Compare the Top Free Game Development Software as of April 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
    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.
  • 2
    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.
  • 3
    PubNub

    PubNub

    PubNub

    Innovate with Realtime Features: We take care of realtime communication infrastructure so you can focus on your app. Our Platform for Realtime Communication: A platform to build and operate real-time interactivity for web, mobile, AI/ML, IoT, and Edge computing applications Faster & Easier Deployments: SDK support for 50+ mobile, web, server, and IoT environments (PubNub and community supported) and more than 65 pre-built integrations with external and third-party APIs to give developers the features they need regardless of programming language or tech stack. Scalability: The industry’s most scalable platform capable of supporting millions of concurrent users and allows for rapid growth with low latency, high uptime, and without financial penalties. Security & Compliance: Enterprise-grade security and compliance with the most stringent regulations worldwide, including GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and CCPA.
    Starting Price: $0
  • 4
    articy:draft
    Interactive stories are complex by nature. articy:draft 3 is helping hundreds of game writers, narrative designers and other interactive storytellers to keep track of all their storylines and manage their narrative content in a visual way. Write branching dialogue with ease, reference characters and items in text to keep all your context at hand, create templates to adapt the information to your story world, add global variables, script your story logic and test it right inside articy:draft in a visual way, before you write a single piece of code. When done, the helpful exports to Unity, Unreal or JSON will help you get all your content into the engine of your choice. Download the FREE Standalone version and start exploring all your interactive story ideas right away.
    Starting Price: €5.99 Single User per month
  • 5
    devtodev

    devtodev

    devtodev

    devtodev is an ultimate product analytics platform for data-driven teams to get valuable insights and influence user decisions. With devtodev you can convert users into paying users, improve in-app economics, predict churn, revenue and customer lifetime value, as well as analyze and influence user behavior.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 6
    Assembla
    Assembla is the most secure software development platform in the world. Get started in less than a minute, on-prem or in the cloud. Assembla SECUREGIT provides a fully supported and economical solution, on the infrastructure of your choice. Meet compliance requirements with the confidence that your data is protected. Assembla is your trusted partner on your journey to “what’s next.” Developers are not security engineers – they build code. And their code is typically 90% open source. Securing all that open source codes requires automation. Assembla SecureGit scans for secret key credentials and vulnerable component dependencies automatically, as developers commit code. Our operational playbook includes a bottom-up evaluation of the risks to security, risk mitigation techniques, and ongoing areas of investment to further reduce risks. Assembla is fully committed to GDPR with data centers in the EU.
    Starting Price: $7.50 per month
  • 7
    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.
  • 8
    PlayFab

    PlayFab

    Microsoft

    The game industry's most powerful backend platform. Sign up for a developer account and explore all the ways you can control your game with Azure PlayFab's easy-to-use web interface. Ready to start integrating your game? Pick your SDK, fill in your credentials, and you're off and running! Everything you need to build and operate a live game. Meet players where they are and connect them with friends on any platform. Dynamically scale dedicated multiplayer servers. Keep players coming back for more. Gain immediate insight into game performance and potential issues. Import, store, process and export data generated by your games. Comply with GDPR, COPPA and other government regulations. Process payments, manage virtual currency, sell catalog items and guard against fraud. Help players build relationships and communities. Configure custom operations and react to events in real-time. Set up your virtual economy, add leaderboards or craft the perfect matchmaking logic.
    Starting Price: $99 per month
  • 9
    GamerGraph

    GamerGraph

    GamerGraph

    Instant, real-time reports and analytics for features, player behavior, game performance, and monetization. Fully scalable cloud platform that adheres to security and compliance frameworks. You don't need to build, configure, or manage a backend. Always-on access to game data through visual heatmaps and dashboards that identify activity and behavior trends. Pre-built social modules you can use to rapidly increase engagement across more players and improve game marketability. No need to configure or manage servers or integrations. Simply connect your game to the GamerGraph cloud platform, and in less than 2 minutes, you’ll have real-time access to comprehensive player and game analytics. Connect your game to GamerGraph using an Unreal blueprint, Unity Prefab, or a few lines of your own code. As soon as the game is played, your dashboard is immediately populated with data in simple, easy-to-read graphs that function in real-time.
    Starting Price: $99 per month
  • 10
    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
  • 11
    Inworld

    Inworld

    Inworld

    The developer platform for AI characters. Get a fully integrated platform for AI characters that goes beyond large language models (LLMs), and adds configurable safety, knowledge, memory, narrative controls, multimodality, and more. Craft characters with distinct personalities and contextual awareness that stay in-world or on brand. Seamlessly integrate into real-time applications, with optimization for scale and performance built-in. Optimized for real-time experiences, Inworld offers low-latency interactions that scale with your application. Orchestrating across LLMs allows us to deliver high-quality interactions with faster inference and lower costs. Every interaction has a context and models need to be aware of yours. Add custom knowledge, content and safety guardrails, and narrative controls to keep your AI in character, in-world, or on brand. Put personality at the center of your AI. Our multimodal AI mimics the full range of human expression.
    Starting Price: $20 per month
  • 12
    Texture Lab

    Texture Lab

    Texture Lab

    Create unique seamless textures from any text. Ready to use, free textures, generated with TextureLab, try variations on them! Instant textures for your next game.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 13
    Convai

    Convai

    Convai

    Easy-to-use interface to create your characters' intelligence, and plugins to connect them to your character assets and worlds. Convai addresses the problem of information that occurs with large language models by adding a knowledge base for characters, which can help ensure accurate responses to user queries. Your characters can perceive the various objects and entities in the scene and execute actions based on your commands and requests or their own motivation. Create AI tutors in XR that can teach any subject with reliable expertise for K12 and universities. Enable AI-guided training applications in various domains such as healthcare, legal, manufacturing, eCommerce, etc.
    Starting Price: $6 per month
  • 14
    Beamable

    Beamable

    Beamable

    That's all that's needed to get the ability to build your own custom server logic via microservices along with a world of LiveOps tools and live services to build games in unity and unreal that players love. The first marketplace of live services solutions for games, plug-ins for monetization, generative AI, blockchain, and more. Built around a common data fabric that lets you snap together components that extend your game — without the headaches. Deliver state-of-the-art live services to all of your game teams. The entire Beamable live services stack can be deployed on-prem or in your own cloud environment, providing the ultimate in security, control, and flexibility. Starting building cloud-native live services for your game today. One line of code unlocks systems like persistent worlds, customized servers, social systems, and managed inventory — with no backend servers to configure or install.
    Starting Price: $10 per 1 million API calls
  • 15
    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
  • 16
    AppWarp

    AppWarp

    ShepHertz Technologies

    AppWarp is a powerful real-time multiplayer game development framework that enables seamless integration of interactive online gameplay across multiple platforms. Supporting over 18 SDKs, including iOS, Android, Unity3D, and Cocos2Dx, it allows developers to create engaging real-time and turn-based multiplayer experiences effortlessly. AppWarp offers essential features like matchmaking, connection stability, and cross-platform functionality, ensuring smooth gameplay interactions. Developers can leverage its intuitive client-side tools to manage virtual rooms, lobbies, and communication using a custom binary protocol. For those needing more control, AppWarp S2 provides an on-premise server solution, allowing developers to host their own authoritative game servers with advanced customization options such as server-side authentication and game logic.
    Starting Price: $100 per month
  • 17
    PlayerIO

    PlayerIO

    PlayerIO

    PlayerIO provides a robust suite of tools and services tailored for developers of online games, allowing them to focus on creating engaging experiences without worrying about backend complexities. The platform includes powerful features like a cloud-based database for scalable data storage, a file storage system for asset management, and comprehensive hosting solutions. It also supports multiplayer game functionalities and offers extensive analytics, virtual economy systems, and easy integration with multiple payment gateways, positioning itself as a one-stop solution for game development needs.
    Starting Price: $24.95 per month
  • 18
    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
  • 19
    GameBench

    GameBench

    GameBench

    Between our Android app, cross-platform Desktop app, and a CLI option for automation - performance testing has never been more accessible. Every time your game is launched Studio SDK records in the background, providing alerts only when you need them. Plug and play to measure the performance of any application, with zero code changes required. WIndows and Android are available now; ChromeBook alpha available now, beta Q3 2022, iOS alpha Q1 2023. Game performance benchmarking for ISPs, mobile operators, device manufacturers and OEMs. 5G, 4G and fixed wireless performance testing and platform comparisons for cloud gaming. Latency diagnosis and optimization for platform-ISP cloud gaming partnerships. Assessment and feasibility for new subscriber offerings in gaming and streaming media. Game performance benchmarking for game developers and publishers. Bespoke testing and monitoring services.
  • 20
    Ready Player Me
    Ready Player Me is a cross-game avatar platform for the metaverse. It lets you create a 3D avatar with a selfie and use it in 600+ compatible apps and games. You can explore virtual worlds in VRChat, join meetings in MeetinVR, or stream to your fans using LIV – all with your personal avatar that represents you in virtual worlds. Any developer can integrate Ready Player Me into their apps and games using our free avatar SDK. It's compatible with Unity and Unreal Engine and works great on the web, mobile, and desktop platforms.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 21
    Ludo.ai

    Ludo.ai

    Ludo.ai

    With the power of AI, Ludo.ai identifies and surfaces trends and patterns on te market, making it easier than ever to choose themes and content for your next hit game. Ludo.ai uses data-driven insights to help you stay on top of the market and invest in truly promising concepts, making our AI the perfect partner to enhance your ideation process. Unlock endless AI-generated ideas to fuel your creativity. Quickly generate new game concepts, elements, mechanics, and more to overcome creative stagnancy and redundancy. Game & image search, stats, top charts, image generation, and more – all consolidated in one destination for a truly efficient start to your game development journey. Ludo.ai aggregates games by topics and lets you know what’s trending. No more digging through top chart lists.
    Starting Price: $15 per month
  • 22
    Stencyl

    Stencyl

    Stencyl

    Stencyl isn't your average game creation software; it's a gorgeous, intuitive toolset that accelerates your workflow and then gets out of the way. We take care of the essentials, so you can focus on what's important - making your game yours. The best Stencyl games have reached top slots in the App Store and Google Play while being featured under the "Best New Game" section under their respective stores. Our best web games have been sponsored by major publishers such as ArmorGames, Kongregate and Newgrounds. Our drag-and-drop gameplay designer pays homage to the successful MIT Scratch project. We extend Scratch's simple block-snapping interface with new functionality and hundreds of ready-to-use block, Power users can create and share their own blocks, extend the engine through code, import libraries and write their own custom classes that interact seamlessly with block-based Behaviors.
    Starting Price: $99 per year
  • 23
    Playtester

    Playtester

    Playtester

    Playtester is a free platform that helps gamers discover and join alphas, betas, and playtests for upcoming games across Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and more. Built by a solo designer/developer, it offers a clean, ad-free experience for players and an easy way for indie developers to get valuable feedback. Since launching three months ago, Playtester has featured 600+ games, welcomed 40,000+ visitors, and introduced features like Direct Install for Steam demos and an Android app (iOS coming soon). Whether you’re a gamer looking for early access games or a developer seeking testers, Playtester makes it simple to connect and play what’s next.
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