Do you have an idea for a game that's been brewing for years? What if you could bring that idea to life? These days, anyone can make a video game with the right software and a bit of know-how.

Of course, that doesn't mean game development is easy. Even a simple game like Flappy Bird requires significant effort if you want it to look and feel good. But thanks to free game development software, game creation has become fairly streamlined.

Here's a list of the best free game making software you can use to start creating your dream game today.

1. Construct 3

No programming needed. Construct 3 is the best game development software to use if you've never written a line of code in your life. This game development tool is completely GUI-driven, meaning everything is drag-and-drop. Game logic and variables are implemented using the design features provided by the app itself.

The beauty of Construct 3 is that it can export to dozens of different platforms and formats, and you don't have to change a single thing in your game to accommodate these various options. Once your game is done, you can export to HTML5, Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, Microsoft Store, and more.

Construct 3 has some of the best and most comprehensive documentation I've ever seen for a game development tool. In addition, there are hundreds of tutorials that will help you understand concepts from basic to advanced, and the forum community is extremely active if you ever need assistance.

Asset Store. Most programmers only have rudimentary practice in creating game art, music, or animation. But that's fine with Construct 3 because you can always browse and purchase ready-made assets from the Game Developer Asset Store. Most asset packs are just a few dollars or less, but the professional-grade models can run you $30 or more. You can also buy sample games with source, which can be helpful for studying and learning new tips and tricks.

The free version has all of the core features but is limited to 25 events, two object layers, two simultaneous special effects, one web font, no multiplayer functionality, can only export to HTML5, and doesn't include permission to sell your games. The Personal license is $99/year and lifts all of these restrictions.

Download: Construct 3

2. GameMaker Studio 2

Drag-and-drop or code. Like Construct 3, GameMaker Studio 2 allows you to create entire games using nothing more than its drag-and-drop interface for variables and game logic. But unlike Construct 3, GameMaker Studio 2 grants more power through its Game Maker Language, which is a C-like scripting language with a lot of flexibility.

Once your game is done, you can export to any number of platforms and formats without having to adjust your code: Windows, Mac, Linux, HTML5, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and more. The free version unfortunately doesn't allow exporting to any platforms.

GameMaker Studio 2 is a rewritten-from-scratch version of Game Maker: Studio, which started way back in 1999. Today, it's one of the most popular and active free game development engines currently available. New versions with feature updates are released at regular intervals.

Built-in advanced features. GameMaker Studio 2 is great because it supports a lot of interesting quality-of-life features right out of the box, such as the ability to add in-app purchases to your game, real-time analytics on how users play your game, source control, multiplayer networking, and extensibility through third-party extensions. It also has built-in editors for images, animations, and shaders.

The free version can be used indefinitely but has limitations on how complex your games can be. The Creator plan costs $39/year and allows exporting to Windows and Mac. Or you can unlock individual exports each with a one-time permanent purchase: Desktop for $99, HTML5 for $149, Amazon Fire for $149, and Android/iOS for $399. Exports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One are available for $799/year each.

Download: GameMaker Studio 2

3. Unity

Unity started off as a 3D engine in 2005 and eventually added official 2D support in 2013. Perfect for creating games of all shapes and sizes from mobile 2D casual games to jaw-dropping graphical masterpieces, there's a very good chance you've played a game made on Unity.

Component-based design. Unity didn't come up with component-entity design, but it had a huge hand in popularizing it. In short, everything in the game is an object and you can attach various components to each object, where each component controls some aspect of the object's behavior and logic.

To make the most of Unity, you'll need to use C#. The good news is that Unity is so widely used—among hobbyist and veteran game developers alike—that you'll find thousands of great Unity tutorials all across the web to help get you started. Unity itself also has numerous in-depth video series for newbies, and the provided documentation is excellent.

Unity has the widest export support of any free video game design software: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Facebook, all kinds of VR systems like Oculus and Steam VR, as well as several consoles like PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Wii U, and Nintendo Switch.

Asset Store. Want a minimap system in your game? How about a commercial-grade networking solution? Maybe you need 3D models, HUD graphics, and environmental textures? What about a dialog system for your action-adventure RPG? You can acquire all of this and more on the Unity Asset Store, with a good chance of it being free.

The Personal plan is completely free and doesn't restrict any engine features, as long as you earn less than $100,000 in annual revenue from your games. The Plus plan is necessary up to $200,000 in annual revenue, and also unlocks the coveted "dark theme" for the editor. After that, you'll need the Pro plan, which allows for unlimited revenue.

Download: Unity

4. Godot Engine

Like Unity, Godot supports the creation of both 2D and 3D games. The 2D aspect of this free game maker was carefully designed from the start, which means better performance, fewer bugs, and a cleaner overall workflow.

Scene-based design. Godot's approach to game architecture is unique in that everything is divided into scenes—but likely not the kind of "scene" you're thinking of. In Godot, a scene is a collection of elements like sprites, sounds, and or scripts. You can then combine multiple scenes into a bigger scene, and then those scenes into even bigger scenes. This hierarchical design approach makes it very easy to stay organized and modify individual elements whenever you want.

Custom scripting language. Godot uses a drag-and-drop system for maintaining scene elements, but each of those elements can be extended through the built-in scripting system, which uses a custom Python-like language called GDScript. It's easy to learn and fun to use, so you should give it a try even if you have no coding experience.

Godot can deploy to multiple platforms right out of the box, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and HTML5. No extra purchases or licenses necessary, though some restrictions may apply (like needing to be on a Mac system to deploy a Mac binary).

Built-in advanced features. Godot iterates surprisingly quickly for a game engine. There is at least one major release every year, which explains how it has so many great features already: physics, post-processing, networking, all kinds of built-in editors, live debugging and hot reload, source control, and more.

Godot is the only tool on this list that's actually free through and through. Because it's licensed under the MIT License, you can use it however you want and sell the games you make without any restrictions. You can even download the engine's source code and modify it! (The engine is coded in C++.)

Download: Godot Engine

5. Unreal Engine 5

Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5 was announced in June of 2020, became available for early access development in May 2021, and its full release is expected sometime in 2022.

Of all the tools on this list, Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) is the most professional. It was created from scratch by the geniuses behind the Unreal franchise—people who know what's needed in a top-shelf engine and what it takes to deliver next-generation features. They know exactly what they're doing.

One of UE5's driving principles is allowing you to iterate and develop as quickly as you can, so you get features like live debugging, hot reloading, a streamlined asset pipeline, instant game previews, plus hundreds of included assets and systems like artificial intelligence, cinematic tools, post-processing effects, and more.

No code necessary. A unique selling point of UE5 is its Blueprint system, which lets you create game logic without touching any code. It's advanced enough that you can create entire games, even complex ones, without ever opening a source editor. But if you want to code your own Blueprints, you can do that too.

The best tutorials on the planet. The UE5 YouTube channel has hundreds upon hundreds of videos that take you through every inch of the engine, and most of those videos are between 20 and 60 minutes long. That's more content than you'd get from a semester-long course at university! If you need step-by-step guidance, UE5 has you covered.

Starting to see a pattern here? All of the best engines allow seamless exporting to multiple platforms, and UE5 is no exception: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Oculus VR, and more.

As a free user, you get access to the entire engine (including source code). Starting with Unreal Engine 5, royalties are waived until you make your first $1 Million in gross revenue. Afterwards, you'll pay a five percent royalty on all sales.

UE5 (in comparison to UE4) demonstrates a strong focus on improving video game graphics to movie quality CGI and perhaps even better. How do they hope to achieve this? With the help of two core technologies, Nanite and Lumen.

Nanite

Polygon limits are a factor in designing any level or creating any character for your game. You can't expect your game to run well if your character is made using 1,500,000 polygons... can you?

Nanite says it can and it should. Nanite geometry allows you to import source art of polygon counts in the millions and billions and have it work right in your game without a hitch—this is extremely exciting for 3D artists and animators.

Lumen

The way computers represent lighting in video games has traveled leaps and bounds from where it began. UE5's Lumen is the next step, and it's quite a big one.

Lumen provides photorealistic light reactions in dynamic environments. One example is how much moonlight would diffuse across a valley when the moon is in different positions in the sky or blocked by terrain like mountains. When the scene changes, the lighting reacts instantly.

Another game-changing aspect of Lumen is the ability for designers to view lighting from different angles in the Unreal Engine exactly the same as it would look in-game. If you're in the market for free game making software, you can't go wrong with Unreal Engine.

Note: While Unreal Engine 5 is the most up-to-date software, it's not quite production-ready in its early access stage. If you're looking for a complete game maker, check out Unreal Engine 4 instead.

Download: Unreal Engine 5

6. Defold

Defold website

Drag-and-drop or code. Use Defold's code editor to add custom logic or the visual and scene editors to drop assets straight into your game.

Defold is no exception to the rule that the best free game design software allows exporting to a wide range of platforms. Publish your game to Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows, Steam, HTML5, and Facebook.

Like GameMaker Studio 2, Defold supports a host of advanced features from setup with no further configuration required.

The engine has excellent 3D support, but it's best optimized for 2D creation. Using a component-based system, you'll have access to 2D sprites and map editors, 3D models and meshing, and a range of particle effects. These are only a fraction of available features and tech, you'll have to try things out yourself to understand the full capability of Defold.

Expert-Level documentation. Defold's tutorials, manuals, and forums are a wealth of information waiting for any budding game developer to pick them up and get hacking. The forums and FAQ are especially useful for overcoming specific obstacles; many developers have had the exact same issue you face, and they figured out how to navigate around it so you can follow their lead.

Defold is open-source and free to use, provided you obtain their license (for free on Defold's website) and adhere to the license's standards. Defold takes no commissions and remains free to use regardless of the attention your game receives.

Download: Defold

7. RPG Maker MZ

RPG Maker home

No code necessary. RPG Maker MZ is a great free game maker for those who want to create a game without having to learn any programming. Use the map editor, character generator, and database to create any RPG your imagination churns up.

If you'd like to incorporate custom code you can do so using plugins—but you can implement most logic using the no-code-required Events system native to RPG Maker MZ.

Asset Store. You'll have hundreds of asset packs to choose from on the Market Place on top of the textures included with your free install of RPG Maker. You can source music, character sprites, entire level designs; anything and everything you could need to build an RPG is found here.

You'll find fewer export options with RPG Maker than the other tools on the list, but the big names are still covered: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

There's a 30-day free trial available before you're required to purchase a license at $80.

Download: RPG Maker MZ

8. Cerberus X

Cerberus X download page

Light and Intuitive. If you're looking for a lightweight 2D game maker, Cerberus X (CX) has you covered. While not the most advanced client on the list, it's a great choice for beginners to pick up and get their feet wet with a programming language.

Use the Cerberus X IDE in tandem with powerful graphics APIs and the Mojo framework to design games and export them to Windows PC, macOS (10.15.x and earlier), Linux, Android, iOS (13.x and earlier), and HTML5.

These APIs and the Mojo framework mean you don't need to do much coding to create a functioning game; you're just filling in the gaps.

CX's tutorials and bustling forums are excellent resources for learning the ins and outs of the engine, and they're surprisingly well maintained. Since Cerberus X is a modular language, you can import modules from other creators for use in your own game or contribute code to other developers!

Cerberus X is free to download, though you can name your own price and support the developers if you so choose.

Download: Cerberus X

Upgrade Your Skills With Free Game Making Software

There are a handful of other game development tools that didn't quite make the cut for this selection, but are still worth checking out (like Phaser, Stencyl, or GDevelop) if the ones listed above aren't what you're looking for.

If you want to get serious about game development, you should really study up on some programming. You can have fun while you learn by playing coding games!