about.html

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title: About Defold
description: Learn what Defold is, how it became free and source available, and how the Defold Foundation supports ongoing cross-platform game engine development.
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<p>Defold is a free, cross-platform game engine for creating fast 2D games and lightweight 3D games on desktop, mobile, web, and consoles.</p>
<p>It combines a full editor, runtime, scripting workflow, build pipeline, and deployment flow in one developer-friendly toolchain.</p>
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{% include webp_picture.html src="/images/hero/defold-top-bg-transparent-2-high.webp" alt="Defold top transparent background" class="page-hero-graphic" loading="eager" %}
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{% include page_hub_hero.html hero_class="product-hub-hero" backdrop=page_hero_backdrop backdrop_class="page-hero-backdrop-wide" layout_class="page-hero-layout-stack" copy_class="page-hero-copy-centered" title="About Defold" copy=page_hero_copy actions=page_hero_actions %}

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				<h2>What is Defold?</h2>
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				<p><strong>Defold is a free, cross-platform game engine designed for creating console, desktop, mobile, and web games.</strong> It comes with no up-front costs, licensing fees, or royalties. The source code is available on GitHub under a developer-friendly license, giving creators the flexibility to inspect, customize, and extend the engine when needed.</p>
				<p>Defold is built to help developers move from idea to shipped game without heavyweight setup, licensing friction, or fragmented tooling.</p>
				<p>The Defold editor runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, offering an integrated code editor, debugger, profiler, and visual editors for scenes, UI, particles, atlases, and other core workflows. Game logic is written in Lua, with the option to extend functionality through native code when needed.</p>
				<p>Defold is used by an ever-growing community of developers, from indie creators and students to studios shipping commercial titles. It is widely recognized for ease of use, strong technical documentation, and a welcoming community, making it a practical choice both for learning and for professional game development.</p>
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				{% include secondary_button.html link="/product" text="See full feature overview" %}
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			<h2>How Defold got here</h2>
			<p>From an internal engine to a foundation-backed product used by developers around the world.</p>
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				<h3>History</h3>
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					<p>Defold was created by Christian Murray and Ragnar Svensson as a side project while working at Avalanche Studios, and later as a full-time business before being acquired by <a href="https://www.king.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">King</a> in 2014. Defold was then developed and used internally at King for several years before the decision was made to make it available to developers outside the company.</p>
					<p>The public announcement and release of Defold as a free-to-use game engine happened at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March 2016. Development has continued through regular engine and editor releases, with a major early milestone being the release of the new editor in 2017.</p>
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				<h3>Free to use and developer-friendly</h3>
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					<p>King made the decision to make the <a href="/open">Defold source code available</a> in May 2020 and, as part of the same transition, transfer Defold to the <a href="/foundation">Defold Foundation</a>. The foundation works with industry partners to provide developer-friendly software and services to game developers across the globe.</p>
					<p><strong>Defold is actively developed by the Defold Foundation with regular releases of new fixes, improvements, and features.</strong> The goal is to keep the engine sustainable, free to use, and open to extension without locking creators into expensive licensing or royalty schemes.</p>
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			<h2>News and operations</h2>
			<p>Defold development is visible, ongoing, and backed by a clear operating model.</p>
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				<h3>Latest news</h3>
				<p>Follow recent product and community updates from the Defold team.</p>
				<ul class="page-action-list">
				{% assign posts = site.posts | where: "tags", "news" %}
				{%- for post in posts limit: 6 -%}
					<li><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }} - {{ post.date | date: "%b %d, %Y" }}</a></li>
				{%- endfor -%}
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					{% include secondary_button.html link="/news" text="More news" %}
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				<h3>Operations</h3>
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					<p>Managing a product such as Defold requires a clear structure and long-term stewardship.</p>
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						<li><strong>Owner:</strong> The <a href="/foundation">Defold Foundation</a> owns the Defold brand and product and acts as the legal entity representing Defold.</li>
						<li><strong>Strategic decisions:</strong> The board of the Defold Foundation is responsible for high-level strategic decisions.</li>
						<li><strong>Operations:</strong> The foundation itself has no employees. Instead, it works with trusted subcontractors for finance, audit, legal support, and day-to-day product operations.</li>
						<li><strong>Product work:</strong> <a href="https://www.refold.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Refold AB</a>, owned by members of the Defold team, is contracted to perform most of the day-to-day work on product development, marketing, support, and sales.</li>
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					{% include secondary_button.html link="/foundation" text="Learn about the Foundation" %}
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{% include learn_section.html %}
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