GDevelop now on iOS: The First No-Code & Open-Source Game Engine for Mobile

Florian Rival

Florian Rival

The GDevelop team is proud to announce the release of the first-ever no-code, open-source game engine on iOS - just 2 weeks after the release on Android. The GDevelop mobile app was specifically optimised for mobile devices, and allows developers to continue working on their games on the go… or build entire new games from scratch, regardless of which device they are on.

Download it today for iOS and iPadOS on the App Store:

And get it for Android from Google Play:

As for the Android release, here are a few more details about the app for iPhone and iPads!

Game Creation on Your Phone

The GDevelop mobile app is as powerful as the full GDevelop desktop version. It’s a real, full-featured, open-source, professional grade game engine in your pocket. Specifically, you can:

  • Access all the tutorials embedded in the app (feel free to contribute to translations) to learn the basics of game creation with GDevelop and create your first games in minutes.
  • Create new game projects from scratch or from the library of 200 examples and templates.
  • Use free assets coming from the asset store (built over the past months thanks to the community) or import your own assets.
  • Open all your existing cloud projects, made with the desktop app. This includes all projects, with as many scenes, objects, events and other game elements as on the desktop version.
  • Export your games directly from the mobile app to all the currently supported platforms. Create an Android app, ready to be submitted to the Play Store, from your Android device!
  • Manage your game leaderboards, read players feedback, examine the game analytics, release a new version on gd.games from your phone.
  • Build any game you can think of.
  • Use all the official, reviewed extensions or community extensions (that are checked by the GDevelop team to ensure a minimal level of quality).

The GDevelop team worked hard to make the app as accessible as possible even on small screens. While an iPad is a good form factor for building, an iPhone or Android phone will also work and will allow you to edit every part of your game!

Unlock the Full Version to Support GDevelop Development

The mobile app is a new benefit that we're bringing to users having a Silver or Gold account (along with unlimited leaderboards, more cloud projects, more cloud builds, unlimited player feedback, custom leaderboard colors, optional splashscreen...). For new users which don't have a premium subscription, projects can be created with up to 1 scene, 20 objects in the scene and up to 30 events. To unlock all the features of the mobile app (which brings feature parity with the desktop and web editor), we ask to get a premium subscription to support GDevelop development.

We chose this model to find a good balance between making the GDevelop mobile app sustainable in the future and still approachable and fun to use for new users who want to build some prototypes or have fun with examples before considering getting a Silver or a Gold subscription.

Existing projects will always work! You can open an existing cloud project on the mobile app with any account even if it goes beyond the scene/objects or events limits. So you’ll be able to do some quick changes (like editing existing events), manage leaderboards or even export your game - even if you're not subscribed to GDevelop. If you’re an experienced developer and like the mobile app, consider getting the subscription to support GDevelop!

More Improvements Yet To Come

The mobile app is a first version that will be updated constantly to maintain feature parity with the desktop and web versions of GDevelop. Down the road, you’ll even be able to:

  • Work on projects on your phone completely offline.
  • Use the Debugger (for now, it's not available as it needs more work to adapt it for the mobile app)
  • We also hope to bring external editors (image editor, sound editor, dialogue editor, etc...).

The app also allows you to check how your game runs on a particular device without the need to use the network preview feature from the desktop version.

Remember that this first version has still many improvements that can be done and you could find bugs when using it: your feedback is welcome on the Discord or on the forums!

Whether you use GDevelop on mobile with a free or premium account, the GDevelop mobile app is the perfect companion for the serious developer who is constantly on the go.

GDevelop is Constantly Growing

Being the first no-code, open-source game engine optimised for mobile devices and available on prominent mobile stores is a big deal. With the GDevelop core team and contributors, we try to push technological envelopes and allow creators the flexibility of working on their games anywhere.

GDevelop stays an open-source, community-focused project at heart. The desktop and web versions stay unchanged, and the mobile app joins the existing premium offerings in an ever-expanding universe of choice: you decide if, how, when and on what device you want to access GDevelop and its extended feature set.

And because GDevelop is open-source, your contributions are welcome! Translations, code improvements for the app or game engine, submitting a new extension, a new example... all of this will help us push GDevelop forward and make game creation a reality for more users.

We hope the mobile app will help grow GDevelop even more and get it into the hands of new users dicovering game creation. To all the current and future GDevelop users: thank you for using GDevelop!