The best game engines for indie developers depend on your skills, project scope, and target platforms. Here’s a breakdown of the top options:

🔹 Best Overall Game Engines

✅ Unity (C#) – Best for 2D & 3D indie games

• Pros: Free for small devs, strong asset store, multi-platform export.
• Cons: Can be complex for beginners, recent pricing controversies.
• Used for: Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Ori and the Blind Forest

✅ Godot (GDScript/C#) – Best open-source option

• Pros: Lightweight, no fees, easy scripting, great for 2D.
• Cons: Smaller community, fewer third-party assets.
• Used for: Cassette Beasts, Brotato

✅ Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints/C++) – Best for high-end 3D games

• Pros: AAA-quality graphics, free until $1M revenue.
• Cons: Heavy engine, C++ learning curve.
• Used for: Sifu, Little Nightmares II

🔹 Best for 2D Games

🎨 GameMaker Studio 2 (GML)

• Pros: Drag-and-drop + scripting, great for pixel art games.
• Cons: Paid tiers, limited 3D support.
• Used for: Undertale, Hyper Light Drifter

🐍 Pygame (Python)

• Pros: Good for learning, simple 2D mechanics.
• Cons: No built-in physics, not ideal for commercial games.
• Used for: Beginner projects.

🔹 Best for No-Code/Low-Code Game Development

🛠 Construct 3 – Great for browser games (HTML5).
🎮 RPG Maker – Best for RPGs (tile-based world-building).
🔵 GDevelop – Open-source, event-based logic.

🔹 Best for Retro & Pixel Art Games

🕹 Love2D (Lua) – Simple & lightweight.
📺 PICO-8 – Fantasy console for tiny 8-bit style games.

🔹 Best for VR & Experimental Games

🛸 Unreal Engine 5 – Best graphics & VR support.
🕶 Unity – Strong VR/AR support with XR plugins.
🌌 Godot – Experimental VR capabilities.