The success of Unity might suggest otherwise, and even if you don't want to use it, other options include Unreal, Shiva, Cocos2d-x, Marmalade, Corona...
Even Havok's in on the action with its Project Anarchy.
Josh Klint from US company Leadwerks isn't taking any of it, though.
He's just launched Leadwerks 3, a from-scratch C++ and Lua-based cross-platform engine for PC/Mac, iOS and Android game development.
Faster, native
"It's the first mobile engine to use industry standards tools," he explains.
"We're targeting C++ programmers at triple-A studios who want to take their experience directly into mobile.
"We're not interested in fighting over studios who want to use C#."
Klint's argument is that because mobile hardware is now more powerful than PC or console in terms of its processing power per area, the companies who are going to win in the future, need better tools.
Backwards to the future
One example of this focus to push mobile graphics as far as they can go was the GDC 2013 deferred rendering test using Leadwerks 3 (see video below).
"I thought it was going to run at a couple of frames a second on an iPad," Klint explains of the flexible technique that did much to transform the dynamic lighting in recent console games such as Battlefield 3.
"But after some optimisation, it was running at 60 frames per second."
The reason, he says, is that the graphics parts from companies like ARM (Mali) and Imagination Technologies (PowerVR) used tile-based rendering, which are more applicable to deferred rendering than PC graphics cards.
"I think triple-A graphics on mobile are just around the corner," Klint says.
"We can take graphics a look further, and Leadwerks is ready for that future."
You can find out more about Leadwerks 3 via its website.
