Top Rated Libgdx Alternatives
Cross platform provides a convenient and consistent way to prototype concepts quickly for different platforms. Figure out what is the best tool for the job after the prototype, or proceed to build it into a finished product.
Very well documented and easy to find the information you need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Java is a bit heavy to work with, and a good experience requires a lot of tools and moving parts to be patched together. Not the easiest thing to get up and running, especially when working with android binaries. Making sure everyone is using the same versions to avoid issues is a chore. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
9 out of 10 Total Reviews for Libgdx
Libgdx is a game engine written in Java.This is the huge advantage for Java developer who want to make a game in Java.Moreover Kotlin support is also there.
With Libgdx you can export to major platforms including ios, Android, Web, Linux, Mac, Windows with a single code base.
Libgdx is open source, that implies you can customize, add features to Engine while maintaining your forked project. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The turndown for Libgdx was no GUI/drag and drop features.Everything has to be done programmatically.ios has recently moved to Metal, still Libgdx is using opengl for rendering object.
Working on Big platformer games can be exhausting due to lack of GUI.
Libgdx has steep learning curve for beginners.
As Libgdx utilizes Java as Primary language framerate can suffer as Heap management is done automatically. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like the freedom of coding basic game concepts, and making stuff that is not just drag and drop of somebody elses work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It is pretty hard to get started, if you do not have any basic understanding of coding, and even here it can be hard to find well updated dokumentation to help. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It's high performance and cross platform. The documentation isn't bad be prepared to google & read. The community is great and there are tons of tutorials on the web. If you are willing to put the time in you will learn a ton and possibly wind up with a great game. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Depending on your needs this could be either a good thing or a bad thing... This is a framework not an engine. Don't expect an experience like Unity. It's more of a huge collection of really useful tools that you can assemble into an engine. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
LibGDX is at its core a low-level wrapper over opengl. This gives the programmer plenty of flexibility and control in building a game engine. Beyond that, the framework has support for building ui, particle effects, texture atlases, and more. It's also open-source, making it easy to modify as you see fit.
Java's garbage collection feature saves some of the hassle of dealing with memory management, but for game development, that garbage collector needs to run as infrequently as possible. Libgdx is fast and its custom java collections implementations are carefully crafted to avoid garbage collections.
Libgdx also has several optional plugins to handle features like AI, entity-component systems, and more. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Support can be hard to find. A lot of the documentation may be old if you simply search online. Setup is tricky depending on your level of expertise. There's no handholding. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
LibGDX is a low-level Java library with support for Graphic, Input and Sound. I say low-level because is quite minimal compared to more advanced game libraries for Java and other complete Game Engine. However, if you are interested in writing your own "engine", in a language that is not too complex like Java and you want to keep the ability to export your game in tons of platforms ( Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and web browsers with WebGL), this is the way to go. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I do not really enjoy programming in Java. Moreover, I think it is too low level for my needs. I usually do a lot of Game Jams and in those situations I prefer a game engine for fast prototypes (such as Unity). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It gives dev another option when looking for software. it might not be the best no you have another choice. I also like the build in animation support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
3D games don't look the best and there are not many options for lighting and effects Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The best thing about LibGDX is how complete and comprehensive it's API is. It covers OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Bullet Physics, Box2D and Freetype with a coherent API that's completely platform independent. It's platform support is also very good, being compatible with Apple iOS, Android, The Linux/Windows/Mac combo and even HTML 5. It also makes use of the best features of the Java programming language, allowing for very concise programs on the developer user side (all the typical Java verbosity is hidden behind LibGDX's API).
The other best thing about LibGDX are it's own libraries for Entity-Component development, common AI patterns, particle systems, value interpolation and game pad support.
It is also very easy to set up for Eclipse, NetBeans or IntelliJ development using it's absurdly simple setup tool. And if you don't like Java, LibGDX is also 100% compatible with other JVM languages like Scala.
And last but not least: it's free software both as in free speech and free beer! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
That said, there is one not-so-terrible problem with LibGDX. It's documentation is sort of incomplete when it comes to advanced 3D programming, which it is perfectly capable of doing. The most affected part of this are the 3D animation and AI API documentations. The API and it's included javadocs are comprehensive enough that you can get around with it but some complete tutorials on the mentioned API's would be great. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
