Programming Languages
Actively maintained languages that at least one engine from the Game Engines page is actually built or scripted with, and that build cross-platform
Selection and Classification Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- Last updated within the past 5 years
- Used by at least one engine from the Game Engines wiki page
- Compilable or transpilable on Linux, Mac, and Windows
Scripting Languages
JavaScript / TypeScript
✨ FeaturedTypeScript transpiles down to JavaScript, which every major browser and Node.js run natively on Linux, Mac, and Windows; it's the dev language behind GDevelop, PlayCanvas, Construct, and Phaser.
Lua
A lightweight, embeddable language compiled to bytecode by its reference implementation, with a real tracing garbage collector; it's the scripting language behind Defold, PICO-8, and LÖVE.
GDScript
Godot's own Python-like language, compiled to internal bytecode and managed by reference counting rather than a tracing collector; it only exists as Godot's primary development language.
Application Languages
C#
✨ FeaturedCompiled to an intermediate language and JIT-run by .NET, with automatic garbage collection; it's Unity's primary scripting language and cross-platform via the open-source .NET SDK.
System Languages
C++
✨ FeaturedCompiled ahead of time with no garbage collector and full manual memory control; it's the language Godot, GDevelop, Defold, and PICO-8 are themselves built in.
Rust
Compiled with no garbage collector, using an ownership/borrow-checker model for memory safety instead; it's the language and dev language behind the Bevy engine.
Odin
A C-like systems language with manual memory management and no default garbage collector; the compiler ships an official vendor:raylib binding, making raylib usable directly from Odin.