5 Best Game Application Development Programs 2022

Game Application Development GameMaker

Game developers use different programs to carry out the game application development process. For example, there is Unity and Unreal Engine which are often used by game developers.

This time, VCGamers will discuss five game application development programs that are often used by game developers. Not only for games, some of the programs below also have the ability to create applications or other software.

Also Read: List of Game Design Schools in South Carolina

List of Game Application Development Programs

The following is a list of game application development programs that are well known and have a reputation in the gaming industry so they can be the best programs.

Unity

Unity logo illustration
Unity logo illustration. Source: Medium/C. James

Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. Initially, this program was released in 2005 as the Max OS X game engine.

Since its release in 2005, Unity has developed and supports various game platforms such as mobile, console, desktop, to virtual reality.

This program is more popular for game development on iOS and Android platforms. Of course, when you play some Android or iOS games, you've seen the Unity logo while on the loading screen.

This happens because Unity is easy to implement for novice game developers. Unity is also more popular for game developers in the indie category.

Unity can be used to create various game development needs, from 3D and 2D aspects to interactive simulations.

Uniquely, Unity has been widely adopted for various purposes other than game development. For example, the film industry, automotive, engineering, construction, to the United States Armed Forces.

Games that use the Unity program are Pokemon Go, Call of Duty: Mobile, Beat Saber, Cuphead, to Monument Valley.

Also Read: The 4 Best Game Design Programming Languages 

Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine Game Application Development
Unreal Engine Game Development Examples. Source: YouTube/Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine or UE is a 3D game development program developed by Epic Games. This program is older than Unity because it was first proposed in 1998 through an FPS game called Unreal.

Originally, the Unreal Engine was developed to create FPS games on PC. However, the Unreal Engine has evolved and currently supports a wide variety of game categories and genres.

Not only that, the Unreal Engine has also been adopted in various industries other than video games such as the film and television industries.

This program uses the C++ programming language and has very useful features for game developers, namely having high portability, supporting various platforms such as mobile, console, desktop, to virtual reality.

Unreal Engine has now released the latest version, namely Unreal Engine 5 in April 2022. You can get the source code for the program on GitHub after registering an account. For commercial needs, Unreal Engine 5 has a royalty system.

Various popular games have been proven to use Unreal Engine 5 as the game development program. For example, of course you've heard of a game called Fortnite, Lyra, and Layers of Fear.

Godot: Game Application Development

Example of Godot Game Application Development
Example of Godot Game Application Development. Source: GitHub

Godot is a free, cross-platform and open-source game engine released under the MIT license. This game development program runs on various Operating Systems (OS) such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, BSDs, to Linux.

You can use this program to create 2D and 3D games on various platforms such as PC, mobile, to webgames. Apart from developing games, Godot can also be used for other software such as editors.

Various games have used Godot as a game engine, such as Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Dog Mendonca & Pizza Boy. Uniquely, Godot is also used for the curriculum at West Virginia High School.

Also Read: 5 Degrees in Video Game Design, Check These Out!

Kivy

Kivy Game Application Development
Kivy Game Application Development. Source: kivy.org

The next free and open source game developer program or framework is Kivy. Kivy is useful for developing mobile game applications and other multitouch applications with a natural user interface or NUI.

This framework is distributed under the MIT license and you can use it on various platforms and Operating Systems (OS) such as iOS, Android, maxOS, Windows, to Linux. Kivy uses the Python programming language.

According to the official page Kivy on Github, there are lots of games and software that use this framework. For example, there is a Play Store game called Ant Pop, CoinTex, Gravity Ride, to a popular game called 2048 on the App Store.

Also Read: 5 Best Online Game Design Schools

GameMaker

GameMaker
Game Application Development GameMaker. Source: Steam

The last game application development program that you can use is GameMaker. GameMaker is a game application development program released in 1999 by Mark Overmars and developed by YoYo Games from 2007.

GameMaker accommodates a variety of cross-platform game creation using a unique programming language called Game Maker Language.

This programming language supports visual drag-and-drop programming so it has an advantage in developing games with higher complexity.

Many popular games have been made by GameMaker. According to whatNerd, GameMaker has been used to make very famous games such as Risk of Rain (2013), Hotline Miami (2012), to Undertale (2015).

Thus the discussion regarding the game development program, I hope this is useful!

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