Wondering how you can do multi platform game development? We have compiled a list of game development platforms that can help you in game software development.
A game developer needs to serve apps for many platforms e.g. iOS, Android, Blackberry and more. Doing game development using a native video game programming software requires lot of efforts, however the app cannot be easily ported to another platform.
Game software development is not easy. It involves a lot of learning to become a game developer. If you are aspiring to become one some of these game development books are a good starting point.
The secret to building a successful game software is finding the right game engine. It’s not that easy to come up with a million dollar idea, especially now, when developers have to deal with a fierce completion. A couple of years ago, releasing a game on a sole platform at the time was ok. Currently, games are released on multiple platforms extremely fast. That being said, cross-platform game engines come with groundbreaking benefits, and thankfully, the options are overflowing. There are few main types of cross-platform game engines. Here’s some useful information on each one to help you make a sound decision.
Unity
Unity is a cross-platform game development engine that allows developers to create their games through the manipulation of objects in 3D. The closed-source system has various components attached to those 3D objects. C#, UnityScript or Boo are used to write the scripts. Released in 2005, Unity is an interface that hasn’t changed much. In some ways, it features tasks that are too repetitive and that may hinder with the overall game development process.
Once a game is created with Unity, the development that follows afterwards is a simple task. A few clicks are required to export your creation to web, desktop or mobile. Unity has a functional free version available, although if you’re an avid game developer, the paid version is a much better option because it allows setup to major platforms. Unity is leading multi platform game engine with many developers using it.
To start learning multi platform game development using Unity 3D, you can easily find many awesome 3D Game programming books.
Corona
Corona is a cloud-build app and 2D game simulator. The game code uses Lua scripts for the writing, and just like X-Men and Mystique, the simulator can afford various skins, ratios and resolutions. When the developer is all set for installation, the game is created in the cloud. Corona prides itself with an extremely easy language, and developers will only need about 4 hours to familiarize themselves with the platform.
Featuring a polite, responsive and quick simulator, Corona’s sole shortcoming is the limited deployment options. The platform can only accept Android, iOS, Kindle, and Nook. According to the creators, soon enough they’ll also make the platform available for Windows Phone. There’s free versions available (Starter), but also various paid versions with yearly subscriptions.
Cocos2D JS
Cocos2D JS is a free-development SDK, open-source cross-platform. Experts agree that it’s one of the coolest on the market. Basically, it is a combo of 2 incredibly popular open-source projects: Cocos2D HTML5 (web) and Cocos2D X (mobile). JavaScript is used to write the code of the game. On desktop and mobile, the JavaScript of your future game is bound to C++ objects (native), thus providing maximum speed with no need to write native code. Using you are advised to use HTML5 for game development; as soon as you’re all set to test and launch to native platforms, Eclipse, Xcode or Visual Studio will be needed. One of the greatest benefits of Cocos2D JS is its open-source feature. A lot of things can be learned just by interpreting the code.
Qt Creator
Qt creator is a platform that allows you to develop applications and UI that can be be deployed on multiple operating systems including iOS, Android, Linux and more.
Appcelerator Titanium
Appcelerator Titanium is an open-source, cross-platform, app development kit. This is one of the most popular mobile game development platforms in recent past. JavaScript is used to write the apps. By using this game development engine, you’ll be able to create, deploy and test your invention on web platforms and mobile. It’s great that Titanium’s SDK is prebuilt; thus, your game can be run on a device or simulator with limited build intervals. The apps and games created with Appcelerator Titanium can be deployed to Android, HTML5, Blackberry and iOS for free.
WGame
WGame mainly functions on top of marmalade and it can be deployed at mobiles and desktops with Lua. It is an open-source, free and proprietary software which runs on different operating systems such as Windows, Linux etc. It is primarily used for developing video games.
Sio2
SIO2 can be broadly defined as OpenGLES based platform game development for 2D and 3D game which operates
on various operating systems such as Windows, MacOS, Android and iOs. This game development tool also enables you to port the game at Mac store as well as Windows.
Loom Engine
The loom engine uses the AS3- like ECMAScript but does not build native code. But it uses Cocos2D workflow which allows you to take your time while building the game. It just requires 1 commend for making a new project and second command to run it effectively. As it is open-source, so the developer can get it for free.
SDL
SDL or Simple DirectMedia Layer is one of the most popular cross-development libraries which have been designed especially as it offers low level access to joystick, mouse, keyboard, and audio. It offers access to graphics hardware via Direct3D and OpenGl. It supports various OS such as Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS X and Windows.
SFML
SFML offers a simple interface for various components of PC for making the development process of multimedia and games applications. There are five modules which are networking, audio, graphics, window and system. This is a multiplatform program which compiles and run on various operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Torgue2D
This game programming software tool was primarily developed for iOS devices as well as OS X Windows but today, it functions equally well with various platforms and uses TorqueScript. This is an extremely powerful, fast and flexible open source engine which is dedicated for 2D game development.
Sencha
This is one of the best professional video game programming software which is used by a lot of people for multi- devices. Sencha combines various features of best app development, such as powerful coding tools, design and industry-leading JavaScript framework in the cost effective single bundle. It offers good access to developers for the development of web apps which are based upon HTML5.
GameMaker
GameMaker game development tools allow both entry level novices and experienced game development professionals for the creation of cross-platform games with less cost and record time. The GameMaker also allows developers for the creation of fully functional prototypes in some hour’s time. You can also create complete games in some weeks.
Construct2
Construct2 can be broadly defined as a 2D games editor which is based upon HTML5 and is developed by Scirra Ltd. This game designing software tool is targeted towards non-programmers which allow creation of games quickly in drag-and drop fashion and uses behavior based logic system as well as a visual editor.
Angel2D
Angel 2D is one of the most popular 2D game development platforms tools for various platforms such as Mac, Windows, many versions of iOS and Linux. This tool uses the native build system such as Make, Xcode and Visual Studio of every platform so you can install and run the games quickly after completion.
Libgdx
Libgdx is one of the most popular game development tools which help in publishing games in various platforms, including HTML5, Blackberry, iOS, Android, Linux, Mac and Windows with same code base. This is an open source game development tool which is licensed under Apache 2.0 and available for free.
Sparkrift
Sparkrift is a framework for Java language which also supports various platforms such as Android, Linux, Mac, Windows, etc. As they are very user-friendly, they are very popular with
the developers.
XNA
Microsoft XNA can be defined as a freeware tool set which facilitates the video game development as well as management. MonoGme can also be defined as a platform which supports Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 store,
Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android and iOS. These video game development tools are open source with which you can develop new video games, modify and port them to new platform</ p>
Citrus
The Citrus game development tools are also defined as a scalable Actionscript3 professional grade game engine which has built for designing industrial quality games. With modern programming practices, it allows the programmer to focus upon making game awesome. Citrus is available with a built-in platformer starter kit which can be used by programmers to make 2D or 3D games.
Haxe + OpenFL
OpenFL or Haxe has the capability of building native for various platforms which includes Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and Flash. Haxe can also be defined broadly as an open source
toolkit, which is based upon a cross-compiler, high level, modern strictly typed programming language. It helps in building games and application for any platform such as HTML5, Flash, Tizen or Firefox OS.
QT-Project
QT-Project is one of the best cross- platform applications which also work as a UI framework for the developers who are using C++ or QML, Java Script and CSS. Qt Creator supports Qt IDE. Qt Cloud services offer features like application backend to Qt applications.
Moai
Moai can be defined as the only Lua engine which has the capability of building game software development for mobile and desktop. The main issue with this engine is documentation is just adequate and community is okay. This is one of the best solutions which are used by most of the people in this field.
Delta Engine
The Delta Engine can be broadly defined as the open source application engine which is free for using on PC for the benefit of developers. It allows the developers to write games or 2D or 3D applications easily and quickly with Editor and Visual Studio in .NET.
Binpress
This multi gaming software development offers Cocos2d-js game engine, social networking, supports in-app purchasing, custom templates, async multiplayer and virtual economies across various platforms. The RapidGamePro offers a solid foundation for rapid deployment of games on various OS such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS etc. with a single code base.
V-Play.net
V-Play.net is one of the best cross platform tools which is very easy to learn, offers the best support and is a time saver when you want to create games for various platforms such as desktop, tablet and mobile. These games can be
created from a single codebase and used for different mediums successfully. You can also create 2D game in days rather than months.
Duality
Duality can be broadly defined as the modular 2D game engine which offers its own visual editor for the benefit of the users. This 2D game engine is highly extensible, backed by Open GL and written completely in C#. There are many features of this multi platform mobile development software which benefits the game developers such as component based design,better content management and plugin architecture.
Kivy
Kivy can be broadly defined as open source Python Library, which enables the user to develop applications which used various innovative user surfaces like multi-touch apps for various platforms. These platforms include iOS, Android, OS X, Windows and Linux. The user can run same code base on all platforms.
Haxeflixel
This is easiest multi platform game development software which offers all in one codebase for creation of cross platform free and easy. The base of this cross platform game development software has been derived from AS3 Flixel Framework which was created by Adam Saltsman. This platform derives the general structure of Flixel without Flash. After its combination
Oxygine
Oxygine can be broadly described as open source (which have MIT license), and free 2D game engine which is available at BitBucket. This platform can run various OS such as Linux, Windows, Android, iOS and Mac OSX and is written in C++. After creation of an application, you can analyze it with various embedded tools.
Gideros
Gideros offers free cross-platform technology for game developers for the creation of amazing games. The main advantage of this platform is you can also test the game on the concerned device through Wifi. You do not have to waste your precious time with deployment or export of process. The game can run on native speed which utilizes the power of GPUs and CPUs.
Shiva3D
Shiva3D is can be broadly defined as games and application development suite which is very easy to use, but have a powerful WYSISYG or it can be defined as what you see is what you get editor for your work. It can also be considered as a glue which connect your idea, art with your code and hardware with which you are working.
In conclusion, if you want to get started with multi platform games, the above mentioned engines and simulators will ease your work tremendously. For 3D support, stick with Unity; but if your games are in simple 2D, Corona is equally capable at helping developers come up with pioneering creations.