Adventure Game Studio
Shares rank 9 of 20 game engines by recommenders
Free, open source engine for adventure games with full commercial games made in it. Caveat: the editor is Windows-only.
Free, open source engine for adventure games with full commercial games made in it. Caveat: the editor is Windows-only.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Still maintained and around for decades
“it's open source and still sees regular updates (20+ years later!)”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” “Really enjoyed it back then, great to see it's still around”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” “AGS is still a good engine for making games!”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” - Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games”
- Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games”
Free open source license
“This license is a free software license, compatible with the GPL thanks to the relicensing option in section 4(c)(ii).”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” “it's open source and still sees regular updates (20+ years later!)”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” Battle tested with commercial games
“AGS is awesome and well and truly battle tested in terms of having actual full commercial games made with it.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” “are not as battle tested as AGS”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Editor is Windows-only, no Mac or Linux
“The AGS Editor is still Windows-only, and will likely always be due to its deep reliance upon Windows GUI libraries.”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” “I wish they'd make a version for macos. You need to use wine to run it”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” “came back disappointed that I could not use it on my Mac”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games” - Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Adventure Game Studio: OSS software for creating adventure games”
Other game engines people recommend
The four most recommended other game engines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godot | 213 | 57 | 79% | 12 | 2 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| Unity | 110 | 165 | 40% | 12 | 16 yrs8 owners | — |
| Unreal Engine | 104 | 89 | 54% | 12 | — | — |
| Bevy game engine | 50 | 18 | 74% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Adventure Game StudioThis page | 13 | 3 | 81% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“are not as battle tested as AGS”
“The AGS Editor is still Windows-only, and will likely always be due to its deep reliance upon Windows GUI libraries.”
“AGS is still a good engine for making games!”
“Really enjoyed it back then, great to see it's still around”
“people seem to do it all the time and not run into any issues”
“AGS is awesome and well and truly battle tested in terms of having actual full commercial games made with it.”
“Nice to see he either recanted, or handed the reigns to someone who wasn't opposed.”
“I wish they'd make a version for macos. You need to use wine to run it”
“Surprised it isn’t on linux”
“I have to applaud Chris Jones for going all the way, it's really quite impressive.”
“came back disappointed that I could not use it on my Mac”
“This license is a free software license, compatible with the GPL thanks to the relicensing option in section 4(c)(ii).”
“it's open source and still sees regular updates (20+ years later!)”
“awesome that it's still alive and kicking”
“It had an awesome C++ like scripting language.”
“Glad to see it's still around!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.