Solar2D

Solar2D is a free, open-source 2D game engine for building mobile games and apps. It runs on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux and HTML5, and uses the Lua programming language together with a rich set of built-in tools to simplify development.

★★★★★

4.0(1 ratings)

• Accelerated graphics. Solar2D uses OpenGL-based rendering for high-performance graphics. It supports sprites, vector and bitmap fonts, particle effects and complex animations, and runs smoothly even on devices with limited resources.
• Built-in physics. It includes the Box2D physics engine for simulating collisions, gravity and realistic motion. Developers can define static and dynamic bodies, joints and forces without any external libraries.
• Unified cross-platform API. A single programming interface covers all supported platforms. Code written once works on different operating systems without significant modifications.
• Touch device support. Handles touch screen events, multitouch gestures and motion input. You can also build virtual on-screen controls for mobile games.
• Ads and in-app purchases. Plugins are available for advertising services such as AdMob and other monetization networks. In-app purchases are supported through the official app stores.
• Audio system. Plays sound effects and music in formats such as MP3, WAV and OGG. You can control individual audio channels and adjust the volume.
• Device features access. Interact with the GPS, accelerometer, camera and local storage. Developers can read sensor data and save information on the device.
• Real-time testing. The built-in Simulator runs your project instantly and reloads it whenever you save changes. A console shows errors and log output with the file and line number where they occur.
• Multi-platform builds. Create executables and installable packages for each supported operating system directly from your project, with no need to rewrite your code for each target.
• Native plugins. Extend the engine with modules written in C, C++ or Java. Plugins can access native APIs of the operating system.
• Built-in particle effects. Create visual effects such as fire, smoke or explosions with adjustable parameters. Particle emitters can be modified at runtime.

Solar2D is the open-source continuation of Corona SDK, originally created by Corona Labs. After the original developer stopped maintaining it, the engine was handed over to the community in 2020 and renamed Solar2D. It is written mainly in C++ and Lua, and it is released under the MIT license. Development continues on GitHub, where users can report bugs and contribute improvements.

Alternatives to Solar2D:

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