A survey carried out by Game Developer Magazine has proclaimed Unity the most popular engine for mobile developers, with more than half of those questioned making use of the tool.

The sweep of studios – the magazine's first ever – claimed 53.1 percent of developers utilise Unity, ahead of Cocos2D on 17.7 percent, and Marmalade and Corona both on 5.3 percent each.

A total of 39.8 percent of developers surveyed claim to use their own custom engine.

Unified approach

Developers claim determining just which engine choose boils down to working out which will aid "rapid development time", while "flexibility and easy extendability", performance, support and documentation and "prior use any another team" are also important.

When it comes to platforms, iOS and Android unsurprisingly lead the way with 94.6 percent and 70.7 percent of developers pledging support, respectively.

The battle between the rest, however, is far closer.

Microsoft's commitment to make Windows Phone the 'third platform' for developers looks to be in fairly good shape, with 8.8 percent developing for the OS. That puts it ahead of BlackBerry on 2.7 percent.

Bringing up the rear are Nokia's former favourite Symbian with 2 percent support, with 1.4 percent backing Samsung's bada.

[source: Gamasutra]