2D (GFX) Engine for Android

Question

I'm looking for some kind of 2D graphics engine for Android. In my special case I only want to move some Sprites, play short sounds and perhaps play some simple animations.

I know, I could do all these things for my own but I'm interested in some other solution for personal reasons. So is there a good, slim, efficient and most important, open source engine out there one can use and contribute to?

Answer 1

AndEngine is a good option. It's free, it's open (source included) and it offers extensions for Box2D Physics, Live Wallpapers, Aug. Reality (Camera games) and allsorts of other stuff - LOADS of game in the market using it already (no royalties).

Cocos-2d is also a good option.

I mostly recommend Unity3d as it is simply awesome! It has a great documentation and many resources and tutorials. But for Android development, it is not free. Here is the price details and comparison of features.

Also check out the list of some game engines Here

Answer 2

The following engines have been available for years and developers are actively improving them:

GDevelop is a very good open-source engine by Florian Rival that can export to Android without having to do traditional programming. The primary developer has plenty of ways you can contribute to the project.

Unity is an excellent choice if you're interested in entering the games industry but it isn't an open-source project that you can modify. From the Unity blog on March 26, 2018, by Aras Pranckevičius:

We are not releasing Unity as open source. Not even a little bit. (Sorry.) It’s not that we don’t like open source. We’d open source all of Unity today if we thought we could get away with it and still be in business tomorrow, and we do have a growing number of open source projects. But the main engine will remain proprietary for the foreseeable future, and the C# reference source code is released under a license which only permits you to read the code, not modify it. Please consult the full license text for details before you get carried away.

With that said, Unity apparently is open to contributions from developers:

Our decision to start open-sourcing components of Unity is intended to help us engage with you, our customers and users. We want to provide you with all of the securities and flexibilities that having source access provides.

We always welcome collaborative participation and community development. It is our hope and expectation that with this initiative, our community will be able to extend Unity in ways that were previously not possible.

After those, you have choices that involve more programming than game or graphic design:

LibGDX is a powerful, open-source engine if you are interested in traditional programming.

Cocos2d-x is another open-source option if you are looking for traditional programming.