defold/defold
Defold is a completely free to use game engine for development of desktop, mobile and web games. observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
99/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 98
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_license
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 27.5
- age_days: 5225
- days_rel: 16
- days_push: 7
- n_releases_24m: 25
Adoption not part of the score
6269 stars · 450 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
Defold is a free, source-available, cross-platform game engine for building 2D and lightweight 3D games for desktop, mobile, web, and console targets. It bundles a visual editor, Lua scripting runtime, build pipeline, debugger, and profiler into a single turn-key toolchain with no royalties or licensing fees.
Use cases
- build a 2d mobile game for ios and android
- make an html5 browser game
- create a cross-platform game with one codebase
- learn game development with lua
- ship a lightweight 3d game
- prototype a game quickly with hot reload
- publish a game to steam or consoles
When to choose
- you want a free, production-ready engine with no royalties
- you target mobile or web games, especially 2D
- you prefer Lua scripting with an integrated editor and debugger
- you need a small engine footprint and fast builds
When to avoid
- you need heavyweight AAA 3D tooling and pipelines
- you prefer C# or visual scripting over Lua
- you need a huge third-party asset/plugin ecosystem like Unity's
Facets
framework · maturity active
game-engine gui graphics animation cli editor cross-platform gaming-tools cross-platform windows cpp lua 2d-games 3d-games lua-scripting html5-export console-export free-engine hot-reload visual-editor particle-effects tilemap-editor game-development desktop mobile web-server macos linux android ios
9 sources
- readme: https://github.com/defold/defold · fetched 2026-08-28 · 5664cc938cb7
- homepage: https://www.defold.com · fetched 2026-08-29 · f46dbc1762d0
- site_page: https://defold.com/about · fetched 2026-08-29 · a367e2eb2fec
- site_page: https://defold.com/product · fetched 2026-08-29 · a790f412723d
- site_page: https://defold.com/showcase · fetched 2026-08-29 · c9f9a3a65e26
- site_page: https://defold.com/tutorials · fetched 2026-08-29 · eaf90e4aef6f
- site_page: https://defold.com/2026/07/30/Creator-Spotlight-Felix-Weiler · fetched 2026-08-29 · 09fcb19a8450
- site_page: https://defold.com/faq/faq · fetched 2026-08-29 · 7b07bcc60988
- site_page: https://forum.defold.com/c/releasenotes · fetched 2026-08-29 · bdf9177ccf6e
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| defold/defold | main | 99 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem