Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@bebraw
Created January 6, 2011 18:07
Star You must be signed in to star a gist
Save bebraw/768272 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
List of JS game engines. You can find a wikified version at https://github.com/bebraw/jswiki/wiki/Game-Engines. Feel free to modify that. I sync it here every once in a while.

IMPORTANT! Remember to check out the wiki page at https://github.com/bebraw/jswiki/wiki/Game-Engines for the most up to date version. There's also a "notes" column in the table but it simply does not fit there... Check out the raw version to see it.

This table contains primarily HTML5 based game engines and frameworks. You might also want to check out the [[Feature Matrix|Game-Engine-Feature-Matrix]], [[Game Resources]] and [[Scene Graphs]].

Name Size (KB) License Type Unit Tests Docs Repository Notes
Akihabara 453 GPL2, MIT Classic Repro no API github Intended for making classic arcade-style games in JS+HTML5
AllBinary Platform Platform Dependent AllBinary 2D/2.5D/3D no API github J2ME, Android, J2SE, HTML5, and more in 2013 (Adobe/Flash and Native)
bdge github Badly Design Game Engine, an HTML5 Javascript game engine Demo.
Canvex FPS An experimental browser-based FPS game engine in the HTML tag. Created in 2006
ChesterGL MIT 2D (WebGL/Canvas),iso,ortho tests github ChesterGL is a simple scene-based 2d rendering engine, with full support for WebGL and a simple (automatic) fallback to canvas when there's no WebGL support. Support time-based actions and animations as well as TMX files and spritesheets.
ClanFX Tile based clanfx is a 2D, tile-based Javascript game engine developed using Javascript and CSS. It currently works in Firefox, Epiphany and Opera browsers. Features include many animated sprites, spell effects, buildings, tiles/textures and basic game AI.
Cocos2D MIT 2D API github Cocos2d-javascript is a 2D game/graphics engine based on cocos2d-iphone but designed to run in the web browser. It uses the latest features available in HTML 5 allowing real-time rendering of 2D graphics without the need for plug-ins such as Adobe Flash
cssgameengine Javascript Game Engine with CSS. Aimed for beginners
Effect Games Effect Games provides free, online tools for building, sharing and playing your own browser based games.
enchant.js GPL, MIT
EntityJS 27kb MIT 2D yes API github Flexible javascript game engine utlizing entity-component design. Supports sprites, animation, collision, keyboard, mouse, math and more.
Flambe
Flax Apache 2.0 Not released yet. Uses GWT and HTML5. Focus on web-based gaming for GNU/Linux and Mac OS X. About
GameJs 20-80KB MIT 2D yes API. Tutorial github similar to PyGame (easy) for Canvas only. CommonJs modules. Comes with development server (only Java needed).
gameQuery MIT API. Docs github gameQuery is a jQuery plug-in to help make javascript game development easier by adding some simple game-related classes. It's still in an early stage of development and may change a lot in future versions.
GammaJS MIT 2.5D Platform Tests API. Tutorials. Topics github Gamma is a new Javascript library which can be used to create 2.5D platform games for a web browser using the power of HTML, JavaScript, CSS and WebGL.
Gamvas Web 40KB MIT 2D No Docs API google code Javascript / HTML5 Game Framework with Box2D physics integration. Demos
Gladius MIT 3D yes github Modular 3D engine, w/ entity/component system, event system, extension framework
gTile Tile based
The GMP Javascript Game Engine GPL2, MIT API. Manual Emphasis on speed and simplicity, "easy to learn and use"
Hydrax MIT github Haxe port of the PushButton Engine, works with js (css and canvas), flash, and soon C++.
ingenioJS <2KB GPL 2D/2.5D RPG Engine yes,included github JavaScript / HTML5 RPG Game Engine. Its structure allows independent rendering methods, such as WebGL, Canvas or DOM Elements. By default it makes usage of DOM Elements and a 2D environment. Currently Tile-Based and 2D, can be easily used for 2.5D and other Rendering Methods.
j5g3 GPLv3 github Still WIP
The Javascript 2D Game Engine GPL Emphasis on gravity/physics/collision detection; uses HTML5 Canvas and ExplorerCanvas for IE support. Focus on limiting CPU usage.
Jaws 33KB (minified), 86KB (full) LGPL 2D Test Suite yes github Jaws is a HTML5 2D game development library written in javascript. Sprite, viewport, gameLoop, input handling etc. The core to create a 2D game. Comes with examples.
Jest 30KB (minified), 58KB (full) MIT 2D not yet Demos github Jest provides a way to rapidly create JavaScript (HTML5) games using the canvas element. Includes a few samples currently with more on the way.
jGen Isometric wiki google code An attempt to recreate "old school" isometric techniques in the modern web browsers without using a canvas, with only JavaScript and HTML. Map editor online demo
Jomoho JS MIT 2D github Framework for quick game sketching. features: preloading, animations, sound, input, tile Engine, fullscreen, requirejs asynchronous modules
jsGameSoup LGPLv3 2D API bazaar / google code Cross browser event handling. Game entity management. Rudimentary polygon, box, circle collision detection. Sprite management. Fast, deterministic random number generator. Networking (ajax) abstraction layer. Basic cookie management. Auto-init to launch code attached to a specific HTML canvas.
js-verge MIT 2D github A javascript game engine largely based on (and importing file assets from) the VERGE game engine. Demo
LimeJS Apache License API github Special attention to touchscreen devices. HTML5 game framework for fast, native-experience games for all modern touchscreens and desktop browsers.
MelonJS unknown github Can use Tiled Map Editor, the engine is declared "lightweight"
Monwarp github Simple game engine based on using dojo toolkit with box2dweb integration.
Paladin
PixieEngine MIT Yes Docs Tutorials PixieDust IDE Hosted IDE with easy import and export. CoffeeScript support.
Play My Code Free to use No Docs Hosted IDE with asset management and image editing. Uses own language that compiles to JavaScript/HTML5.
PlayN Apache 2.0 yes Docs Google Code HTML5 Canvas and WebGL, plus Flash, Android and JVM backends
PropulsionJS 19.6KB MIT API github Uses HTML5 Canvas element
Pulse 84KB MIT 2D some API github Focuses on high performance 2D games using HTML5 canvas.
pp3Diso 44KB CC BY-SA 3.0 2D Isometric no Docs To display and manage an 2D isometric map. JavaScript and HTML. Compatible IE6+, Firefox, Safari, iOS, Android, Chrome, ...
QuarkJS 2D Successor of CasualJS.
Red Locomotive 2D, 2.5D
The Render Engine MIT 2D API. Tutorials google code Object oriented. Cross-browser. Extensive API. Open-source. Supports canvas and DOM rendering. Support for Touch Input. Box2DJS Physics Engine Features
Rosewood 2D github Rosewood is a JavaScript library/engine for creating 2d browser-based games that are somewhat in the spirit of old 16-bit games.
RPG JS
Sarien.net interpreter GPL 2D Adventure google code Focuses on making classic Sierra style adventure games.
Sprite.js 23K BSD 2D HTML5 Game framework API github
Steppe 2.5D Raycast landscape renderer, not full engine (yet). 2D canvas, no WebGL! Includes a PHP port for server-side rendering where the HTML5 canvas element isn't supported.
Traffic Cone MIT 2D-2.5D github Traffic Cone is a 2D and isometric tile based game engine written for html5. It makes complex animations of sprites and tiles based worlds fairly simple.
Tom's Halls Platform
TuteiJS MIT 2D github
vegalib LPGL google code A library and other related tools for creating games using Vexi
xc.js BSD 2D Docs github xc.js is a framework for HTML Canvas games in Javascript
WebSonic BSD 3D Docs github WebSonic is a Sonic engine showcased on Sonic Retro in 2010

Lightweight

Name Size (KB) License Type Unit Tests Docs Repository Notes
atom 2.8 BSD 2D, minimal github A tiny game library intended to get out of the way and let you write your game.
Crafty 8.7KB GPL, MIT API github A lightweight, modular JavaScript game engine to easily produce high quality games. Includes a large variety of components such as animation, event management, redraw regions, collision detection, sprites and more
Mibbu 4.35KB (gzip 1.81KB) MIT micro-framework for fast prototyping Mibbu page github blog post
Squarepig 8K zlib 2D no github A simple framework for learning and jamming.

Commercial

Name Size (KB) Pricing Type Docs Notes
BXG 150 2D, Isometric, Orthogonal, Hexagonal
Construct 2 Early adopter, $32 or $169 + Free Version 2D Construct 2 is a visual HTML5 game development tool for Windows. Aimed for both beginners and advanced users.
Float Engine 2D, Isometric and Tile Based Float Engine is a 2d,isometric and tile based game engine built entirely using existing native web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript
Geom $69 2D Docs Javascript / HTML5 Game and Content Engine with Pro Editor.
Impact $99 2D Docs. API Javascript / HTML5 Game Engine with world editor. Video tutorial
Isogenic Engine Commercial + Free Version Isometric & 2D Docs & API HTML5 Isometric & 2D Game Engine. Emphasis on real-time persistent worlds, MMO games & plugin architecture, micro-transactions, cloud-based hosting. Realtime networking. Support for canvas and HTML-based output, Node.js + MongoDB. Physics support using Box2D.
Playcraft
UltimateJS 2D Cross-platform, target mobile platforms. Box2D integration. Scene Editor. Cross-platform sounds. github
Unity3D 3D JS backend

Inspired by Flash

Name Size (KB) License Type Unit Tests Docs Repository Notes
ActionJS no github AS3 like in Javascript
CasualJS 215kb zipped Apache 2.0 2D, Flash-like no API google code CasualJS provides seamless transition to HTML5 from ActionScript 3.0. Features include frame-based rendering and object collisions.
Doodle-js 17k, gzipped BSD 2D, Flash-like github JavaScript animation library for Canvas. Features a scene graph and event handling. Easy to add to an existing page element where Flash no longer displays.
EaselJS 575kb zipped MIT 2D, Flash-like API github Developed by Grant Skinner, retained graphics mode for canvas including a full, hierarchical display list.
FlashJS Apache 2.0 github Uses Flash development model that is verified for years. Also good for everybody who knows Flash. About
FlixelJS MIT 2D github Demo Port of Flixel (Flash) to JS. Announcement thread
IvanK 60k Free software, original source not open
Spaceport spaceport.js is 30K Commercial 2D, Flash-like yes, not publicly available API Supports multiple targets (iOS, Android, Flash, HTML5). Same API as ActionScript 3, hardware accelerated vector graphics automatically converted from Flash SWFs

Obsolete

Name Size (KB) License Type Unit Tests Docs Repository Notes
Aves Commercial Obsolete. Company bought by Zynga. E3 2010 Aves Engine Prototype "Suburban World"
Diggy BSD github DHTML-based, abandoned
Hydra MIT github Geared towards mobile, powering a few small commercial games. There's no documentation at all, so I wouldn't recommend it to users, but some pieces may be of interest to other engine developers, such as: How to build a library compatible with Closure Compiler's advanced optimizations, using CSS3 transitions for game animation in a sane way, and abstracting touch events to allow the use of a mouse when playing mobile games on the desktop
Javascript Gamelib GPL Abandoned. Provides relatively simple routines for animation, sprites, collision detection and control.
Rocket Engine Commercial Obsolete. Company bought by Disney. Canvas support. WebGL support. Supports IE8, Mobile. Orthographic and isometric tile rendering. Collision detection. Pathfinding. Real-time multi-user Level editor. Common services required by MMOs. Demo
SpellScript Online/MUD WIP
@bebraw
Copy link
Author

bebraw commented Dec 13, 2011

starxed: Added. :)

@starxed
Copy link

starxed commented Dec 14, 2011

Appreciate for your effort! :)

@strager
Copy link

strager commented Jan 3, 2012

Spaceport is at version 3.1 right now: http://spaceport.io/download
It's 30kb (30563 for spaceport.js; 32196 for spaceport-debug.js)

@bebraw
Copy link
Author

bebraw commented Jan 3, 2012

strager: Thanks. Updated.

@tessekkur
Copy link

Really nice contribution! Working on translate to spanish!
Cheers

@martinwells
Copy link

@GwennaelBuchet
Copy link

Hi,

even if this thread is old, I suggest a new and powerful one : cgSceneGraph:
http://gwennaelbuchet.github.com/cgSceneGraph/

@mtozlu
Copy link

mtozlu commented Dec 3, 2012

An not-so-famous yet powerful one: CAAT
http://labs.hyperandroid.com/static/caat/
Although it says toolkit in the website, it is actually a framework.

@endel
Copy link

endel commented Feb 5, 2013

@crow00
Copy link

crow00 commented Feb 6, 2013

Check out V-PLay: www.v-play.net
A new cross-platform game engine for 2D mobile games.

@ivanpopelyshev
Copy link

LibCanvas - highly optimized engine that works well on mobile devices.
https://github.com/theshock/libcanvas
my favorite demo: http://libcanvas.github.com/games/isomines/

Also mightyfingers are working on something: http://mightyfingers.com/

@Thinkscape
Copy link

It might be a good idea to create a separate category for engines dedicated or supporting deployment to mobile devices (iOS, Android, Blachberry, WinPhone etc.)

@j-mo
Copy link

j-mo commented Mar 18, 2013

Should add CAAT I believe - http://www.ludei.com/tech/caat

@chris-gc
Copy link

Game Closure provides a DevKit. It's a staged JavaScript development environment for building web, iOS, and Android games. It has a set of browser-based tools and a fully-documented SDK. And remote debugging and a test app for mobile devices.

http://www.gameclosure.com/

Documentation:
http://docs.gameclosure.com/

License: Free to use and modify. A splash screen is required for games built with the devkit.

@wchristian
Copy link

This list would be much more interesting if it included links to games done with each engine.

@patricksnape
Copy link

Missing Turbulenz under commercial SDKs

@ashcairo
Copy link

Multi - http://multiplay.io
Supports WebGL, OpenGL and Direct3D. Allows for the creation of games and levels in realtime across web, mobile and desktop with an editor that lets you drag and drop in new models, textures and javascript.

@Nurgak
Copy link

Nurgak commented Apr 12, 2013

@nicroto
Copy link

nicroto commented May 6, 2013

What about FrozenJS? http://frozenjs.com
It looks very promising.

@youxiachai
Copy link

What about iioengine? http://iioengine.com/

@pabloLagioia
Copy link

Here's another open source engine http://www.puzzlingideas.com/match

@DWboutin
Copy link

DWboutin commented Jan 7, 2014

Phaser : http://phaser.io/

Really fun, flash inspired framework with a lot of awesome support

@nghuuphuoc
Copy link

+1 for Phaser

@Knovour
Copy link

Knovour commented Aug 12, 2014

GammaJS no longer use gammajs.org domain

@channely
Copy link

+2 for
Panda.js http://pandajs.net
&
Pixi.js http://pixijs.com

@maslade
Copy link

maslade commented Jul 27, 2015

FYI, your Cocos2D JS link is sketchy and probably infected with malware.

@webcaetano
Copy link

Where are Phaser ?!?! O.o
It have 10.9k+ stars on github (no one you listed have that)

+1

@yang1070
Copy link

@dotku
Copy link

dotku commented Mar 28, 2018

What's the most popular game engine?

@Rabios
Copy link

Rabios commented Jul 24, 2021

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment