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Defold

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Free, lightweight, cross-platform 2D/3D game engine scripted in Lua

Game Development Software Game Engine Software
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  • Deployment On Premises
  • Starting price Free
  • Free trial Not offered
  • Best for Freelancers, Startups, SMEs

What is Defold?

Defold is a free, cross-platform game engine for building 2D and 3D games for desktop, mobile, web, and consoles from a single project. Games use a component-based architecture and are scripted entirely in Lua, while the engine core runs on fast C++. Exported games are known for a very small footprint, often under 2MB with low RAM usage, and the editor includes hot reload, a profiler, and a debugger for a fast workflow.

The engine is owned and developed by the Defold Foundation, a Swedish foundation whose charter legally prevents Defold from ever adopting fees, royalties, or a subscription model. Source code for the engine, editor, and build tools is publicly available on GitHub, and developers can extend the engine using native C/C++ extensions or trim it down with a custom app manifest.

Key Features of Defold

Defold lists 9 documented features, including Completely free to use with no royalties, licensing fees, or subscriptions, Lua scripting for all game logic and Component-based, modular architecture. The list below covers what the product does rather than how it is marketed.

  • Completely free to use with no royalties, licensing fees, or subscriptions
  • Lua scripting for all game logic
  • Component-based, modular architecture
  • Built-in visual editor for scenes, UI, and animation
  • Small runtime footprint (often under 2MB, low RAM use)
  • Hot reload, fast builds, integrated profiler and debugger
  • Native extensions (C/C++) and App Manifest for customizing engine size
  • Cross-platform export to iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, HTML5, and consoles
  • Built-in 2D/3D physics and animation system

Defold Pricing

Defold lists one plan, at Free.

Defold

Free

Unlimited

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Full engine, editor and all features free forever, no royalties, subscriptions, or licensing fees

Defold Specifications

Defold is available on Windows, macOS and web app and has iOS and Android apps. It has a free plan.

Deployment
  • On Premises
Billing cycle
Onetime
Desktop
  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Web App
Mobile
  • iOS
  • Android
Languages
  • English
Built for
  • Freelancers
  • Startups
  • SMEs
Integrations
Native C/C++ extensions marketplace, Steam, asset tools such as Spine and Tiled, GitHub
Public API
No
Free trial
No
Free plan
Yes
Runs in browser
No
Customisable
Yes
Website
defold.com

Defold Videos

Defold Screenshots

Defold screenshot 1

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Defold FAQs

Yes. Defold is free to use with no upfront cost, no licensing fees, and no royalties, and the Swedish foundation that owns it is legally structured so this can never change.

Lua is used for all game logic, while the engine itself is written in C++ for performance.

Yes, the full source code for the engine, editor, and build tools is available on GitHub under a developer-friendly, Apache-derived license.

Defold supports iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, HTML5, and select consoles from a single codebase.

Yes, while Defold is especially known for 2D development, it is a full 2D and 3D engine.