# Adventure Game Studio

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Adventure Game Studio and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open source engine for adventure games with full commercial games made in it. Caveat: the editor is Windows-only.

## Why people recommend it

- Still maintained and around for decades (5 comments): "it's open source and still sees regular updates (20+ years later!)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847186)) "Really enjoyed it back then, great to see it's still around" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853690)) "AGS is still a good engine for making games!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46860189))
- Free open source license (2 comments): "This license is a free software license, compatible with the GPL thanks to the relicensing option in section 4(c)(ii)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847387)) "it's open source and still sees regular updates (20+ years later!)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847186))
- Battle tested with commercial games (2 comments): "AGS is awesome and well and truly battle tested in terms of having actual full commercial games made with it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46852364)) "are not as battle tested as AGS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46871318))

## What people warn about

- Editor is Windows-only, no Mac or Linux (4 comments): "The AGS Editor is still Windows-only, and will likely always be due to its deep reliance upon Windows GUI libraries." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46864470)) "I wish they'd make a version for macos. You need to use wine to run it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46848680)) "came back disappointed that I could not use it on my Mac" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847671))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Godot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/godot.md): 213 recommend
- [Unity](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unity.md): 110 recommend
- [Unreal Engine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unreal-engine.md): 104 recommend
- [Bevy game engine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bevy.md): 50 recommend
- [id Tech engine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/id-tech-engine.md): 26 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Adventure Game Studio", https://hackerapproved.com/p/adventure-game-studio/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).