LITIengine

In a world where the leading companies of the gaming industry are fist fighting each other for dominance and provide players around the world with intricate storylines, insanely realistic graphics, and vast in-game open worlds, there are some who still prefer 2D pixel art games.

For most, retro pixel games are all about that nostalgia as they offer an instant gateway to reliving great childhood moments, while others argue that some are a lot more challenging than their modern counterparts, thus making them a lot more satisfying and fun to play.

That said, creating 2D games is now easier than it ever was, especially if you take into account the existence of free Java game engines such as LITIengine.

In short, LITIengine is an open-source and easy-to-learn 2D Java game library (entirely based on Java AWT Graphics) that provides all the required infrastructure elements for creating those retro-looking pixel art games, be them platformers, top-down adventure/shooters or RPGs.

Created by two passionate Bavarian brothers, it includes a 2D Physics Engine, a 2D Render Engine, a 2D Sound Engine, a Particle System, a nifty API for basic game infrastructure creation, and also boasts support for Tiled Maps (.tmx).

The 2D Physics Engine boasts features such as collision detection and collision resolving, as well as the possibility of applying force to entities and moving them with acceleration respecting the friction and weight factors. The 2D Render Engine allows you to create the environment for your games with all the included elements such as sprites, shapes, text-based Java AWT graphics.

The engine allows game creators to stream multiple audio sources using formats such as .WAV, .OGG, and .MP3. Special effects and eye candy can be added using the Particle System, and custom map objects can be created and enhanced by taking advantage of the Tilemap support. More information about the engine’s features can be found in the dedicated Docs section.

Last but not least, one of the main advantages of LITIengine is the fact that it is Java-based. This means that it natively supports all major desktop OSes out there and maintains a high portability factor.

LITIengine will most definitely appeal to indie game developers out there, or any other individuals passionate about retro video games who have finally decided to take the step forward and create their own game from scratch. If you want to support the project, you can check out the official website, or the project’s GitHub repo.