Hi there, first things first, let me tell you my experience:

I Learned C# during high school, I also used Java (around 4-5 years ago) to create simple android apps.

Learned C , a little bit of python and some advanced C++ during few courses in college.

What this means is that I have good/sufficient experience in programming.

I'm a solo developer who is looking for an actually free game engine/framework to develop 2d android games, my purpose of developing games comes mainly as a hobby for spare time as well as make some (even if symbolic) money out of it. (I don't intend to make this a primary source of income, It's mainly a hobby but I'm also planning to publish my games in play store for some kind of additional income)

I have searched for free 2d game engines and considered the following: LibGDX, CoronaSDK/Solar2d, defold, cocos creator, cocos2dx and godot (please do inform me if you think I missed some options).

Here are somethings to consider when recommending something:

1) Please don't mention any of the popular commercial engines such as Unity,Unreal or Gamemaker for the following reasons:

* As mentioned before I'm seeking ACTUALLY free engines/frameworks like the mit or zlib licenses for instance (I'm not even seeking effectively free engines only ACTUALLY free)

* They get mentioned in every thread/post on any site I come across online (so I already heard/read about them alot)

2) I prefer code based engine that allows you to program game logic in text format as opposed to graphical/visual programming of any sort (blueprint, drag and drop, flowchart etc) , even though it's not necessary but it's still preferable.

3) Scene/Level editor is not required (I can do with or without)

4) Language is irrelevant (for instance I'm opened minded for suggestions of a game engine that uses lets say, Javascript or lua even though I have little to no experience with these particular languages), meaning I have no problem learning a new language.

5) There is decent amount of documentation and/or tutorials, as well as the engine/framework being active (community and maintenance)

6) I'm mainly looking to develop 2d games but I don't mind the engine having a 3d component

Which engine/framework do you recommend? (It can be from my list or an engine/framework that I didn't mention but still meets my demands)

Any help is appreciated.

For my current project I use Phaser - a simple JavaScript framework that should be easy to wrap to make it an Android game. It's simple but good for 2D stuff.

If you like to get your hands dirty with code, you could also try Allegro: C/C++, completely free, community is small but still active. It's really low level though, the engine provides just the basics for graphics, sound and input.

bgfx is popular - it has 8.5k stars and 1.3k forks. Scroll down the github page to see what games was made by it. But the official documentation has only an instruction how to build it using Visual Studio and I cannot find how to build it using MinGW. It does not have CMakeList to build it using CMake GUI.

amarillion said:
If you like to get your hands dirty with code, you could also try Allegro: C/C++, completely free, community is small but still active. It's really low level though, the engine provides just the basics for graphics, sound and input.

It is like SDL2, isn't it?

One of the bets tutorial about SDL2: https://lazyfoo.net/tutorials/SDL/index.php​ At the and it has lessons how to build your games for Android and iOS.

8Observer8 said:

amarillion said:
If you like to get your hands dirty with code, you could also try Allegro: C/C++, completely free, community is small but still active. It's really low level though, the engine provides just the basics for graphics, sound and input.

It is like SDL2, isn't it?

Yep, it's like SDL2's lesser known cousin ?

https://github.com/xamarin/urho​

I used it for my engine project but I couldn't get complete control of the graphics. It is made for making games both 3D and 2D. Has a lot of features you may want to use and it is open source MIT.

@noprdpogasltvazdmf ← how do you remember your login name ? -lol-

Indie game dev, Thomas Gervraud has updated his 2020 2D-best list;

*WARNING* this list contains Unity, Unreal and some costly options, not all are MIT free, but have a poke:

https://thomasgervraud.com/best-2d-game-engine/​

Enjoy ?

Archwind said:
https://github.com/xamarin/urho​ I used it for my engine project but I couldn't get complete control of the graphics.

I see that Xamarin Urho was not updated for 2 years.

I can't help but suggest to you my very own nCine, it is cross-platform and it does support Android.

1. It is open source and released on GitHub under the MIT license.
2. It's definitely a code based framework. ?
3. It has no editors but it is integrated with ImGui and lets you create your own tools. I have made a particle editor and an animation editor with it.
4. You can program your games with C++11 or with Lua scripts.
5. The engine is in active development since June 2011. You can interact with the community on the Discord server.
6. It's a 2d game framework.