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Can Flutter be used for Game Development

Flutter Game Development

Can Flutter be used for Game Development?

Yes, Flutter can be used to develop mobile games. Developers use Flutter to make simple casual games for mobile platforms. You can use the Flame framework or the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit to make different types of games for mobile devices.

It is worth noting that you will not be making AAA-level games, but you will still be able to develop decent games that can attract the attention of many users.

Since its release by Google in 2017, Flutter has grown in popularity and usage to become one of the most popular cross-platform UI software development kit.

Flutter is used to develop cross-platform applications for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Google Fuchsia, and the web from one codebase.

Flutter is very easy to learn and use. It uses Dart, a high-level, programming language designed for client development. Dart can also be used to build server and desktop applications.

In 2022, Google announced the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit at the Google I/O 2022. The Flutter Casual Games Toolkit helps Flutter developers to make mobile casual games for Android and iOS.

Flutter Casual Games

The Flutter Casual Games Toolkit helps developers to Speed up their game’s development with pre-built integrations for services like Ads, In-App Purchases, Firebase, Play Services, and Game Center.

GAMES MADE WITH FLUTTER

Games made with Flutter
Games made with Flutter

There are quite a good number of games made with Flutter, some of the notable ones include

  • Chess Variants – Omnichess
  • 4 Pics 1 Word
  • Kelimelik
  • Orbit
  • Super TicTacToe
  • Tomb Road
  • Planets
  • Google I/O Pinball

And many others

FLUTTER GAME ENGINES AND PACKAGES

There are many resources, frameworks, and packages that can help developers to build games with Flutter, some of the common ones include

And many others.

Game Engines help to do some of the heavy lifting and advanced calculations involved in game development. This helps game developers to focus on game design and other strategies.

  • FLAME ENGINE: A 2D modular game engine made on top of Flutter, it provides simple and effective game loop implementation and the necessary functionalities that are needed in a game, e.g. input, images, sprites, sprite sheets, animations, collision detection, etc.
  • RIVE: A Flutter package that provides runtime functionality for playing back and interacting with animations built with the Rive editor.
  • FLARE FLUTTER: A Vector design and runtime animation for Flutter.
  • BONFIRE: A flutter package for creating RPG-style or similar games more simply with Flame.
  • SPRITE WIDGET: A toolkit for building complex, high-performance animations and 2D games with Flutter
  • FLUTTER UNITY WIDGET: A Flutter Unity 3D widget for embedding Unity game scenes in Flutter
  • FORGE 2D: A 2D physics engine for Dart. It also works with the Flame game engine in Flutter

And many others

WHAT KIND OF GAMES CAN I BUILD WITH FLUTTER?

Flutter can be used to build app-like casual games. App-like games include casual games such as board games, card games, puzzles, and strategy games. Because these games are app-like, they are especially well suited for Flutter.

Flutter can be used to build games for mobile platforms like Android and iOS and for the web.

ALTERNATIVES TO FLUTTER FOR GAME DEVELOPMENT?

If you are serious about game development, the best platforms to use are Unity 3D, Unreal Engine, GameMaker Studio, Godot, or CryEngine. These platforms are developed for game development and have loads of features that make game development a great experience.

UNITY 3D

Unity is one of the most popular platforms for developing 2D and 3D games. Unity uses the C# programming languages for game logic, there are also other features that can be implemented with drag and drop.

Unity has a marketplace called Asset store, where you can download free and paid game assets to quicken your development process. Unity is regarded as a beginner-friendly platform, it is used by big companies as well as indie developers.

Some of the popular games made with Unity include Pokemon Go, Monument Valley 2, Tempo Run, Robocraft, Angry Birds, Sonic Dash, Marvel Strike Force, Iron Man VR, Lara Croft Go, Super Mario Run, and many others.

Unity supports many platforms, once you are done developing your game, you can deploy it to different platforms such as Android, iOS, tvOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Playstations, Xbox, Nintendo, Stadia, WebGL, Oculus VR, PSVR, ARCore, Magic Leap, etc.

Unity is also used in other industries such as Film, Automotive, Architecture, Military, Engineering, Construction, etc.

UNREAL ENGINE

Unreal Engine is one of the most advanced, powerful, and popular platforms for making 2D and 3D games, it uses the C++ programming language for programming the game logic.

Unreal Engine has also a marketplace that has a lot of resources ranging from art assets to models, sounds, environments, code snippets, and more. Some of them are free while others can be paid for.

Some of the popular games made with Unreal Engine include Fortnite, Brothers in Arms, Golden Eye: Rogue Agent, Medal of Honor, Shadow Ops, Shrek 2, Star Wars, Spider-man 2, Batman Arkham City, DC Universe Online, Mortal Kombat, Transformers, Crash Bandicoot, and many others.

Unreal supports many platforms, once you are done developing your games, you can deploy to different platforms such as Android, iOS, tvOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Playstations, Xbox, Nintendo, Stadia, WebGL, Oculus VR, PSVR, ARCore, etc.

Unreal Engine is also used in other industries such as Film & TV, Architecture, Simulations, Automotive & Transportation, Broadcast & Live Events, Engineering, medicine, etc.

GAMEMAKER STUDIO

GameMaker Studio is an easy-to-use game engine for making 2D games and offers limited use of 3D graphics. It has a drag-and-drop feature that makes game development easy. You can also use programming languages like Javascript, C++, and Game maker language for advanced features.

GameMaker Studio has also a marketplace that has a lot of resources ranging from animations to sounds, backgrounds, fonts, objects, paths, sprites, scripts, shaders, and more. Some of them are free while others can be paid for.

Some of the popular games made with GameMaker Studio include Undertale, Forager, Hyper Light Drifter, Samurai Gunn 2, Webbed, The Tarnishing of Juxtia, Destructivator 2, Fields of Mistria, Flynn: Son of Crimson, Katana Zero, Battleships Forever, Tower of Heaven, and many others.

GameMaker Studio supports many platforms, once you are done developing your games, you can deploy to different platforms such as Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Tizen, Playstations, Xbox, Nintendo, WebGL, Amazon Fire TV, etc.

Others include Godot (C++, C#) Panda3D (Python), Phaser (Javascript), Blend4Web (Javascript), and many others.

These alternatives will help you to build games for many platforms and they have a huge community of game developers. a big community around a language is helpful in case you have challenges during development.

CONCLUSION

It can be seen that Flutter can be used for Game development using platforms like the Flutter Casual Game Toolkit, Flame Engine, and many others. However, Flutter is limited in features and resources for game development.

It is worth noting that Flutter cannot be used to make games for consoles, it focuses on mobile platforms.

Can Flutter be used for Game Development
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