Today we have compiled a list of the best Lua game engines and game frameworks (and a few miscellaneous game development options) for game development in 2025. This is the third 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 and a C/C++ Game Engine resource here, with guides for other programming languages in the works.
2D
LÖVE – https://love2d.org/
Defold – https://defold.com/
Solar2D – https://solar2d.com/
Gideros – https://www.gideros.rocks/
2D Bindings
Raylib – https://www.raylib.com/
SDL 2 – https://www.libsdl.org/languages-2.0.php
Allegro – https://liballeg.org/bindings.html
3D
LÖVR – https://lovr.org/
Menori – https://github.com/rozenmad/Menori
O3DE – https://o3de.org/
Wicked Engine – https://wickedengine.net/
Spring Engine – https://springrts.com/
GameGuru / GameGuru MAX – https://www.game-guru.com/
Overlord Engine – https://overloadengine.org/
Leadwerks – https://www.leadwerks.com/
Launti (Previously Minetest) – https://www.luanti.org/
Misc
Roblox – https://create.roblox.com/
Core – https://www.coregames.com/create
Pico-8 – https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
Codea – https://codea.io/
You can learn more about all of the above Lua based game engines, frameworks and bindings in the video below.