Free Game Development Libraries

Below is a selection of links to free libraries suitable for use in game development projects.

Licences are listed below next to the libraries to help you make a choice; some may require you to release your source code, others may only be free as long as your release is non-commercial. More esoteric licences may require you contact the author first, send them a copy of your game, or perform some other small task as 'payment'. Bear in mind that the author may change the licence at any time or mistakes could exist on this page, so ensure you verify a library's licence before use.

There's little attempt to define or limit scope here; some libraries try to provide an entire framework for games, others provide a whole subsystem, whereas still others just simplify a task or tasks within that subsystem. Engines limited to particular types of game are generally excluded, however.

Any dead links, or incorrect entries? Let me know at the address at the bottom of the page. Thanks to those of you who submit corrections and additions, and especially for your patience while waiting for updates.

General purpose libraries

These are libraries that tend to encompass several areas of the game, often providing a whole framework to work within. Good for beginners or those more interested in quickly having a finished product as opposed to fine-tuning many individual aspects,

Agar (graphics toolkit for SDL and OpenGL) BSD

AgateLib (.NET library) MPL

Alchemist's Game Library (2D game engine) [1]

Allegro giftware

Amaltheia (game programming API) LGPL

ArcLib (2D game programming system for the D programming language) 'free, BSD-like'

Basic Game Library (Docs in Spanish?) CC

IKA (generic gaming engine) 'free'

ClanLib LGPL

CRM32Pro multimedia SDK GPL

Game Incubator free

GLFW ZLIB

Goblin 2D+ Engine [1]

Golden T Game Engine (Java) [2]

Gosu (2D engine for C++ amd Ruby) Free

KJAPI [1]

MASI-CiX 2D sprite-based game platform [1]

OpenTK Game development library for .Net/Mono MIT

PLIB General purpose library. LGPL

Popcap 2D library with extras. Popcap

Proyecto dx_lib32 Spanish language. VB6. Free

Pure Power Tactical Engine (RTS engine) LGPL

Realmforge (in C#) LGPL

SDL LGPL

SDL.NET LGPL

SFML (Simple and Fast Multimedia Library) ZLIB

SpriteCraft Freeware

Stratagus (RTS engine) GPL

SxDL 2D, 3D, audio, etc.GPL

The Tao Framework (various libs ported to .Net) Various

3D Graphics

These libraries primarily deal with rendering of 3D models and scenery. They've been split into two fairly arbitrary categories, but in fact there is a continuum from massive feature-rich engines to simple add-in libraries.

'Engines'

This section contains largely complete systems that - in theory - you can just bolt your game onto. The bias is towards feature completeness.

Antiryad GX Freeware

Apocalyx GPL

Axiom (OGRE in C#) LGPL

Crystal Space LGPL

Cube slightly modified zlib

Delta3D LGPL

Fly3D GPL

G3D BSD

Genesis3D similar to GPL

Heretic/Hexen [1]

Irrlicht ZLIB

LightFeather ZLIB

The Nebula Device free license

Yake LGPL, custom licenses

'Libraries'

This section lists self-contained units of functionality relevant to 3D applications. Typically you add these into your games, or they provide a minimal framework which you code your game around. The bias is towards flexibility.

Amanith (vector graphics) QPL

ARToolkit GPL

CG Free

Demeter terrain engine LGPL

Ghost (glut-like) BL and GPL

GLee BSD-like

Graphics Library Helper (like GLU) Freeware

Interactive Visualisation Framework LGPL

MXR Toolkit GPL

NGL (glut-like framework) LGPL

NVIDIA Scene Graph SDK Free

OpenGlean MIT

OpenGlut MIT

FreeGlut MIT

OpenGL Window Framework ZLIB

OpenSceneGraph OpenSceneGraph

OpenSG LGPL

Qhull free?

2D Graphics

2D graphics libraries typically specialise in rendering sprites and GUI elements. Some may use underlying 3D acceleration functionality, and some may not.

AntTweakBar (GUI for DX/OGL) ZLIB

Crazy Eddie's GUI System LGPL

Eclipse LGPL

Endogine sprite engine (C#) Free

GameVision SDK Unknown

HGE ZLIB

hxrender ZLIB

Kyra LGPL

libcig-a (Simple OpenGL 2D API) LGPL

ManagedGL (C#/.NET/SDL) LGPL

ParaGUI (for SDL) LGPL

Saq2D (C#) Free

TinyPTC 'open source'

LibUFO (gui, for OpenGL etc) LGPL

Video

These libraries are for decoding and displaying real-time video, useful for FMV cut scenes and the like.

Dirac MPL

FFmpeg 'open source'

Theora 'BSD-like'

XviD GPL

Image and Font Handling

Libraries in this section handle the loading and setup of graphics formats, whether simple bitmap images or vector formats commonly used for fonts/typefaces.

Images

GTL (Game Texture Loader) ZLIB

IJG (jpeg library) free?

ImageMagick apache-style license

JpegXX Boost

libPNG libPNG

libTiff free?

LodePNG free?

Paintlib [2]

SDL_image LGPL

SOIL (Simple OpenGL Image Library) public domain

Titan ZLIB

Fonts

BFont LGPL

FTGL (fonts in OpenGL) LGPL

GLFT_Font ZLIB

Glyph Keeper [4]

SFont LGPL or GPL

Sound + Music

These libraries facilitate the loading and playing of sound and music files within your game.

Audiere LGPL
BASS [1]
FMOD [1]
Hekkus Sound System (For WinCE/Win32/Symbian and .NET.) Credit or donation required
IrrKlang 'Free'
libMikMod LGPL
libsndfile LGPL
Ogg Vorbis BSD-like
OpenAL (?)
OpenAL Soft (?)
PortAudio essentially free
SDL_mixer (requires SDL) LGPL
SDL_sound (requires SDL) LGPL

Networking

Networking libraries exist to facilitate communications between multiple computers, useful for head-to-head or competitive play, communicating high scores to a server, and more.

High-level

High level networking libraries attempt to simplify networking, often by hiding most of the gory details of ensuring reliable transmissions, converting objects to and from data streams, and so on.

Nevrax/NEL GPL?

Net2 LGPL

OpenPlay Apple Public Source License

OpenTNL GPL , or commercial

RakNet GPL , or free by application

ReplicaNet [1]

Zoidcom [1]

Low level

Low level libraries often require a bit more networking knowledge to use effectively, but can be more scalable to demanding tasks or those with unusual requirements.

http://www.mindcontrol.org/~hplus/etwork/

Boost ASIO (part of Boost library) Boost license

libCURL (URL transfer) Curl license

Lidgren.Library.Network (.NET/C#) BSD

Pegasus (part of PLIB) LGPL

SDL_net LGPL

Unknown

Game Network Engine LGPL

Model Handling and Character Animation (3D)

Libraries in this section handle the loading of 3D models and their associated animations.

Animadead LGPL

Cal3D LGPL

GPUMesh free

GNU Triangulated Surface Library LGPL

LibASE LGPL

lib3DS LGPL

Trimeshloader ZLIB

Filesystems, persistence, and format parsing

These libraries allow you to read generic formats like XML or ZIP files, or to encrypt data, or to use resource files to save space.

XML

ezXML MIT

libXML MIT

TinyXML zlib

Compression and archive formats

bzip2 free

LZMA (7-Zip compression) LGPL or CPL

LZO GPL

PhysFS zlib

Unrarlib free for non-commercial, otherwise GPL

ZipArchive GPL or commercial

zipstream, bzip2stream (iostream wrappers for the zlib and bzip2 libraries) ZLIB

zlib ZLIB

zziplib LGPL / MPL

Encryption

Crypto++ [3]

Other

SDL_Config LGPL

SQLite public domain

Scripting Languages

An in-game scripting language can speed up development and allow non-programmers to help out with game behaviour.

AngelScript ZLIB

BOO (Reqs .NET/CLI) MIT/BSD style

CInt (C interpreter) free, reg. required for commercial use

EosScript LGPL

GameMonkey MIT

GS9 Free

Guile Modified GPL - almost LGPL

IO BSD

Lua MIT

Tcl free

VBScript 'license at no charge'

Artificial Intelligence

Although AI usually is very game-specific and there are no simple components you can drop in as you might with an image loading library or a 3D renderer, there are some packages that cover certain algorithms and processes that you may use when writing AI for game characters.

FEAR GPL , other

MicroPather zlib

OpenSteer MIT

PathLib ?

Mathematics, Physics and Collision Detection

This section contains libraries helping with complex mathematics, such as calculating object physics, checking for collisions, generating random numbers, and more.