The following is a a list of the most popular, licensable 3D engines available for game developers today. Supported platforms indicates the platform the SDK and tools can be run on, while Supported Targets represents the platforms you can deploy to.
Blender Game Engine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Linux Mac OS |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Linux Mac OS |
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Supported Languages |
Python |
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Cost |
Free – Open Source |
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Books |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Blender Game Engine is built into the free Blender 3D package. Yo Frankie includes complete sources and resources. |
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C4 Engine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac Linux |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac Linux |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Visual scripting language |
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Cost |
250$ per developer for standard 800$ per developer for professional |
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Books |
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Games |
?? |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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I have no experience with this engine, and had difficulty confirming features. The wiki page promises all sorts of features that the official website does not confirm. ( Such as various target platforms supported ). Also I am unaware of any shipped commercial games using this engine. I am not saying there are none, I am simply unaware of them. |
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CryEngine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows |
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Supported Targets |
Windows PS3 Xbox 360 Wii U |
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Supported Languages |
C++ LUA |
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Cost |
Free for non-commercial 20% of revenue for Indie Other terms, contact them |
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Books |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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No-commission based pricing available on a negotiated basis. LUA is for scripting only. |
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Gamebryo |
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Gamebryo is the licensable engine behind literally dozens of commercial games, including the last three Elder Scrolls titles, Bully, Catherine, Divinity 2, FallOut3, Civilizations 4 and Warhammer online.
That said, it does not have a proper entry because it’s status is currently unknown. The company behind Gamebryo went under, and all of their assets were purchased by a Korean company, Gamebase. It appears Gamebryo is still available for licensing, but their webpage went offline a few days ago ( As of August 7th, 2012 ) and I cannot firmly confirm Gamebyro is still available. If anyone can confirm or deny either way, please do so! |
Hero Engine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows |
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Supported Targets |
Windows |
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Supported Languages |
C++ HeroScript |
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Cost |
99$ /year + 30% royalty* |
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Books |
None Available |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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* Price includes cloud hosting hosts. Hero Engine is targeted at creating MMOs. |
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Gameplay Engine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac OS |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS Blackberry OS 10/Playbook OS Android 2.3+ iOS 5.1 |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Lua |
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Cost |
Free, open source |
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Books |
None Available |
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Games |
None yet |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Research in Motion is the sponsor of this project. Project is quite new, explaining lack of shipped titles. |
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iDTech 4 |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac OS Linux |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS Linux Xbox360* PlayStation 3* |
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Supported Languages |
C++ |
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Cost |
??? – See below |
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Books |
None available |
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Games |
Doom3 |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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John Carmack traditionally releases the source code to their engines 5 years after release, and Doom 3 was no exception. Previously you could get a commercial license from iD to ship a game built on older iDTech engines. However, now that Zenimax owns iD, it is unknown if this option is still available.
Previously a license I believe was 10,000$. You can of course use the code in a free/non-commercial product.
* need developer kits. Not sure if support for either platform is included in free release |
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Irrlicht |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows, Linux, Mac, Other* |
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Supported Targets |
Windows MacOS Linux Solaris Other* |
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Supported Languages |
C++ |
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Cost |
Free, open source based on zlib/libpng |
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Books |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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* Available on all platforms supporting SDL, community supported targets of iPhone, Android and Symbian |
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jMonkeyEngine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Linux Mac OS (Any with OpenGL + JVM support?) |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Linux Mac OS Android ( unofficial ) |
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Supported Languages |
Java |
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Cost |
Free, open source |
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Books |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Runs on any platform that sports a JVM with a port of LJGWL. Android support is a sub-project with details available here. |
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Marmalade |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac OS |
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Supported Targets |
iOS 4.2+ Blackberry 2.1+ Blackberry Playbook OS Bada LG Smart TV Symbian Windows Mac OSX |
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Supported Languages |
C++ |
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Cost |
150$ / year for community 499$ / year for indie Call for professional |
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Books |
None available |
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Games |
Sim City Deluxe (Blackberry) |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Symbian, Windows and Mac OSX aren’t fully supported. Was previously called Airplay SDK.
Community is iOS and Android only, and comes with forum support and a splash screen. Indie is all platforms, forum only support and no splash screen. |
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Nebula Device |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Linux |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Linux |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Tcl Python Lua |
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Cost |
Free, open source |
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Books |
None |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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The Nebula device is effectively defunct. The company behind it has gone out of business. The full source code however was made available on SourceForge. I chose to include it here, even though it is unsupported, due to the slate of professional games published with it. Mostly because I am a fan of Drakensang, and because I almost used this engine for a project in the past.
I wouldn’t recommend actually building a project around the Nebula Device, but it is certainly worth checking out. |
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Ogre 3D |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac OS Linux |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS Linux Android port in works |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Bindings exist for .NET, Java and Python |
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Cost |
Free, open source |
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Books |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Ogre3D technically isn’t a 3D Engine, it’s a Scene Graph/Renderer. However add-ons for tasks like audio and a UI layer are readily available. |
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Panda 3D |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac OS Linux |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS Linux |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Python |
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Cost |
Free |
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Books |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Game written in C++, Python bindings exposed. Released under BSD license. |
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Shiva 3D |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS Linux iOS Playbook OS Android Blackberry OS Wii Web Palm? |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Lua |
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Cost |
0$ for Web 2,00$ for Basic 1,000$ for Advanced |
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Books |
None available |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Lua is done with a Lua to C++ translator. |
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Source Engine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 |
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Supported Languages |
C++ |
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Cost |
** |
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Books |
None available |
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Games |
HalfLife 2 Vampire: The Masquerade |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Pricing available under NDA. Contact for details. |
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Torque 3D |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac OS Linux |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS Linux Wii Xbox360 iOS? Web |
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Supported Languages |
C++ TorqueScript |
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Cost |
179$ |
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Books |
Multiplayer Gaming and Engine Coding with Torque Game Engine |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Torque can publish to Xbox and Wii, as proven by past shipping titles, however details and financials on doing so are unavailable. Be careful with books, Torque was greatly updated and older books may not still be relevant. |
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Unigine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Mac OS Linux PlayStation 3 Android iOS |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Unigine Script |
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Cost |
** |
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Books |
None |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Cost is negotiated on a per case basis, average cost is claimed at 30,000$. Evaluation kit available. |
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UNITY 3D |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows Mac OS |
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Supported Targets |
Windows Web ( Custom Plugin ) Flash Mac iOS Android Wii PS3 Xbox 360 Other(*) |
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Supported Languages |
C# JavaScript Boo C++ (**) |
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Cost |
Free 400$ for iOS 400$ for Android 1500$ for Pro |
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Books |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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(*) – Other publishing opportunities, such as Blackberry, are possible through special agreement with Unity. (**) – C++ support is for plugins only and requires the pro version. |
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Unreal Engine |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows |
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Supported Targets |
Windows PS3 Xbox 360 Wii U iOS Android PlayStation Vita |
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Supported Languages |
C++ UnrealScript Kismet |
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Cost |
Free for non-commercial 20% of revenue for Indie Other terms, contact them |
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Books |
Beginning iOS Unreal Game Development |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
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Notes: |
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Kismet is a visual programming interface for Unreal. UnrealScript is a in house language, that combines C++ and Javascript. |
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Vision Engine (Havok) |
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Supported Platforms |
Windows |
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Supported Targets |
Windows PS3 Xbox 360 Wii iOS Android PlayStation Vita Web |
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Supported Languages |
C++ Lua C# ** |
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Cost |
Call * |
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Books |
None available |
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Games |
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Key Sites |
None? |
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Notes: |
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* Havok have a available an Indie friendly “Havok Strike” program, but you need to contact them for details. Vision is available in royalty free form, but need to contact for details.
** C# is not available in game code, but is available to extend the tools. |
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HTML5 Game Engines