GamedevOnLinux

New Year, New Engine, the old style of blogging. Traktor is a tool for hardworking people in my country. But in this case, as the maintainers say, they are looking more for optimizing and polishing rather than building another sandbox. It is small, ready for 3D, and open for customization. It has Lua scripting language and editor, and the license is MPL. Official platforms are Linux and Windows with unofficial support for iOS and Android. The problem is that it does not have documentation. But it has only 1.5 years of development and is still in Alpha, no one is perfect in their side projects. Links Website:  Github Community:  Discord  |  how to  build an engine on Linux

Another retro engine, but this time limited to one platform and not the genre. It was created for making roms for first Nintendo handheld. Due to block programming it is easy to make games. Due to possible export in from for the device so it can be run on it. But due to enhancements the limits were removed and users can made bigger games than 32K. In the end it is nice engine for everyone which gave ability to made games for handheld. Due to nature of the engine it has predefined genre of games, but they can be connected in one. So nothing can stop you from making your own zelda/pokemon/castlevania gae in one. Links Website:  GD Studio Download:  Latest - itch.io  |  Old releases Community:  Reddit  |  GitHub  |  Documentation

RPG Maker in open source version. Thanks. Solarus was created with the idea of open-source engines for homebrew Zelda games and thanks to this it has its own niche. If someone looks for the small easy, portable engine that helps to recreate action-adventure games from the NES era on steroids that's it. Solarus is great for this and more. No one says that it is limited only to that type of game. Due to easy Lua scripting language development is easy for most people. The portability is good enough, the engine easily reads the quest pack created in the editor but it needs to change thinking for gamers, like in most open-source engines. It lets you publish even on Nintendo, but first, it is needed to have an NDA signed with a developer license. The engine is really nice and worth trying. Links Website:  Solarus Download:  Engine and editor Community:  Documentation  |  Forum  |  Discord  |  GitLab  |  Reddit

The editor is based on hype for programming for everyone - lowCode/scratch. It looks nice if you want to learn something or build a prototype on the go like in a bus/taxi on your phone and then test quickly. I have a problem with looking for proper documentation, maybe after creating an account, there will be a proper one. But in the end, it looks like a good engine for starters Links Website: www.modd.io Community:  Developers Blog  |  Forums  |  Documentation  |  Discord

The framework was created for making mobile games. It uses Lua as a scripting language over the C++ engine. Which guarantees that the end app will be efficient enough on most devices. Links Website:  gideros.rocks Download:  Version Community:  Forum  |  GitHub  | 

Small engine for 2D games It is designed with 2D and web in mind. Using Haxe language helps with achieving this goal. Due to no code/block programming, it will be nice for people who start their way with Gamedev. Because it is commercial software it has three plans: 1. Free which lets deploy games for the web 2. Indie plan adds desktop 3. Studio lets you deeply on mobile oses. It looks nice as an alternative to Gamemaker Engine, with pros of the no-code programming and smaller community. Links Website:  Stencyl Download:  Multiplatform download  |  Instruction for installing Community:  Forums  |  Discord  |  Updated documentaction

Probably the last engine, from first three popular engines for indie developers - UE, Unreal. It is nice multipurpose 3D engine, and it can be used in Simulation and Cad projects. The product is organised in scenes and nodes so it could be similar like in Godot. It has few scripting possibilities C++ for best performance, C# for optimisation and their own UnigineScript which is good. They make their own shader language s it is easier when porting to various platforms. At this moment you can only export projects to windows and linux, there is work for current generation of consoles, and the mobile will be in some future. The community version is made for indie developers. The free version is for peoples that made under 100k $ in sales/funding, but if you need more information there is email to their sales group - licensing@unigine.com Links Website:  Unigine Download:  Download  - you need to register ad developer site. Community:  Docs  |  Forum  |...

Another project for those who like 3D especially Blender, Armory3D is build arund it by independent developer. It has Haxe as scripting language and nodes so it should be good Unreal alternative. Due to be build with blender integration it can be used as additional showcase for the engine and it's main features. Links Website:  Armory3D Download:  Download Community:  Github  |  Forum  |  Discord  |  Manual  |  API

So it was one of engines which was develop to help bringing Disney games to the world. It is made for 3D developing but due to its nature connected with python language as scripting it is possible to made games easier. So it is another less known engine but still has many strengths.  Which could be good for enter into the world due to hype for AI and easy learn the scripting due to python language. Links Website:  Panda3D Download:  Download  you need to choose version and the go to other downloads to find the linux builds Community:  Documentation  |  Github  |  Forum  |  Discord

The engine which is a synonym for Visual Novel in FOSS world. It was made for it in 2005 and still rocks in their genre. It is made with python. Now like in Godot there is two version one for older projects with only bug fixes and new version 8. Because it is made for VN, and only for this, it is easier for artist and script writers to make games in it. On their forums you can find tutorials for writing and how to make everything from idea to deployment the game. Links Website:  RenPy Download:  8.x  |  7.x Community:  Documentation  |  Forum  |  Discord  |  Github

Personally, it was my first attempt to make game, because in high school I learned pascal on the IT lessons. What do we have here is engine which connects the old, very simple and friendly, language (Pascal) with never version of programming paradigm - Objective Pascal - and it is optimized so you no longer need to add the Assembler to make it quicker. In other words if you want to feel like guys who made games in last decade of the XX centaury but there is small fear of complex from C and C++ you can use this engine. I see that it evolve through years and you can work not only on 2D games but 3D too. And on PineTab/Raspberry PI so it is nice to learn main things from the programming and practicing it. The small con for the engine is the script editor is needed to use due to lack inside of the engine. Links Website:  Castle Engine Download:  Engine Community:  Manual  |  Developers Blog  |  Forum  |  Reddit

The engine which make the indie gamedev on another level of popularity. Low entry, 2D and 3D capabilities, popular scripting with C#, many types of exports to other platforms, even Nintendo started with them to say hello for indie devs on 3DS.  From the other side problem with licensing and with linux runtime. It is true that it will be easier to make build for windows and use proton or wine to run than native varsion. But the company behind are trying to make it easier. Even after last problems with runtime and licensing fee which made big exodus of users that ship is still on the water. It is solid engine, nothing less nothing more. But with another year some people could think that it is easier to develop on windows version than native. Links Website:  Unity Download:  Linux Hub download Community:  Blog  |  Forum  

One of the new players on the market. It is CryEngine which was rewritten in open source and free way when it was under the name Lumberjack from Amazon studios. Now it is baked by many tech companies, there is easier way to integrate with AWS which could be nice if someone think not only the gamedev projects in the cloud. So because, it is based on CryEngine, this engine like unreal could be really nice if someone think more about graphics side of the game. Due to scripting language like Lua and their own visual script it can be really good alternative for Unreal Engine. The only problem for me is the license, and how it will comply with the AWS cloud. Of course main engine is on the Apache and some parts are in MIT, there are information about other license for some components. Links Website:  o3de Download:  Main  |  Binaries  |  Snap Community:  Documentation  |  Forums/github |  Discord

Now with version 4, it is the most complete and universal engine in the world of FOSS. It is small, efficient, and has a helpful community. There are two versions of the engine which are currently supported. Now there is the 4th generation, which has been redesigned in many ways, with Vulkan as the main graphics backend, and the gdScript which was redesigned, faster and more reliable than before. The 3rd series, which is the old version, is now mainly in maintenance mode. God for older computers with integrated graphics but it will get too many new features like the 4.x. Some people say that there is a lack of documentation, but it was true at the beginning of the project. Now the problem does not exist. The cons, sometimes due to new features there is the possibility, that the project will break with the new version of the engine and there will be no possibility of reversing. But in the end, it is possible to stick with one version for longer. Links Website:  Godot Download: ...