Compare the Top Free Game Development Software as of May 2025

What is Free Game Development Software?

Game development software refers to a suite of tools and applications used to create video games, ranging from simple 2D projects to complex 3D experiences. It typically includes game engines, graphic design programs, audio editing tools, and coding environments for scripting game mechanics. Many platforms, like Unity and Unreal Engine, provide built-in physics, animation, and AI features to streamline development. Some software, such as Godot or RPG Maker, caters to specific genres or audiences with simplified workflows. By integrating various assets and code, game development software enables creators to bring interactive worlds to life across multiple platforms. Compare and read user reviews of the best Free Game Development software currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    Blender

    Blender

    Blender Foundation

    Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline. Cycles is Blender’s built-in powerful unbiased path-tracer engine that offers stunning ultra-realistic rendering. Blender’s comprehensive array of modeling tools make creating, transforming and editing your models a breeze. VFX professionals say: “Probably the best tracker in the market”. Blender includes production ready camera and object tracking. Allowing you to import raw footage, track the footage, mask areas and see the camera movements live in your 3D scene. Eliminating the need to switch between programs. Thanks to the high quality rigging and animation tools, Blender is being used for numerous short films, advertisements, TV series and feature films now.
  • 2
    Roblox

    Roblox

    Roblox

    Roblox’s mission is to bring the world together through play. We enable anyone to imagine, create, and have fun with friends as they explore millions of immersive 3D experiences, all built by a global community of developers. Roblox is powered by a global community of over two million developers who produce their own immersive multiplayer experiences each month using Roblox Studio, our intuitive desktop design tool. Any experience imaginable can be created on Roblox. Roblox is ranked as one of the top online entertainment platforms for audiences under the age of 18 based on average monthly visits and time spent (Comscore). Our popularity is driven purely by the community with millions of people signing up through word of mouth every month. Be creative and show off your unique style! Customize your avatar with tons of hats, shirts, faces, gear, and more. With an ever-expanding catalog of items, there’s no limit to the looks you can create.
  • 3
    C++Builder

    C++Builder

    Embarcadero

    C++Builder is a fast, integrated design and development suite for modern apps. Are you ready to design the best UIs of your life? Our award winning VCL framework for Windows and FireMonkey (FMX) visual framework for cross-platform UIs provide you with the foundation for intuitive, beautiful user interfaces that wow on every platform: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Design your master UI layout once, then easily customize platform- and device-specific views without duplication of design effort. Drag-and-drop visual and non-visual components from the palette using our visual designer. Visually connect user interface elements to data sources using the LiveBindings Designer. Real-time design validation using Live On-Device Preview to broadcast the active form to multiple devices simultaneously. Add responsive design with resolution-aware components for desktop, tablets, and smartphones. Real, platform-specific native controls for an improved user experience.
  • 4
    Incredibuild

    Incredibuild

    Incredibuild

    Incredibuild is the leading platform for development acceleration. Our platform speeds up developer and CI builds with our distribution and caching technologies, cutting down wait times from hours and days to minutes. Most importantly, we do so without changing your code, tools, or processes, on prem or on the cloud. Incredibuild gives you better visibility into your builds, significant acceleration, and smarter build asset orchestration for 8-10x faster builds. 200,000 devs and managers at over 2,000 companies, including world-leading brands like Microsoft, Amazon, Citibank, Adobe, Disney, Intel, Samsung, EPIC Games, Nintendo, and many more rely on Incredibuild to turbocharge their development and continuously delight their customers.
    Starting Price: $0
  • 5
    Xsolla

    Xsolla

    Xsolla

    Xsolla is the video game ecommerce platform powered by Transaction Engine and Business Engine to help developers and publishers market, sell, connect and optimize their games globally. Serving only the video game industry, the Xsolla Transaction Engine and Business Engine work seamlessly together to solve the complexities of distribution, marketing and monetization so developers, publishers and platform partners can increase their audience, sales and revenue. Market, sell, connect, and optimize your game with one platform, powered by Xsolla Transaction Engine and Business Engine. Accessible solutions that combine our products, industry connections, and expertise to meet your company’s specific needs. Great games can emerge anywhere. We at Xsolla are here to ensure the best ideas get made, get seen, and get played. So we've built a suite of products that remove the barriers between creators and the support they need.
  • 6
    Zebedee

    Zebedee

    Zebedee

    From high-stakes esports tournaments to casual mobile games, our world is open to everyone. Bitcoin is programmable money. We make it a seamless part of the game experience. If you can scan a QR code, you can earn with Zebedee. Straightforward, instant, and available now. Play our games or play with our APIs. Either way, you'll soon discover why Bitcoin is transforming the world of gaming. Open a new acquisition channel and revenue stream in the quickly growing world of Bitcoin gaming. Gain an edge over your competition by offering cutting-edge Bitcoin Lightning services and a gateway into the exploding world of Bitcoin gaming. Play a single intense match with live Bitcoin transfers and earn a share of the prize pot based on your percentage of the total score. In survival mode, your sats are your life. When you score, you get an extra life. When you die, you lose some life. If you run out of seats, you get kicked from the match.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 7
    Nakama

    Nakama

    Heroic Labs

    Nakama is an open source game server framework developed by Heroic Labs, designed to facilitate the creation of real-time, multiplayer, and social games across various platforms, including Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, and more. It provides a comprehensive suite of features such as real-time multiplayer capabilities, customizable matchmaking algorithms, leaderboards, in-game chat, and support for in-game currencies. Developers can extend Nakama's functionality using server-side logic written in Go, TypeScript, or Lua, allowing for authoritative game mechanics and enhanced control over game state. The platform also offers open-source client libraries tailored for different game engines and languages, ensuring seamless integration and flexibility in game development. Nakama is your dedicated server, not another multi-tenant SaaS. Add custom features and secure authoritative gameplay logic directly to your game server.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 8
    raylib

    raylib

    raylib

    raylib is a simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy video game programming. It is a programming library to enjoy video game programming; no fancy interface, no visual helpers, no GUI tools or editors, just coding in a pure spartan-programmers way. raylib does not provide the typical API documentation or a big set of tutorials. The library is designed to be minimalistic and be learned just from a cheat sheet with all required functionality and a big collection of examples to see how to use that functionality. The best way to learn to code is by reading code. raylib supports multiple target platforms, it has been tested in the following ones but, technically, any platform that supports C language and OpenGL graphics (or similar) can run raylib or it can be very easily ported to. You can use raylib with multiple programming languages, there are over 60 bindings. raylib can be combined with several extra libraries for additional functionality.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 9
    GameplayKit
    GameplayKit is a collection of foundational tools and technologies for building games in iOS, OS X, and tvOS. Building, evolving, and maintaining a sophisticated game requires a well-planned design, GameplayKit provides architectural tools to help you design modular, scalable game architecture with minimal effort. Creating great games also requires deploying complex algorithms to solve the problems underlying common game mechanics, GameplayKit also provides standard implementations of such algorithms, allowing you to spend more time on the features that make your gameplay unique. Because GameplayKit is independent of high-level game engine technologies, you can combine it with any of those technologies to build a complete game, SpriteKit for 2D games, SceneKit for 3D games, or a custom or third-party game engine using Metal or OpenGL ES. For games with less demanding graphics needs, you can even use GameplayKit with UIKit (in iOS or tvOS) or AppKit (in OS X).
    Starting Price: Free
  • 10
    P4

    P4

    Perforce

    P4 (formerly Helix Core) is an enterprise-grade version control system designed to manage the complexities of modern software development. It allows teams to store, track, and manage all digital assets—ranging from source code to 3D models—with unprecedented scalability. P4 is ideal for large, distributed teams working on large-scale projects, offering powerful collaboration tools, seamless integrations, and advanced branching capabilities. With strong support for both centralized and distributed workflows, P4 enhances productivity and efficiency, making it a top choice for software, game, and hardware development teams.
  • 11
    Visual Studio

    Visual Studio

    Microsoft

    Full-featured IDE to code, debug, test, and deploy to any platform. Code faster. Work smarter. Create the future with the best-in-class IDE. Develop with the entire toolset from initial design to final deployment. Improved IntelliSense performance for C++ files. Local development with many common emulators. Simplified test access in Solution Explorer. Git management and repo creation in the IDE. Kubernetes support now included in Microsoft Azure workload. It doesn’t matter what type of app you are building, what language you program in, or what OS you’re on; with Live Share you can instantly share your project with your peers from the comfort of your own tools. No need to clone a repo or set up the environment, to get sharing.
    Starting Price: $45.00 per month
  • 12
    Wwise

    Wwise

    Audiokinetic

    Wwise is a cross-platform interactive audio middleware solution for software developers who need to integrate interactive audio into video games and other immersive audio projects. Wwise increases the productivity and creativity of the entire team, simplifies the work of programmers, and empowers audio teams to deliver superior immersive gaming and interactive audio experiences. Wwise offers real-time in-game preview capabilities and a rich set of functionalities, including sound authoring, dynamic mixing, 3D spatial audio, interactive music, and synthesis. Wwise integrates seamlessly with all major game development platforms, including Unreal Engine, Unity, Cryengine, and many others. Developers also have access to complete API and SDK toolkits. Over 1000 game and AR/VR titles are developed every year using Wwise, and with partnerships with the largest developers worldwide, 70% of the global AAA game market uses Wwise.
    Starting Price: Free for Indie developers
  • 13
    OpenGL

    OpenGL

    OpenGL

    OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit, to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering. Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) began developing OpenGL in 1991 and released it on June 30, 1992. It is used for a variety of applications, including computer-aided design (CAD), video games, scientific visualization, virtual reality, and flight simulation. The OpenGL Registry contains specifications of the core API and shading language; specifications of Khronos- and vendor-approved OpenGL extensions; header files corresponding to the specifications; and related documentation including specifications, extensions, and headers for the GLX, WGL, and GLU APIs.
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