This blog is dedicated to the love of games!
Video games allow people to enjoy different activities virtually. From racing and wrestling to shooting and basketball, players can explore every sport on their screens. This is why video games are always on the hype!
The gaming industry has a lot of potentials. It’s growing exponentially and is not expected to slow down soon. Video games are high in demand, and children are not their only target audience. Even adults spend significant time and money on gaming apps to relieve stress and boredom.
The ever-increasing popularity of video games has made it a lucrative career choice. Developers can create highly interactive games that engage millions of users at a time. With powerful development tools available in the market, you can also try your hand at game development!
Do you have an interesting idea for a video game? Don’t know where to start? Well, this blog explains three popular platforms used to develop gaming apps. Find out what they are and select the one that suits your goals the best!
Let’s get started with the basics!
Game Development
Game development refers to the process of building a game. To create a game, developers have to first generate a concept. Then, they need to determine a suitable design. After that comes the actual coding and programming. Finally, the game development is tested and launched.
Also Read: Top Android Emulator
Not from a strict programming background? Well, guess what? You can still be a mobile and web game developer! Game development no longer requires a long coding process. There are a lot of game development frameworks and kits available in the market now. These tools automate the game development process by providing numerous pre-made functions and features.
Three major game development platforms are explained below.
Flutter & Its features
Flutter is an open-source UI software development tool kit launched by Google.
This software development kit has pre-written codes, encompassing ready-to-use and customizable widgets, libraries, tools, and documentation that make the development process faster and easier. Flutter has its own programming language called Dart.
Developers use Flutter to create cross-platform apps from a single codebase. It means you do not have to create different versions for your app to work on different platforms.
· User Interface
Flutter supports customer-rendered widgets.
It uses two sets of widgets.
- Material Design and
- Cupertino widgets
That helps to provide a glitch-free experience on all platforms. By controlling each visual detail, you can develop apps having modern UI, custom styling & animated user interfaces.
Thanks to Flutter’s own UI toolkit, Flutter’s UI is more consistent across all platforms. Flutter apps look the same on old versions of the operating systems. You don’t need to worry about configuring support for older versions of the devices.
· Community Support
However, the downside here is that the Flutter community is not as experienced and established as React Native. Dart is also not as modern and widespread as other languages like Javascript, so it might not have enough development support.
Although Flutter and Dart are not that popular yet, the number of Flutter developers is steadily growing. Let’s see how much time it takes to match up with the React Native community in terms of resources available to solve common issues.
· Testing Support
It again heavily relies on third-party tools for integration and UI testing.
React Native & Its Features
React Native is an open-source UI software framework developed by Meta Platforms, Inc.
This framework is used to create cross-platform applications using React, a Javascript Library of User Interfaces. React allows developers to make changes without reloading the entire page.
· User Interface
React Native app supports platform-specific UI elements.
The code written in React Native is compiled into native code, allowing all operating systems to provide a closer native appearance and functions on all platforms.
However, React Native does not have its own UI toolkit. Developers have to rely on third-party libraries to access most of the native modules. Plus, the UI of React Native apps may be inconsistent across different platforms. Why? Simply because different platforms have different UI elements. Even a simple UI change needs testing on multiple platforms if you work with React Native.
To sum up, React Native apps have more dynamic, high-performing, and responsive UI with native platform capabilities. This framework works the best if you prefer a more “traditional” app having native elements with little styling or animation extensibilities.
· Community Support
React Native came before Flutter, giving it a significant head start to gather more support. By the time Google introduced Flutter, React Native developers had already established their community, sharing all kinds of resources to support and improvise React Native Development.
· Testing Support
Flutter offers a set of rich testing features, allowing you to test the app at 3 levels, including unit test, widget test, and integration test.
Felgo & Its Features
Felgo is an app development tool to create cross-platform apps by using and extending the Qt framework.
This development tool is written in QML. They work on all iOS, Android, Windows Phone, embedded devices, and desktop devices.
· User Interface
Felgo uses QML, a reactive scripting language that can be integrated with JavaScript & C++. This language was designed from the scratch with one particular goal, to be good at UI development.
This is the only tool that combines both, native-rendered elements and customized widgets.
Felgo has a built-in visual UI editor. Hence, it provides full support for a 3D User Interface. Visual effects like shading are now very important to impress the players and make your app stand out amongst others. All such requirements are supported in Felgo.
Plus, you can simulate mobile UIs for different platforms on a desktop build, and even can change the platform style at runtime.
· Community Support
As a relatively new tool, Felgo does not have enough community support as compared to its alternatives. However, it has full enterprise support and service level agreement. The company offers training and a free trial for the developers to ensure that it’s the best fit for their requirements.
· Testing Support
Felgo provides complete support for conducting different tests. In fact, the company offers comprehensive tutorials on how to test your apps the right way.
Conclusion: Which One is The Best?
Choosing the right platform for your game development apps depends on factors like the specifics of your project, your team’s skills, and your priorities. Ask yourself questions like:
- which programming language does your team have more experience with?
- What kind of UI do you want?
- What level of community support do you require?
Go with Flutter if you want a completely personalized or modern look and features. Choose React Native if you prefer an optimized application for each platform, irrespective of time & cost. Select Felgo if you want to target embedded or desktop apps or a cross between native and customized UI.
One thought on “Flutter, React Native vs Felgo : Which is Best for Game Development?”