I’m getting into game development (mainly mobile & indie games) and I’m trying to choose a game engine.
Between engines like Godot, Unity, Unreal, LibGDX, etc:
Which one would you recommend today?
And why?
I’m mostly interested in 2D / 2.5D, good performance, and a smooth learning curve.
Thanks! 🙏
Top comments (21)
Godot. It's Free software, and there's no good reason to learn or use proprietary nonsense in 2026 unless you're forced to as part of your job. You mention you're getting into indie games, and this is for your own development purposes, so it's way out in the lead as far as I'm concerned.
It's straightforward to learn compared to Unity / Unreal, and has amazing documentation. The web is full of friendly tutorials.
Yeah, Thank you!
I posted Godot 4 in Practice this morning, Mohamed - might give you even more reasons to consider Godot Engine. Ben does make some truly excellent points already though!
Thank you
Have a look at those: giftakis.gr/misc/game-engines
Depending on what goal you want to achieve and how much time you have you can choose.
I would say Godot would be a safe bet for starters but it's quite an established engine. The good thing is that you can harness the power of A.I. with it in order to generate code and paste it there.
Very helpful!! Thank you!
Have also a look at some demo videos I have on YT on some of those game engines. Choose auto-generated translations as I have the content in greek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS-bbV76_LY&list=PLRyzgdhYTYTm_PvrfvsDCYm7B2WAB-YPG
Hop you find it useful
Alright
Thank you
My wote is no game engine game development, but my second vote is godot because that is a free game engine and you will get a much few problem when reach you game publication phase.
How can I not use a game engine? Do you mean you should program it from scratch in C++ or something like that?
Can you write game near any language. For example I created a JS game the details is: dev.to/pengeszikra/javascript-grea... but if you have a time a courage then you can even coding game with Rust. But if you would like to focus on game assets, gameplay then a real game engine is a big help.
Thank you! Very helpful
I think Godot is the best engine if you want to make a game YOURSELF, WITHOUT AI. If you want to use AI, you'll run into huge problems, which I've encountered more than once. When using AI, it's better to choose a simple programming language and library, such as Python and panda3d, if you have any programming experience at all. If not, then by all means use Godot.
Thank you :)
For what you’re describing—2D/2.5D focus, good performance, and an easy ramp-up—I’d point you toward Godot 🕹️✨. It’s lightweight, super approachable for beginners, has a friendly community, and shines for 2D workflows without unnecessary complexity. Great choice for mobile and indie games! 🙌🚀
Thanks 🙏
Thnx
thanks!
I pick engines the same way users pick apps. The one that makes progress feel easy.
Also, tools that remember your last setup are great… until they remember the wrong thing and you can’t reset.
Which engine makes it easiest to start fresh when you mess up your settings/project?
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