8 Popular Mobile Game Engines, Tools & Development Platforms in 2022!
Game development has emerged as one of the most exciting fields in the modern world. It has quickly become a promising industry that will continue generating revenues and innovation for years.
Mobile games are among the most popular forms of entertainment, helping people experience unforgettable stories and adventures that cannot be experienced anywhere else.
A mobile game development company uses several tools and technologies like Unity, Unreal Engine, Xamarin, etc., to build powerful mobile games depending on the requirements. Today, we will highlight eight popular mobile game development tools and platforms in 2022. So without further ado, let’s get started!
Unity
Unity is one of the most popular game development tools available today. It is a powerful game development platform that allows developers to create games for various platforms, including desktop browsers, mobile devices, consoles, and the internet. Unity is one of the most easily accessible game development platforms and has a lot of great tutorials and resources available for beginners to learn how to use it.
Popular Games
Below are the three most popular games built with Unity:
- Hay Day
- Clash of Clans
- Pokémon Go
Unreal Engine
Unreal is a premier 3D game technology platform for building high-quality mobile games, mainly 3D first-person shooters. It lets you quickly build high-fidelity mobile games without coding, abstracting away the complexity of Unity. The UE Mobile Game Development Kit lets you build games for Android and iOS platforms in Unity, with support for advanced features like Touch Arcade, in-game purchasing, and more. Besides mobile game development, UE is also used in films, television, and animation.
Popular Games
- Fortnite
- Mortal Kombat
- Injustice 2
CryEngine
CryEngine has received recognition because of its fantastic graphics output. If you want to develop a game with superior visuals, then CryEngine is the ideal game engine. Various handy tools are available for beginners to understand the engine and its features. Moreover, it is easy to learn and provides extensive support to the developers. Using tools like Flowgraph helps make the game ambiance powerful and attractive.
Popular Games
- Far Cry
- Arena of Fate
- War Face
Corona SDK
it is a 2D game development engine that uses the Lua programming language. popularity can be attributed to its systematic design and strong online network. Developers can visualize how the app will seem once the adjustments are made owing to its real-time simulation.
Corona offers a substantially higher frame rate (FPS) than other SDKs, resulting in a smoother performance for your game and a more reliable gaming experience with no room for complacency. Since the development platform includes capabilities to add interaction and graphic material to the game, working on it feels more like a designer than a coder.
Popular Games
- Zip Zap
- Designer’s City
- Mandrea
Lumberyard
Lumberyard is a fantastic game development engine recently launched by Amazon. It’s an open-source, cross-platform development framework, allowing the development of 2D and 3D games for multiple platforms using a single codebase.
The tremendous array of tools that Amazon Lumberyard offers is sufficient to create AAA-caliber games. Comprehensive C++ source code, connectivity, feature-rich audio engine, smooth AWS cloud integration, and the Twitch API are a few of the prominent aspects.
Its pricing is yet another perk as there are no royalties or subscription charges. The only cost is using the AWS cloud for online multiplayer games, allowing rapid implementation and development.
Popular Games
- Star Citizen
- The Grand Tour Game
- New World
SpriteKit
Apple introduced the open-source, free-to-use SpriteKit framework for developing 2D games. This framework is appropriate if you wish to create games for iOS devices. Developers can use the framework’s extensive feature set to produce high-performance 2D games. The framework supports both Swift and Objective-C.
Apple powers the framework; thus, the developers don’t need to download any other libraries or external components. The built-in tools eliminate the need for external software to create textures, charts, assets, or typefaces. All you need to do is put your photos into Xcode, which will take care of the rest.
Popular Games
- Space Quest
- Tricky Walls
- Trestle
Cocos2D
A set of 2D game development tools owned by Facebook is called Cocos2D-x. Cross-platform games may be created using this open-source platform.
With the help of its robust suite, developers can produce high-performance games. It is a content-focused development platform with entity components, script creation, and data-driven functionality. Resource management, game debugging, previewing, and multi-platform publishing are all made simpler by the all-in-one extensible editor. The best feature is that you can use this engine to make games under 1.5 MB in size.
Popular Games
- Frontier Justice
- The Marvelous Snail
- Depart, Lord!
Mixamo
Mixamo is the world’s leading mixed reality platform for mobile game development. It enables developers to build interactive 3D worlds that users can enter and explore, providing a new way to experience games. Its proprietary software development kit, Mixamo, makes it easy for developers to create high-quality 3D games and interactive experiences for various platforms and devices, including mobile, AR, and VR. It allows users to access a 3D world without additional hardware or software.
Popular Games
- Phasmophobia
- Windrazor
Titanium
The Titanium Game Development engine assists developers in creating innovative, attractive, and paradigm-shifting mobile games.
The construction of codes may be done quickly and with flexibility, hastening the process of creating applications. Titanium has already created an open marketplace for purchasing, selling, and sharing modules, so developers may also benefit from this.
Popular Games
- Offroad Power Drive
- Bots Fighting
- School Girl
Wrapping Up
Like any professional web development service provider would use a blend of front-end and back-end web development tools, frameworks, and programming languages, a game development company leverage the games mentioned above for development frameworks and SDKs, depending on the requirements.
Which engine is best for mobile game development?
Which is the best mobile game engine? Unity 3D, a cross-platform mobile game development engine, is considered the best for developing high-quality 3D and 2D games. The Unity game engine can develop games for Android, iOS, Windows, and several other mobile platforms. It uses UnityScript for programming.What is the most common development platform for mobile games?
The best 22 mobile game engines and development platforms
- Unity.
- Unreal Engine.
- Solar2D
- SpriteKit – 2D sprite-based games.
- Buildbox.
- AppGameKit.
- Construct 3.
- Fusion 2.5.
Is Unity the best game engine for mobile?
If it weren’t for Unity’s multiplatform support and deep partnerships, it wouldn’t matter how fast we moved.What apps can I use to develop a game?
Beginner Level — Game-Making Apps
- Construct 3. If you are building a 2D game, you can start with Construct 3.
- GameMaker Studio 2. GameMaker Studio helps you build games from start to finish using drag and drop features.
- Clickteam Fusion.
- CryEngine.
- Amazon Game Engines.
- Unity.
- Unreal Engine.
- Manage Large Binary Files.
How do I become a mobile game developer?
To be a mobile game developer you would preferably need to have Bachelor‘s in computer sciences or Management Information Systems (MIS). And, If you are still in school and have the opportunity then also take up any relevant courses such as software development or mobile app development.
What is the easiest game engine?
Hence! It works as a 2D engine but it’s capable of producing AAA content. GameMaker is designed to be easy on beginners but powerful enough to fill the needs of a large studio. With a dynamic physics engine and a custom scripting language, GameMaker is a good choice for hobbyists and professionals alike.