With the recent self destruction of the BuildBox game engine it lead to an interesting question… what is the easiest game engine? Now obviously there is no simple answer to that question, easy varies from person to person as do the way we think and learn. However we have assembled a list of some of the easiest or more accessible game engines available. So if you are looking for an easy to use game engine, hopefully this might help. The following list is in no particular order.
EASY GAME ENGINES
Scratch is the most kid focused game engine on this list. Scratch uses a lego brick like approach to game development and is the inspiration for several of the other engines on this list. It’s free and was developed by MIT specifically to teach programming to kids.
Construct 3 (Outdated GFS Hands-on)
Construct 3 uses a spreadsheet like approach to game development and runs in the browser. Construct 3 have responded to the recent BuildBox changes with a 6 month offer. Construct 3 is a 2D game engine with some initial 3D support.
GDevelop is an open source visual programming game engine similar to Construct 3. One major difference is GDevelop is free and open source. GDevelop is a 2D game engine.
ClickTeam Fusion is hard to recommend at this point in time as it’s getting quite long in the tooth at this point. The spreadsheet like programming approach seems to be the inspiration for several of these engines and it was used to create Five Nights at Freddy games.
Microsoft MakeCode Arcade (Learn More)
Microsoft MakeCode Arcade is one of my personal favourite recommendations for a first game engine and I did a 30 minute game tutorial recently. MakeCode Arcade is 2D only, offering an updated Scratch like experience with the ability to switch to Python and JavaScript from the Lego-brick like programming langauge.
Stencyl is another brick driven game engine which has the option of using the Haxe programming language. It’s a bit more complicated than some engines on this list and is 2D only.
Core is the closest things to the PS4’s Dreams on the PC, built on top of Unreal Engine, its a game for making games. You can start easily then graduate to Lua programming as you want to add more complexity.
Manu is another game like game engine. It doesn’t have the flexibility of Core, which is a double edged sword. The timeline and trigger based programming should be comfortable for most artists.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
There are of course dozens of engines that could have been on this list and others that we discuss briefly in the video include.
OTHER RESOURCES
Over the years we have put together hundreds of guides, reviews and tutorials that should prove helpful in trying to find the best game engine for you. We have a playlist of over 100+ game engine reviews, as well as this Guide On Getting Your Kid Started in Game Development. If you are looking for a Code-less or Visual programming language, refer to our complete list available here.
Learn more in the video below.