🏅 Best Startup & Indie Dev Tools

AAA-grade game engine by Epic with Nanite, Lumen, and MetaHuman.

Free, open-source 2D and 3D game engine with GDScript and C# support.

Fast 2D game development tool — drag and drop or GML scripting.

Popular engine for creating 2D JRPGs with minimal coding required.

Browser-based 2D game creator with visual event-driven programming.

No-code open-source game engine for making 2D games quickly.

Open-source cross-platform game development framework for mobile and web.

Free, performant 2D/3D game engine popular for mobile game development.

Open-source 2D game framework using Lua for rapid game prototyping.

Python library for writing video games — great for learning and prototyping.

Fast, fun, open-source 2D HTML5 game framework for desktop and mobile.

Fast 2D WebGL renderer for creating interactive graphics and games.

Fun JavaScript game programming library with simple, expressive API.

Free, cross-platform framework for creating games in C# — successor to XNA.

Open-source 2D game engine built on Haxe for multi-platform game development.

Data-driven game engine built in Rust with an ECS architecture.

Feature-rich Rust game engine with scene editor and 2D/3D support.

Portable, lightweight, plugin-based 2D-oriented game engine written in C.

Creative expression library for Haxe — HTML5, native, and Flash targets.

Cross-platform library for 2D graphics, audio, and input for game dev.

Simple and fast multimedia library for 2D game development in C++.

Simple and easy-to-use C library to enjoy videogames programming.

Cross-platform library mainly used for writing games in C.

SDK for integrating Steam features — achievements, leaderboards, and DRM.

Microsoft game backend platform with LiveOps, analytics, and multiplayer.

Open-source social game server with multiplayer, leaderboards, and chat.

Open-source Kubernetes-based game server hosting and scaling.

Real-time multiplayer networking SDK used by thousands of games.

High-level networking library for Unity multiplayer game development.

Unity official multiplayer SDK with RPCs and NetworkVariable.