Best iPad Game Makers 2026

Best iPad Game Makers 2026: Which Export Real Swift

Last updated: September 2026

The Short Answer

Superapp builds native iPad and iPhone games in your browser and publishes them straight to the App Store through your own Apple Developer account, generating real Swift you can export at any time. As a disclosure, it is our product.

Two questions separate every tool on this page, and almost no comparison asks the second one.

The first is whether you can build on the iPad or only for it. The second is what you are left holding: native Swift source, a cross-platform package, or a game that only exists inside someone else's app.

Quick answer: Superapp generates native Swift for iPad and iPhone in the browser and submits to the App Store under your own developer account. Apple's own Swift Playground is free, runs on the iPad itself, builds with SwiftUI and SpriteKit, and uploads to App Store Connect without a Mac ever being involved. hyperPad is a one-time $14.99 iPad app that exports a real Xcode project. Codea is Lua on the iPad, free up to 500 lines. GDevelop is the surprise: it ships a full native iPad app and cloud-builds to the App Store with no Mac, though what it produces is an HTML5 game in a Cordova wrapper rather than Swift. Unity, Godot and Defold all target the iPad but cannot be run on one. And Bloxels, Castle, Hopscotch and Pixicade never produce an App Store listing at all.

How We Judged These Tools

Four tests, applied identically to all twelve, and stated up front so you can disagree with the weighting rather than guess at it.

1. Does it run on the iPad itself? Not "does it target iPad," which almost everything does. Can you open it on the device and work. Five pass: Swift Playground, hyperPad, Codea, GDevelop's native app, and Superapp by running in a browser.

2. Can it put an app on the App Store under your own developer account? This is the line between a game maker and a game toy, and it is where four popular, well-rated products fall out.

3. What is inside the binary when it ships? Native frameworks that are already on the device, a vendor runtime, or a web view. This determines download size, performance ceiling and who can maintain the code later.

4. What do you hold if the tool disappears? Source you can read, a project only that tool understands, or nothing. Struckd made this test concrete on 1 August 2026.

We did not weight ease of use, because every tool here claims it and none of them can be measured from the outside, and we did not weight price as a primary axis, because the cheapest options on this page are free and the differences that matter are not financial.

Every factual claim below is sourced to the vendor's own documentation, Apple's documentation, or an App Store listing, and quoted rather than paraphrased wherever the wording carries weight. Where two sources disagree, both appear and neither is resolved. Where a vendor's price could not be read because it renders in the browser, no figure is stated.

Build On the iPad, or Only For It?

Most game engines treat the iPad as a target, not a workstation. You build on a Mac and the iPad receives the result. That is fine if you own a Mac, and it is the whole problem if you do not.

The bar for owning one went up this year. Xcode 27 requires macOS 26.6 or later and, per its App Store listing, "a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later." Intel Macs no longer run the current toolchain, so the standard advice to pick up a cheap second-hand MacBook is now wrong.

Which makes the on-iPad question worth asking properly. Four tools here genuinely answer it: Swift Playground, hyperPad, Codea and GDevelop's native app. Superapp answers it a fifth way, by running in the browser so the device barely matters.

The Second Question: What Do You Actually Own?

Tools that publish to the App Store are not equivalent, because what goes into the binary differs enormously.

Native Swift is Apple's own language compiled against frameworks already on the device. Nothing extra ships. Any iOS developer can open the project and continue it.

A Cordova or HTML5 package is a web game inside a native shell. It ships to the App Store perfectly well, and it is genuinely cross-platform, but the thing you own is a web project, not an Apple-native one.

A community game never becomes an app. Bloxels games live in the Bloxels Arcade. Castle games live in Castle. There is no icon on the home screen and no product page with your name on it.

All three are legitimate. They are just not the same purchase, and the marketing language across all three is nearly identical.

What Can You Build With Generated Swift?

This is the question that decides whether "generates Swift" is a marketing line or a capability, and it is worth answering concretely, because the answer is not "simple games."

Swift is not a scripting layer bolted onto a game engine. It is the language Apple's own frameworks are written against, and those frameworks are a complete game stack. Apple's documentation describes each of them:

SpriteKit, for 2D:

"SpriteKit is a general-purpose framework for drawing shapes, particles, text, images, and video in two dimensions. It leverages Metal to achieve high-performance rendering, while offering a simple programming interface to make it easy to create games and other graphics-intensive apps. Using a rich set of animations and physics behaviors, you can quickly add life to your visual elements and gracefully transition between screens."

Read that list again: particles, physics behaviours, animations. Those are the exact features people assume require Unity.

GameplayKit, for the logic underneath:

"GameplayKit is an object-oriented framework that provides foundational tools and technologies for building games. GameplayKit includes tools for designing games with functional, reusable architecture, as well as technologies for building and enhancing gameplay features such as character movement and opponent behavior."

GameKit, for everything social:

"Use the GameKit framework to implement Game Center social-gaming network features. Game Center is an Apple service that provides a single account that identifies players across all their games and devices."

"Enable players to interact with friends, compare leaderboard ranks, earn achievements, and participate in multiplayer games."

Metal, underneath all of it:

"The Metal framework gives your app direct access to a device's graphics processing unit (GPU). With Metal, apps can leverage a GPU to quickly render complex scenes and run computational tasks in parallel."

Apple's own games page names Metal as the centre of its games story:

"Metal gives you direct, low-overhead control of the GPU so you can build visually rich games and run them at maximum efficiency on Apple silicon across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro."

So the practical ceiling for a Swift-generating tool is not a genre list. It is these frameworks, which is the same ceiling every native iPad game on the App Store works within. Puzzle, card, board, word, quiz, trivia, idle, clicker, incremental, tower defence, match-three, endless runner, platformer, roguelike, turn-based strategy, real-time arcade, physics sandbox and text adventure are all Swift problems.

What a generator does not give you is an editor. That is the real trade and it is worth being precise about it. An engine like Godot or Unity puts a viewport in front of you: you drag a sprite into a scene, press play, watch a physics body bounce, and pull gravity down by 0.2 until it feels right. That loop is excellent for games whose quality lives in feel, and it is why platformer developers swear by it.

A generator inverts that loop. You describe the behaviour and read the implementation. For a card game, a puzzle, an idle loop or a turn-based system that is faster, because the logic is the game. For a game where a designer needs to nudge forty numbers over a week, the editor is the better instrument.

The resolution, and the reason source export matters more than any feature comparison on this page: a generated Swift project opens in Xcode. You can generate the game, export the Swift, and tune it by hand for as long as you like, with Instruments and the full Apple toolchain. Nothing about starting with generated Swift prevents finishing like a native developer. That is not true of any tool here that hands you a runtime instead of source.

Tier 1: Native Swift You Own

Superapp

Superapp builds iPad and iPhone games in your browser and publishes them straight to the App Store. No Mac, no Xcode, no download. You describe the game, it generates native Swift, and it submits through your own Apple Developer account. The source is yours to export at any time. As a disclosure, it is our product.

It generates native Swift for iPad and iPhone and states that "you fully own the code and can export it anytime." On submission: "Connect your Apple Developer account and Superapp prepares the build, metadata, screenshots, privacy declarations, ASO optimization, and submission flow for you." That detail matters for Apple's guideline 4.2.6, covered below, because the app publishes under your account rather than ours.

Pricing is a free tier, Pro at $25 a month for 50 credits, Business at $50 for 110, and Max at $100 for 230, with an $18 top-up for 30 extra credits.

What can it build? Almost any game, because the ceiling is Swift's ceiling rather than a feature list. Superapp writes Swift against Apple's own frameworks, which means it can reach SpriteKit for 2D physics, particles, tilemaps and collision, SwiftUI for interface and state, GameplayKit for pathfinding and agent behaviour, GameKit for leaderboards and multiplayer, and Metal underneath all of it. Those are the same frameworks a studio uses. Puzzle, card, board, word, quiz, idle, clicker, tower defence, match-three, endless runner, platformer, roguelike, turn-based strategy and real-time arcade games are all Swift problems, and Swift is what comes out.

What you trade is workflow, not capability. A traditional engine gives you a visual editor: you drag a sprite, watch a physics body bounce, and tune gravity with a slider. Superapp gives you a description and the code that implements it. For most games that is faster. For a game whose feel depends on a designer nudging values for a week, an editor is the better instrument, and you would want to export the Swift and keep tuning it in Xcode, which Superapp lets you do at any time.

The honest limits: iPhone and iPad only, no Android, and no Android is a deliberate consequence of generating Swift rather than a gap. It has no G2, Capterra or Trustpilot listing, while GDevelop's iPad app alone carries 2,400 ratings, and for a cautious buyer that absence is a fair reason to look closely. And it is credit-metered, so budget for iteration rather than for the first generation.

How the pricing actually works. Credits are the unit, not seats or projects. The free tier lets you try it; Pro at $25 a month gives 50 credits; Business at $50 gives 110, which is a better rate per credit; Max at $100 gives 230, better again. A $18 top-up adds 30 credits without changing plan. Generation spends credits, so the variable that matters for budgeting is how many times you expect to iterate, not how many games you expect to ship.

On guideline 4.2.6, which is the rule that decides whether a generated app is allowed at all, the relevant sentence from Superapp's own description is about whose account is used: "Connect your Apple Developer account and Superapp prepares the build, metadata, screenshots, privacy declarations, ASO optimization, and submission flow for you." Apple's rule rejects apps from a generation service "unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content." Submitting under your own account is what keeps a generated app on the right side of that line, and it is worth checking for any tool in this category, not just this one.

Where it sits against the rest of this page. Superapp and Apple's Swift Playground are the only two entries that produce Swift. Between them the difference is whether you write it. Swift Playground is free and you write SwiftUI by hand; Superapp costs $25 a month and writes it from a description, then submits for you. Against the engines, the difference is what ends up in the binary: Superapp ships no runtime, because the frameworks are already on the device.

Swift Playground

Apple's own tool, free, and the only one here where Apple itself handles every step on the iPad.

It is iPad-only on this listing, requires iPadOS 18.0 or later, and is a 1.5 GB download. Version 4.7 "includes Swift 6 and the iOS 26 SDK."

For games it is better equipped than most people realise. Apple's description lists access to "iOS frameworks such as SpriteKit for 2D games, SceneKit for 3D graphics, UIKit, and more," and notes that "your code has direct control of iPad hardware, including the gyroscope, accelerometer, camera, and touch events."

Submission happens on the device. Apple's support guide is explicit: "If you have an Apple Developer account, you can submit an app you create to App Store Connect." Apple's App Store Connect help lists it alongside the professional tools: "you can upload a build using Xcode, Swift Playground, altool, or Transporter."

Three documented constraints, all from Apple:

• A custom icon is mandatory. "You can't use a preset icon when submitting an app to App Store Connect."
• The iPad submits iOS apps only. An Apple engineer on Apple's forums: "Swift Playgrounds for iPad submits an iOS app to the App Store."
• You are pinned to whichever SDK the shipping version bundles, and it has historically lagged Xcode. That matters because Apple now requires that, "as of April 28, 2026," iOS and iPadOS apps "must be built with the iOS & iPadOS 26 SDK or later." Version 4.7 clears that bar. A future SDK floor may arrive before the next Playground update does.

Its App Store rating is 3.7 from 1,900 ratings, the lowest of any tool on this page. It is also free, from Apple, and genuinely ships apps.

What Apple says you can build with it. The App Store description is specific about game frameworks and hardware access:

"Access iOS frameworks such as SpriteKit for 2D games, SceneKit for 3D graphics, UIKit, and more"

"Your code has direct control of iPad hardware, including the gyroscope, accelerometer, camera, and touch events"

"Build Apps on iPad • Create real apps on iPad using SwiftUI"

"Share or Publish • Send your projects... • Bring your app projects to Xcode on Mac and back again • Submit your completed apps to the App Store with App Store Connect"

Apple's developer page adds the framework list plainly: "With Swift Playground you build apps using SwiftUI... You can also access key frameworks, such as SpriteKit, Bluetooth, and Metal."

The full submission flow, as Apple documents it. Open App Settings from the sidebar, create a custom app icon from an image in Photos or Files, "specify a minimum iPadOS version to run your app," tap Capabilities and "select any capabilities you want to add to your app, for example, Bluetooth, Calendar, Camera access, or Speech Recognition," sign in with your developer account, enter a team ID, bundle ID, version number and category, then tap Upload to App Store Connect.

The SDK lag, stated fairly. Apple's own forums show this is a live pressure point rather than a settled one. When developers asked about Playground trailing Xcode's SDK, Apple's developer technical support answered that "the only reasonable option is for you to develop your submission based on the current choices, namely: Swift Playground 4.6.x as it's currently shipping [or] Xcode 26 or later," adding "we do hope to ship an update to the Swift Playground app but I don't have any timeline info to share." The same thread later closed with "Swift Playground 4.7 shipped yesterday." The practical consequence during such a gap is that frameworks shipped with a newer SDK than Playground bundles are simply unavailable on the iPad.

Apple publishes no consolidated list of what cannot be built or submitted from Swift Playground. The documented constraints are the three above. Claims you will find elsewhere about missing widgets, extensions, simulators or debugging tools are developer-reported rather than Apple-stated, and we are not going to present them as Apple's position.

Tier 2: iPad-Native, Exports a Real Xcode Project

hyperPad

An iPad-native game engine with visual, node-based logic and no text language. Its own framing: "hyperPad is a fully native iPad experience, not a desktop tool adapted for mobile. Every feature is designed around touch, Apple Pencil, keyboard, trackpad support, gestures, instant testing, and portable creation."

$14.99, one time. The listing subtitle reads "Visual Coding. No Subscription," and there are no in-app purchases. Rated 4.3 from 271 ratings, iPadOS 13.0 or later.

On publishing: "Make real games with visual code. Build and own your games with our free Xcode export to publish on the App Store." Royalties are none, and hyperPad says you "publish under your Apple Developer account, set your price, and keep 100% of your earnings."

One thing is genuinely unclear and we are not going to resolve it for you. hyperPad's blog says you can "export your creations as Xcode projects and submit them to the Apple App Store right from your iPad." hyperPad's own step-by-step documentation describes a Mac workflow, instructing you to launch Xcode, enter developer account details and generate a distribution certificate. That documentation is visibly stale, referencing Xcode 6 and iTunes Connect, both long gone. We found no 2026-dated hyperPad page that settles it. What we can say safely: hyperPad exports an Xcode project, and its published guide for what happens next is a Mac guide.

Note also that hyperPad Starter, the free version, cannot publish. Xcode export and App Store publishing are what the $14.99 buys.

What the visual system actually is. hyperPad's description of its logic layer:

"Create gameplay using hyperPad's visual Behavior system. Connect events, actions, conditions, variables, arrays, loops, timers, physics, UI, audio, and reusable logic without writing code."

Note that list includes physics, arrays and loops. This is a programming model with the typing removed, not a toy.

The listing details. Version 2.7, 295.9 MB, filed under Developer Tools, which is the right category and not every tool here can say that. The GB storefront shows a different picture from the US one, 4.0 from 36 ratings at £14.99, which is a reminder that a rating is a storefront snapshot rather than a global verdict.

On royalties, hyperPad is unambiguous: "keep 100% royalties" and "No Royalties."

The Hub. hyperPad also runs a community layer, and its own description of the intended loop is useful for understanding who it is for: "Build on iPad. Share to the Hub. Gather feedback. Improve your game. Discover new creators. When you're ready, export to Xcode and continue toward App Store release. No traditional coding required. No desktop required to start." Read that last phrase carefully. "No desktop required to start" is not the same claim as no desktop required to finish, which is precisely the ambiguity described above.

Codea

Lua on the iPad, and one of the longest-running tools in this category. "Codea is built on the Lua programming language. A simple, elegant language that doesn't rely too much on symbols, a perfect match for iPad."

Free to start, with a real limit: "Codea is free to use for projects up to 500 lines, after which you can subscribe to Codea Pro." Pro is $4.99 a month, $29.99 a year, or $99.99 for a lifetime licence. Rated 4.5 from 126 ratings.

Check the requirement before buying an older iPad: Codea needs iPadOS 18.6 or later, the highest floor of anything here.

Publishing is by Xcode export, listed as a current feature and actively maintained, with the version 3.17 notes citing a fix for "Xcode export for projects with dependencies." Whether that export can be completed without a Mac is not documented either way by Two Lives Left, and we found no iPad-to-App-Store-Connect path. Assume you will need a Mac for the final step until the vendor says otherwise.

Portability is a genuine strength: Lua source, Xcode export, zip export with dependencies, and Air Code, which lets you "code live from your PC using WiFi."

What Air Code is, and why it matters for a tablet workflow. Codea's standout feature for anyone who also owns a computer:

"Air Code: code live from your PC using WiFi"

"Open up VS Code and install the Codea extension. Now your iOS device is a live coding canvas, with a full fledged interactive debugger on your Mac or PC"

That is an unusual and genuinely good answer to the iPad's weakest point as a development device, which is text editing at length. It also means Codea does not force an all-or-nothing choice about which machine you work on.

Versions and maintenance. The shipping app is version 3.17, filed under Productivity, 227.8 MB, copyright Two Lives Left. Documentation for a Codea 4.0 exists publicly while 3.17 is what ships, so the project is active rather than parked.

A caution about the free tier's limit. Five hundred lines is generous for learning and restrictive for a finished game. A complete small game in Lua will pass 500 lines quickly once you add menus, save state and sound, so treat the free tier as an evaluation rather than a plan.

Tier 3: Ships From the iPad, but Not Swift

GDevelop

The finding that most surprised us, and the strongest direct competitor on this page.

GDevelop is not just a browser editor. There is a full native iPad app on the App Store, rated 4.3 from 2,400 ratings, updated within the last fortnight, and GDevelop's claim for it is not modest: "The GDevelop mobile app is as powerful as the full GDevelop desktop version. It's a real, full-featured, open-source, professional grade game engine in your pocket."

More importantly, it can publish to the App Store from the device with no Mac at all. From GDevelop's own release notes:

"This allows to build a game for iOS directly from GDevelop, without any additional development tool or access to a Mac. Builds can be done for development (testing on iPhone/iPad) or for the App Store directly. An Apple Developer account is required."

The documentation confirms the destination: GDevelop "is also able to automatically send it to the App Store Connect."

Two limits worth knowing. iOS builds are a paid feature: GDevelop's pricing table shows App Store publishing unavailable on Free and Silver, 15 builds a month on Gold, and 30 on Pro. And the free tier caps the mobile editor at "a single event sheet with up to 20 events," though you can open and edit larger existing projects.

The manual route still needs a Mac. GDevelop's own wiki: uploading an IPA to App Store Connect "can only be done with a macOS computer using the Transporter app," which is precisely why the cloud build exists.

So why is this not the top of the page? Because of the second question. What GDevelop produces is an HTML5 game in a Cordova package, not an Apple-native binary. That is a real, shippable, cross-platform app, and for many games it is the better trade, since it reaches Android too. It is simply a different thing from Swift. The engine is MIT licensed and your project is yours, which is more than most of this list can say.

On the mobile app's completeness, GDevelop's own framing, which is unusually confident for a mobile editor:

"The GDevelop mobile app is as powerful as the full GDevelop desktop version. It's a real, full-featured, open-source, professional grade game engine in your pocket."

"The GDevelop team worked hard to make the app as accessible as possible even on small screens. While an iPad is a good form factor for building, an iPhone or Android phone will also work and will allow you to edit every part of your game!"

How you build. No code, an event system:

"Write game logic with GDevelop's innovative event system based on 'if / then' actions and conditions."

What the free tier gives you on mobile, stated precisely by GDevelop:

"The free version of the GDevelop iOS App will let you create a single event sheet with up to 20 events... You can also open any existing project on your account, regardless of the number of events, and even modify existing events. You just can't add events beyond the 20 event limit."

The full iOS build picture. GDevelop's pricing table shows "Publish your game on iOS (App Store)" as unavailable on Free and Silver, 15 per month on Gold, and 30 on Pro, while Android is one build a day even on Free. GDevelop explains why the gap exists: "iOS packaging requires running expensive macOS machines in the cloud to build the games and upload them using Apple specific development tools." That is a fair reason and an honest one.

Ownership. The engine is MIT licensed, described on the pricing page as an "Open-source (MIT) editor and game engine," and the manual export produces a Cordova project which "you can then use Cordova command line tool to generate an Android Studio project (for Android) or XCode project (for iOS)."

One thing we could not resolve. GDevelop's 2023 launch post listed the debugger as not yet available on mobile, while the current pricing table lists "Debugger and live preview" across tiers. We could not confirm the debugger's present status in the iPad app, so do not plan around it either way without checking.

Construct 3

Browser-based, and it does run on an iPad: Construct's system requirements list "Safari 15.4+" and "any iOS 15.4+ device."

But read Construct's own assessment before planning around it:

"Not all features of Construct are available on mobile. It's intended for light usage, such as reviewing and tweaking projects, rather than your main development work. For that we recommend using a device with a keyboard and mouse."

The mobile interface hides its panels: "Since most mobile devices have small screens, Construct hides bars by default. To access these bars, swipe in from the side." Attaching a keyboard and mouse and switching the UI mode to Desktop "lets you effectively use a tablet like a small laptop."

For iOS publishing a Mac is required: "To publish an iOS app, Apple require that you use Xcode on macOS." Construct's cloud build service handles Android only.

One clause to weigh before subscribing. If your subscription lapses, "you'll still be able to open your projects in the free edition, but you will not be able to edit or export them."

Tier 4: Mature Engines You Cannot Run on an iPad

All three are excellent and none of them runs on an iPad. They target it, which is not the same thing: you build on a Mac and the iPad receives the result. Superapp and Swift Playground both produce Swift for the same device without that requirement, so the choice here is between a visual editor plus a Mac, and native source without one.

Unity is free under $200,000 of revenue and funding, and $2,310 a year per seat for Pro as of January 2026. The Runtime Fee was cancelled and, in Unity's words, "was not implemented." One detail worth reading: Unity's software terms grant royalty-free distribution for "Unity 6 or any earlier versions" and say nothing about later ones. Local iOS builds need a Mac; Unity's cloud Build Automation is the documented way around that.

Godot is free and MIT licensed, and its licence is unusually clear about ownership: "Godot Engine's license terms and copyright do not apply to the content you create with it; you are free to license your games how you see best fit, and will be their sole copyright owner(s)." iOS export requires "a computer running macOS with Xcode installed."

Defold is free permanently by written commitment: it "will never change into a subscription model, request royalty payments, introduce licensing fees or in other ways charge for access to the main product." It publishes the smallest binary figures of any engine, 1.35 MB for an empty iOS package against 25.29 MB for Godot and 36.81 MB for Unity, though that is Defold measuring its competitors and should be read accordingly. Bundling for iOS "is available only on Mac version of the Defold Editor."

The licence text that actually differs

The three engines above are free in different senses, and the differences are written down.

Godot disclaims any interest in what you make:

"You are free to use Godot Engine, for any purpose."

"Godot Engine's license terms and copyright do not apply to the content you create with it; you are free to license your games how you see best fit, and will be their sole copyright owner(s)."

The only obligation is attribution if you ship the engine binary: include its copyright notice and licence statement in your documentation.

Defold makes a forward promise the others do not:

"Defold is, and will always remain, completely free to use."

"Defold will never change into a subscription model, request royalty payments, introduce licensing fees or in other ways charge for access to the main product."

Defold also publishes the platform size limits worth knowing before you build big: "For iOS users will get a warning if the application is larger than 200 MB, but can still proceed to download it."

Unity is the one to read closely, because its royalty-free grant is scoped:

"Unity grants you the right to distribute the Unity Runtime without royalty, revenue share, or a runtime fee, for any Projects created with Unity 6 or any earlier versions (the 'Prior Released Versions'), provided that you pay any applicable fees (i.e. subscription/seat price) and continue to comply with current Tier Eligibility."

That covers Unity 6 and earlier. The document contains no equivalent promise about later versions. It also sets the tier thresholds explicitly: "The Financial Threshold for Unity Personal is $200,000 USD for the most recent twelve (12) month period," with Pro running from $200,001 to $24,999,999 and Enterprise above that.

On the Runtime Fee, Unity's own words at cancellation:

"After deep consultation with our community, customers, and partners, we've made the decision to cancel the Runtime Fee for our games customers, effective immediately."

And its current framing: "The cancellation of the Runtime Fee does not affect any Unity games, since it was not implemented."

The Mac requirement, engine by engine

Unity's manual and Unity's support pages give different answers because they describe different routes, and both are true.

"Xcode is only available for macOS, so if your development machine doesn't run macOS, you can't build an application locally."

"You don't need direct access to a Mac or Xcode for building with Unity Build Automation."

Unity's support page adds the caveats: you still register an Apple Developer account, generate certificates and upload credentials, it is "strongly recommended to build the Unity project in batch mode locally first," and you manually upload the IPA to App Store Connect.

Godot leaves no ambiguity: "You must export for iOS from a computer running macOS with Xcode installed." The exporter wants your App Store Team ID, "a (10 characters long) code like ABCDE12XYZ."

Defold likewise: "Bundling a game for iOS is available only on Mac version of the Defold Editor," and on signing, "iOS requires that any app that you build and want to run on your phone or tablet must be signed with an Apple-issued certificate and provisioning profile."

One useful detail from Defold for anyone testing before paying Apple: "Since Xcode 7, anyone can install Xcode and do on-device development for free," which covers device testing but not App Store distribution.

Tier 5: No App Store Listing, Ever

These are real products with large, happy user bases. They simply do not produce an app.

Rosebud AI is browser-based and prompt-driven, and it produces a hosted web game at a URL. On an iPad it is doubly limited, because the two features that give you ownership are marked "(desktop only)" on Rosebud's own pricing page: "Code tab in browser (desktop only)" and "Downloadable project code (desktop only)." So on an iPad you can prompt and play, but you cannot open your code or download your project. Rosebud makes no statement anywhere about iPad or tablet support for the editor.

Bloxels is rated 4.5 from 21,000 ratings and builds pixel-art games "without any code." Games go to the Bloxels Arcade: "Publish your games to the Bloxels Arcade, and share the link." Building and publishing require a subscription.

Castle is rated 4.7 from roughly 39,000 ratings, with "editor tools for art, physics, logic, music, and sound." Games are shared to the Castle community. There is no export.

Hopscotch (4.5 from 15,000 ratings) and Pixicade (4.5 from 4,000 ratings) work the same way: publish to a moderated in-app community, no App Store path. Pixicade is filed under Casual rather than Developer Tools, which tells you how its own publisher classifies it.

None of this is a criticism. For a child making a game on a rainy afternoon, an in-app arcade is a better experience than an Apple Developer account. Just know which one you bought.

What the community tools are honest about

None of these vendors pretends to be something else, which is worth saying because the confusion is usually the reader's, not theirs.

Bloxels describes the loop exactly: "Build top-down adventures or side-view platformer games, without any code," and "Publish your games to the Bloxels Arcade, and share the link." Art can leave the app as a GIF, and building and publishing require a subscription.

Castle describes an editor and a community in the same sentence: "Make your own games in our simple but powerful editor, then share them with friends, or post to the community."

Hopscotch is explicit about the audience: "Whether games, art, stories or more, you can code whatever you want with kid-friendly programming," publishing "to Hopscotch's fully moderated community, where kids can play and learn from your games."

Pixicade's premise is the most charming on this page. You draw a game on paper, photograph it, and it becomes playable: "Snap a picture and turn your drawings into playable video games!" Its App Store category is Casual, not Developer Tools, which is the publisher telling you exactly what it is.

One more worth a line as a warning rather than a recommendation. Game Creator 2D is still listed at $2.99 with a 3.7 from 60 ratings, and its last update was version 1.0.60 in January 2020, more than six years ago. Its own description says: "You cannot create commercial games." A listing staying up is not evidence that a tool is maintained.

What Happened to Struckd, and Why Its Page Is Still Up

Struckd was an iPad 3D game creator, listed as "Struckd - 3D Game Creator" from Struckd AG, rated 4.8 with a very large rating count. Games built in it were played inside the Struckd app.

It shut down on 1 August 2026. From its help centre: "Struckd will officially shut down on August 1st, 2026. After this date: You will no longer be able to log in / All services will be unavailable. This is also the final deadline to export your games using the Exporter."

Here is the part that matters for anyone researching tools today. Seven weeks after the shutdown, the App Store listing is still live, still showing its 4.8 rating, with the closure noted only in the What's New block: "Struckd will shut down on August 1, 2026. Visit our support page for more information."

A reader comparing iPad game makers on the App Store right now will find Struckd looking like the best-rated option on the shelf.

That is the clearest possible argument for the second question on this page. Nobody who had exported a Swift or Xcode project lost anything on 1 August. Everyone whose game lived inside the app did.

The Apple Frameworks Behind an iPad Game

Useful whichever tool you pick, because these are what a native iPad game is made of, and what a cross-platform engine replaces with its own equivalents.

One inconsistency worth knowing before you plan a 3D game around RealityKit. Apple's documentation frames it as AR-first, "for use in your augmented reality apps," while Apple's own WWDC25 session calls it something broader: "RealityKit is a modern, general-purpose, high-level 3D engine." Both are Apple. They do not quite agree, and we are not going to resolve it for them.

SpriteKit's availability, as Apple publishes it today, with no deprecation marker on any row:

Apple does add one caveat in its own overview: "You can use SpriteKit in a compatible iPhone or iPad app running in visionOS, but don't use it in apps you create specifically for visionOS."

Designing a Game for the iPad Specifically

A game that is merely an enlarged iPhone game is the most common way an iPad release disappoints, and the fixes are mostly not code.

The screen is the point. An iPad is used at arm's length on a table or a lap, not held up close in one hand. Interface elements that read well at iPhone size look sparse and oversized when scaled up. Games that work best on iPad treat the extra area as more board, more map or more information, rather than the same board drawn larger.

Two hands, and neither at the edge. iPhone games assume a thumb. iPad games are usually played with the device resting, which makes corner controls awkward and the centre of the screen valuable. Drag distances that feel natural on a phone can become a stretch.

Apple Pencil is an iPad-only input. Drawing, precise selection and handwriting are available in a way they are not on any other Apple device, and very few games use them. hyperPad explicitly designs for it, describing itself as built "around touch, Apple Pencil, keyboard, trackpad support, gestures."

Keyboards and trackpads exist. Many iPads spend their life attached to one. Construct notes that attaching them "lets you effectively use a tablet like a small laptop." A game that supports a keyboard for text entry or shortcuts costs little and feels considered.

Orientation is a real decision. Phones are held portrait by default and iPads land either way depending on the case. Supporting both is a layout problem rather than a logic one, and a Swift codebase handles it with size classes rather than two designs.

None of this requires a particular tool. It requires deciding early, because retrofitting an iPad layout onto a game built portrait-first for a phone is the expensive version of the same work.

Which Tools Produce Real Swift?

The question that decides the whole comparison, answered directly.

Two of twelve produce Swift, and both are Apple-platform-only by design. Everything else either bundles its own runtime or ships a web project. That is not a flaw in those tools, it is what cross-platform means: an engine that also targets Android cannot be made of Swift.

What Ships Inside Your Binary

Every cross-platform engine puts its runtime into your app. Native frameworks are already on the device, so nothing extra ships.

Published figures for an empty project, which is the cleanest way to see the runtime cost on its own:

Two cautions. Defold's table is a vendor measuring its competitors, so weigh it accordingly, and Defold publishes its method: "Test made using an empty project. Exported to the target platform using default settings. Release builds with no additional optimizations." And the two Unity figures measure different things from Defold's: Apple's App Store size is compressed and processed, while a raw package is not. Apple states the distinction directly, that "the uncompressed size is equivalent to the size of the installed app on the device, and the compressed size is the download size of your app."

We looked for a current, authoritative measurement of a native Swift game against a Unity game and could not find one. The figure most often quoted online comes from a 2017 blog post by an individual developer and does not name the Unity version tested. We are not going to repeat it as fact.

What the numbers do support is simple and not controversial: a game written in Swift ships no engine, and every cross-platform engine ships one.

Can You Publish Without a Mac?

The rented-Mac and build-service options exist too, and each has a catch worth knowing. MacinCloud starts at $1 an hour but advertises macOS up to Sequoia, which is older than Xcode 27 requires. MacStadium is $109 a month whether you build once or a thousand times. Codemagic gives 500 free macOS minutes a month then charges by the minute, but it is a build service, not a development environment. And Expo EAS Build, recommended everywhere as the Mac-free route, only builds React Native and Expo projects, so it will not build a Swift, Godot or Unity game.

Who Submits Your App, and How

Apple's guideline 4.2.6 turns on whose developer account submits the app, so this table matters more than its dullness suggests.

GDevelop is explicit that the credentials are yours: "An Apple Developer account is required, so that you can generate the required certificate files (and authentication keys for uploading to App Store Connect)."

Apple lists the legitimate upload routes itself: "After adding an app to your account, you can upload a build using Xcode, Swift Playground, altool, or Transporter."

iPadOS Version Floors

Check this before buying a tool for an older iPad. The spread is wider than you would expect.

Codea's 18.6 floor is the strictest here and rules out a lot of working hardware. Note also a separate floor that applies to everyone regardless of tool: since 28 April 2026, apps submitted to App Store Connect "must be built with the iOS & iPadOS 26 SDK or later."

What Do Real Users Rate These Tools?

Scores with sample sizes, because a 3.7 from 1,900 and a 4.8 from a dead product are not comparable claims.

Three things this table shows that a score alone hides. The highest-rated products are the ones that never produce an app, because an in-app arcade is a friendlier experience than an Apple Developer account. Apple's own tool is the lowest rated of anything that ships real software. And the single best score belongs to a product that no longer exists.

App Store ratings move daily and are storefront-specific. Treat all of these as a snapshot, not a constant.

What Does It Cost to Ship an iPad Game?

Three years, cheapest tier that actually publishes, plus three years of the Apple Developer Program at $99. Our own arithmetic at September 2026 prices, not a vendor figure.

Read that table by what each row buys. The free rows buy you a tool and leave the work to you: Godot, Defold and Unity Personal are genuinely free but all three require a Mac, and Swift Playground is free but you are writing SwiftUI by hand. hyperPad at $14.99 once is the cheapest route to visual, non-code game logic on this page, and it hands you an Xcode project rather than Swift you can read. Superapp, our product, is the only row where $25 a month buys native Swift source, no Mac, and submission handled for you, which is a different purchase from a cheaper tool rather than a more expensive version of the same one.

What Apple Requires of iPad Games

Apple reviewed more than 9.1 million app submissions in 2025 and rejected over 2 million, roughly one in five, according to Apple's own analysis published in May 2026.

Four rules from the live App Store Review Guidelines bear on the tools here.

4.2.6 governs every generator on this page:

"Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content. These services should not submit apps on behalf of their clients and should offer tools that let their clients create customized, innovative apps that provide unique customer experiences."

The trigger is a service submitting on your behalf from its own account. A developer publishing their own game from their own account is on the right side of it. Check that for whichever tool you pick.

4.2 is what catches thin web wrappers: an app "should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website."

4.3(b) names a game category explicitly as low-effort, and warns that "repeated submissions of this kind may lead to removal from the Apple Developer Program," which means losing the $99 account, not just the app.

3.1.1 requires that any game offering loot boxes "must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase."

And one deadline that is not a guideline but will stop a submission dead: as of 28 April 2026, iOS and iPadOS apps "must be built with the iOS & iPadOS 26 SDK or later." Any tool that has not kept its toolchain current cannot ship.

Apple's own wording on minimum functionality, which is the rule most often met by a wrapped web game:

"Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or 'app-like,' it doesn't belong on the App Store. If your App doesn't provide some sort of lasting entertainment value or adequate utility, it may not be accepted."

And on completeness, which catches more first submissions than any guideline about generators:

"Submissions to App Review, including apps you make available for pre-order, should be final versions with all necessary metadata and fully functional URLs included; placeholder text, empty websites, and other temporary content should be scrubbed before submission. Make sure your app has been tested on-device for bugs and stability before you submit it."

"We will reject incomplete app bundles and binaries that crash or exhibit obvious technical problems."

Apple's published 2025 rejection figures, for scale: "In 2025, the App Review team evaluated more than 9.1 million app submissions, helping to welcome over 306,000 new developers to the platform," rejecting "over 1.2 million new apps and nearly 800,000 app updates" for guideline failures, plus "over 371,000 submissions that copied other apps, were found to be spam, or otherwise misled users."

Rejection Risk by What Your Tool Produces

Apple rejected over 2 million of more than 9.1 million submissions in 2025. What your tool outputs changes which rule you are most likely to meet.

On 4.7, Apple permits the pattern and puts the responsibility on you:

"Apps may offer certain software that is not embedded in the binary, specifically HTML5 and JavaScript mini apps and mini games, streaming games, chatbots, and plug-ins... You are responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws."

On 4.2.3, a rule that catches games built to depend on a companion app:

"Your app should work on its own without requiring installation of another app to function."

And on download size disclosure, which matters for any game streaming assets on first launch:

"If your app needs to download additional resources in order to function on initial launch, disclose the size of the download and prompt users before doing so."

SpriteKit Is Not Deprecated. SceneKit Is.

If you build natively on iPad you will hit this question, and most of the internet has it backwards.

SceneKit, Apple's 3D framework, is deprecated. Apple's documentation says so directly: "SceneKit is deprecated, use RealityKit instead," marked at version 26.0 on every platform. At WWDC25 Apple said it out loud: "this year Apple is officially deprecating SceneKit across all platforms." Apple softened it in the same session, calling it "a soft deprecation" with "no plan to hard deprecate," but the guidance for new work is unambiguous: "if you're planning a new app or a significant update, SceneKit is not recommended."

SpriteKit, Apple's 2D framework, is not deprecated. Apple's documentation lists it as current across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS and visionOS with no end-of-life marker, describing it as a way to "create a game with a high-level set of 2D game-based tools."

What is true is that Apple has stopped promoting it. SpriteKit appears nowhere on Apple's developer games page, which talks about Metal, MetalFX and GameKit, and nowhere in Apple's WWDC26 games guide. It has no updates page in Apple's documentation index while GameKit and RealityKit both do. Some respected voices in the Swift community read those signals as a deprecation warning. That is a prediction, not an Apple statement, and Apple's live documentation currently contradicts it.

For a 2D iPad game today, SpriteKit works, ships and is supported. Note that Swift Playground gives you access to it directly on the device.

What Happens When You Outgrow the Tool

Every tool here is fine until the day you need something it does not do. What happens next is decided long before that day, by what format your work is in.

Apple documents the Swift Playground route explicitly, in both directions: "Bring your app projects to Xcode on Mac and back again."

Construct is equally explicit about the other end of the spectrum: "You'll still be able to open your projects in the free edition, but you will not be able to edit or export them."

The pattern is worth stating plainly. Tools that hand you source have no migration problem, because there is nothing to migrate from. Tools that hand you a runtime have a rebuild. Tools that hand you nothing have a loss.

Which iPad Game Maker Should You Choose?

Mistakes to Avoid

Trusting an App Store rating without checking the product is alive. Struckd's 4.8 is still on the App Store seven weeks after it shut down, with the notice buried in What's New.

Assuming the free tier publishes. hyperPad Starter cannot export or publish; that is what the $14.99 buys. GDevelop's free and Silver tiers cannot build for iOS at all. Rosebud gates code download behind Pro, and blocks it on iPad entirely.

Buying an old iPad for a specific tool. Codea needs iPadOS 18.6, Swift Playground needs iPadOS 18.0. Both are higher than most tools here, and higher than many still-working iPads support.

Buying a second-hand Intel Mac to finish the job. Xcode 27 requires Apple silicon and macOS 26.6. That advice was right two years ago.

Confusing SpriteKit with SceneKit. SceneKit is deprecated and Apple says do not start new projects on it. SpriteKit is not.

Assuming Expo EAS Build will build your game. It builds React Native and Expo projects, not Swift, Godot, Unity or hyperPad projects, and it is recommended for exactly that purpose all over the internet.

Treating "works in a browser" as "works on an iPad." Construct runs in iPad Safari but calls mobile use "light usage... rather than your main development work." Rosebud's code tab and code download are both marked desktop only.

Ignoring the April 2026 SDK floor. Apps must now be built with the iOS and iPadOS 26 SDK or later. A tool that has not updated its toolchain cannot ship, however good its editor is.

Not checking who submits the app. This is guideline 4.2.6 in practice and it is the one rule that can reject a perfectly good game. If a tool submits from its own account rather than yours, that is the exact pattern Apple describes.

Assuming a generator means simple games. What a Swift generator can produce is bounded by Swift and Apple's frameworks, which include SpriteKit physics and particles, GameplayKit pathfinding, GameKit multiplayer and Metal. The real trade is an editor for hand-tuning, not a genre ceiling.

Confusing an Xcode project export with source. hyperPad and Codea both export Xcode projects, which is genuinely useful for shipping. The game logic inside is still their runtime. Swift source is a different thing and only two tools here produce it.

Reading a vendor's marketing claim as its documentation. hyperPad's blog and hyperPad's own step-by-step guide disagree about whether you need a Mac. When a vendor's claim and its instructions conflict, plan around the instructions.

iPad Game Terms, Defined

Native app. Built in Apple's own languages against frameworks already on the device. Nothing extra ships in the binary.

SpriteKit. Apple's 2D game framework, built into iPadOS. Not deprecated. Available inside Swift Playground.

SceneKit. Apple's 3D framework. Deprecated at version 26.0; Apple says use RealityKit.

Cordova package. A web game wrapped in a native shell so it can be submitted to an app store. What GDevelop and Construct 3 produce.

Xcode project export. A tool handing you the project files Xcode needs to build and sign. What hyperPad and Codea produce. It is not the same as source in the tool's own language.

App Store Connect. Apple's submission portal. Swift Playground and GDevelop can both upload to it without a Mac; most other tools cannot.

Cloud build. A vendor running the Mac-only build step on rented hardware so you do not have to own a Mac. GDevelop's Gold tier and Unity Build Automation both do this.

In-app arcade. A community inside the tool where games are played. Bloxels Arcade, Castle and Hopscotch all work this way. No App Store listing is created.

SDK floor. The minimum Apple SDK a submitted app must be built against. Since 28 April 2026 that is iOS and iPadOS 26.

A Note on the Numbers in This Article

Several figures here move, and a comparison that pretends otherwise ages badly.

App Store ratings are snapshots. They change daily and differ by storefront. hyperPad shows 4.3 from 271 ratings in the US and 4.0 from 36 in the UK on the same day. Both are real. Neither is the number.

Three vendors' prices could not be read. GDevelop, Rosebud and Construct all render pricing in the browser in a way that could not be retrieved, and third-party sources for them disagree with each other, in one case by a factor of six. Rather than repeat a figure we could not confirm, this page quotes what is verifiable, which is usually the tier limits, and tells you to check the price yourself. Construct's $129.99 appears only labelled as its last officially announced figure, from a 2023 pricing post, with no newer announcement found.

Struckd's rating count differs between sources. Two retrievals of the same listing returned materially different totals. The page therefore describes it as very large rather than naming a number, which changes nothing about the point being made.

Two Mac requirements are genuinely unresolved. hyperPad's marketing and hyperPad's own guide disagree. Codea documents no iPad-to-App-Store-Connect path and does not say one way or the other. Both appear as open questions rather than answered ones.

If a figure here is load-bearing for a decision you are about to make, check it at the source before you act on it. Every source is linked at the end.

iPad Game Terms, Defined, Continued

Event system. A no-code logic model built from conditions and actions, as in GDevelop and Construct. Powerful, and specific to the tool that runs it.

Visual behaviour nodes. hyperPad's model: events, actions, conditions, variables, arrays, loops and timers connected visually rather than typed.

Runtime. The engine code that ships inside your app so your game can run. Unity, Godot, Defold, hyperPad and Codea all have one. Swift games do not, because the frameworks are part of iPadOS.

Size classes. Apple's system for describing available screen space so one layout adapts across iPhone and iPad rather than being drawn twice.

Signing certificate and provisioning profile. The Apple-issued credentials proving a build came from you. Required on every route to the App Store, including the ones with no Mac.

Team ID. The ten-character identifier for your Apple Developer account. Godot's exporter asks for it directly, describing it as "a (10 characters long) code like ABCDE12XYZ."

TestFlight. Apple's beta distribution service, reached through App Store Connect. Any tool that can upload a build can also put it in front of testers before release.

Code stripping. Removing unused engine code to shrink a build. Unity's manual puts the difference at roughly 20 MB against under 12 MB for an empty project.

Soft deprecation. Apple's own term for SceneKit's status: existing apps keep working, no new features arrive, and new projects should not use it.

MIT licence. A permissive open-source licence imposing no claim on what you build. Godot, GDevelop, Solar2D and Cocos Creator all use it or something close.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best iPad game maker in 2026?
It depends what you want to be holding at the end. For a native Swift game you own with no Mac involved, Superapp, our product, builds iPad and iPhone games in the browser and publishes straight to the App Store from $25 a month. For free, Apple's Swift Playground runs on the iPad itself and uploads to App Store Connect. For visual game logic with one payment, hyperPad is $14.99 once.

Can I make a game on my iPad without a Mac?
Yes, by several routes now. Swift Playground builds and submits entirely on the iPad. GDevelop's native iPad app cloud-builds to the App Store on its Gold tier. Superapp runs in the browser and submits for you. hyperPad and Codea both export Xcode projects, and whether you can finish without a Mac is unclear for both.

Can I publish an iPad game to the App Store from the iPad itself?
Yes. Apple lists Swift Playground as an official upload path alongside Xcode and Transporter, and its support guide confirms "if you have an Apple Developer account, you can submit an app you create to App Store Connect." GDevelop can also send builds to App Store Connect from the device on a paid tier.

Which iPad game makers produce real Swift code?
Two of the twelve here. Superapp, our product, generates native Swift and SwiftUI you can export. Apple's Swift Playground builds in SwiftUI with SpriteKit available for 2D games. Everything else either bundles its own runtime, like Unity, Godot and Defold, or produces an HTML5 project in a Cordova wrapper, like GDevelop and Construct 3.

Is hyperPad worth it?
For a one-time $14.99 with no subscription, it is the cheapest route on this page to a real Xcode export without writing code, and it is rated 4.3 from 271 ratings. The uncertainty is whether you can complete the submission without a Mac: hyperPad's blog says you can, its own step-by-step guide describes a Mac workflow, and that guide is visibly out of date.

Does GDevelop really work on an iPad?
Yes, and better than we expected. It ships a native iPad app rated 4.3 from 2,400 ratings, which GDevelop calls "as powerful as the full GDevelop desktop version," and it can build for iOS "without any additional development tool or access to a Mac." The free tier caps you at one event sheet of 20 events, and iOS builds require the Gold tier.

What is the difference between GDevelop and Superapp for an iPad game?
What you end up owning. GDevelop produces an HTML5 game in a Cordova package, which also runs on Android and is MIT licensed. Superapp, our product, produces native Swift for Apple platforms only, which you can export and hand to any iOS developer. Cross-platform reach against Apple-native ownership, and neither answer is wrong.

Can you make a game on an iPad with Swift?
Yes. Swift Playground is free, runs on iPadOS 18 or later, and gives direct access to SpriteKit for 2D games along with the gyroscope, accelerometer, camera and touch events. Superapp, our product, also generates Swift, from the browser, if you would rather describe the game than write it.

Do I need to know how to code to make an iPad game?
No. hyperPad uses visual behaviour nodes, GDevelop uses an event system of conditions and actions, and Superapp, our product, generates the Swift from a description. Codea and Swift Playground are genuine coding, in Lua and Swift respectively.

How much does it cost to publish a game on the App Store?
The Apple Developer Program is $99 a year and is unavoidable. Beyond that the floor is zero: Swift Playground is free, and Godot, Defold and Unity Personal are free if you have a Mac. hyperPad is $14.99 once. Superapp, our product, is $25 a month and removes the Mac requirement.

What happens to my iPad game if the tool shuts down?
It depends entirely on what you exported. Struckd shut down on 1 August 2026 and creators' games went with it, because those games lived inside the Struckd app. An exported Swift or Xcode project, or a published App Store binary, is unaffected by its maker's fate. Superapp, our product, lets you export the Swift at any time, and Godot, Defold and GDevelop are open-source projects nobody can switch off.

Can Bloxels or Castle games go on the App Store?
No. Both publish to their own in-app communities. Bloxels games go to the Bloxels Arcade and Castle games are shared inside Castle. Neither produces a standalone app with its own listing, icon or product page.

Can Roblox Studio run on an iPad?
No. Roblox Studio is desktop only, Windows or Mac, with no iPad version, and games made in it are played inside the Roblox app rather than becoming their own App Store listing.

Does Construct 3 work on an iPad?
It runs in Safari 15.4 and later, but Construct's own manual is cautious: "Not all features of Construct are available on mobile. It's intended for light usage, such as reviewing and tweaking projects, rather than your main development work." Publishing to iOS also requires Xcode on a Mac.

Can I use Rosebud AI on an iPad?
Partly, and not for the parts that matter. Rosebud's pricing page marks both "Code tab in browser" and "Downloadable project code" as desktop only, so on an iPad you can prompt and play but cannot open your code or download your project. Rosebud publishes no statement about tablet support.

Is SpriteKit deprecated?
No. Apple's documentation lists SpriteKit as current on every platform with no end-of-life marker. SceneKit, the 3D framework, is the deprecated one, marked at version 26.0. Apple has stopped promoting SpriteKit, which some developers read as a warning, but that is a prediction rather than an Apple announcement.

Do I need a Mac to use Unity or Godot for an iPad game?
For Godot yes: "you must export for iOS from a computer running macOS with Xcode installed." For Unity, local builds need a Mac, but Unity Build Automation, its cloud service, is the documented way to build without one.

What iPadOS version do I need?
It varies more than you would expect. Codea requires iPadOS 18.6, Swift Playground 18.0, GDevelop 15.0, and hyperPad, Bloxels and Hopscotch all run on 13.0. Check before buying a tool for an older iPad.

Can I sell a game I made on my iPad?
Yes, if the tool produces an App Store binary. Superapp, hyperPad, Codea, Swift Playground and GDevelop all publish under your own Apple Developer account, and none of them takes a revenue share. Games made in Bloxels, Castle, Hopscotch or Pixicade cannot be sold on the App Store because they never leave those apps.

What is guideline 4.2.6 and does it affect iPad game makers?
It is Apple's rule on template and generation services: apps made with them "will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content." The deciding factor is whose developer account submits the app. Superapp, our product, submits through yours rather than ours, which is the side of the line you want.

Why is Struckd still on the App Store if it shut down?
Because Apple does not remove a listing automatically. Struckd closed on 1 August 2026, and its page is still live with its 4.8 rating and the closure mentioned only in the What's New notes. It is a good reason to check a tool's own site and recent updates rather than trusting a store rating.

Can Superapp make a 3D game?
It generates Swift, so the ceiling is what Swift can reach, which includes SceneKit and RealityKit for 3D and Metal underneath both. The practical question is not whether the frameworks are available but whether you want an editor for the work. If your 3D game needs a designer tuning a scene visually over weeks, a viewport-based engine like Godot suits that loop better. If the 3D is in service of a game whose logic is the substance, generated Swift you then refine in Xcode is a faster path.

Can Superapp make a platformer with good physics?
Yes. SpriteKit provides the physics engine, and Apple describes it as offering "a rich set of animations and physics behaviors." Superapp writes against it. What a generator does not give you is a slider to nudge gravity while watching it bounce, so for a game whose entire quality is feel, plan on exporting the Swift and tuning the numbers in Xcode. That path is open at any time because the source is yours.

What kinds of games is a Swift generator best at?
Games whose substance is logic and state rather than hand-tuned feel: card, board, word, quiz, trivia, puzzle, match-three, idle and incremental, tower defence, turn-based strategy, roguelikes, text-driven games and most arcade loops. These are exactly the games where describing the rules is faster than assembling them in an editor.

Does Superapp work on an iPad?
It runs in the browser, so the device is not the constraint the way it is for Xcode. There is no minimum iPadOS version to check and nothing to download, which is the practical reason it appears in the no-Mac table alongside Apple's own Swift Playground.

Is generated Swift as good as hand-written Swift?
It is the same language compiled by the same compiler against the same frameworks, so there is no category difference in what runs on the device. The variable is code quality, and the honest answer is that you can read it and judge, which is precisely what source export is for. That is not available with any tool here that hands you a runtime instead.

Can I keep working on a generated game in Xcode?
Yes, and this is the argument for the native route generally. An exported Swift project opens in Xcode with Instruments, the debugger and the full Apple toolchain. Nothing about starting with a generator stops you finishing like a native developer.

What is the difference between exporting source and exporting an Xcode project?
More than it sounds. Superapp and Swift Playground give you Swift: the game's logic in a language you can read and any iOS developer can continue. hyperPad and Codea give you an Xcode project that builds and signs correctly, but the game logic inside it is hyperPad behaviours or Codea's Lua API running on their runtime. Both are exports. Only one is source you own in the ordinary sense.

Which iPad game maker is best for a complete beginner?
If the goal is a finished App Store game, Superapp, our product, asks least of you: describe the game, it writes the Swift and handles submission. If the goal is learning to make games, hyperPad's visual behaviours at $14.99 once teach the concepts without the typing, and Bloxels or Hopscotch are better still for a child who wants to play what they made rather than publish it.

Do I need to pay Apple $99 just to try making a game?
No. You can build and test on your own device with a free Apple account. Defold notes the general position: "Since Xcode 7, anyone can install Xcode and do on-device development for free." The $99 Apple Developer Program is required only to distribute, which Apple states plainly: "To distribute apps, join the Apple Developer Program."

Can two people work on the same iPad game?
It depends entirely on the tool, and none of them are built around it. Source-based routes are the ones with an answer, because Swift in a git repository is a normal collaboration problem with normal tooling. Runtime-based and community tools generally assume a single creator on a single device.

What happens to my game if I stop paying?
For Superapp, our product, you keep the exported Swift and can build it yourself or hand it to a developer. Godot, Defold and GDevelop are open-source and cannot be switched off. Construct 3 is the sharpest case: "you'll still be able to open your projects in the free edition, but you will not be able to edit or export them." Rosebud blocks code download below its Pro tier and blocks it on iPad entirely.

Can I make money from an iPad game?
Yes, and none of the tools that publish to the App Store takes a cut. hyperPad says you "keep 100% of your earnings," Construct says "we take no royalties from your hard work," Defold commits never to "request royalty payments," and Superapp, our product, hands you the source outright. Apple's own commission is a separate matter and applies to everyone.

Does an iPad game need controller support?
Not as a requirement. Apple provides the Game Controller framework and GameKit for Game Center features, and controller support is a design choice rather than a submission condition. Touch, and on iPad the Apple Pencil, remain the primary inputs.

Is it worth supporting both iPhone and iPad?
Usually yes, because the work is largely layout rather than logic, and a single Swift codebase covers both. Superapp, our product, generates for both from one description. Cross-platform engines also handle both, at the cost of shipping their runtime to each.

Why do most game engines require a Mac for iOS?
Because the final build and signing step uses Xcode, and Xcode is macOS-only. Construct states the constraint plainly: "To publish an iOS app, Apple require that you use Xcode on macOS." The tools that avoid it either run that step in the cloud, as GDevelop and Unity Build Automation do, or are Apple's own, as Swift Playground is, or handle it for you, as Superapp does.

Can I build an iPad game on a Windows PC?
You can build one, and publishing is where Windows stops you. Godot, Unity, Defold and Construct all run on Windows, but every one of them needs a Mac or a cloud service for the iOS build. Superapp, our product, sidesteps the question by running in the browser and submitting for you, and Codea's Air Code lets you write on a PC while the app runs on the iPad.

What is Cordova and why does it matter?
Cordova wraps a web game so it can be submitted to an app store. It is what GDevelop and Construct 3 produce, and it works: those are real App Store apps. It matters because what you own afterwards is a web project rather than an Apple-native one, which changes both what ships inside your binary and what a future developer picks up.

Which is better, GDevelop or Superapp, for an iPad game?
Different purchases. GDevelop is free to start, MIT licensed, has a full native iPad editor, and also reaches Android, but produces HTML5 in a Cordova package and gates iOS builds behind its Gold tier. Superapp, our product, is $25 a month, produces native Swift you can export, submits under your account, and is Apple-only. Cross-platform reach against Apple-native ownership.

How long does it take to make an iPad game?
Days to weeks for a small game in any of these tools, plus Apple's review, which is typically one to three days. The longer pole is usually not building but the Apple administration: a developer account, certificates, icons, screenshots and privacy declarations. Tools differ mainly in how much of that they do for you.

Where to Go Next

If you want the iPhone version of this comparison, our best iPhone game makers guide ranks thirteen tools on the same question. For iPad apps rather than games, best app builders for iPad apps covers the wider category, and can you make an iPad app without coding answers the beginner version. If ownership of the code is what you care about, best native app makers tests thirteen tools against what they actually compile.

References

Apple

• App Store Review Guidelines
• Submitting to the App Store, SDK requirements
• SpriteKit documentation
• SceneKit documentation, deprecation notice
• WWDC25 session 288, Bring your SceneKit project to RealityKit
• Swift Playground
• Swift Playground on the App Store
• Submit an app from Swift Playground on iPad
• App Store Connect, uploading builds
• Xcode 27 release notes
• Apple Developer Program enrollment
• App Store fraud prevention analysis, May 2026

iPad-native tools

• hyperPad
• hyperPad on the App Store
• hyperPad on publishing and pricing
• hyperPad Starter on the App Store
• Codea
• Codea on the App Store
• Bloxels on the App Store
• Castle on the App Store
• Hopscotch on the App Store
• Pixicade on the App Store
• Struckd on the App Store
• Struckd shutdown FAQ

Engines and browser tools

• GDevelop
• GDevelop Game Maker on the App Store
• GDevelop pricing
• GDevelop iOS cloud builds release notes
• GDevelop iOS publishing wiki
• GDevelop on its mobile editor
• Construct 3 on mobile
• Construct 3 system requirements
• Construct 3 payments FAQ
• Unity pricing updates
• Unity is canceling the Runtime Fee
• Unity Editor Software Terms
• Godot licence
• Defold licence
• Defold engine comparison
• Defold iOS manual
• Rosebud AI pricing
• Superapp

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        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It depends what you want to be holding at the end. For a native Swift game you own with no Mac involved, Superapp, our product, builds iPad and iPhone games in the browser and publishes straight to the App Store from $25 a month. For free, Apple's Swift Playground runs on the iPad itself and uploads to App Store Connect. For visual game logic with one payment, hyperPad is $14.99 once."
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        "text": "Yes, by several routes now. Swift Playground builds and submits entirely on the iPad. GDevelop's native iPad app cloud-builds to the App Store on its Gold tier. Superapp runs in the browser and submits for you. hyperPad and Codea both export Xcode projects, and whether you can finish without a Mac is unclear for both."
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        "text": "Yes. Apple lists Swift Playground as an official upload path alongside Xcode and Transporter, and its support guide confirms \"if you have an Apple Developer account, you can submit an app you create to App Store Connect.\" GDevelop can also send builds to App Store Connect from the device on a paid tier."
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        "text": "Two of the twelve here. Superapp, our product, generates native Swift and SwiftUI you can export. Apple's Swift Playground builds in SwiftUI with SpriteKit available for 2D games. Everything else either bundles its own runtime, like Unity, Godot and Defold, or produces an HTML5 project in a Cordova wrapper, like GDevelop and Construct 3."
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        "text": "For a one-time $14.99 with no subscription, it is the cheapest route on this page to a real Xcode export without writing code, and it is rated 4.3 from 271 ratings. The uncertainty is whether you can complete the submission without a Mac: hyperPad's blog says you can, its own step-by-step guide describes a Mac workflow, and that guide is visibly out of date."
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        "text": "Yes. Swift Playground is free, runs on iPadOS 18 or later, and gives direct access to SpriteKit for 2D games along with the gyroscope, accelerometer, camera and touch events. Superapp, our product, also generates Swift, from the browser, if you would rather describe the game than write it."
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        "text": "No. hyperPad uses visual behaviour nodes, GDevelop uses an event system of conditions and actions, and Superapp, our product, generates the Swift from a description. Codea and Swift Playground are genuine coding, in Lua and Swift respectively."
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        "text": "It depends entirely on what you exported. Struckd shut down on 1 August 2026 and creators' games went with it, because those games lived inside the Struckd app. An exported Swift or Xcode project, or a published App Store binary, is unaffected by its maker's fate. Superapp, our product, lets you export the Swift at any time, and Godot, Defold and GDevelop are open-source projects nobody can switch off."
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      "@type": "Question",
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        "text": "No. Both publish to their own in-app communities. Bloxels games go to the Bloxels Arcade and Castle games are shared inside Castle. Neither produces a standalone app with its own listing, icon or product page."
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    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Can Roblox Studio run on an iPad?",
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        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "No. Roblox Studio is desktop only, Windows or Mac, with no iPad version, and games made in it are played inside the Roblox app rather than becoming their own App Store listing."
      }
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      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Does Construct 3 work on an iPad?",
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        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It runs in Safari 15.4 and later, but Construct's own manual is cautious: \"Not all features of Construct are available on mobile. It's intended for light usage, such as reviewing and tweaking projects, rather than your main development work.\" Publishing to iOS also requires Xcode on a Mac."
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      "name": "Can I use Rosebud AI on an iPad?",
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        "text": "Partly, and not for the parts that matter. Rosebud's pricing page marks both \"Code tab in browser\" and \"Downloadable project code\" as desktop only, so on an iPad you can prompt and play but cannot open your code or download your project. Rosebud publishes no statement about tablet support."
      }
    },
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      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Is SpriteKit deprecated?",
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        "text": "No. Apple's documentation lists SpriteKit as current on every platform with no end-of-life marker. SceneKit, the 3D framework, is the deprecated one, marked at version 26.0. Apple has stopped promoting SpriteKit, which some developers read as a warning, but that is a prediction rather than an Apple announcement."
      }
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      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Do I need a Mac to use Unity or Godot for an iPad game?",
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        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "For Godot yes: \"you must export for iOS from a computer running macOS with Xcode installed.\" For Unity, local builds need a Mac, but Unity Build Automation, its cloud service, is the documented way to build without one."
      }
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      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What iPadOS version do I need?",
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        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It varies more than you would expect. Codea requires iPadOS 18.6, Swift Playground 18.0, GDevelop 15.0, and hyperPad, Bloxels and Hopscotch all run on 13.0. Check before buying a tool for an older iPad."
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        "text": "Yes, if the tool produces an App Store binary. Superapp, hyperPad, Codea, Swift Playground and GDevelop all publish under your own Apple Developer account, and none of them takes a revenue share. Games made in Bloxels, Castle, Hopscotch or Pixicade cannot be sold on the App Store because they never leave those apps."
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      "name": "What is guideline 4.2.6 and does it affect iPad game makers?",
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        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It is Apple's rule on template and generation services: apps made with them \"will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content.\" The deciding factor is whose developer account submits the app. Superapp, our product, submits through yours rather than ours, which is the side of the line you want."
      }
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    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Why is Struckd still on the App Store if it shut down?",
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        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Because Apple does not remove a listing automatically. Struckd closed on 1 August 2026, and its page is still live with its 4.8 rating and the closure mentioned only in the What's New notes. It is a good reason to check a tool's own site and recent updates rather than trusting a store rating."
      }
    },
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      "name": "Can Superapp make a 3D game?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It generates Swift, so the ceiling is what Swift can reach, which includes SceneKit and RealityKit for 3D and Metal underneath both. The practical question is not whether the frameworks are available but whether you want an editor for the work. If your 3D game needs a designer tuning a scene visually over weeks, a viewport-based engine like Godot suits that loop better. If the 3D is in service of a game whose logic is the substance, generated Swift you then refine in Xcode is a faster path."
      }
    },
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      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Can Superapp make a platformer with good physics?",
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        "text": "Yes. SpriteKit provides the physics engine, and Apple describes it as offering \"a rich set of animations and physics behaviors.\" Superapp writes against it. What a generator does not give you is a slider to nudge gravity while watching it bounce, so for a game whose entire quality is feel, plan on exporting the Swift and tuning the numbers in Xcode. That path is open at any time because the source is yours."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What kinds of games is a Swift generator best at?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Games whose substance is logic and state rather than hand-tuned feel: card, board, word, quiz, trivia, puzzle, match-three, idle and incremental, tower defence, turn-based strategy, roguelikes, text-driven games and most arcade loops. These are exactly the games where describing the rules is faster than assembling them in an editor."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Does Superapp work on an iPad?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It runs in the browser, so the device is not the constraint the way it is for Xcode. There is no minimum iPadOS version to check and nothing to download, which is the practical reason it appears in the no-Mac table alongside Apple's own Swift Playground."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Is generated Swift as good as hand-written Swift?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It is the same language compiled by the same compiler against the same frameworks, so there is no category difference in what runs on the device. The variable is code quality, and the honest answer is that you can read it and judge, which is precisely what source export is for. That is not available with any tool here that hands you a runtime instead."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Can I keep working on a generated game in Xcode?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Yes, and this is the argument for the native route generally. An exported Swift project opens in Xcode with Instruments, the debugger and the full Apple toolchain. Nothing about starting with a generator stops you finishing like a native developer."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is the difference between exporting source and exporting an Xcode project?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "More than it sounds. Superapp and Swift Playground give you Swift: the game's logic in a language you can read and any iOS developer can continue. hyperPad and Codea give you an Xcode project that builds and signs correctly, but the game logic inside it is hyperPad behaviours or Codea's Lua API running on their runtime. Both are exports. Only one is source you own in the ordinary sense."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Which iPad game maker is best for a complete beginner?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "If the goal is a finished App Store game, Superapp, our product, asks least of you: describe the game, it writes the Swift and handles submission. If the goal is learning to make games, hyperPad's visual behaviours at $14.99 once teach the concepts without the typing, and Bloxels or Hopscotch are better still for a child who wants to play what they made rather than publish it."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Do I need to pay Apple $99 just to try making a game?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "No. You can build and test on your own device with a free Apple account. Defold notes the general position: \"Since Xcode 7, anyone can install Xcode and do on-device development for free.\" The $99 Apple Developer Program is required only to distribute, which Apple states plainly: \"To distribute apps, join the Apple Developer Program.\""
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Can two people work on the same iPad game?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "It depends entirely on the tool, and none of them are built around it. Source-based routes are the ones with an answer, because Swift in a git repository is a normal collaboration problem with normal tooling. Runtime-based and community tools generally assume a single creator on a single device."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What happens to my game if I stop paying?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "For Superapp, our product, you keep the exported Swift and can build it yourself or hand it to a developer. Godot, Defold and GDevelop are open-source and cannot be switched off. Construct 3 is the sharpest case: \"you'll still be able to open your projects in the free edition, but you will not be able to edit or export them.\" Rosebud blocks code download below its Pro tier and blocks it on iPad entirely."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Can I make money from an iPad game?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Yes, and none of the tools that publish to the App Store takes a cut. hyperPad says you \"keep 100% of your earnings,\" Construct says \"we take no royalties from your hard work,\" Defold commits never to \"request royalty payments,\" and Superapp, our product, hands you the source outright. Apple's own commission is a separate matter and applies to everyone."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Does an iPad game need controller support?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Not as a requirement. Apple provides the Game Controller framework and GameKit for Game Center features, and controller support is a design choice rather than a submission condition. Touch, and on iPad the Apple Pencil, remain the primary inputs."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Is it worth supporting both iPhone and iPad?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Usually yes, because the work is largely layout rather than logic, and a single Swift codebase covers both. Superapp, our product, generates for both from one description. Cross-platform engines also handle both, at the cost of shipping their runtime to each."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Why do most game engines require a Mac for iOS?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Because the final build and signing step uses Xcode, and Xcode is macOS-only. Construct states the constraint plainly: \"To publish an iOS app, Apple require that you use Xcode on macOS.\" The tools that avoid it either run that step in the cloud, as GDevelop and Unity Build Automation do, or are Apple's own, as Swift Playground is, or handle it for you, as Superapp does."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Can I build an iPad game on a Windows PC?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "You can build one, and publishing is where Windows stops you. Godot, Unity, Defold and Construct all run on Windows, but every one of them needs a Mac or a cloud service for the iOS build. Superapp, our product, sidesteps the question by running in the browser and submitting for you, and Codea's Air Code lets you write on a PC while the app runs on the iPad."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is Cordova and why does it matter?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Cordova wraps a web game so it can be submitted to an app store. It is what GDevelop and Construct 3 produce, and it works: those are real App Store apps. It matters because what you own afterwards is a web project rather than an Apple-native one, which changes both what ships inside your binary and what a future developer picks up."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Which is better, GDevelop or Superapp, for an iPad game?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Different purchases. GDevelop is free to start, MIT licensed, has a full native iPad editor, and also reaches Android, but produces HTML5 in a Cordova package and gates iOS builds behind its Gold tier. Superapp, our product, is $25 a month, produces native Swift you can export, submits under your account, and is Apple-only. Cross-platform reach against Apple-native ownership."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How long does it take to make an iPad game?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Days to weeks for a small game in any of these tools, plus Apple's review, which is typically one to three days. The longer pole is usually not building but the Apple administration: a developer account, certificates, icons, screenshots and privacy declarations. Tools differ mainly in how much of that they do for you."
      }
    }
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        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
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        "description": "Lua programming on the iPad, free for projects up to 500 lines, then Pro at $4.99 a month or $99.99 lifetime. Exports an Xcode project, and Air Code lets you write from a PC while the app runs on the iPad. Requires iPadOS 18.6. Rated 4.5 from 126 ratings.",
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      "item": {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "name": "Construct 3",
        "applicationCategory": "GameApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "iPadOS, iOS",
        "description": "Browser-based 2D engine that runs in iPad Safari 15.4 or later, though Construct calls mobile use light usage rather than main development work. Publishing to iOS requires Xcode on a Mac. If the subscription lapses, projects open but cannot be edited or exported.",
        "url": "https://www.construct.net/"
      }
    },
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      "position": 7,
      "item": {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "name": "Unity",
        "applicationCategory": "GameApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "iPadOS, iOS",
        "description": "Free under $200,000 of revenue and funding; Pro is $2,310 a year per seat as of January 2026. The Runtime Fee was cancelled and never implemented, though the royalty-free grant is written to cover Unity 6 and earlier. Cannot be run on an iPad.",
        "url": "https://unity.com/products/unity-engine"
      }
    },
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      "position": 8,
      "item": {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "name": "Godot",
        "applicationCategory": "GameApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "iPadOS, iOS",
        "description": "Free and MIT licensed 2D and 3D engine whose licence makes you sole copyright owner of what you create. Cannot be run on an iPad, and iOS export requires macOS with Xcode installed.",
        "url": "https://godotengine.org/"
      }
    },
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      "position": 9,
      "item": {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "name": "Defold",
        "applicationCategory": "GameApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "iPadOS, iOS",
        "description": "Free permanently by written commitment, with no royalties or licensing fees ever, and the smallest published binary sizes of any engine here at 1.35 MB for an empty iOS package. Cannot be run on an iPad; bundling for iOS is Mac only.",
        "url": "https://defold.com/"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 10,
      "item": {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "name": "Rosebud AI",
        "applicationCategory": "GameApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "iPadOS, iOS",
        "description": "Prompt-to-game tool producing a hosted web game at a URL rather than an App Store binary. On an iPad the two ownership features, the code tab and project code download, are both marked desktop only by the vendor, so you can prompt and play but not own your work.",
        "url": "https://rosebud.ai/"
      }
    },
    {
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      "position": 11,
      "item": {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "name": "Bloxels",
        "applicationCategory": "GameApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "iPadOS, iOS",
        "description": "iPad-native pixel-art game maker with no coding, rated 4.5 from about 21,000 ratings. Games publish to the Bloxels Arcade and never become a standalone App Store app. Building and publishing require a subscription.",
        "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bloxels-build-your-own-games/id1406862716"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 12,
      "item": {
        "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
        "name": "Castle",
        "applicationCategory": "GameApplication",
        "operatingSystem": "iPadOS, iOS",
        "description": "iPad-native maker with editor tools for art, physics, logic, music and sound, rated 4.7 from roughly 39,000 ratings. Games are shared inside the Castle community and there is no export or App Store listing.",
        "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/castle-make-and-play/id1529189247"
      }
    }
  ]
}