2d Game Development Software

1. Gamemaker Studio
2. Best 2d Mobile Game Development Software

You can use the Unreal Engine to make everything from 2D mobile games to stunning 3D open-world games. You could be a student, an indie developer, or a professional game designer. This engine is being used by all levels of game designers, and your only limits are your time and creativity. The engine is powerful enough to keep up with your.

1. What is game development software?

Game development software enables businesses, freelancers, and academic institutions to build, distribute, and monetize games. These systems streamline the development process and reduce operational costs through automation and predefined gaming templates. Most game development software solutions include additional capabilities such as user behavior analytics, marketing management, and social features.

2. The benefits of game development software

• Reduced operational costs: Game development platforms help organizations quickly write game codes with the help of predefined templates to reduce project time and required resources. These templates reduce human coding errors, and drive development costs down through the use of reusable code. This helps project leaders minimize project costs by streamlining involved processes.
• Increased collaboration: Game development platforms allow coding teams to seamlessly collaborate and efficiently manage projects through functionalities such as task management, live chat, asset management, and more. These collaboration tools also let managers track the team's performance and ensure timely project completion.

3. Typical features of game development software

• Code-free development: Allows developers to create wizards and visual interfaces for game development without writing code.
• Animation: Allows developers to create, customize, and add animations to a game.
• Integrated development environment: Provides a graphical user interface for testing, debugging, and compiling the code.
• Physics simulation: Implement laws of physics within a game.
• Prototyping: Create, manage, and provide access to prototypes.

4. The cost of game development software

Most products in the market are priced on a 'per user, per month' basis, and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price:

Price ranges*:

• $0 - $12
• $12 - $25
• $25+

^{* The pricing included in this list is for the entry-level/lowest priced offering found on vendor websites on November 29, 2018. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th and 100th percentiles of the pricing information found on vendor websites of sample products.}

The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. Enterprise or premium products that are priced higher often include additional features such as in-game analytics, simulations, 3D gaming, player management, and virtual reality.

5. Considerations when purchasing game development software

• Integration with third-party solutions: Integration is one of the most critical factors for businesses to evaluate when purchasing game development software. Since developers often need access to best-of-breed functionalities - such as asset management, advanced analytics, video editing, and content modeling - available as third-party integrations, it's important for businesses to select game development programs that work with their existing or desired tools.
• Pricing considerations: The game development software market offers hundreds of solutions with varying pricing models (e.g. subscriptions, one-time licensing, and per user, per month). Pricing also varies based on software capabilities, inclusion of advanced features (e.g. virtual reality, 3D gaming, artificial intelligence), customer support, training, and database management. Buyers of game development programs should carefully determine what is included at which price points to calculate their total cost of ownership before making a purchase.

6. Relevant game development software

• Games will get smarter with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies: Mainstream adoption of AI technology in the gaming industry will transform the market, resulting in smarter and more engaging products/experiences. With the help of AI-enhanced recommendation engines, developers will be able to suggest additional/new products to customers based on their past playing behaviors and purchases, increasing both customer retention rates and revenue. According to our research, over the next three to five years almost all software applications - including game development platforms will contain some level of AI functionality.
• Virtual reality to revolutionize gaming: Successful use cases of virtual reality games have sent waves across the gaming community; games like Pokemon Go have set a new standard by providing an immersive, augmented reality experience. In the coming years, we expect virtual reality technologies to have a greater impact on educational games by providing interactive learning exercises to achieve higher engagement levels. According to our research, 33% of small businesses will adopt virtual reality technologies to train their employees in the coming years. Expect the gaming industry to increase its focus on these areas to capture this growing market of educational gamification.

Sources

Products evaluated for pricing calculation were taken from Capterra's Game Development Platform directory (sorted by 'most reviewed'). The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of these products. The highlighted features were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in Capterra's database that offer them.

The following sources were used for this document:

1. Top 5 Tech Trends for Small Business, Capterra (Date accessed: November 29, 2018)

1. #1GameMaker Studio 2

   GameMaker Studio 2 is a software for making 2D development environment. This will help game developers to turn early concepts into a complete product. It offers easy to use interface and useful tools. It offers a free trial.

   Windows, Mac

   $39- Varies by plan

   Terry Reyes

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'The features are all good. Easy to find and install extensions but it isn't really equipped for 3D software development which is a downer.'

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2. #2Construct

   Construct is a game development software that utilizes the HTML5 platform. It is specifically made for developing 2D games. It allows anyone to create games without any knowledge in coding needed. Offers free trial.

   Windows

   $99- Varies by plan

   Anthony Mendez

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'It requires no coding skills so its really interesting! Would really try this one!'

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3. #3Unity

   Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. This platform is primarily used to develop video games and simulations for PC, consoles, mobile devices, and websites. Download the free trial version for Mac or Windows.

   Windows, Mac

   $25- Varies by plan

   Jack Yi

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'There are a lot of tutorials and can export the game to almost any platform. But it is really hard to learn and the UI is unresponsive sometimes.'

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WHAT IS THE MEANING

2D or also known as Two-Dimensional is a shape that has only two dimensions. It has no thickness and is only comprised of length and height.

DID YOU KNOW

Gamemaker Studio

Did you know that 2D was the most common graphical style of game until the mid-1990s? According to an article from Art of Video Games, 2D games are shown from only one viewpoint, typically either from the top (top-down games like Contra and numerous shooting games) or the side (side-scrolling games like Mario and Sonic, or other shooting games, some of which use both perspectives). Video games started earnestly back in the 70s wherein games such as arcade smash Pong and the first ever video game console Magnavox Odyssey were released. Since technology was rapidly moving, several more systems were developed and graphics were a little more than white pixels on a black background during that time. By the end of the decade, graphics had a quite improvement in terms of more pixels and more varied colors. One of the best examples of an improved 2D games is Donkey Kong, it was developed by the 2D game innovator Shigeru Miyamoto in 198. Its gameplay focuses on maneuvering the character across a series of platforms while constantly dodging and jumping over obstacles. Donkey Kong was just one of the many games invented that are truly known as one of the originals.

Best 2d Mobile Game Development Software

1. #4MonoGame

   MonoGame is an open-source game development software. Utilizing the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework, the software allows XNA developers to port their games on the latest gaming platforms.

   Windows, Mac, Linux

   Free

   Wu Gao

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'MonoGame is easy to pick up and understand. It provides enough features and tools for game development out of the box, perfect for creating games, especially for a beginner.'

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2. #5GameSalad

   GameSalad is an authoring tool by GameSalad, Inc. The educational tool used for learning how to develop games. The software is comprised of a visual editor and a logic system and it can help in getting games published in major platforms.

   Mac, Windows

   $17- Varies by plan

   Ignacio Suárez

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'I was trying to built a game like flappy bird and did it quite easily on Game Salad. It a great choice for beginners or non-programmers to develop their apps'

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3. #6Godot Engine

   Godot is a free game engine by Juan Linietsky and Ariel Manzur. Capable of creating 2D and 3D games, it provides game making tools. The software is under the MIT license, meaning that developers own every game they make with this software.

   Windows, Mac, Linux

   Free

   Ishan Banerjee

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'they have a cross platform development and an open source but the 3d rendering system is kinda lagging.'

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4. #7RPG Maker MV

   RPG Maker MV helps both beginners and expert devs build their own RP game. Over 100 Sample Maps, Character Generator Parts and more assets for developing role-playing games.
   

   Windows, Mac

   $79.99- Free trial available

   Sun Zhou

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'Really nice and a very good stepping stone for beginners really like this one.'

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5. #8Spine 2D

   Spine 2D is an animation tool for games. Developers can animate 2D characters for video games with useful tools. The animation tool creates an animation based on skeletal simulation and it can be integrated into videogames.
   

   Windows, Mac

   $99- Varies by plan

   Sue Mao

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'Easy to use and has a nice and flexible interface however it is not cheap. But definitely Spine 2D is definitely the best 2D game engines.'

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6. #9BYOND

   BYOND is a community-driven, game development platform. Players users can find games created by the developer community and creators can develop their own game with an easy-to-learn language, online support, tools, articles, tutorials and much more.

   Windows, Linux

   Free

   Humberto Pacheco

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'The features are all really great, the mobile app is also nice. But sometimes it freezes and you have to start your work all over again.'

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7. #10Cocos2D-X

   Cocos2D-x is a platform for developing multi-platform games. An open-source software made in C++, the is for games, apps and other GUI-based programs. JavaScript and Lua bindings are included in this software.

   Mac, Windows

   Free

   Divya Khan

   Written on May 9, 2019

   'I love how easy was to me to learn how to creat my first iphone game with my lack of experience, really nice!'

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8. #11Corona SDK

   Corona is a cross-platform framework ideal for creating apps and games for mobile devices and desktop systems. This is for creating projects and publishing them to multiple types of devices and TVs.

   Windows, Mac

   Free

   Russell Ortiz

   Written on September 15, 2017

   'This 2d game engine provides an intuitive experience to those looking to enter the gaming market. Im beginning to understand now why the app store is so saturated with such low rated games filled with ads, microtransactions, and blatant ripoffs of mario bros, GTA, or minecraft. Corona seems to not appear on any top lists for 2d game engines so I cant say for sure if this is truly a good engine to use.'

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9. #12Stencyl

   Stencyl is a game creation platform for beginners. It allows the creation of video games for any platform. The free mode is complete with the necessary tools.

   Mac, Windows, Linux

   Free

   Ronald Butler

   Written on May 9, 2019

   ' Its so intuitive to use and the inbuilt features make it so easy to bring your desired function into the game. But somehow i wish it had more tutorials and templates.'

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10. #13libGDX

    libGDX is a cross-platform game development library. It is written in Java, OpenGL (ES) and some JNI code for sections that demand resources. Games made in libGDX works on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, WebGL-enabled browser and iOS.
    

    Windows, Linux, Mac

    Free

    Ao Shi

    Written on May 9, 2019

    'Framework is great and handles animation amazingly but 3D games don't look the best and there are not many options for lighting and effects'

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11. #14GDevelop

    GDevelop is an open source, cross-platform game creator designer which can be used by anyone even those who have not much programming experience. Available for download on online, Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
    

    Web, Windows, Mac, Linux

    Free

    Ankita Rao

    Written on May 9, 2019

    'Really easy to use and understand, prolly the best 2D game engine that I've tried.'

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12. #15Buildbox

    Buildbox is a game engine that anyone can use to create beautiful games for every platform. Its drag and drop user interface makes designing games easier, no scripting, programming or software design experience required.

    Windows

    $15- Varies by plan

    Gloria Hill

    Written on May 9, 2019

    'Really good for beginners, it also has a drag and drop feature which is really great, especially for just beginning in designing. And sometimes it freezes.'

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13. #16GameGuru

    GameGuru is a game engine that has an easy interface and a enjoyable and comprehensive creation process specially designed for non programmers or designers/artists. GameGuru has a good set of editing tools and a scripting language easy for everyone that will make you take your creations to a higer level.
    

    Windows

    $14.99

    May Deng

    Written on May 9, 2019

    'Nice! You can design your own characters, create multi player games and even different genres.'

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14. #17RPG Maker VX Ace

    RPG Maker VX Ace is a tool for making your own role-playing game! It offers content creation to both beginners and advanced devs. Simple and enhanced features, and a larger collection of graphics.
    

    Windows

    $79.99- Free trial available

    Ramón Valencia

    Written on May 9, 2019

    'interface is user friendly, and very simple but the maximum resolution (640x480) and it also lacks new content compared to its predecessors.'

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