Loom SDK Review

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Review of Loom SDK powered by the Slant community.

Loom is an open source cross platform game and app SDK. Loom Turbo, a paid service, provides cross platform workflow and pre-built binaries for every supported platform.

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Pros

Pro
Live reload of code and assets across multiple platforms

Loom can live update changes in realtime, allowing you to see them on multiple devices immediately.

Pro
Powerful command line workflow

Loom Turbo ($5/mo) gives access to powerful command line tools. For example, "loom new" to make a new project, "loom run" to run it. Packaging, deploy, and live reload are done automatically for you.

Pro
Open source

The Loom runtime and LoomScript compiler are open source, with code available on GitHub, allowing you to have the freedom to fix the bugs and add the features your game needs.

Pro
Examples

Loom includes over 30 examples ranging from complete sample games to demos of single features.

Pro
Familiar and powerful scripting

Loom's scripting language is immediately familiar if you know JavaScript, ActionScript, TypeScript, C#, or Java. Internally, it uses a proven VM technology with over 10 years of heavy use in games.

Pro
Good support

Loom devs are helpful.

Pro
Cross-platform

Loom can deploy to Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android (including Nook, Kindle Fire and Ouya). There are also custom port available for WP8, Blackberry and consoles.

Cons

Con
Documentation is lacking

Con
No visual tools support

There's no level editor, asset viewer or any other visual tools in Loom SDK. Everything has to go through command line. I think it's fine if you really like typing.