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Wikipedia
Initial release: 2019
Stable release: May 2025
Repository
github.com/axmolengine/axmol
Platform Cross-platform
License MIT License
Website axmol.dev
Axmol Engine (/æksmoʊl/) is a free, open-source, cross-platform game engine designed for mobile devices, desktop, and Xbox, well-suited for 2D video games development.
It was launched in November 2019 as a fork of Cocos2d-x v4.0. As a result, Axmol Engine is a full C++ engine that supports Lua as a scripting language, and it's under MIT License.
Axmol Engine stands out from other game engines in a few ways. It doesn’t have an official visual editor. Game elements are organized as "nodes" inside "scenes" using a scene graph. The nodes are moved or animated using "actions," similar to how it works in Cocos2d-x or SpriteKit. Memory is managed through reference counting, a system inherited from the original Cocos2d engine, which was written in Objective-C for iOS back in 2008.
Some of the features that Axmol Engine added over Cocos2d-x v4.0 are:
- C++20 support.
- Apple Silicon and Android x64 support.
- Windows x64 build support.
- WebAssembly support for web applications.
- Universal Windows Platform (UWP) support for Xbox consoles.
- Support for extensions like Spine, Live2D, or FairyGUI (among others) out of the box.
- MediaPlayer and Windows video player support.
- Mobile: iOS, Android
- Desktop: Windows, Linux, macOS, tvOS
- Console: Xbox (Universal Windows Platform)
- Web: WebAssembly
Architectures:
- iOS/tvOS (x64, arm64)
- Android (x86, x64, armv7, arm64)
- Windows (x86, x64)
- Linux (x64)
- OSX (x64, arm64)
- UWP (x64, arm64)
- Wasm32
Renderer backends:
- Metal for macOS, iOS and tvOS
- OpenGL 3.3+ for Linux, macOS and Win32
- OpenGL ES 2.0+ for Android
- OpenGL ES 3.0+ for iOS and tvOS
- ANGLE GLES 3.0+ for Win32 and UWP
- WebGL 2.0 (OpenGL ES 3.0): WASM
Cocos2d-x's latest version, v4.0, was released in 2019 [1][2], and since then, Cocos recommends to start new projects in their newest engine [3], called Cocos Creator. Axmol Engine was then forked from the original Cocos2d-x v4.0 by halx99, a developer who has been making games in Cocos2d-x since 2013. In his words, "amidst a shifting focus by the official Cocos team towards Cocos Creator, I resolved that if they stepped back, I would continue to maintain the engine"[4]. The objective was to keep the original project updated and compatible with newer devices and technologies.
The name of the first version was "engine-v5" (as a continuation from Cocos2d-x v4.0), and ASTC support was added. Later, the name was changed to "cocos-re", then "ENGX", "axis", "axys", "adxe", and finally, "Axmol" was set as the definitive name in October 1st, 2022 [4].
The official release of version 1.0.0 of the Axmol Engine was on July 19, 2023, with the following enhancements over Cocos2d-x:
- C++ standard: Updated from C++11 to C++17.
- Platform support: Added Windows x64 support and modernized GL loading via glad.
- Graphics improvements: Expanded ASTC block size options, added ETC2 support, and integrated Google ANGLE as a GLES backend for broader Windows device compatibility.
- Extension support: Included frameworks such as FairyGUI, Live2D, ImGui and more.
- Audio unification: Standardized the audio library across platforms using OpenAL.
- CI/CD: Complete GitHub Actions for CI checks to ensure code quality.
Since then, the engine has continued to evolve, adding many improvements. The complete list is available on the engine's GitHub page.
Now, Axmol Engine is regarded by some media as the future of Cocos2d-x [5][6].
Some games made with Axmol Engine are:
- Cocos2d-x website https://www.cocos.com/en/cocos2dx-download
- Cocos2d-x Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos2d
- Cocos2d-x gitHub page https://github.com/cocos2d/cocos2d-x#embrace-the-future-switch-to-cocos-creator-for-a-better-experience
- A message from the initiator of Axmol https://github.com/axmolengine/axmol/wiki/A-message-from-the-initiator-of-Axmol
- C++ Game Engines in 2025, GameFromScratch (min 27:37) https://youtu.be/IFe8oIf4bz4
- Code & Web https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker/knowledgebase/is-cocos2d-x-dead