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  • Taisiia Dobrozorova

10 Best Mobile Game Engines and Development Platforms in 2023

Updated: Jul 18, 2023


Game development platform
Game development - ITChronicles

In today's digital era, mobile games have become integral to our lives, captivating millions of players worldwide. Behind the scenes, talented game developers work diligently to bring these immersive experiences to life, combining their creativity with the power of coding. So if you've ever dreamt of creating your mobile game and looking for the right mobile engine to make it, you're in the right place.


Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, we have the resources you need to create your mobile game masterpiece. Explore our HitBerry Games studio, or dive into other platforms. No matter your skill level, we have something for every gaming enthusiast eager to bring their creative vision to life.


Top game development platforms


When coding a mobile game, your chosen platform depends on your target audience and specific goals. Here are our top picks for mobile game development!


HitBerry Games

HitBerry Games Development Studio
HitBerry Games Development Studio

HitBerry Games is a premier mobile game development studio that specializes in crafting thrilling experiences across multiple platforms. It becomes possible with a team of skilled developers, designers, and artists dedicated to delivering top-notch games. Check out the best features of our studio.


Multi-Platform Development: HitBerry Games is a game platform that allows developers to create mobile games for various platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo.


Extensive Service Set: The mob development studio has a robust service set that includes AR/VR games development, NFT games, Educational game development, hyper-casual games, etc.


Extensive Toolkit: The platform uses engines such as Unity, Unreal Engine, and HTML5, thus giving the client a wide choice of these engines' tools.


Cost Calculator: A unique option for those who want to create their own mobile game and are ready to calculate the approximate development budget. It will consider everything from your game genre to music, gameplay time, and modes.


Unity

Unity engine logo
Unity engine. Source: https://unity.com

Unity is a widely used game development platform that supports multiple platforms, including iOS and Android. It provides a robust set of tools, an extensive asset store, and a large community, making it a popular choice for developing mobile games.


Advantages of Unity


Cross-platform Development: Unity allows developers to create games for multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and more.


Large Community and Resources: the engine has a vast and active community of developers, offering support, tutorials, documentation, and a wide range of online resources.


Asset Store: Unity's Asset Store provides a vast library of pre-made assets, including 3D models, textures, audio files, and plugins.


Visual Editor: Unity offers a powerful visual editor that allows developers to create and manipulate game objects, set up scenes, design user interfaces, and implement game mechanics without extensive coding.


Scripting Languages: the unity engine supports several scripting languages, including C# (the most widely used), JavaScript, and Boo. This flexibility allows developers to efficiently work with their preferred programming language or transition from other languages.


Disadvantages of Unity


Learning Curve: Unity can have a steep learning curve, especially for beginners or developers unfamiliar with game development concepts. The engine's extensive features and capabilities require time and effort to master effectively.


Performance Overhead: Unity is known to have a higher performance overhead compared to other game engines.


Initial Download Size: Unity-powered games tend to have larger initial download sizes due to the inclusion of the engine itself.


License Costs: while Unity offers a free version, particular features and capabilities are available only in the paid Unity Pro version.


Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine logo
Unreal Engine. Source: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US

Unreal Engine is another powerful game development platform that supports mobile game development for iOS and Android. It offers high-quality graphics and advanced features, making it suitable for creating visually stunning and immersive mobile games. Unreal Engine primarily uses C++ for coding.


Pros of Unreal Engine


Stunning Visuals: Unreal Engine is renowned for its high-quality graphics with advanced features like real-time ray tracing, dynamic lighting, and post-processing effects


Blueprint Visual Scripting: the engine includes a powerful visual scripting system called Blueprints. It allows developers to create game logic and behavior without extensive coding knowledge.


Cross-platform Development: Unreal Engine supports multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and macOS.


Marketplace and Community: the engine has a thriving community with many assets, plugins, and resources.


C++ Programming: Unreal Engine uses C++ as its primary programming language, providing developers with a low-level language's flexibility and performance advantages. This allows for fine-grained control, optimization, and seamless integration with external libraries.


Cons of Unreal Engine


Learning Curve: Unreal Engine can have a steep learning curve, especially for beginners or developers without experience with game development or C++. Understanding the engine's systems, workflows, and tools may require significant time and effort.


Performance Optimization Complexity: while Unreal Engine offers powerful performance optimization features, such as the Unreal Insights profiler, achieving optimal performance can be more challenging than other engines. Fine-tuning resource-intensive games may require advanced optimization techniques.


Larger File Sizes: Games developed with Unreal Engine typically have larger file sizes due to the inclusion of engine-related assets and libraries. This may be a consideration for developers targeting platforms with limited bandwidth or storage restrictions.


License Costs: Unreal Engine follows a revenue-sharing model, where developers pay a royalty fee on the games' gross revenue after exceeding a certain threshold. This may impact profitability, particularly for small-scale projects or indie developers.


In addition to Unity, Unreal Engine, and Hitberry Games, you can use several other platforms to code a mobile game. Here are a few notable options:


Android Studio

Android Studio logo
Android Studio. Source: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/android-studio-4-updates/

Android Studio is a suitable platform if your primary focus is developing games specifically for Android devices. It provides a complete development environment for Android app and game creation, including a code editor, emulator, and debugging tools. In addition, Android Studio uses Java or Kotlin for coding Android games.


Cocos2d


Cocos2d is a popular open-source game development framework that supports mobile game development for multiple platforms, including iOS and Android. It is written in Python but has bindings for other programming languages, such as C++, JavaScript, and Lua.


Godot Engine

Godot Engine
Godot Engine. Source: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/godot-engine

Godot Engine is an open-source, cross-platform game development engine that supports mobile game development for iOS and Android. It features a user-friendly visual editor and supports several programming languages, including its scripting language, GDScript, C#, and VisualScript.


Corona SDK


Corona SDK is a mobile development framework that allows you to create games and apps for iOS and Android using the Lua programming language. It provides a simple and efficient development environment focusing on rapid prototyping and cross-platform compatibility.


GameMaker Studio


GameMaker Studio is a popular game development platform that supports mobile game development for iOS and Android, among other platforms. It offers a visual drag-and-drop interface and a scripting language called GML (GameMaker Language) for more advanced coding.


AppGameKit

AppGameKit game engine
AppGameKit. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJlamyl9zmw&ab_channel=Gamefromscratch

AppGameKit is a game development engine that focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It supports both 2D and 3D game development and offers a BASIC programming language for scripting.


Phaser


Phaser is a free and open-source HTML5 game development framework that allows you to create mobile games that can be deployed to various platforms, including iOS and Android, through web technologies. It uses JavaScript and is particularly well-suited for 2D game development.


These platforms offer different features, programming languages, and workflows, so it's important to choose the one that best aligns with your game's requirements and your personal preferences as a developer.


But if you do not want to study how to work with game engines, just contact us and leave a request for development. Our experts will create a game for you!






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