Dear Community,
Which is currently the most powerful third-party cross platform iOS/Android 2D Game Engine irrespective of cost? Physics are particularly important. The game engine should be able to create super polished full ios / android games.
(I don't normally ask questions on forums, however there is little up to date information across the internet regarding the above. I've spent hours searching).
Thank you
Most 2D games use their own engine using existing 3rd party libraries. Box2D is a popular library for 2D physics.
There are a few 2D game engines, and there are a few 3D game engines with 2D support, but depending on the type of game you are making, it might make more sense to write the game yourself using existing libraries.
That's easy, the most powerful engine is an engine you write dedicated for your game. (You did say "irrespective of cost".)
This is also known as writing a game from scratch.
You likely don't mean to get that answer, but while rephrasing the question, maybe you want to reconsider "most powerful" too, as maybe the engine that is most powerful may not have good physics.
(in other words, what does "most powerful" actually mean?)
(beaten to the punch by Alberth's post, but to phrase it another way: )
'Most powerful' isn't a good question. Many people ask 'best'/'powerful'/'flexible', but that usually just tells me that they don't know enough about game development to know what their product actually needs (they might as well ask, "what's the most awesome!" 
). 2D games have been getting made for 40 years now. Computers are literally over a million times faster now. The machines are fast enough for your 2D game, if you are skilled enough to make it.
When you say "most powerful" what do you actually mean by that? What are your game's actual requirements?
Hello,
Firstly, Yes I forgot to mention excluding first party engines. Also "that's easy, the most powerful engine is an engine you write dedicated for your game" That would explain why Supercell and King use their own game engine then.
I will try to elaborate further, by most powerful I meant which has the highest capability, which is most advanced but what is most important are physics and which would you consider best when producing a fully polished iOS / Android game.
Two months is the time frame to create the game, perhaps even less so I assume a game engine is necessary. From my extensive search across the far corners of the internet, I frequently come across two game engines which I assume are two of the most respected, those are Cocoas 2D-X and Unity 2D (apparently update 4.3 added full 2D support).
P.S "2D games have been getting made for 40 years now. Computers are literally over a million times faster now. The machines are fast enough for your 2D game, if you are skilled enough to make it." Needless to say like almost every human, I know this. What I don't know much about is game development.
Thanks
I will try to elaborate further, by most powerful I meant which has the highest capability, which is most advanced but what is most important are physics and which would you consider best when producing a fully polished iOS / Android game.
Two months is the time frame to create the game, perhaps even less so I assume a game engine is necessary.
Hi,
Even with an engine and even with a team of experienced developers who already know the engine intimately, two months is an impossible time frame. The art alone is going to take far longer than that.
I appreciate your opinion but I disagree. If I were to try multiple game engines that would waste time, I could also argue that "real developers" is an utterly meaningless phrase similar to "proper coffee". When I said highest capabilities I was hoping it would be interpreted as widest set of features.
May I ask for concise advantages / disadvantages of your favorite 2D cross platform engine?
Thank you
I will try to elaborate further, by most powerful I meant which has the highest capability, which is most advanced but what is most important are physics and which would you consider best when producing a fully polished iOS / Android game.
Unfortunately, that doesn't help clarify. "Most advanced" and "highest capability" is exactly the same sort of impressive-sounding but meaninglessly generic terms as "powerful" / "best" / "awesomest" / "greatest" / "coolest" / "polished" / "flexible".
By saying you need "physics" and "2D", those are good requirements. They are concrete ideas. iOS and Android are concrete targets.
Saying "most advanced" or "highest capability" doesn't describe anything. Those are marketing terms.
Those are typically what people say when they haven't thought through what they actually need.
What does your game require?
Using your actual concrete requirements, you can then look at different engines' feature sets and see if any meet or come close to your requirements.
I'm making a 2D RPG. Here's some of my game's desired features:
No engine supports all of what I need automatically for me (though some come close). Some engines are so overly general that I could build what I want on top of them, but that doesn't save me much work. So I'm writing my game from scratch using existing 3rd party libraries. This is how most 2D games are made.
2D games vary more than 3D games do, so engines make more sense for 3D than they do for 2D, because most 3D games share more in common with each other than 2D games share in common with other 2D games.
Some 2D engines are genre-specific, like RPG Maker and so on, and those are helpful but when they are too narrowly-focused (like RPG Maker), it also is limiting. So it's important to figure out your needs in advance, and decide if a particular engine helps you more than it limits you, for the specific game you are making.
By figuring out your needs, it also helps you figure out what you don't need, so you don't get lured by an engine with a laundry-list of features that don't actually help you.
Hi,
Even with an engine and even with a team of experienced developers who already know the engine intimately, two months is an impossible time frame. The art alone is going to take far longer than that.
I appreciate your opinion but I disagree. If I were to try multiple game engines that would waste time, I could also argue that "real developers" is an utterly meaningless phrase similar to "proper coffee". When I said highest capabilities I was hoping it would be interpreted as widest set of features.
May I ask for concise advantages / disadvantages of your favorite 2D cross platform engine?
Thank you
You say that if you were to try multiple game engines it would be a waste of time... Then you ask for concise advantages / disadvantages of another person's favorite 2D cross platform engine - an engine the other person probably chose after trying out a number of engines.
So it looks like you think it's only a waste of time if it's your time. If it's somebody else's, it's not a waste of time - because that person, who spent their own time and effort, can now write a concise list of pros and cons about that engine for you, for free. With some luck, that person will even compare and contrast the engine they chose with a number of other engines!
Why don't you just try the ones you mentioned and figure out whether they meet your requirements?
You say that if you were to try multiple game engines it would be a waste of time... Then you ask for concise advantages / disadvantages of another person's favorite 2D cross platform engine - an engine the other person probably chose after trying out a number of engines.
So it looks like you think it's only a waste of time if it's your time. If it's somebody else's, it's not a waste of time - because that person, who spent their own time and effort, can now write a concise list of pros and cons about that engine for you, for free. With some luck, that person will even compare and contrast the engine they chose with a number of other engines!
If I know a specific bit of researching is going to take me six or seven hours, and I think some people on this forum already have the answer ready and can type it out in five minute, ofcourse I ask them for their opinions. He's not asking people to go do the research for him; he's asking people that have already done the research to share their results.
The problem is not that he's asking something unreasonable (it's a very reasonable request), the problem is that he doesn't yet know that there's not a "best" engine, and that different engines are better suited to different games, so he has to first figure out what his game actually needs before we are capable of making suggestions.
