After becoming frustrated with other popular (and often complicated) game engines with extensive build toolchains, I stumbled upon Defold (via https://defold.com) which seems to have just clicked with the way my brain works. Firstly it's 2D focused (but supports 3D) which reduces a lot of the complexity that I was encountering in other game engines. It uses the Lua language (https://www.lua.org) which I've really come to enjoy using, especially with the object messaging system that Defold uses, and the bundling of the various platform applications (especially with external libraries) couldn't be easier. I tend to think of it as 'batteries included game development': no massive toolchain dependencies, and no downloading or maintenance of multiple SDKs—just bundle and run. As a bonus the size of the resulting release binaries are tiny (often just a few MBs) compared to other tools, which such an important consideration when targeting mobile devices and web browsers. All of this means that I spend less time managing toolchains and more time focusing on the stuff that really matters—the game itself.

Also the knowledge that the source is available via GitHub - https://github.com/defold/defold which is actively maintained by the Defold Foundation and the community helps to alleviate any concerns about the future viability of the engine/platform.

After becoming frustrated with other popular (and often complicated) game engines with extensive build toolchains, I stumbled upon Defold (via https://defold.com) which seems to have just clicked with the way my brain works. Firstly it's 2D focused (but supports 3D) which reduces a lot of the complexity that I was encountering in other game engines. It uses the Lua language (https://www.lua.org) which I've really come to enjoy using, especially with the object messaging system that Defold uses, and the bundling of the various platform applications (especially with external libraries) couldn't be easier. I tend to think of it as 'batteries included game development': no massive toolchain dependencies, and no downloading or maintenance of multiple SDKs—just bundle and run. As a bonus the size of the resulting release binaries are tiny (often just a few MBs) compared to other tools, which such an important consideration when targeting mobile devices and web browsers. All of this means that I spend less time managing toolchains and more time focusing on the stuff that really matters—the game itself. Also the knowledge that the source is available via GitHub - https://github.com/defold/defold which is actively maintained by the Defold Foundation and the community helps to alleviate any concerns about the future viability of the engine/platform.