Best Game Engine for Beginner Game Developers

In the gaming field, various game engines exist to create different types of games. But most of them used to support only a certain type of game development, like some for PC, some for mobiles, etc.

Only some game engines provided easy options to create games for multiple platforms. However, with time, many game engines have been introduced, providing a developer various options they can choose from. One can create awesome and engaging games with a general understanding of these game engines and a basic understanding of the codes.

Some of the famous game engines are:

1. Unity
2. Unreal Engine
3. Godot
4. Cocos2d-x
5. CryEngine
6. Solar2D

Many more game engines are available in the market, and you can find them with one simple search. There's a saying that goes, "If you search enough, you can even find god". So, if you are interested and want to invest your time in building a career in game development, look around for game engines based on your needs, and you will find one that satisfies them.

Choosing a Game Engine

If you are a beginner and want to start learning about creating games, your first concern is choosing an ideal game engine. To carefully understand and choose the game engine that will suit your needs, you need to consider the following things:

1. What type of game do you want to create?
2. What is the target platform for the game?
3. What is your budget?

There will be more points to consider, but as a beginner game creator, these are crucial before starting your game development path. Let's discuss the above points in a little more detail.

What Type of Game Do You Want to Create?

Before considering anything, you need to find the type of games you want to create. Usually, people think of the most popular or their favourite games. Recently, 3D games like PUBG and Free Fire have been trending. These games fall under some advanced games, enticing a beginner developer to create.

However, as the production team behind these games is huge and has contributed so much time and effort, a single beginner developer can't create it all independently.

Start by making smaller games. The more small games you create, the more understanding and experience you build. With practice, you will be able to create the same or better game that you want. So don't hurry and start with high-end games as your initial projects. You can begin your game development journey with basic games like Roll a Ball, Flappy Bird, Super Mario, etc.

After considering which game to create, you must choose the graphic type (2D or 3D visuals) of the game you will develop.

About 2D Games

2D games are those video games presented in a two-dimensional graphic environment. A famous two-dimensional game we all know is Super Mario. The visuals used in the game are 2D art and sprites. The movement in these games is restricted to the x-axis and y-axis only. This means the players or the surrounding can only move sideways and up-down on a flat surface without depth.

For a beginner, a 2D game is a good choice. 2D games are simple to work with and don't involve most complications with management, unlike in the 3D world. Creating a platform game like Flappy Bird doesn't require much logic. The only need is to move the character and add obstacles to the player's path.

Learning game development by developing 2D games may be simple, but making them while working on a real game project can be very different.

About 3D Games

3D games are designed and presented in a three-dimensional graphical environment. These games are like a real mini-world with depth. The 3D models in these games are created using 3D building software like Blender, Maya, Autodesk 3D Max, etc.

The complications faced during the development of 3D games are more than those of 2D games. But they are much more interesting to play if created properly. This challenging but interesting feature tempts beginner developers to choose 3D games over 2D games.

What Is the Target Platform for the Game?

After determining the type of game you want to create, you now need to determine the platform for the game. The available platforms for games are:

1. PC (Windows and Mac)
2. Android
3. iOS
4. Web
5. And others

For the learning process, you can choose any platform. But if you want to dedicate yourself to creating games for a single platform, then you need to choose it wisely. This decision affects engagement, limiting the games and the number of users on that platform.

So, if you want a lot of engagement with your product, choose a platform with many users. The obvious reasons for choosing the platform with a large user number are:

1. Maximum reach: The more people, the more downloads and plays.
2. Maximum revenue: The more downloads and plays, the more revenue generation.

What Is Your Budget?

Well, the most important part of the game development is budget. Whether you are a beginner or not, budgeting can limit your needs.

Most of the game engines available in the market are not free. Even if they are, they have limited features you can work with, and the important ones need to be unlocked with payment. Sometimes when a complete game engine is free along with its features, there may be a lack of guides and documentation to figure out how it works.

The tutorials, documents, videos, or other useful plugins in the game engine may be expensive and out of your budget. So when choosing your preferred game engine, plan your budget accordingly.

Considering all these points, you can now choose the game engine to start your first game development.

Game Engine: My Recommendations

Here are some recommendations for choosing the best game engine for your needs.

You need to choose a user-friendly, economic-friendly game engine that gives a better result. So considering these points, these are the game engines that I would recommend.

1. Unity

The best cross-platform game engine for beginners is Unity. It is user-friendly, with many references like documents and tutorial videos and is budget-friendly. You will get more than enough free resources and community to help you learn game development with Unity.

Unity has both free and paid features. Beginner game developers can start with free Unity. Over time after growing and getting used to its features, you can pay to use the pro features to master your game development skills. Unity uses c# script, which is easy to learn as well.

2. Godot

This is an open-source game engine with a user-friendly interface. It uses its own script, known as GDScript. GDscript is similar to Python. So if you have former experience with Python, you will have an easier time learning GDscript. It also provides a large resource to the users for learning and developing games with Godot.

3. Cocos2d-x

It is also an open-source game engine for 2D games. It uses C++ language for scripting and allows multi-platform support for game development.

4. Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is another user-friendly game engine famous in the game industry. It may be a little more difficult for beginners to learn than other game engines, but it provides various options for creating realistic 3D games. Many resources in the market, like 3D models, textures, etc., are available for beginners if they cannot create their own.

The things explained in this article are based on my findings and understanding. So I hope this will be helpful for those who are starting their career in game development. Go, game developers!

Thanks for reading! If you know about more game engines that are free to use, drop them in the comments below.