Best Game Development Software

Compare the Top Game Development Software as of December 2025

What is Game Development Software?

Game development software refers to a suite of tools and applications used to create video games, ranging from simple 2D projects to complex 3D experiences. It typically includes game engines, graphic design programs, audio editing tools, and coding environments for scripting game mechanics. Many platforms, like Unity and Unreal Engine, provide built-in physics, animation, and AI features to streamline development. Some software, such as Godot or RPG Maker, caters to specific genres or audiences with simplified workflows. By integrating various assets and code, game development software enables creators to bring interactive worlds to life across multiple platforms. Compare and read user reviews of the best Game Development software currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    Unity

    Unity

    Unity Technologies

    The leading platform for creating interactive, real-time content. Build 2D, 3D and VR games and apps at speed. From artist tools to live-ops, everything you need to bring your vision to life today. The complete solutions for professionals to create and operate. Create and operate amazing applications and immersive experiences with a complete solution for professionals across industries. Change up your splash screen. Or completely remove it. Gain greater insight into what’s happening in your game with real-time data on crashes, exceptions and user feedback. Minimize downtime with access to expert technical support when you encounter issues. Available as a separate purchase through a Unity sales representative. Unity Gaming Services: backend and LiveOps services trusted by world-class studios to support multiplayer and live games at any scale, with any engine or tech stack.
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    Starting Price: $35.00/month
  • 2
    Unreal Engine

    Unreal Engine

    Epic Games

    The world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool. With Unreal Engine, you can bring amazing real-time experiences to life using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation tool. From first projects to the most demanding challenges, our free and accessible resources and inspirational community empower everyone to realize their ambitions. With over 160 hours of free online learning content, an extensive library of webinars, and options for instructor-led training, we have a way to learn that's right for you. Unreal creators are the true power behind Unreal Engine. Be part of a community that builds cutting-edge experiences, and supports each other along the way. Explore comprehensive reference documentation, instructional guides, community-based support, and options for dedicated professional support.
  • 3
    O3DE

    O3DE

    The Linux Foundation

    Open 3D Engine (O3DE) is a modular, open source, cross-platform 3D engine built to power anything from AAA games to cinema-quality 3D worlds to high-fidelity simulations. No fees or commercial obligations. Apache 2.0-licensed. Managed by The Linux Foundation. O3DE's modular architecture is built for customization from day one. Each component—known as a Gem—can be adopted separately, giving you access to the specific functionality needed for your application. Add new editing tools, features, and development workflows to your projects. Choose from a variety of community-maintained Gems to extend and enhance the engine's capabilities in anything from AI and robotics to push notifications and VR. With our engine's SDK capabilities, you can use O3DE as a foundation for any type of 3D project you can imagine.
  • 4
    Buildbox
    With Buildbox, creating games is simple. There is no programming needed. Choose from various templates, Smart Assets™, or Brainboxes™ to get started. Then preview your game in real-time. You can even make your own game from scratch. The only limit is your imagination. Buildbox 3 is our most advanced game creation software! With it, you can create both 3D and 2D games using no-code Smart Assets™ and Brainboxes™ or advanced low-code options. Buildbox Classic is our traditional drag and drop game maker. With it you can make a game without coding, and rapidly build and prototype 2D games only using templates. At Buildbox, we believe that creating games is for everyone. With our powerful software, we're breaking down the barriers of game development for creators like you. We believe that anyone should get the opportunity to bring their ideas to life. The only skill you need is imagination. And we're just getting started!
  • 5
    GDevelop

    GDevelop

    GDevelop

    What makes GDevelop unique and so easy to use is the event system. Events are a powerful way to express the logic of your game, without having to learn a programming language. Unleash your creativity with GDevelop and create all kinds of games: platformers, shoot’em up, strategy, 8-bit, hyper-casual games... the sky is the limit. Express your ideas, big and small: you can prototype new features on your games in minutes, and refine them without limits. Making games has never been so easy and fast, with the visual editors provided by GDevelop. Use ready made objects from the asset store or create your own from scratch. Choose sprites, particle emitters, texts, videos and many others to build the scenes of your game. Add effects to the layers and objects of your scene. These effects allow to quickly changes the atmosphere and rendering of your game in one click.
  • 6
    Maya LT

    Maya LT

    Autodesk

    Create and animate realistic-looking characters, props, and environments using the sophisticated 3D modeling and animation tools in Maya LT™ 3D game development software. Send assets directly to Unity and Unreal Engine with custom export tools, or use the game exporter to get 3D content into your engine of choice. Use an array of tools to create high-quality textures and materials. Work with Allegorithmic Substance materials directly in the software.
    Starting Price: $35 per month
  • 7
    Nakama

    Nakama

    Heroic Labs

    Nakama is an open source game server framework developed by Heroic Labs, designed to facilitate the creation of real-time, multiplayer, and social games across various platforms, including Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, and more. It provides a comprehensive suite of features such as real-time multiplayer capabilities, customizable matchmaking algorithms, leaderboards, in-game chat, and support for in-game currencies. Developers can extend Nakama's functionality using server-side logic written in Go, TypeScript, or Lua, allowing for authoritative game mechanics and enhanced control over game state. The platform also offers open-source client libraries tailored for different game engines and languages, ensuring seamless integration and flexibility in game development. Nakama is your dedicated server, not another multi-tenant SaaS. Add custom features and secure authoritative gameplay logic directly to your game server.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 8
    AWS GameKit
    Use AWS CloudFormation templates to power backend game features. Deliver core functionality to your players using prebuilt AWS solutions. Use sample assets and code to rapidly develop game feature prototypes. AWS GameKit is a game engine integration toolkit that helps you create cloud-connected game features without the learning curve of using cloud service architecture. Quickly start prototyping active game projects with ready-to-use backend game features, open-source code, and documentation. Use solutions built by cloud architecture experts, based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework, that are secure, high-performing, and resilient. Use the AWS GameKit plugin in your game engine to configure and deploy supporting AWS resources for your cloud-based game features. Use AWS tools to monitor, scale, and customize backend services, and control your data generated and stored on AWS.
  • 9
    Stencyl

    Stencyl

    Stencyl

    Stencyl isn't your average game creation software; it's a gorgeous, intuitive toolset that accelerates your workflow and then gets out of the way. We take care of the essentials, so you can focus on what's important - making your game yours. The best Stencyl games have reached top slots in the App Store and Google Play while being featured under the "Best New Game" section under their respective stores. Our best web games have been sponsored by major publishers such as ArmorGames, Kongregate and Newgrounds. Our drag-and-drop gameplay designer pays homage to the successful MIT Scratch project. We extend Scratch's simple block-snapping interface with new functionality and hundreds of ready-to-use block, Power users can create and share their own blocks, extend the engine through code, import libraries and write their own custom classes that interact seamlessly with block-based Behaviors.
    Starting Price: $99 per year
  • 10
    CRYENGINE

    CRYENGINE

    CRYENGINE

    The most powerful game development platform for you and your team to create world-class entertainment experiences. What you see is what you get: Sandbox allows you to create seamless worlds without any baking. Create your world and export to a game as you see it in the Editor. Fully realtime dynamic global illumination with a fully PBR workflow allows you to create ultra realistic environments using the tools you're used to. Physical simulations that take into account real world physical properties in a realistic manner to provide easily configurable and dynamic scenes. Use CRYENGINE's exclusive Audio Translation Layer that allows you to choose the middleware you want, when you want. Allowing for workflows that work for you.
  • 11
    Wevr Virtual Studio
    The cloud platform for game-engine-based development with Git. Interactive creators are using WVS to build virtual worlds and apps on game engines—and coming together to talk about it. A purpose-built cloud platform for interactive creators and teams using game engines. WVS is the easiest, fastest way to create cloud-automated builds for Unreal, Unity, and other game engines. Think of it as your build engineering team in the cloud. Artists, designers, producers, and engineers—across the technical spectrum, and distributed around the world—feel like they're working together, as part of a living breathing dev studio. A central work space allows employees, contractors, and clients to access projects from one secure place. A game-engine-optimized CI/CD pipeline orchestrates your development process, from early sketch to playable game. A comprehensive build dashboard allows secure deployment to PC/Mac, Android/iOS TestFlight, WebGL, Quest, Cloud, and other targets.
  • 12
    GameMaker

    GameMaker

    Opera Software

    GameMaker is a user-friendly game development platform designed for creators of all skill levels, enabling them to build 2D games quickly and efficiently. It features a drag-and-drop interface alongside its GameMaker Language (GML), providing flexibility for both beginners and experienced developers. The engine includes a suite of built-in tools for animation, physics, and shaders, allowing developers to create polished games without requiring extensive coding knowledge. GameMaker supports cross-platform deployment, enabling games to be exported to PC, mobile, consoles, and web with minimal adjustments. With its intuitive workflow and powerful features, GameMaker is a popular choice for indie developers and small studios looking to bring their game ideas to life.
  • 13
    SpeedTree
    Emmy and Academy Award-winning modeling and animation suite used to create trees and plants for films and television. The industry standard for 3D vegetation modeling in games. Tools include the SpeedTree Modeler, Compiler, and full source SDK. Subscription pipelines for the most popular and cutting-edge game engines. SpeedTree for Games is an Award-winning 3D Procedural vegetation middleware product with fine-tuned art controls. Includes Modeler, Compiler, Tree Library and full-source SDK. Increased performance throughout, including faster instance paging, constant buffer updates, and shader optimizations. SpeedTree Cinema is the award-winning 3D-modeling suite that allows you to model, texture, and animate, both stylized and photoreal vegetation for VFX, arch/viz, or matte paintings. Model and shape any type of vegetation using a combination of procedural and fine-tuned art controls.
  • 14
    Torque 3D

    Torque 3D

    GarageGames

    Torque 3D is the best full source, open source solution available. It is also our flagship engine built on the core strengths of our Front Line Award-winning Torque Game Engine Advanced. Torque 3D has been re-architected for maximum flexibility and performance across a wide-range of hardware. Torque 3D comes equipped with a full suite of tools to allow your team to excel and produce high-quality games and simulations. Torque 3D supports Windows and Browser-based web deployment out of the box.
  • 15
    GameSalad

    GameSalad

    GameSalad

    Create Your Own Games & Learn Computational Thinking. No-code: powerful visual programming. Share with your friends or submit games to the app stores! GameSalad turns gamers into game creators! With GameSalad, creators and learners ages 12 and beyond build the own mobile and web video games with a no-code visual programming system. Launched in 2010, GameSalad has been used by over one million aspiring game developers and has powered over 75 games that reached the top 100 in the App Store, including multiple #1 games. GameSalad for Education is in classrooms all over the world helping teachers build computer science and game design programs that build student confidence and mastery. Learn coding basics, build video games, meet other creators. All Camps include a 1-Year Home Education License. GameSalad Game Creation Camps are instructor guided virtual tech camps that will help your young learner become a game developer!
    Starting Price: $17 per month
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