Today we have compiled a list of the best C and C++ game engines and game frameworks for game development in 2025. This is the second in a series of posts exploring the game engine options available for the most popular programming languages. We have a Python Game Engine resource here, with guides for other programming languages in the works.
3D
Unreal Engine https://www.unrealengine.com/
Unigine https://unigine.com
O3de https://o3de.org
Godot Engine https://godotengine.org
Flax Engine https://flaxengine.com – Learn More
CryEngine https://www.cryengine.com
Torque Engine https://torque3d.org/torque3d/
Ultra Engine https://www.ultraengine.com – Learn More
Leadwerks https://www.leadwerks.com/programming
G3D Inovation Engine https://casual-effects.com/g3d/www/index.html – Learn More
Source Engine https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source
idTech Engines https://github.com/id-software
gzDoom https://github.com/ZDoom/gzdoom
Dagor Engine https://github.com/GaijinEntertainment/DagorEngine
Nau Engine https://nauengine.org/en
Ogre3D https://www.ogre3d.org
IrrLicht https://irrlicht.sourceforge.io
Panda 3D https://www.panda3d.org
Open Scene Graph https://openscenegraph.github.io/openscenegraph.io/
Vulkan Scene Graph https://vsg-dev.github.io/vsg-dev.io/
The Forge https://theforge.dev
Wicked Engine https://wickedengine.net – Learn More
Rbfx (Urho3D Fork) https://github.com/rbfx/rbfx – Learn More
Esenthel Titan Engine https://www.esenthel.com – Learn More
Spartan Engine https://github.com/PanosK92/SpartanEngine – Learn More
C4Engine https://c4engine.com
Lumix Engine https://github.com/nem0/LumixEngine
Limon Engine https://github.com/enginmanap/limonEngine
Hazel Engine https://hazelengine.com
ezEngine https://github.com/ezEngine/ezEngine – Learn More
RavEngine https://github.com/RavEngine/RavEngine – Learn More
SpringRTS https://springrts.com
StormEngine https://github.com/storm-devs/storm-engine – Learn More
2D
SFML https://www.sfml-dev.org – Learn More
SDL https://www.libsdl.org – Learn More
Raylib https://raylib.com
Allegro https://liballeg.org
ORX https://orx-project.org – Learn More
Oxygine https://oxygine.org
Cocos2d-x https://www.cocos.com/en/cocos2d-x
Axmol https://github.com/axmolengine/axmol
You can learn more about all of the above C/C++ based game engines, frameworks and bindings in the video below.