — revenue sharing upon commercial deployment).
- Offset Engine – In development, being used to create fantasy FPS Project Offset (working title)
- Odyssey Engine – Used to create three dimensional computer role-playing games, used in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Onyx Engine – Developed by Ubisoft
- Quest3D A game engine and full real-time 3D development platform. Used in for instance AudioSurf.
- RAGE – A game engine created by Rockstar Games use it to power their upcoming video games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
- Realm Crafter – A 3D MMORPG specific game engine with an easy click-and-drop design. Easy to learn scripting language.
- RelentENGINE – A next-generation FPS engine supporting massive destroyable city environments and realistic vehicle control, makes extensive use of shader model 3.
- RenderWare – A very popular 3D API and graphics rendering engine
- Revolution3D – A 3D graphics engine developed by X-Dream Project
- RPG Maker XP – A 2D engine to make top-down and isometric-style role-playing games for Windows.
- SAGE engine – Used to create real-time strategy games
- SCUMM engine – Used in LucasArts graphical adventure games
- Serious Engine – The engine by Croteam used in the epic Serious Sam: The First Encounter and The Second Encounter
- Shark 3D – A middleware from Spinor for computer, video games and realtime 3D applications
- ShiVa - A game engine with an authoring tool to produce 3d real time applications for Windows, Mac OS X and mobile device
- Silent Storm engine – A turn-based tactics/tactical RPG game engine, used in Silent Storm.
- Sith – A game engine developed by LucasArts for Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
- Source engine – A game engine developed by Valve Software for Half-Life 2
- Torque Game Engine – A modified version of a 3D computer game engine originally developed by Dynamix for the 2001 FPS Tribes 2
- Torque Game Engine Advanced – A next-generation 3D game engine support modern GPU hardware and shaders.
- TOSHI – A fourth generation cross platform game engine designed by Blue Tongue Entertainment
- Truevision3d – A 3D game engine using the DirectX API
- Unigine – Cross-platform middleware engine
- Unity – An easy-to-use open-ended 3D game/interactive software engine for web, Windows, Mac OS X, and Nintendo Wii
- Unreal Engine – One of the most popular game engines for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
- Vengeance engine – A video game engine based on the Unreal Engine 2/2.5
- Vicious Engine – Available for Microsoft Windows, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox, and Sony PlayStation Portable
- Virtools – A 3D engine combined with unique high-level development framework, used for game prototyping and rapid developments. Available for Windows, Macintosh, Xbox, PSP
- XnGine – Developed by Bethesda Softworks, one of the first true 3D engines
- X-Ray Engine - A 3D engine with advanced AI abilities developed by GSC Game World for their Oblivion Lost project (later renamed to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl).
- Vertex3D 3D graphics engine for game development.
PSP
- WGAF – The game engine developed by Guild Software which powers their MMORPG Vendetta Online