Game Coding Apps for PC: 5 Best to Practice your Skills

Unity

Unity started off as a 3D engine but it also supports 2D. As a word of warning, you may sometimes encounter some minor issues when creating 2D games.

After all, Unity’s 2D system is built upon a 3D core system. This also means that Unity adds a lot of unnecessary bloat to 2D games and that can affect performance.

Unity doesn’t have a component-entity design but has played an important role in popularizing it. This platform offers you the possibility to treat everything in the game as an editable object.

Being able to attach various components to each object is crucial. This feature allows you to control the object’s behavior and logic for optimum results.

To get the most out of Unity you need to use C# programming language. The good news is that you can quickly get the hang of this tool even if you haven’t used it before.

There are literally thousands of tutorials available on YouTube and on Unity’s official website for you to watch and learn.

With Unity it is very easy to publish your creations using one of the supported export formats that are compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, etc.

With this program, you can create games for VR systems like Oculus Rift and Steam VR as well as gaming consoles.

Unity Asset Store gives you the possibility to download and use various pre-made features in your game. You can easily add 3D models, HUD graphics, environmental textures, dialog systems, etc.

Other key features of Unity include:

• Support for mobile game creation
• Small Instant Game support via Project Tiny
• Kinematica character animation system

Unity has a free, personal use version which comes with certain limitations. You can also get various subscription plans based on the scale of your project.

Unity

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GameMaker Studio

GameMaker is a rewritten version of Game Maker: Studio that came out in 1999. Today it has become one of the most popular and active free game development engines available on the market.

The company also releases new feature updates at regular intervals. It is a great piece of software that allows you to create entire games using either its drag-and-drop interface or by coding.

This software gives you a lot of power by using its flexible Game Maker Language which looks similar to C++.

This application supports a lot of quality-of-life features such as the ability to add in-app purchases to your game, real-time analytics, source control, multiplayer networking.

GameMaker2 has built-in editors for images, animations, and shades. You can also extend GameMaker2 capabilities by using third-party extensions.

GameMaker Studio’s key features include:

• Drag & drop actions – loops, switch data structures, buffers, ini files, etc.
• Optimized GUI
• Sprite Editor
• Toolset – Magic Wand tool, Arc tool, etc
• Layer system
• Split-screen editing
• Redesigned GMS2 workplaces

⇒ Get GameMaker Studio

Godot Engine

Godot is another great option for your game programming needs. This engine supports the creation of both 2D and 3D games.

Unlike Unity, Godot’s support for 2D processing is far better because it was carefully designed from the start. That allows for greater performance, fewer bugs, and a cleaner overall experience.

Godot’s way of approaching game architecture is unique in that everything is divided in scenes. A scene is a collection of elements like sprites, sounds and scripts.

You can use this feature to combine multiple scenes into a bigger scene and then you can combine those scenes into an even bigger one.

This hierarchical design makes it easy to stay organized and modify specific elements with ease.

This software uses a drag-and-drop system for keeping tabs on elements, but each of these elements can be extended by using the built-in scripting system which uses a Python-line language called GDScript.

Godot is a great option for beginners in game design because it’s programming language is easy to use even without any coding experience.

Much like Unity, Godot Engine can deploy to multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, HTML5, etc.

Godot’s key features include:

• Fast speeds of processing
• New updates every year
• Physics
• Post-processing
• Various built-in editors
• Live debugging
• Source control

⇒ Get Godot Engine

Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is developed by the gaming industry masters and it is the most professional game programming engine from this list.

This platform is very efficient because it was designed specifically to allow you to iterate and develop as quickly as possible. The engine is filled with features and customization.

You can use it without any coding experience being required because of its Blueprint system which lets you create game logic without coding. This allows everyone to be able to work with it.

This feature can be used to create entire games, even complex ones without opening a source editor but if you want to go in-depth you can code your own Blueprints with ease.

The UE YouTube channel has a wide range of videos (20 to 60 minutes long) that take you through all the features of this engine and teaches you how to use it.

Unreal Engine has been used to make some of the best and most popular triple A games out there in these past years. Thanks to its capabilities, it is the go-to choice for many developers.

Moreover, the engine is capable of hyper realistic graphics and physics which will create eye-catching visuals for any game if used properly.

Unreal Engine’s key features include:

• Debugging
• Hot reloading
• Streamlined asset pipeline
• Instant game previews
• Artificial intelligence
• Cinematic tools
• Post-processing effects

⇒ Get Unreal Engine