What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Piotr Kostrzewski · Unread post by **Piotr Kostrzewski** » 2025-06-17, 09:26

Hello, as in the title, what engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Unread post by **Moonchild** » 2025-06-17, 11:41

There are plenty of great choices for 2D game engines, depending on your needs. Here are a few solid options:

Unity – While it's known for 3D, Unity has excellent 2D tools, including the Tilemap system, built-in physics, and strong cross-platform support.
GameMaker Studio – A fantastic choice for 2D games, with a drag-and-drop interface and its own scripting language (GML) that’s beginner-friendly yet powerful.
Cocos Creator – A lightweight, open-source engine ideal for mobile and web games, using JavaScript or TypeScript.
Construct – If you prefer visual programming, Construct makes it easy to create games with little to no coding.
MonoGame – Great for those who want full control over their project using C#, offering robust 2D development features.

So, do a classical web search? There are more

(part of this post sponsored by A.I. search - please verify if I spewed nonsense on its behalf or not )

Piotr Kostrzewski · Unread post by **Piotr Kostrzewski** » 2025-06-17, 12:00

I used the search engine and found them but I would like to know what other users think 😅
It's hard for me to choose one because each one has something good and something missing at the same time.

Unread post by **Moonchild** » 2025-06-17, 12:48

Well, you could have detailed that in your original post instead of firing off a one-liner

Mæstro · Unread post by **Mæstro** » 2025-06-17, 13:34

The only software in this genre which i have ever used myself is Scratch, when I was a child. It deserves its reputation as an accessible lntroduction to game-making. Even back then, it had a cousin targetting adults known as Stencyl. Of the programmes Moonchild named, I understand that Game Maker is the most accessible to non-programmers, and is responsible for one of my favourite Flash games.

Off-topic:
I would just like to laud how civilised this discussion and this forum’s tone are. We appreciate here that there is a difference between asking simply for information and asking for those familiar with something to share their experiences with it. Actually being able to discuss software can go further than reviews ever could. We all know places where questions like this would have been dismissed with stfw, lmgtfy and the like, just like many other open-source projects wither as the developers wither as requests for help or information receive only rtfm. Here, it is much kinder than that, and for this, I am thankful.

Gemmaugr · Unread post by **Gemmaugr** » 2025-06-17, 14:43

https://github.com/Redot-Engine - "Redot Engine is a feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface. It provides a comprehensive set of common tools, so that users can focus on making games without having to reinvent the wheel."

https://waiting-for-blue-robot.gitlab.i ... me-engines

My Add-ons · Unread post by **FranklinDM** » 2025-06-17, 15:26

MonoGame or FNA works if you're interested in doing a lot of things from scratch (i.e., sprite classes). There's also MoonWorks which is more or less FNA reworked and rewritten without the legacy XNA bits.

Unread post by **vannilla** » 2025-06-17, 18:19

If you're into top-down RPGs there is Solarus focused on action games and EasyRPG for the standard turn-based combat (specifically it's aimed at providing a "modern" and open source RPG Maker 2k/2k3).

back2themoon · Unread post by **back2themoon** » 2025-06-17, 18:36

The Scorpion Engine

Scorpion Editor
Indie Retro News (TSE-tagged posts)
EAB topic (lots of info from author)

frostknight · Unread post by **frostknight** » 2025-06-17, 23:24

Pardon me for asking, but what is wrong with godot? Just curious

Unread post by **vannilla** » 2025-06-17, 23:45

frostknight wrote: ↑
2025-06-17, 23:24
Pardon me for asking, but what is wrong with godot? Just curious

Even if there is nothing wrong, it's always a good idead to look at alternatives!

suzyne · Unread post by **suzyne** » 2025-06-18, 07:20

During my research about making Visual Novels, (yes, I know about Ren'Py!) I looked at a few options for making 2D games. I don't have a lot of experience with any particular engine (because I haven't actually started making the game), but have read a lot and played around a little, and so have opinions.

If I was starting tomorrow to make a 2D game, I would go for either GameMaker or GDevelop.

Construct 3 would round out my top 3 list, but the pricing is simply much too expensive for what I want to do, where I wouldn't be expecting to be actually selling anything I made.

Piotr Kostrzewski · Unread post by **Piotr Kostrzewski** » 2025-06-18, 18:08

frostknight wrote: ↑
2025-06-17, 23:24
Pardon me for asking, but what is wrong with godot? Just curious

I'm not saying it's bad, but I'm still experimenting with engines to choose the right one for me.

Pale Moon forum

What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

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Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)

Re: What engine do you recommend for creating 2D games? (not Godot)