Last Updated on February 26, 2018
Developers who want to accelerate game development benefit enormously from tools known as game engines. This type of software application helps games to be coded efficiently and easily without compromising on its quality. Game engines employ state-of-the-art technology to ensure that developers can concentrate on generating new scenery, models, and sounds, or to put an alternative spin on existing game material.
To be eligible for inclusion in this list each game engine needed to meet the following requirements:
- Free to use without restrictions
- Not in the early stages of development
We have included OGRE and Irrlicht Engine in this feature even though they are technically graphics engines rather than game engines. However, they warrant inclusion because whilst they do not offer a complete solution, they represent first rate engines for creating games with first rate graphics.
To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 16 slick free Linux game engines. This article is the second and final instalment in a two part series. If you missed the first part, it is available to read here. Hopefully, there will be something here of interest to any organization or individual who wants to develop quality commercial or open source games.
Now, let’s explore the 8 game engines at hand. For each engine we have compiled its own portal page, providing screenshots of it in action, a full description of the game engine, with an in-depth analysis of the features of the game engine, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.
| Game Engines (Part 2 of 2) | |
|---|---|
| Spring | Project to create the best Real-time Strategy (RTS) game engine |
| Cafu | Multiplayer, cross-platform, real-time 3D action |
| OGRE | Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine |
| Delta3D | Fully-featured game engine |
| Castle Game Engine | Especially oriented towards working with VRML models |
| Irrlicht Engine | Create complete 3D and 2D applications |
| Doomsday Engine | Enhanced Doom source port |
| O.H.R.RPG.C.E. | Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine |
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |