In this article, I will cover 5 free 2D game maker software for Windows. If you like playing video games and want to build games then, these are the software to start with.
With these 5 free software, you can build your own 2D game. Some of these software require a good understanding of few programming languages whereas some let you create games with simple drag and drop. You can use drag and drop function to create simple games but, for complex games, you should be familiar with programming languages. All these software are either completely free or free for personal use. With these software, you can build games for various platforms such as Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, HTML5, etc.
So, Let’s start the list and discuss these software one by one.
Also read: 10 Best Free First Person Shooter Games For Windows 10
Here Are 5 Free 2D Game Maker Software For Windows:
Stencyl
Stencyl is a free 2D game maker software where you can build iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, Flash and HTML5 games. The process of building games with Stencyl is very simple; you don’t need any programming knowledge to build games. You can start building a game from scratch or download free templates to start with.
With Stencyl, you can pre-define the game controls for each platform in the settings and then simply add control functions/buttons to your game. To design game actors and environment, it has a built-in game editor where you can easily create Scenes, Behavior, Events, Physics, Atlases and game properties. You can import photos and media and embed them into your game. And, if you want to use programming language, you can do that too. All these easy to use features makes Stencyl one of the best free game maker software on this list.
Download this 2D game maker software from here.
GameMaker Studio 2
GameMaker Studio 2 is another free 2D game maker software for Windows. It’s a ~176 MB executable file that downloads additional library files when you install it on your PC. This 2D game maker has two modes for creating games, Drag and Drop and GameMaker Language. While creating a new game project, you can use any of these game designing modes.
In the Drag and Drop mode, you can add game actors and the environment from the resources using simple drag and drop. You can import images and media from your computer as well. Whereas, in GameMaker Language mode, you have to make most of the things using programming languages. This mode is complex than the Drag and Drop mode but, it lets you add more functionality to your game. With GameMaker Studio 2, you can create games for the various platform and target different devices. It is free for personal use which makes it a good option for practice and learning.
You can download this 2D game maker software here.
Cocos Creator
The next 2D game maker software on this list is Cocos Creator. To use this software for building games, you require good programming knowledge. The process of building the game actors and the environment is easy. You can drag and drop nodes to game scene and import animations and media from your computer. But adding game functions and controls is little complicated here. You have to script that type of components using JavaScript. But the good thing is that you don’t have to use any other programming languages. You can build almost all components with JavaScript alone and use the built-in Cocos2d-x framework for the rest.
You can download this 2D game maker software here.
Game Editor
Game Editor is a simple 2D game maker software. This is the smallest game maker software on this list with a total size of ~7MB. Despite its small size, it’s a full feature-pack software to build simple and small games such as Tetris, Pacman, etc. The whole process of building a game is simple and quick. All you have to do is add actors from the resources, define paths by plotting lines and set actions for game events. You don’t need any programming skills for building games with Game Editor, all you need is a game idea, and this software will take care of the rest.
Here is the link to download this 2D game maker software.
Defold
Defold is professional game production platform. Building games with this software require good programming skills along with some experience with Lua programming language. It uses Lua for all the control and logic functions. To help you out with Defold, there is a complete introduction with examples available on its website which you can follow to get started. One of the main highlights of this 2D game engine is “Hot Reload”. Unlike other game engines, “Hot Reload” allows you to preview the changes in real time. This way, you get less distracted and keep your focus on building the game. With Defold, you can build games for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, and HTML5.
You can download this 2D game maker software here.
GDevelop is another open-source cross-platform game maker software that you can try. It is simple to use and does not require any programming skills to build games. With GDevelop, you can build Android Games, iOS Games, Facebook Instant Games and Web Games. Support for Windows, Mac, and Linux Games is coming soon.
Closing Words:
These are the 5 free 2D game maker software for Windows. You can easily build your own game(s) with these software. The simple drag and drag mode make the overall game building process easy and fast. Go, check them out yourself and share your opinions with us in the comments.
