What is a good game engine that uses Lua?

Question

I know Love2D and Corona SDK (for mobile devices). Is there any other game engines that use Lua you recommend?

score 83 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 05 '23 at 20:58

83

Game engines that use Lua

Free unless noted

Agen (2D Lua; Windows)
Amulet (2D Lua; Window, Linux, Mac, HTML5, iOS)
Cafu 3D (3D C++/Lua)
Cocos2d-x (2D C++/Lua/JS; Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, BlackBerry)
Codea (2D&3D Lua; iOS (Editor is iOs app); $14.99 USD)
Cryengine by Crytek (3D C++/Lua; Windows, Mac)
Defold (2D Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Web, Switch)
gengine (2D Lua; Windows, Linux, HTML5)
Irrlicht (3D C++/.NET/Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac)
Leadwerks (3D C++/C#/Delphi/BlitzMax/Lua; Windows; $199.95 USD)
LÖVE (2D Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS)
MOAI (2D C++/Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Google Chrome (Native Client))
Solar2D (was Corona) (2D Lua; Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)
Spring RTS Engine (3D C++/Lua; Linux, Windows, Mac)
Wicked Engine (3D C++/Lua; Linux, Windows 10, Windows Phone, XBox One)

Bindings:

Raylib via raylib-lua-sol (2D&3D C++/Lua/Others; Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, Web, Other Ports)
SDL2 via luasdl2 (2D&3D C++/Lua/Others; Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, Console Ports)

Fantasy Consoles:

Editor and games run in an emulated computer system

PICO-8 (2D Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, Raspberry Pi, Web Player $14.99 USD)
TIC-80 (2D Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, Web)

Inactive/Discontinued:

Baja Engine (3D C++/Lua; Windows, Mac, No Release since Dec 2008)
Blitwizard (2D Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, Development stopped in May 2014)
Drystal (2D Lua; Linux, HTML5)
EGSL (2D Pascal/Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, Haiku)
Glint 3d Engine (3D Lua, Development stopped in Nov 2011)
Grail Adventure Game Engine (2D C++/Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac (SDL))
Juno (2D Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac, last commit on Friday the 13th, May 2016)
Lavgine (2.5D C++/Lua, Windows)
Luxinia (3D C/Lua; Windows, Development stopped in Dec 2018)
Polycode (2D&3D C++/Lua; Windows, Linux, Mac)

edited Feb 05 '23 at 20:58

Benoît Dubreuil

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answered Mar 05 '11 at 14:32

Fábio Perez

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Polycode is just as much a 2D as a 3D engine, the way you're sorting these may be a bit misleading. – cib Apr 12 '13 at 09:14
Marmalade quick should be on the list, it can deploy to ios, android, WP8, BB10, playbook, macosx/pc desktops, bada and lg smart tvs. It uses coco2d-x and box2d and can be extended however you like. Thats all pretty impressive in my books – Taylor Apr 12 '13 at 15:02
Marmalade quick can not build for desktops, it's strictly mobile from what their website says. Also I asked customer support and got this: Hi Thanks for your email. I will make sure this information is better presented on the website. In the meantime. `C++` - Android - iOS - BlackBerry (PlayBook + BB10) - WP8 - Mac - Windows - LG TV - Roku `Web Marmalade` - Android - iOS - Mac - Windows `Marmalade Quick` - Android - iOS - BlackBerry - WP8 I hope that helps. – Hate Names Aug 05 '13 at 23:04
Also BatteryTech SDK - http://www.batterytechsdk.com (C++/Lua, Windows, Linux, Android, OSX, iOS, Playbook/BB10) – rbgrn Oct 31 '13 at 03:34
You can add Defold now (King's new game engine): http://www.defold.com/ – catwell Nov 10 '15 at 20:32
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Out of all of these, which ones are the most up-to-date? – Klink45 Aug 10 '16 at 01:46
Cry engine would be the most updated. – Crann Moroney Apr 28 '21 at 20:43
As told by John Zwinck World of Warcraft (aka WOW) has used LUA since early versions until now. – marciowb Sep 06 '21 at 21:50

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 12 '13 at 14:35

I can second the previous posters enthusiasm for the Gideros Lua game engine, whilst focusing currently on Mobile (iOS and Android - Windows phone 8 is in the works), desktop support for Mac, PC (possibly Linux) is also planned for the not too distant future.

Google for "Gideros Mobile"

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 19 '11 at 20:01

7

Heroes of Might and Magic V used modified Silent Storm engine. I think you can find many good engines listed in wikipedia: Lua-scriptable game engines

answered Feb 19 '11 at 20:01

Maxym

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I would say that the list is far from being complete, but is good as a start. – Alexander Gladysh Feb 19 '11 at 23:00

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 03 '12 at 13:04

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There's our IDE / engine called Codea.

The runtime is iOS only, but it's open source. The development environment is iPad only at the moment.

answered Jun 03 '12 at 13:04

simeon

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if u made it for the mac, and it was 40 dollars or less, i would buy it for the mac. (I dont have an ipad.) :| – Jun 26 '12 at 02:29

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 21 '12 at 12:34

3

A few more:

edited Apr 21 '12 at 12:34

LarsTech

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answered Apr 21 '12 at 11:59

Claws

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 19 '11 at 19:57

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World of Warcraft's engine seems all right, and it uses Lua. :)

answered Feb 19 '11 at 19:57

John Zwinck

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Yes, but it would be really costly to reuse it in own project. – Alexander Gladysh Feb 19 '11 at 22:59
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@Alexander: You didn't mention that you needed an engine for your own game. I've edited your question to make that clear. – kikito Feb 20 '11 at 18:35
@egarcia: That was not my question. Thank you, but I have my own Lua game engine. ;-) – Alexander Gladysh Feb 20 '11 at 19:32
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Alexander didn't ask the question. It was me. – Fábio Perez Mar 05 '11 at 14:10
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WoW engine was doesn't really "use" Lua. It's an engine built in C++ and the game was made using C++. There's a Lua extension for users to make addons. – freemann098 Aug 20 '13 at 22:17

What is a good game engine that uses Lua?

6 Answers6

Game engines that use Lua