Mobile Game Development Tools For 2D Mobile Games
Creating a simple game should not prove difficult if you make use of the appropriate mobile game development programmes. We’ll now discuss two of the most often used ones that will allow you to create a game without having to programme.
GameSalad
GameSalad is a ‘drag and drop’ mobile game development tool. This makes it one of the easiest to use if you don’t have programming skills.
- Advantage: it’s easy to use and comes along with a template marketplace.
- Drawback: it’s limited if you are aiming at creating a complex game.
- Price: free trial, $17 (approx. £14) per month thereafter.
Another point in favour is that GameSalad allows you to publish and share your on-line game in several platforms and stores: iOS, Android, Html5, etc.
You can search their template marketplace to save time and avoid having to start from scratch. Choose a template, then customise it and your game will be ready for release sooner than you had imagined.
Stencyl
The Stencyl Game designer pays tribute to MIT’s Scratch project. With its tile system and hierarchical classification of each element, you can create all kinds of 2D games simply by dragging tiles and assigning properties without having to know a single thing about code programming.
- Advantage: it allows you to create blocks and write your own classes.
- Drawback: it has fewer templates and tutorials than other programmes.
- Price: free version for publishing on the web. However, you will need the Studio version that costs $199 per year (approx. £160) if you want to also publish on iOS, Android and desktop.
Also, if you have some knowledge on the matter, you can also create and share your own blocks, import libraries and write your own custom classes, which will interact perfectly with block-based behaviours.
GDevelop
GDevelop is another mobile game development tool that requires no prior game development knowledge.
- Advantage: open-source platform, allowing you great customization.
- Drawback: since it’s not one of the most commonly used platforms, there’s not much documentation available and it may be difficult to get answers in the forums devoted to it.
- Price: free on-line version and download.
This open-source platform will allow you to develop any kind of game: puzzles, shooters, platforms, 8-bits… All kinds of projects go well with this application to develop games − from small projects that are just for fun to more complex ones.
GDevelop is based on events, which are used to activate the game’s actions without having to learn any programming language.
GameMaker Studio
The success of GameMaker Studio comes as a result of having eliminated entry barriers to users lacking programming knowledge. Its system is based on events and on game elements that you will be able to customize by simple ‘drag and drop’ actions.
- Advantage: it’s a simple tool to develop games for any platform, as you will be able to run it natively.
- Drawback: you will need to know some code programming if you’re after more advanced customization.
- Price: Starting at $39 (approx. £31) per year.
With GameMaker, you can have a game that runs on Android and on any other platform without having to enter a single line of code to enable this.
Unity
Unity is a real-time 3D mobile game development platform that provides you with everything you need to create and monetize your online games. It’s one of the most widely-used development environments nowadays and its use goes beyond games: it’s also used in areas such as movies and animation, architecture, or engineering, amongst others.
- Advantage: a very complete professional tool that includes plenty of learning resources.
- Drawback: it entails a more complex development, with limitations to access the source code.
- Price: free for projects collecting less than $100,000 (approx. £80,000) per year.
Despite all its power and capabilities, Unity is free for beginners as long as their projects collect under $100,000 per year. The downside is that it comes without any kind of customer service or training.
