Solar2D
Solar2D is a Lua-based game engine focused on ease of iterations and usage. As a fully open-source project forked from the well-established and widely used Corona SDK game engine, Solar2D allows developers to create applications for mobile, desktop, and connected TV devices with a single codebase, supporting platforms such as iOS, tvOS, Android, Android TV, macOS, Windows, Linux, and HTML5. The engine features an instant-update simulator, enabling developers to see code changes in real time, and supports live builds for rapid testing on real devices over a local network. A vast array of plugins is available to extend the core functionality, covering aspects like in-app advertising, analytics, and media. For additional customization, developers can call any native (C/C++/Obj-C/Java) library or API using Solar2D Native. Built on the lightweight and fast Lua scripting language, Solar2D is completely free to use, with no hidden fees, charges, or royalties.
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raylib
raylib is a simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy video game programming. It is a programming library to enjoy video game programming; no fancy interface, no visual helpers, no GUI tools or editors, just coding in a pure spartan-programmers way. raylib does not provide the typical API documentation or a big set of tutorials. The library is designed to be minimalistic and be learned just from a cheat sheet with all required functionality and a big collection of examples to see how to use that functionality. The best way to learn to code is by reading code. raylib supports multiple target platforms, it has been tested in the following ones but, technically, any platform that supports C language and OpenGL graphics (or similar) can run raylib or it can be very easily ported to. You can use raylib with multiple programming languages, there are over 60 bindings. raylib can be combined with several extra libraries for additional functionality.
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MonoGame
MonoGame is a free and open-source framework that allows developers to create cross-platform games using C# and other .NET languages. It supports multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. MonoGame provides a comprehensive set of features, such as 2D and 3D rendering, sound playback, input handling, and content management, enabling the development of high-quality games across various genres. The framework is a re-implementation of Microsoft's XNA 4 API, ensuring familiarity for developers with XNA experience. Notable games developed with MonoGame include "Streets of Rage 4," "Carrion," "Celeste," and "Stardew Valley." MonoGame is actively maintained by the MonoGame Foundation and its community, with ongoing updates and support.
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Gideros
Gideros is a free and open-source cross-platform game development framework that enables developers to create high-performance 2D games using the Lua programming language. It offers instant testing on real devices through Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for lengthy export or deployment processes. Built on C/C++ and OpenGL, Gideros ensures that games run at native speed, fully utilizing the power of CPUs and GPUs. The framework supports easy extension through plugins, allowing developers to import existing code in C, C++, Java, or Objective-C and bind it to Lua. Gideros provides its own class system with standard object-oriented programming practices, enabling clean and reusable code. The comprehensive development environment includes a lightweight IDE, players for desktops and devices, a texture packer, and a font creator. Gideros supports multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and HTML5.
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