JavaScript has already proven its ability to develop top-quality games.
As you might expect from a language with so many frameworks and libraries, there are plenty of game engine options to fit your skills and needs.
Many are free and open-source, run in a web editor, and provide fast rendering for 2D and 3D elements. Thus, in case you want to create your first JavaScript-powered interactive and fun experience, here are some options to consider:
1. Phaser
Phaser allows you to create HTML5 games for desktop and mobile. Features include sprites and images, input controls, and three main physics engines. The framework uses both a Canvas and WebGL renderer internally and can switch between them automatically depending on browser support.
One advantage of this software is the opportunity to join a large developer community through forums, newsletters, and social media.
To use the game engine, you need a web browser that supports the HTML <canvas> tag. Besides JavaScript, the tool also supports TypeScript code.
2. Pixi.js
Pixi is an easy-to-use 2D renderer for creating HTML5 games and other interactive digital content. Spotify, Marvel, Google, and Adobe are some of the brands that use its features.
The tool includes a WebGL renderer, but it also falls back to Canvas if a browser doesn’t support it.
To start using Pixi, download a prebuilt build. You can install it via NPM or a CDN. If you are curious about how the library works, check out this online playground to test its features.
3. Babylon.js
Sponsored by Microsoft, Babylon is a popular library that offers powerful tools for building and rendering 3D games with WebGL.
One of this engine’s biggest strengths is its large, established community, which makes it easy to find tutorials, guidelines, and code to deploy. In addition, it doesn’t require any installation on your computer, as it works within the browser/ code editor itself.
4. Cocos2d
Cocos2d presents itself as a unified package of game development tools. It lets developers code an entire game in JavaScript and export it to multiple platforms. Through Cocos2d-x, the open-source framework offers resource management, scene editing, game previewing, debugging, and publishing.
The engine is available for Windows and Mac. It also has a forum where developers can discuss projects and find help.
5. PlayCanvas
PlayCanvas offers a complete set of tools for building 3D games. The engine has WebGL 3D, physical rendering, lighting features, light maps, meshes, and many other elements supported within its graphics infrastructure.
Another big advantage is that it runs in the cloud, so you don’t need plugins to run or test your games in the browser.
Although PlayCanvas is a free, open-source tool, it offers paid subscriptions so developers can migrate projects to private servers or get more storage capacity.
6. Kiwi.js
Kiwi is one of the easiest open-source frameworks to make mobile and desktop HTML5 games. The engine uses both WebGL and Canvas rendering and can publish games and apps through CocoonJS and the Chrome Webstore.
One highlight of this tool is its rich collection of plugins. These include an achievements engine for creating custom achievements based on user progress, quest management, sprites and shaders, a social media connector, and even an artificial intelligence algorithm to explore.
Plus, Kiwi offers plenty of tutorials, so beginners can learn to create and publish their first games quickly.
7. Panda Engine
Panda Engine works with Pixi to render 2D games for mobile and desktop quickly. Beyond this integration, the tool is lightweight and supports many libraries and algorithms you might want to use.
One interesting feature is the ability to track Google Analytics events inside the game, making it possible to measure and improve performance.
8. MelonJS
MelonJS is an open-source project supported by its community.
The framework aims to offer a “plugin-free” tool for exploring 2D rendering, physics, transition effects, animation management, and other elements to build HTML5 interactive experiences.
One advantage of this tool is its support: new developers can join the engine’s community forums to ask questions, report bugs, or check out demo applications to learn how different aspects of game development work.
9. QICI Engine
Based on Phaser, this free JavaScript library provides a web-based suite to make HTML5 games. As its predecessor, QICI uses Pixi’s WebGL and Canvas rendering for desktop and mobile web browsers.
The engine has three parts: QICI Core, a game engine library; QICI Widget, a UI library for creating applications; and QICI Editor, a web-based editor with a Node.js server for HTML5 game development.
10. Crafty
Crafty is a library that combines components to build interactive games. It lets developers explore the potential of pure JavaScript by creating custom calls and actions.
The engine provides a clean way to organize entities and components without inheritance, includes an event system for custom events, and doesn’t require DOM manipulation or custom drawing routines.
Final Thoughts
Dozens of other great options exist for developing a game, but not all support scripting with JavaScript.
If your goal is to create games for consoles, VR devices, or other specific platforms, for example, you will need to consider more robust alternatives like the ones below:
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