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What are the best 2D game engines for Android?

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libGDX vs Godot vs Orx

 vs Unity 2D vs Oxygine 2D C++ Game Framework vs GameMaker: Studio vs LÖVE vs Construct 2 vs GDevelop vs Defold vs App Game Kit vs Solar 2D (formerly Corona SDK) vs Cocos2D vs OpenFL vs MonoGame vs Unreal Engine 4 vs Gideros vs AppGameKit 2.0 vs GameMaker Studio 2 vs Construct 3 vs Buildbox vs Felgo (formerly V-Play) vs ImpactJS vs Clickteam Fusion 2.5 vs Cub3D vs AndEngine vs GMKR vs Orx vs Monkey X Pro vs Google JavaScript Style Guide

Specs

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; BlackBerry; Desktop; HTML5

Desktop targets

Windows; OSX; Linux; HTML5

Languages

Java

Dev platforms

Windows; OSX; Linux

2D

Yes

License

Apache

3D

Yes

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

Java; WebGL

Supported languages

Java

TV targets

-

Traditional code

Yes

VR targets

-

Opensource

Yes

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac, Android

Popular Language Bindings

GDScript, C#, C++

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android 2.3+, iOS

Desktop targets

Windows XP+, Mac OS X 10.6+, Linux

Languages

C99

Dev platforms

Windows XP+, Mac OS X 10.6+, Linux

2D

Yes

License

zlib

3D

No

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

C, C++, Objective C, bindings for Nim and OCaml (community maintained)

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

OpenGL 2.1+, OpenGL ES 2.0/3.0

2D physics

Box2D, LiquidFun

Notable games

Little Cells, Dstroy 2

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

C#

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android; IOS; Web

Desktop targets

Windows; OSX; Linux

Languages

C++

Dev platforms

Windows; OSX; Linux

2D

-

License

MIT

3D

-

Console targets

none

Distributed targets

HTML5; WebGL

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android, iOS, (deprecated: Windows Phone, Tizen)

Desktop targets

Windows, Linux, macOS, Windows UWP, HTML5

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

Yes

License

-

3D

Poor support

Console targets

Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, (depricated: PS3, PS Vita)

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

Android TV, Fire TV

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

Windows, Linux, macOS, ARM

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android 4.0+, iOS 8+

Desktop targets

Windows Vista+, macOS 10.7+, Linux

Languages

C++, Lua 5.1

Dev platforms

Windows Vista+ , macOS 10.7+, Linux, Android 4.0+

2D

Yes

License

zlib

3D

Poor support (no abstraction over OpenGL)

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

HTML5 (WebAssembly, community maintained)

Supported languages

Lua 5.1 with some 5.2 / 5.3 features

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

OpenGL 2.1/3.3, OpenGL ES 2.0/3.0

2D physics

Box2D

Notable games

Move or Die, Kingdom Rush, Blue Revolver, Bytepath, Pocket Rumble, Mari0, Oh My Giraffe, …

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android 4.0+, iOS 8.0+

Desktop targets

Windows XP+, UWP, Mac OS X 10.6+, Linux

Languages

JavaScript (engine)

Dev platforms

-

2D

Yes

License

Proprietary

3D

Some

Console targets

Xbox One, Wii U

Distributed targets

HTML5

Supported languages

Visual programming, JavaScript

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

WebGL, Canvas 2D

2D physics

Box2D

Notable games

The Next Penelope, Cosmochoria, Angvik, Dreaming Sarah, Airscape The Fall of Gravity, Artillerists, Lunar Mission, …

Behavior trigger

Event list (per-object)

Logic model

Pre-built behaviors

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android 5+, iOS 11+

Desktop targets

Windows 7+, macOS 10.11+, Linux

Languages

C++, JavaScript

Dev platforms

Windows 7+, macOS 10.11+, Linux, Web

2D

Yes

License

MIT

3D

No

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

HTML5

Supported languages

Visual programming, JavaScript

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

WebGL

2D physics

Box2D

Notable games

Hyperspace Dogfights, Lil BUB's HELLO EARTH, Vai Juliette!, Swamp, Squaremoji, The Mighty Rune

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; FB Instant Games

Desktop targets

Windows; Linux; HTML5; OSX

Languages

Lua

Dev platforms

Windows; Linux; OSX

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

Nintendo Switch

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

Lua

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS, Android

Desktop targets

Windows, Mac, Linux, HTML5

Languages

-

Dev platforms

Windows, Mac, Linux

2D

Yes

License

-

3D

Yes

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

BASIC Script, C++ & XCode libs

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; Kindle; Windows Phone 8

Desktop targets

Windows; Macintosh

Languages

Lua

Dev platforms

Windows; Macintosh

2D

Yes

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

tvOS

Traditional code

Lua

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

Free

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; (deprecated: Windows Phone, Tizen)

Desktop targets

Windows; macOS; Linux; HTML5 (Creator only)

Languages

C++; Lua; JavaScript; TypeScript (Creator only)

Dev platforms

Windows; macOS

2D

-

License

MIT

3D

-

Console targets

none

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS; Android

Desktop targets

Mac; Windows; Linux

Languages

Haxe; JavaScript (via NPM); TypeScript (via NPM)

Dev platforms

Mac; Windows; Linux

2D

Yes

License

MIT

3D

Yes

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

HTML5; WebGL; WebAssembly; Flash

Supported languages

-

TV targets

Apple TV

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

Free

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android, IOS, Windows phone

Desktop targets

-

Languages

C#

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS, Android

Desktop targets

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, SteamOs, HTML5

Languages

C++, Blueprints (Visual Scripting)

Dev platforms

-

2D

Yes

License

-

3D

Yes

Console targets

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

SteamVR/HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, OSVR, , Google VR/Daydream, Samsung Gear VR

Opensource

-

Platforms

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

DirectX Versions: 10, 11, 12(Experimental), Vulkan SM5, OpenGL

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

DirectX 10, DirectX 11, Vulkan (SM5), OpenGL

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; Windows Phone

Desktop targets

Windows; OSX

Languages

Lua

Dev platforms

Windows; OSX

2D

-

License

MIT

3D

-

Console targets

none

Distributed targets

none

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS, Android

Desktop targets

Windows, Mac, Linux, HTML5

Languages

-

Dev platforms

Windows, Mac, Linux

2D

Yes

License

-

3D

Yes

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

BASIC Script, C++ & XCode libs

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker, BSD

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

Python

Mobile targets

iOS; Android; Symbian

Desktop targets

Windows; OSX; Linux

Languages

HTML

Dev platforms

Windows; OSX; Linux

2D

-

License

Proprietary

3D

-

Console targets

none

Distributed targets

none

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

iOS, Android, UWP

Desktop targets

Windows, Mac

Languages

c

Dev platforms

Windows, Mac

2D

Yes

License

Proprietary

3D

Yes (Firefly)

Console targets

OUYA , Xbox

Distributed targets

HTML5, Flash

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

C; C++

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

Event list (global)

Logic model

Pre-built behaviors

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

Free

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

Android 2.3+, iOS

Desktop targets

Windows XP+, Mac OS X 10.6+, Linux

Languages

C99

Dev platforms

Windows XP+, Mac OS X 10.6+, Linux

2D

Yes

License

zlib

3D

No

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

C, C++, Objective C, bindings for Nim and OCaml (community maintained)

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

OpenGL 2.1+, OpenGL ES 2.0/3.0

2D physics

Box2D, LiquidFun

Notable games

Little Cells, Dstroy 2

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Mobile targets

-

Desktop targets

-

Languages

-

Dev platforms

-

2D

-

License

-

3D

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

Supported languages

-

TV targets

-

Traditional code

-

VR targets

-

Opensource

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Graphics API

-

2D physics

-

Notable games

-

Behavior trigger

-

Logic model

-

Scripting language

-

Price

-

API Support

-

Technology

-

Pros + Cons

Pro
 Interfacing with platform specific code

Sometimes it is necessary to access platform specific APIs, e.g., adding advertisement services or leaderboard functionality provided by frameworks.
Comment

Pro
 Uses Box2D

A Java port of the Box2D physics engine is included in libGDX.
Comment

Pro
 Allows you to migrate from 2D to 3D within same framework

LibGDX supports both 2D and 3D game development. Allowing developers to migrate from 2D to 3D with ease without having to switch the engine they are using or having to learn a new API.
Comment

Pro
 Active and helpful community

The libGDX community, in the official libGDX forum is extremely helpful and approachable for any kind of question regardless of the its quality or difficulty. The forums themselves are a very helpful resource for any issue or guide simply by searching past posts in there. In addition to the forums, there's also the official #libgdx IRC channel on Freenode.
Comment

Pro
 Great performance across devices

While it may not always have the best performance for a particular device or system, it's one of the few engines which consistently performs very well across different platforms.
Comment

Pro
 Desktop deployment allows for quicker development

Even if your game is made for Android, libGDX makes cross-platform deployment easy, This allows you to test your game on desktop quickly and easily without having to deploy to Android every time.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to learn

Comment

Pro
 Free and open-source

LibGDX is completely free to use, with no premium or paid version. It is also open-source under the Apache 2.0 license allowing you to change and distribute it freely. EditComment References 1 13 0···
Comment

Pro
 Provides a lot of versatility for developers

With a bit of knowledge you can make whatever you want by coding, instead of using built-in functions that you're not able to change how you want.
Comment

Pro
 Doesn't force a specific design

Unlike some engines, which only allow you to make your game in a few specific ways, libGDX allows you to design any type of game you wish as it is extremely customisable.
Comment

Pro
 High performance OpenGL wrapper

Comment

Con
 Could be difficult for inexperienced programmers

LibGDX is a low-level engine meaning it requires much more coding than other higher-level engines. Although this allows for greater customization, it can make things more difficult for beginner programmers.
Comment

Pro
 Just Coding

It's excellent for professional coders and developers.
Comment

Pro
 Lots of resources to learn from

Lots of references, tutorials and open source code to learn from.
Comment

Pro
 Across platform support

You can write once and run anywhere (Android, IOS, Desktop, Browser) also lately came with lib to deal with VR.
Comment

Pro
 Similar to the Microsoft XNA framework

Old XNA users may like libGDX since it's API is actually very similar to XNA's.
Comment

Pro
 Constantly improved

Comment

Pro
 Can use any JVM language

Since it's built with Java and runs on the JVM, any language that compiles to Java bytecode can be used to develop games with libGDX.
Comment

Pro
 Lots of tutorials to get you going

Even though the official documentation might be lacking, there are many tutorials on YouTube for libGDX.
Comment

Pro
 Free, open source & permissive license

libGDX uses the Apache License 2.0. Not only is libGDX free and open source but also it's license gives you a lot of power over the engine. As long as you provide a copy of the license, give credit, do not hold devs liable and do not use libGDX logo in any engine forks you can do pretty much anything you want.
Comment

Pro
 Kotlin support

It is written in Java so you can easily make games using Kotlin and Ktx project will help you get all advantages of this language.
Comment

Pro
 Focusing on object pool patterns, to control memory without pointers

Unlike Unity or other engine, it allows to optimize a language that uses garbage collector when using patterns of objects you can control the use of memory without needing a language like C / C ++, getting the same speed in a more productive language.
Comment

Pro
 Excellent font rendering support

Very good tools for rendering fonts.
Comment

Pro
 Support for 3rd party tools

libGDX has built in support for many 3rd party tools, including (but not limited to) Bullet Physics, Box2DLights and the well-praised Tiled Map Editor.
Comment

Pro
 Very easy to customize

Comment

Pro
 Fantastic UI toolkit (scene2d)

scene2d is a 2D scene graph, scene2d.ui is a UI toolkit on top of that. It enables very complex mobile and desktop UIs.
Comment

Con
 Documentation could be better 

Other than a brief installation / getting started overview, libGDX's documentation consists of an official wiki with several incomplete pages, and automated Javadocs. The community recognizes these shortcomings, and new users are encouraged to ask for help.
Comment

Con
 Performance issues related to Java and the JVM

libGDX is written in Java. While there are ways to build it into native binaries, its intended and supported use is with the JVM, which has performance ramifications.
Comment

Pro
 Great 2d and 3d physics engine

Comment

Con
 C++ Engine API not very friendly

The base C++ code from Godot is not documented, it's hard to set it up, to compile and hard to extend, it could use better programming standards.
Comment

Pro
 Free, open source and cross-platform

Godot is under MIT license so you can use it for your project without paying a single buck to its owner. Godot is licensed under MIT license. Anyone can grab the source from github.com/okamstudio/godot, and compile the engine him/herself. It targets Win/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS/BB10/HTML5.
Comment

Pro
 Good for beginners

Comment

Con
 GDScript is quite immature language

GDScript is copy of python and the real problem is, it is not python. Which means it cannot have all the power and new features that is available in Python or other programming language. It does have some good features but it is not good enough for what you need if you want to deep dive into game development. You can just feel that by the godot team is solving that matter by supporting mono version. Because C# is popular in other game engine and it contains all the new features that is available from new programming language. If i give you very simple example for why GDScript is immature, GDScript does not support asynchronous programming. Which is very efficient for performance of your game. You may mention about multi-threading because asynchronous programming is one way of multi-threading. However If you try that in Godot, you cannot multi-threading where you want to implement asynchronous system. For example, Autoload (Fake singleton) where you want to manage data in real time. Autoload is not real singleton. It is not a separated thread that manage data. Therefore everything is synchronous in autoload. Even though you create new thread from Autoload script, your game will just stop and wait for your thread to finish its task...
Comment

Con
 GDScript is quite immature language

GDScript is copy of Python and the real problem is, it is not Python. Which means it cannot have all the power and new features that is available in Python or other programming language. It does have some good features but it is not good enough for what you need if you want to deep dive into game development. You can just feel that by the godot team is solving that matter by supporting mono version. Because C# is popular in other game engine and it contains all the new features that is available from new programming language. To give you very simple example for why GDScript is immature, GDScript does not support asynchronous programming. Which is very efficient for performance of your game. You may mention about multi-threading because asynchronous programming is one way of multi-threading. However If you try that in Godot, you cannot multi-threading where you want to implement asynchronous system. For example, Autoload (Fake singleton) where you want to manage data in real time. Autoload is not real singleton. It is not a separated thread that manage data. Therefore everything is synchronous in autoload. Even though you create new thread from Autoload script, your game will just stop and wait for your thread to finish its task...
Comment

Con
 Self-designed scripting language  

Implementing new scripting language instead of using an existing scripting engine (such as Lua or V8 JS) looks expensive, but easy to learn.
Comment

Pro
 Built-in physics

Add physics to 2D and 3D scenes, through rigid and static bodies, characters, raycasts, vehicles and more.
Comment

Con
 Godot 3.0 < does not support many budget smartphones now

Android applications, compiled on the latest version of Godot, will not be launched on budget smartphones that do not support OpenGL ES 3.0 <. Even if you are doing a 2D game.
Comment

Pro
 Integrated animation editor

Every property can be animated.
Comment

Pro
 Fully dedicated 2D engine, no hacks

Godot 2.1 has a improved 2d engine with many features used by modern 2D games.
Comment

Pro
 The list of supported languages is growing

Officially, Godot supported languages for now will be GDScript, C#(Mono), VisualScript and C++.
Comment

Pro
 Lightweight

The executable is portable and less than 70 MB in size.
Comment

Pro
 Really good community

The community is great and really cares about the engine. It is easy to get help and to be part of Godot's future.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to learn scripting language  

Godot has their own scripting language called GDscript. The scripting language is easy to learn with python-like format, but it is not python. More like a mix of Javascript, PHP, C++. It's very powerful, easy to learn, and it's free of unnecessary things because it's designed for this purpose. It can be used to add custom behaviors to any object by extending it with scripting, using the built-in editor with syntax highlighting and code completion. A built-in debugger with breakpoints and stepping can be used and graphs for possible bottlenecks can be checked.
Comment

Pro
 Can be deployed to multiple platforms

Deploy games to desktops (Windows/OS X/Linux), smartphones (iOS/Android/BlackBerry), and the web (HTML5 via Emscripten).
Comment

Pro
 Free and open source

Godot is licensed under MIT license. Anyone can grab the source from https://github.com/godotengine/godot, and compile the engine themselves.
Comment

Pro
 Under constant development

This engine barely released one year ago has more than 1000 forks on github and about 100 developers. Not only that just a bit of browsing trough issues you will quickly find out the dev community loves new esp free technology and does not shy away from completely rewriting parts of the engine. The audio engine is being completely rewritten to use threads and so forth.
Comment

Pro
 Editor and runtime are fully cross-platform

You can run Godot on all 3 major operating systems (Windows/Mac/Linux) and build your game to all available platforms from each without any platform-specific work needed. All platforms including Linux are supported first class.
Comment

Pro
 Fun to use

An important aspect that can't be grasped without using the engine for a few days. The Interface is evolving nicely and making games is just fun.
Comment

Pro
 User friendly UI for all your team

Non-programmers (musicians, artists, etc) can join the development easily.
Comment

Pro
 Unified game editor interface

All the game developing work is done inside one program: the engine editor. This feature is something only high end engines have. Even the scripting is done in the same program. No need for Eclipse or other front end editors.
Comment

Pro
 Very easy to extend for C++ developers

Writing plugins to extend the engine is easy and intuitive for seasoned C++ devs.
Comment

Pro
 Internationalization of the editor

You can change the language shown in menus. Godot translations: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/godot-engine/godot/
Comment

Con
 Glitchy IDE

Comment

Con
 No Admob or other Ad Network support

Unlike various other open source engines, Godot has no native support for implementing advertisements into your game.
Comment

Pro
 Friendly towards Version Control Systems

The engine is build not only to support version control but to really use it. Scene files for example which usually get compiled into some sort of unreadable data stay in a text format - that way you can actually see your changes in a version control system like Git.
Comment

Pro
 Drag & drop interface

Many parts of the editor allow you to drag & drop, which makes working with assets and scene trees a joy.
Comment

Pro
 Instancing and node concept makes sense

The node and the instancing concept work very well and helps developers to structure content efficiently.
Comment

Pro
 Doesn't need to be installed into the system

Godot is very portable I can download the file from my website then put it on a USB and run it on my other Computer without any troublesome errors about Installing the software
Comment

Pro
 Easy to learn scripting language

Godot has their own scripting language called GDscript. The scripting language is easy to learn with python-like format, but it is not python. More like a mix of Javascript, PHP, C++. It's very powerful, easy to learn, and it's free of unnecessary things because it's designed for this purpose. It can be used to add custom behaviors to any object by extending it with scripting, using the built-in editor with syntax highlighting and code completion. A built-in debugger with breakpoints and stepping can be used and graphs for possible bottlenecks can be checked.
Comment

Pro
 Can Be Installed On Steam

You can easily install Godot via the Steam store.
Comment

Pro
 Scene Based editing

Godot gives you the ability to create scenes to make your life easier, with reusable objects and things you want to incorporate in your games. This makes the game making processvery streamlined and organized.
Comment

Pro
 Easily expanded scripting system

With 3.0's addition of NativeScript and PluginScript via GDNative, developers can easily define bindings for new scripting languages. In addition to the primarily supported C++, GDScript, VisualScript, and C# languages, the community has contributed D, Nim, and Python as well with more on the way.
Comment

Con
 No built-in way to import atlases

Godot does not have an easy and automatic way to import atlases created by other tools. However, there are plugins that can be used to import atlases from other engines.
Comment

Pro
 Creating editor tools is a breeze

Godot Engine is itself a Godot game. By adding the "tool" keyword to the top of a script, you can design extensions for the editor itself INSIDE the editor. Integrating these editor scripts into a bundled plugin for sharing is extremely easy to do.
Comment

Pro
 Simple and readable codebase

The engine's source code is easy to read and understand with a self-documenting approach to code design. You don't have to wait months or years for other people to fix an engine bug that is important to your game. Often times, you can spend an hour or two of your own time to fix whatever problems you encounter yourself.
Comment

Pro
 Built-in documentation linked to the internal ScriptEditor

The editor has a fully searchable index of class API documentation for everything the engine offers (NOT just a web interface). You can easily open the documentation for any class by Ctrl-clicking the class's name in the in-engine text editor for scripts.
Comment

Con
 2DPhysics is weak compared to Box2d

Box2d has much more features.
Comment

Con
 Tileset management could be more efficient

The tileset creation and management is lacking common features found in more developed tileset managers. However, it features support for Tiled - the only downside being that it is an external program.
Comment

Con
 It's most useful for just beginners

Comment

Con
 Poor documentation

The documentation has been rather lacking in the past. It has gotten better but it's not quite there yet still.
Comment

Con
 Bad performance on mobile

There is a framerate drops every 5 - 8 seconds and it's hard not to notice.
Comment

Con
 NoAdmob or other AdNetwork support

Godot has no native support for implementing advertisements into your game.
Comment

Pro
 Friendly community and great support

Welcoming and friendly community to all beginners.
Comment

Pro
 Powerful config system

Powerful config system that makes orx data-driven and provides an easy to use load/save system.
Comment

Pro
 High performance

Written in C with high emphasis on memory and CPU efficiency.
Comment

Pro
 Data-oriented

Easy to create complex game elements such as objects, sound, event tracks, physics shaders, etc as simple text configuration which can be easily accessed in c++ on the code side. Faster than editing tools.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to use and fast; not bloatware

Comment

Pro
 Excellent results on performance benchmark

Rated the fastest engine in the OpenFL’s BunnyMark since October 2015.
Comment

Pro
 Blazingly fast rendering

Orx tops the BunnyMark list as the fastest 2D game engine.
Comment

Pro
 Data Configuration

Orx is a Data Driven engine that greatly reduces required code. You can configure object definitions, bodies, cameras, sound, animation, event tracks, etc.
Comment

Pro
 Friendly community

Good friendly development community ready to help each other with tips and advice for setting up and best practices.
Comment

Pro
 Supports desktop and mobile

Supports Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, iOS and Android.
Comment

Pro
 Good animation engine

Includes a chaining graph & custom animation events for synchronization.
Comment

Pro
 Automatic hot-loading of resources

Automatic hot-loading of resources upon modification on disk, shortens drastically iteration times.
Comment

Pro
 Viewport scheme allowing multiple views

Camera/viewport scheme allowing multiple views displayed with camera translation, zoom and rotation.
Comment

Pro
 Great audio support

Samples for sound effects, or streams for music. All sounds can be groups via audio buses just like in a typical DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). All sounds can be spatial relative to the camera.
Comment

Pro
 Free and open source

Uses the zlib license. Lets you use Orx for free for any kind of projects, even for commercial ones.
Comment

Pro
 Input controls and binding

All input devices are fully supported: Joysticks, Mouse, Gamepad, Keyboard and Touchscreen. Multiple physical devices and be mapped the same binding.
Comment

Pro
 Flexible and simple FX

Color and translation FX are simple to configure and apply to objects.
Comment

Pro
 Easy post-processing/compositing for complex visual effects

Comment

Pro
 Multi-Threading

Comment

Pro
 Good render support

Fragment (pixel) shader support, render to texture, MRT, easy composition and custom rendering support.
Comment

Pro
 Custom shader support

GLSL code can be added straight into data configuration files and can be applied to any texture: background or objects whivh allows for some amazing effects. All GLSL versions are supported, again by providing the shader language version in your configuration file. Parameters are supported and values over time for shader animation.
Comment

Pro
 Flexible clock system

Clock system that provides time consistency and allows time stretching + high precision timers
Comment

Pro
 Integrated runtime profiler

Integrated runtime profiler (with graphical display) to easily spot which parts of your game need to be optimized.
Comment

Pro
 Collision handling and rigid body physics

Comment

Con
 Missing tools dedicated to content building

Although Orx's data configuration system, makes this largely redundant even though editor tools would be welcome by many.
Comment

Pro
 Allows for rapid prototyping

Unity's modular system and usability allows for you to quickly develop a prototype of your idea. It has features like drag & drop editing, shaders, animation and other systems already in place to allow you to dive right into developing your game.
Comment

Con
 Performance could be better for 2D

Performance can be a real issue with 2D games. Unity 3D is actually a 3D game engine, and drags a lot of overhead with it. For mobile, one could never achieve the performance of more specialized 2D engines with Unity3D.
Comment

Pro
 Good docs

A lot of information, examples and tutorials can be found in docs.
Comment

Pro
 Very popular

Unity is a proven game engine used by a range of developers from small indies to triple-A titles like Bad Piggies(Rovio.)
Comment

Con
 Large game file size

Unity needs to bundle Mono with every build, so Android games made with Unity3D can't be smaller than 8Mb.
Comment

Pro
 Easily builds APK files

Comment

Con
 Very slow

Comment

Con
 Encourages bad coding practices

A lot of Unity code feels like a hacked blur of arguable coding practices. C# and .Net usage in Unity is questionable. A lot of the API is done in "C Style" (public static methods, available at all times), encouraging the use of public fields for everything, a lot of questionable implicit casting. The list goes on.
Comment

Pro
 Lots of assets can be found in the Asset Store

For those developers who can't afford an artist, or aren't skilled enough to create their own art, Unity features an Asset Store full of a wide variety of free and paid assets that can be easily added to a game. The Asset Store has more than just music and art. It also has code and modules that can be added to games including unique lighting or GUI systems. It also has powerful asset management and attribute inspection.
Comment

Pro
 Lots of resources to learn from

Unity3D provides an exhaustive documentation where everything is given a full description supplied by a number of examples as well as video and text tutorials and live training sessions to understand the ins and outs of the engine. In addition there's an ever-growing community that can offer advice to help resolve any situations that may arise. Along with the official Unity resources, there are many high quality (and often free) third party tutorials available.
Comment

Con
 Overly complex system for working with 2D

Flipbook animations, stage settings, atlas handling, spine support etc. It's more complicated than many other engines designed for 2D.
Comment

Pro
 Well structured

Overall, a coherent engine with a rational approach. People who complain a lot about being forced to hack around it usually do not read the docs, like the one that describe orders of execution, or specific functions hooks and such. Some like to say it lacks raw power where people who are used to standard optimizations have no problem. For example It is not uncommon to encounter users who complain about low FPS but forgot to activate occlusion, flag static elements, activate animations culling, and so on. As for complaints about C#, people who are transitioning from C++ were already bad at C++ before being bad at C#. They often come from the PC world where the sheer power of today's machines is very forgiving compared to the platforms we had to develop for in the 80s~90s. One of their errors is for example to never read this doc.
Comment

Pro
 Great community

Great Community support through the Forums and Unity Answers.
Comment

Pro
 Great editor

The editor GUI is very powerful and intuitive, allowing you to pause gameplay and manipulate your scene at any time, and progress gameplay frame by frame. It also has powerful asset management and attribute inspection. This allows it to be more powerful than other, simpler drag-and-drop engines such as Game Maker Studio, although it can take a bit more experience to learn the workflow.
Comment

Pro
 Provides access to a huge list of assets through Asset Store

For those developers who can't afford an artist, or aren't skilled enough to create their own art, Unity features an Asset Store full of a wide variety of free and paid assets that can be easily added to your game. The Asset Store has more than just music and art. It also has code and modules that can be added to your game such as unique lighting or GUI systems.
Comment

Pro
 Free for development and publication

The Unity 5 pricing scheme provides all engine features and build targets in the Personal Edition, the only caveat being a required splash screen on launch. Developers are required to purchase a Professional license if their earnings exceed $100,000 for a title.
Comment

Con
 Mobile builds (Android, iOS) take about 18MB at least

Even a Blank Project, Needs 18MB for the APK file (on Android).
Comment

Pro
 Over 20 platforms

Unity offers over 20 platforms for publishing including mobile, console, web, VR, and more.
Comment

Pro
 Works with 3rd party IDEs

Comment

Pro
 Allows a choice of scripting languages to use 

Unity provides a selection of programming languages depending on preferences or knowledge. C# (CSharp) is arguably the most powerful, although the majority of tutorial languages are for Javascript. It is probably best to stay away from Boo (which is a flavor of Python).
Comment

Pro
 Free for mobile development

Unity allows free mobile development. There are some limitations.
Comment

Pro
 Can be used for free

As long as the development company makes $100k or less, it can use the free version of Unity to release games.
Comment

Pro
 Easy learning curve

The way the editor is structured, by setting scripts on objects, and the use of a high-level language, C#, makes it easy to learn.
Comment

Pro
 Versatile

Not tailored for specific types of games (like Unreal...), so it won't get in your way if you want to make something unique.
Comment

Pro
 Powerful standard shaders

The built in standard shader in Unity 5 is incredibly optimized and supports PBS/PBR.
Comment

Pro
 OUYA support

Comment

Pro
 Flexibility is provided by a strong component programming model

Comment

Pro
 Can create custom forms and tools

Comment

Pro
 Very optimized

Unity runs very smoothly even on systems that are considered "weak" by today's standards.
Comment

Pro
 Has a great animation system

Unity provides a great state machine animation system called Mechanim allowing to separate animation from the model and assign the same animoations to different models.
Comment

Con
 Issues with compiling for Android after every update

Every time Android updates SDK components or API version, Unity stops building apk's until next Unity patch.
Comment

Con
 Hard to maintain projects due to vendor lock

Unity3D is proprietary, closed source game engine. Unity asks money for features like basic version control support, etc. It is impossible to migrate a game from Unity3D in case performance does not satisfy growing requirements of a project.
Comment

Con
 Weak memory management

.Net libraries are slowing it down, memory safety is compromised, classes have to be implemented to manage objects in memory, like object pooling.
Comment

Con
 Very bad terrain

Native terrain creates a lot of draw calls which is bad for performance.
Comment

Con
 Very self-centered engine

Unity3D uses very unique approach for doing things. Most of the knowledge acquired while using it, would be completely non transferable to other engines. Advanced Unity3D programming is really dealing with Unity3D bugs, and finding loopholes around engine issues - nothing to do with graphics, etc. Skills which would be valuable with other engines.
Comment

Con
 Asset bundles can be cumbersome

Asset bundles are a way to load external resources that are not packed with the game or application and offered as a separate, optional package. However, they may not be compatible between versions or even platforms (you have to create them separately). Asset bundles need to be loaded and unloaded, avoid concurrent loads from web or cache or a naming collision can happen. You can find workarounds with static objects (load obj files and textures by code), but for animated game objects you are pretty much stuck with this.
Comment

Con
 New il2cpp script backend is show stopper to some iOS projects

Il2cpp script backend is required to build arm64 app, but it's still very buggy and not production ready.
Comment

Con
 Adds too many features without fixing earlier issues, rapidly increasing number of bugs that will never get fixed

Unity continues to add many new features without fixing earlier issues. Unity is either understaffed, overambitious, or both, resulting in a continual increase of problems and degraded experience across a number of platforms. Many bugs are reported daily and never get addressed, and there are many bugs from previous versions that are never looked at or fixed.
Comment

Con
 Increasing number of bugs

With each new version things may stop working ,for example with Android, some bugs are never getting fixed, like the freeze bug with adb.
Comment

Con
 Limited 3D modeling capabilities

While Unity itself lacks proper 3D modeling capabilities, tools such as ProBuilder or MXD are available in the asset store that add that functionality within Unity.
Comment

Con
 Weak default shaders

The standard shaders in Unity are lacking in the free version, meaning if you want better ones, you will need to code your own or purchase other ones in the asset store.
Comment

Con
 Not many tutorials available

There are not many tutorials available that teach developers on how to make a game with Oxygine from scratch. Because of this, it may be harder to pick it up or to start learning game development by using this engine.
Comment

Con
 Little community support

Oxygine is a young framework, it was first released in 2013 and has yet to gather a large community. For example, as on February 2016, the forum has just 123 members.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to use C++ API with optional C++11 features

Oxygine is written in C++. It provides easy to use API, which is designed with "do more with less code" philosophy. It uses a managed scenegraph system that takes care of rendering and updates, and provides ability to extend with custom rendering and updates.
Comment

Pro
 Robust 

It's very rare to experience bugs with Oxygine.
Comment

Pro
 Will be familiar to users of ActionScript3/Flash API

If you are familiar with ActionScript3/Flash API, then you will find it easy to begin working in Oxygine. Oxygine is much like Flash in C++, as its Event Handling model is very close to that of ActionScript 3 and SceneGraph.
Comment

Pro
 Games can be built as HTML5 applications

Most interesting is ability to build C++ Oxygine application for Web via Emscripten. So you write C++ code and it will compile it to HTML5/JS.
Comment

Pro
 Free, open source and cross-platform 

Oxygine is a free framework that works on OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, HTML5. It's licensed under MIT with source code available on BitBucket.
Comment

Pro
 Will be familiar to users of ActionScript3/Flash API 

If you are familiar with ActionScript3/Flash API, then you will find it easy to begin working in Oxygine. Oxygine is much like Flash in C++, as its Event Handling model is very close to that of AS3 and SceneGraph.
Comment

Pro
 Functionality can be extended with a bunch of available extenions

All of them available publicly at bitbucket. oxygine-movie for playing Theora movies with alpha channel oxygine-sound player for ogg sound/music with streaming oxygine-freetype library oxygine-billing for in-app-purchases on Android/iOS oxygine-spine for playing Spine animations oxygine-magicparticles for playing particles made with MagicParticles
Comment

Pro
 Allows for flexible contol over draw processes

Comment

Pro
 Allows playing movies with alpha channel 

Using oxygine-movie extension for Oxygine you could play in your game any videos encoded with Theora codec. You movie could have alpha channel and used as simple sprite instead of classic spreadsheet animations.
Comment

Pro
 Cross Platform Games

Games developed using GM:S can be easily exported to multiple platforms : Desktop (Win,Mac,Linux), Mobile(iOS, Android,Windows), Web, and Consoles (Xbox,PS)
Comment

Pro
 Has a free version that still allows for creative game development 

Game Maker Studio uses a tiered service beginning with a free options. With this option you have basic features that can still be used to make a decent game. If you decide this engine is for you, the first paid option is only about fifty U.S. dollars. This means you wont have to commit hundreds of dollars only to find out the engine is not what you need.
Comment

Pro
 It has an IDE used for loading all of the assets 

It is very easy to manage all these resources you want to put in your game, the UI widgets for each assets (sprites, sounds, backgrounds, rooms, objects and shaders) are intuitive enough for when adding or even editing the properties of each your assets. The included editors are also good and easy to use (sprite/image editors, shader editor and room editor).
Comment

Pro
 Easy to learn

GameMaker: Studio is incredibly easy to learn. It requires almost no programming knowledge which means those without the technical experience, such as designers or artists, can get their idea made. The internet is filled with tutorials for all skill levels for GameMaker: Studio. This makes learning it hassle free as there are great text and video guides out there. The official tutorials are located here, and there is also a great tutorial by famous indie developer Derek Yu.
Comment

Con
 Poor level editor

No marquee select, no layers, can be glitchy, no grouping, etc.
Comment

Con
 Proprietary language forces expensive "lock in"

Because it uses GML, a very non-standard custom language, new users do not learn a transferrable language and become locked in.
Comment

Con
 The level editor is terrible 

The worst level/room editor of all the game development packages. No marquee select, no layers, only one undo, glitchy, terrible manipulation of scale/rotation, can't manipulate draw order, no grouping, etc. It really is woeful and is surprising that anyone can use it at a professional level....truly is the weakest link in GSM!
Comment

Pro
 Access to the GML scripting language 

Game Maker Language (GML) is the primary scripting language that is interpreted similarly to Java's Just-In-Time compilation used in GameMaker. It is used to further enhance and control the design of a game through more conventional programming, as opposed to the drag and drop system.
Comment

Con
 Programming language is limited 

Language does not support actual objects, structs, real data types, functions, overloading, even argument naming. Developers generally have to code around the lack of these features in very tricky ways.
Comment

Pro
 Has a marketplace 

Yoyogames website has a marketplace which opens up an opportunity for people to sell or giveaway created assets and resources (sprites, scripts, sounds, extensions, full source codes, etc.) for use in GameMaker. This benefits people who needs quality assets for their games, and for creative people to provide these assets for extra income. The Marketplace has a rating system so it can eventually increase the quality and competitiveness of the assets submitted.
Comment

Con
 Buggy

Corrupts project files more often than the competition
Comment

Con
 Slow and outdated development

Google Play may refuse to accept the apk because Game Maker has yet to update one of it's internal libraries to fix a security issue.
Comment

Con
 Destructive DRM 

In late 2012/early 2013, YoYo Games released a version of their new Studio IDE for cross-platform development that would import games and destroy all of the image type resources for some legitimate purchasers of the software by superimposing a pirate symbol on top of the image. This was due to a fault in their digital rights management software implementation which they use as a method of combating pirated copies of the software. Though the false positives bug is reported to be fixed, the DRM is still in place and may affect placeholder graphics, etc. YoYoGames publicly stated they would remove the DRM at a later point in time, but that other less-invasive DRM techniques would remain.
Comment

Con
 The community seems juvenile

For example, some of the library include names such as HUMP, LUBE, AnAL.
Comment

Pro
 Can develop within Android

It is possible to develop games directly on a tablet or cellphone with the Android system by using the experimental Android branch.
Comment

Pro
 Uses the fantastic Lua for scripting

Lua is an embeddable scripting language designed to be lightweight, fast yet powerful. It is used in major titles such as Civilization as well as a lot of indie games. Lua is very popular because it provides "meta language" features. You can implement object-oriented structures, or pure procedural functions, etc. It has a very simple C interface, and gives the engine developer a lot of flexibility in the language itself. Artists tend to love Lua too because it's very approachable, with plain and forgiving syntax. Lua is free open-source software, distributed under a very liberal license (the well-known MIT license).
Comment

Pro
 Open source and free

The LÖVE engine is licensed under The zlib/libpng License (which is very short and human readable) which allows you to use the source code and even modify it as long as you do not claim that the original source code is yours. You can obtain the code at this bitbucket repository and even help fix bugs and participate in the development of LÖVE.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to understand and use

Lua2D handles loading the resources, reading input, playing sounds and displaying stuff on the screen. Only the logic is left for the developer to write. It also removes the overhead of having to use and learn a GUI game editor. All you need is a knowledge of Lua and your favourite text editor or IDE.
Comment

Pro
 Very good documentation

The LÖVE wiki provides full documentation of its easy to use Modules, which are conveniently located on the side bar of the wiki. It only takes seconds to find the module for love.keyboard, which provided a list of all functions along with arguments and examples where the function could be used.
Comment

Pro
 Many examples and libraries with source code

There are plenty of open source examples of games or components built by the community that are ready to use or learn from.
Comment

Pro
 Great for prototyping

You can learn the basics very quickly and start making simple games in no time, even if you have no previous Lua knowledge. If you're a little experienced with LÖVE, you can prototype a 2D game with it in no time.
Comment

Pro
 Cross-platform

Supports Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android and iOS.
Comment

Con
 Documentation is very dry and technical

The site has plenty of tutorials, but they all are very technical, and explain very little. They might seem overwhelming for beginners, because the specifics aren't explained well enough to learn quickly. Studying the docs can become frustrating starting from the very basics, because of how poorly it's explained, and how few examples are given before you're expected to use them.
Comment

Pro
 Active and very friendly community

The LÖVE forums are extremely helpful. With people checking the forums every day, it won't take long to receive answer to your questions on the Support board, receive feedback on games you post in the Projects board, or have a chat about the LÖVE engine, while learning tricks to use in the very active General board. If you need an immediate answer though, or just want to chat, there is a very active and helpful IRC channel.
Comment

Pro
 Built in behaviors make development workflows very efficient 

Behaviors add pre-packaged functionality to object types.
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Pro
 One off cost 

It's a one off cost for Construct 2 and all updates to the Construct 2 editor are free for life.
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Pro
 Built-in physics system 

Thanks to the great power of Erin Catto's Box2D, Construct 2 is able to make physics games which are similar to Cut the Rope and Angry Birds.
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Pro
 Constant updates 

Developers provide regular updates (usually bi-weekly) with new features added with each iteration.
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Pro
 Available on Steam

You can also download Construct 2 on Steam.
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Pro
 Designed for everybody 

Construct 2 is a tool for not just programmers, but artists as well. You can create a game with only visual coding, which is easy to learn and doesn't require any prevoius programming knowledge. You can focus on making your game better instead of just coding. It has some limitations of course, but it's definetly worth it.
Comment

Pro
 Great community

The website itself has tons of tutorials to get anyone started on any project and for the things you can't find there is a constantly active forum where other devs are giving their input, ideas and helping anyone who is stuck.
Comment

Con
 HTML5 is very dependent on browser performance 

Theoretically all browsers should run HTML5 pretty much the same way, but thats not always the case. Something that worked fine on Chrome, for instance, might malfunction on Firefox (or vice versa). And there's nothing the devs of Construct 2 can really do about it, but to hope next Firefox update might fix it. Internet Explorer is not even recommended. Add to that the fact that exporting to mobile or desktops rely on these sort of stripped down versions of web browsers (Node webkit, Crosswalk, Ejecta) that you pack with your game, and you can have a real headache if you're trying to make your game work properly through multiple platforms.
Comment

Con
 Does not export to native mobile code 

Construct 2 builds to HTML 5 only, which can cause performance issues on mobile devices.
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Pro
 Export control for all major platforms 

All platform exporters are part of the subscription. There are no additional fees and new exporters are added quickly and maintained well. Currently, 15 platforms are supported, including HMTL 5, iOS, Android, Windows, Chrome Store, PhoneGap and Scirra.
Comment

Pro
 In-depth event system 

Construct 2's event system allows for deep, detailed control over all aspects of your game. You aren't limited to just a few options. Rather, Scirra has thought of nearly everything in advance with access to any desired parameter of any object all paired with simple and intuitive ways to interact with them. Your events can be organized with event sheets (that can be included in other sheets), event groups, sub-events, loops, and functions that make the coding portion of your game as efficient as possible. You don't need any programming knowledge, but if you do have some, you'll feel right at home with the freedom C2 offers.
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Pro
 Built-in animation/image editor 

Basic sprites and tiles of 2D games can be made with engine's built-in tools.
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Pro
 Supportive devs 

The developers are always available to help.
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Pro
 Free (feature limited) version available

A free version of Construct 2 is available. It's not time restricted in any way, but is feature limited.
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Pro
 Quick to pick up 

Construct 2 is fast to pick up, get into, and belt out some pretty impressive games in a relatively small amount of time. Seems to be built for people who don't have a lot of programming skills, but want to make great games.
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Pro
 Active plugin ecosystem

Construct 2 has an active plugin ecosystem providing behaviors and features that smooth the workflow for certain game types.
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Pro
 Affordable

Construct 2 is available in 4 variants. There's a free version with limited functionality that prohibits from making money from C2 creations and a full version that requires either a personal, business or educational license. The personal license is aimed at indie developers that make less than $5000 from games made with Construct 2 and non-profit organisations and costs $129.99. The business license is required once $5000 or more is already made and costs $429.99. These licenses are one-time buys that include all future upgrades of the software. An educational license is also available for $29.99/month that allows having Construct 2 on all on-site computers.
Comment

Con
 End Of Life

This product is end of life and no longer supported actively
Comment

Con
 No proper debugging

If you run into an issue, the tool does not provide debugging abilities. If the tool crashes or behaves poorly, you are not able to determine why.
Comment

Con
 No extensibility

You cannot edit much of the editor. You are locked down to what they give you and it is not flexible. In comparison to Unity where the whole editor can be extended to provide editors within editors.
Comment

Con
 Not meant for large projects

this tool is mostly meant for prototyping. Although they won't outwardly admit it, it is not meant for bigger projects. It is barely meant for any serious project. Yes, it can be used. But it severely lacks the support required to be used in larger projects.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to create particles and animations 

With spriter file implementation and internal animation editor Construct 2 provides an easy way of creating particles and animations.
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Pro
 Interface similar to that of MS office 

This engine provides an intuitive workflow for people that are used to the Windows environment.
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Pro
 Built-in pathfinding 

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Pro
 Runs great on mobile  

Performs well on most devices and browsers.
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Pro
 Built-in tilemap object 

The tilemap object allows tile-based games to be designed more easily. The object's tilemap can also be edited in the layout view using the tilemap bar.
Comment

Pro
 Great for creating quick prototypes that run in your browser

Great for building a prototype that runs in your browser. If you need prototypes that run on devices or other platforms, stay away (since exporters are lacking).
Comment

Pro
 Supportive community

Construct 2 has a supportive community. Their forums have tens of thousands of topics with ten times more posts. The core maintainers are very helpful and friendly and often reply to questions or issues that may be discussed in the forums.
Comment

Pro
 One-off cost

It's a one off cost for Construct 2 and all updates to the Construct 2 editor are free for life.
Comment

Pro
 Cordova support

You can use Cordova plugins from the community
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Pro
 Simplicity - it is made for everybody to use and love

Construct 2 is a tool for not just programmers, but artists as well. You can create a game with only visual coding, which is easy to learn and doesn't require any previous programming knowledge. You can focus on making your game better instead of just coding. It has some limitations of course, but it's definitely worth it.
Comment

Pro
 Rapid development

After using a few quick tutorials you can quickly catch on to the event system this program uses and quickly be able to build any type of 2D game you want. You can download a few sprites from google and put together a working level of Mega Man with character movement / animation / enemies / collision detection / scoring / Tile map and AI within about 2 hours. The built in behaviors are incredible. It's amazing how Construct can simplify the most redundant tasks in game development.
Comment

Pro
 Very fast preview

In Construct 2 you can preview your games instantly at any time. There’s no need to wait for compiling or other time consuming processes.
Comment

Pro
 Little programming knowledge needed

Using Construct 2 requires very little programming knowledge because it's all drag'n'drop, intuitive, visual and event-driven instead of code-only.
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Pro
 Supports camera, microphone, speech recognition and synthesis 

Can use cameras in PCs and on mobiles. You can use the synthesis that can recognize your speech or you can write something and it can talk for you.
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Pro
 Allow server-less multiplayer game creation 

Construct 2 uses WebRTC technology to support it's multiplayer functionality. The nature of the technology allows peer-to-peer connection which does not require game developer to create server side architecture to allow communication between games.
Comment

Con
 Dependency on 3rd parties for all exports 

Unless you are creating a game strictly for browser/HTML5 usage, exporting to desktop or mobile is risky, as Scirra have no control over your final export quality. Since desktop uses NodeWebkit and mobile is Crosswalk, Phonegap or CocoonJS there is no guarantee that your final export performance and quality will be up to scratch for pro level 2d games. These 3rd party "browser wrappers" are very prone to breaking and introducing lag and bugs that can't be controlled from Scirra's side.
Comment

Con
 Editor is Windows only 

Although Construct 2 is able to export projects to Windows, OS X and Linux, the program itself currently only runs on Windows.
Comment

Con
 HTML5-only is extremely limiting 

If the software could export natively to mobile devices and PC/Mac/Linux it would be extremely powerful. The developer's choice of sticking to only HTML5 has created a bottleneck for anyone wanting to develop with this software.
Comment

Con
 Free version is severely limited 

Although a free version of the engine is available, it lacks features that are essential to creating a high quality product.
Comment

Con
 May have poor mobile performance depending on the device

Construct 2 is focused on Javascript. This makes any game built with Construct 2 highly dependent on the device's web rendering engine. If the engine has poor performance, so will any game built with Construct 2.
Comment

Con
 Not supported by newer Windows

This tool does not run well on newer Windows machines.
Comment

Con
 Staff can be rude

staff will treat you like an idiot at times.
Comment

Con
 Terrible support

There is no dedicated support functionality. If you run into an issue, you need to get lucky to get an answer. Sometimes, users will help you out. There are well known bugs that have gone open for quite sometime. There is no ticket system. You are lucky if your emails get answered within a month, if answered at all.
Comment

Pro
 Free and open-source

GDevelop's runtime libraries are MIT licensed. It can be used freely for projects of any type and there are no royalties associated with publishing games developed with GDevelop.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to use

The whole interface is intuitive and easy to learn: each part of the game can be designed using visual editors. The objects editor is used to create the objects of the game, the scene editor help you to build the levels of your game and the events editor allows to give life to the whole game without programming.
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Pro
 Has support for 3D

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Pro
 Constant updates

New releases and bug fixes are consistent. New updates are released anywhere within 2 weeks or 1 month from the last one. Its auto-updater also does it job very well making life a lot easier.
Comment

Pro
 Online version available, compatible with iOS and Android

Thanks to its open source nature, GDevelop-App.com was built over the GDevelop engine. GDevelop-App.com is a complete game creator similar to GDevelop, available directly in your browser and compatible with iPad and most Android tablets and phone! The app is perfect for making games directly from your sofa and you can even start a game on GDevelop-App and export it to open it inside GDevelop.
Comment

Pro
 Multilanguage support

GDevelop is available in many languages and even community can help in translations.
Comment

Pro
 Lots of features to build games

The engine includes pathfinding, physics engine, multitouch support, custom hitboxes, platformer engine, tiled maps, multiple layers and cameras out of the box. All of these features can be used without programming knowledge, using the visual editors.
Comment

Pro
 Powerful events system to create games without programming

No need for coding using this system which is clear and powerful: events are composed of conditions and actions. Actions are launched when conditions are fulfilled. This is a very friendly way of making games and is still efficient for advanced usage, contrary to most other "block"/"drag'n'drop" systems.
Comment

Pro
 Quickly add behaviors to objects

Prebuilt behaviors can be added to objects. This is a very efficient way to add a physics engine or make a platformer game. Lots of behaviors are included, from the most advanced (Physics, platformer, top-down movement) to really simple one (like the behavior to destroy objects when outside the screen or the one to drag objects with mouse or touch). And you still have full controls over your game as behaviors can be modified using the events!
Comment

Con
 Optional subscription not mentioned on main site

While the engine is free and open source as stated on the main website, it does not mention that some optional features and services are actually activated through a paid subscription (two tiers: 2€ and 7€). Those features are: no nag screen shown when debugging, additional metrics available on games dashboard, access to more than 2 cloud exports per day (unlimited local export can be done without subscription, provided the right packaging tools are installed and configured), easy removal of GDevelop splash screen (can be done manually without subscription).
Comment

Pro
 Easy and fast export for various platforms

Comment

Pro
 Small build size

Defold is pretty minimalistic and games developed with it have a pretty small build size.
Comment

Pro
 Cross platform

One codebase compile games for iOS, Android, HTML5, OSX, Windows, and Linux. Editor is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
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Pro
 Easy to learn

Defold uses Lua, which is regarded as an easy to learn language by most.
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Pro
 Great performance

Both loading, renderpipe and logic works really fast.
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Pro
 Free

Software and online dashboard are free of charge.
Comment

Pro
 Lua scripting

Lua is very easy to learn, fast and a pleasure to read. The Defold IDE supports opening scripts in your preferred external editor. Atom has a great Defold plugin with autocomplete for the API.
Comment

Pro
 Source code available

You can download and modify the source code of the Editor and the engine for free.
Comment

Pro
 Visual editor

Comment

Pro
 Fast results

Going from idea to result is very important for the creative process.
Comment

Pro
 Hot reload

It allows you to change scripts in a game while it is running live. Common use-cases is to tweak gameplay parameters or to perform debugging on a running game.
Comment

Pro
 Good combination of visual editing + code (Lua)

You can do a lot with drag and drop, but you're not limited -- the code (Lua, which is easy to learn) allows you more power than just visual editing usually gives you.
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Pro
 Collaborative

You can invite friends from the dashboard and create games together.
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Pro
 Great community

A very active and friendly community in forums.
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Pro
 Very performant

Being crossplatform it is important to work on low end devices.
Comment

Pro
 Message Passing system

There is something in the Defold engine which tends the people to their own. It is the message pass system. That feature is probably not in any other game engine yet. It will be useful even if you are a beginner or a hero in the game industry.
Comment

Con
 A bit difficult in 2D

Comment

Con
 Lack of basic features on core

An example of this is a lighting (but can be made with shaders).
Comment

Con
 Google account needed

You need a Google account to develop with Defold.
Comment

Con
 Too complex for 2D and not enough features for 3D

Going from world to screen coordinates should be a given for a 2D engine, but this has none of the tooling of a 3D engine, so what good is it?
Comment

Con
 Don't run on Linux with AMD GPU

This is a bug.
Comment

Pro
 Completely free of charge

Software and online dashboard are free of charge.
Comment

Pro
 Easy and fast export for various platforms

Comment

Con
 No advertisement support

Currently you cannot put advertisements in games developed with Defold, meaning free games cannot profit efficiently from it.
Comment

Pro
 Built-in automatic APK creation in AGK2

Comment

Pro
 Can be used with Basic, C++, or Pascal

Games can be developed through the AGK IDE in AGKBasic, or the libraries can be used with either C++ or Pascal for more advanced options
Comment

Pro
 Uses AGK Script 

Software produced with the App Game Kit is written in a language called AGK Script. This language has powerful inbuild commands including commands for 2D graphics, physics and networking. The commands make use of the platforms' native functions to improve performance. They are also designed to enhance code readability. The AGK Script commands have extensive online documentation.
Comment

Pro
 Fast development

There are plenty of functions which facilitate development and deployment. For example, the AGK player immediately plays the updated bytecode on Android devices. The online site helps with building an APK file for Google Play Store in minutes.
Comment

Pro
 Affordable

Access to the latest alpha versions available for as little as £35 through a pledge system.
Comment

Pro
 Wireless transfer of development builds

Tools are provided allowing AGK Basic apps to be wirelessly broadcast to devices for testing.
Comment

Pro
 Comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

The AGK comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on the Code::Blocks IDE for writing AGK scripts. A key feature of the IDE is its ability to broadcast compiled programs to other devices for testing.
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Pro
 Fast compile times in native BASIC

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Pro
 Plenty of learning resources

The App Game Kit community is very helpful, and the developers frequently publish tutorials in addition to regular documentation.
Comment

Pro
 3D features and shaders

It contains many commands for OpenGL 3D graphics and Shader deployment.
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Pro
 Very robust features out of the box

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Pro
 HTML5 export

The app can be compiled into native HTML5 format and can be run inside modern browsers supporting HTML5 and WebGL.
Comment

Pro
 Excellent community

Comment

Pro
 Support for Raspberry Pi

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Pro
 Very well supported by "The Game Creators"

Comment

Pro
 Supports photosphere & 360 degrees content

Create apps that can use interactive content like 360 Photosphere Images and 360 Videos.
Comment

Con
 Terrible scripting language

MS Basic from the 70's has more features. Procedural, no OO, inheritance, basic user defined types with overloading. Nothing. It even has GOSUB.
Comment

Pro
 Plugin support for Windows

Plug-ins can now be added to the Windows platform. Create your own Tier BASIC commands and call them using the AppGameKit Basic script language style.
Comment

Pro
 Excellent documentation

Every function is fully documented with examples and exercises. The Tutorial PDF is a full Introduction to 3D game programming with integrated references to every functionality and its most important usecases. The documentation is regulary updated.
Comment

Pro
 Uses a powerful scripting language built for game development

Software produced with the App Game Kit is written in a language called AGK Script. This language has powerful built-in commands including commands for 2D graphics, physics and networking. The commands make use of the platforms' native functions to improve performance. They are also designed to enhance code readability. The AGK Script commands have extensive online documentation.
Comment

Pro
 Support

Informed, timely and intelligent feedback from the AGK forum.
Comment

Pro
 You only need to to pay for the license only

There is no charge for upgrades, or for extra platforms (the HTML5 version just appeared in the latest version), there are no subscription fees or other usage charges. If you publish onto either Apple or Google's stores you will have to pay their costs, of course, but the makers of AGK do not take a cut of this themselves.
Comment

Pro
 Very fast compilation

It is a compilation based language, but the compilation is very fast. A project of about 1800 lines of code, for example, can compile almost instantly. (That's because it does not compile, it's an interpreter).
Comment

Pro
 Raspberry Pi free version available

A Raspberry Pi version is available and free. Users just need to register with the developer and then they can download.
Comment

Pro
 Easy basic programming

Program in tier 1 BASIC programming for every 3D game need.
Comment

Pro
 Cross platform

Supports developing games for Android, iOS, PC, Mac, Linux and now HTML5.
Comment

Pro
 HTML5 support

The AppGameKit Basic can now export to HTML5.
Comment

Pro
 Instant testing on multiple devices at once

AppGameKit supports instant testing on all connected devices. With the push of a button you can run your game on any device connected to the development machine.
Comment

Con
 No builtin game mechanics, events, inventory.

Comment

Con
 Can almost only do trivial games

The editor is rather limited, not fully polished, and 3D is missing some key functionalities (3D is work in progress).
Comment

Con
 BASIC language

Even though it supports C++, it's mostly C++ mapped to BASIC without OOP.
Comment

Con
 Many partially complete features

3D, shaders, Social Media integration, Google Play and others. They all have limited functionality. Presumably so that TheGameCreators can claim that it supports them. But with only a single developer working on updates it will be a long time (if ever) that everything that it claims to support is fully supported.
Comment

Con
 Incomplete documentation

The documentation you find online is not complete. If you want the complete documentation you have to buy it.
Comment

Con
 Very buggy

A quick look over both the Steam forums and the TGC forums for this software will give some indication of the range of issues that are present in this software. Some issues that have been flagged as far back as two to three years ago, are still present in the software. A quick look at the release notes for each new version will quickly show that more time seems to be spent fixing issues with the existing command set than introducing new and improved features. The latest version, as of this writing, version 2.0.12 has a serious bug where by Android apps cannot be placed in the background as this results in the app showing just a black screen.
Comment

Con
 Sparse documentation

The provided documentation is very minimal, and doesn't cover some bundled tools.
Comment

Con
 Pros on Slant are written by AGK marketing guys

Comment

Con
 Very slow progress & outdated

There is very little progress going on with AGK. AGK is done by only 1 programmer and the progress indicates that this is a part time thing. Updates are few and far in between, and bug fixes sometimes take whole months to fix. The templates that come with the C++ libs do not work out of the box and need users to fix them! Most integrated third party features, like Facebook & Advert commands use very old versions of the libs.
Comment

Pro
 Fast iteration

The built in Corona Simulator shows what the game/app will look like and how it will function on device. Saved changes instantly appear without the need to build the whole game.
Comment

Pro
 Use your favorite editor

Corona Labs offers packages for Sublime and Atom editors, and developers are able to use any code editor they like.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to learn

Corona SDK users write code in Lua, which can be picked up in under 10 minutes and the Corona docs give sample code for all APIs.
Comment

Pro
 Great Community

The Corona community is friendly and helpful regardless of which user level you are.
Comment

Pro
 Fewer lines of code

Corona SDK reduces the amount of code developers need to write to implement advanced features. Projects are easier to read and understand.
Comment

Pro
 Local Android SDK Not Required

There is no need to download the large Android SDK with Corona's build server.
Comment

Pro
 Good documentation and lots of tutorials

Comment

Pro
 Corona Simulator

Corona SDK ships with Corona Simulator, which runs your game/app directly on your PC/Mac and updates every time you make changes. It provides immediate feedback to your actions, you can see your changes right on the screen, without necessity to make build to device. Getting instant feedback really boosts tenfold prototyping and development speed.
Comment

Pro
 Lua syntax

Uses the great and easy-to-learn Lua programming language.
Comment

Pro
 Live builds - update builds running on a device automatically

With the live build feature, once you have created a build and installed on a device, you get lightning fast turnaround times because any change on the code or data is updated to the devices running the game (within the local WiFi) immediately. So changes can be tested on the real hardware within a very few seconds. What's even more impressive, this even works flawless with multiple devices running the game. You have to use it to learn how good of a feature this is while development and even more, while doing QA. Imagine fixing bugs and everyone of your QA team/friends/whoever helps to get your game done, has all changes on his device without doing anything but waiting 5 seconds - outstanding.
Comment

Pro
 Smaller Footprint using Corona SDK

Delivering the smallest download possible from an app store is ideal in mobile development to increase download and popularity.
Comment

Pro
 Create games, general purpose, and business related apps

Corona SDK can be used to create high performance games, general purpose apps, and business related apps. Most app development tools can only create games or business apps. Corona is extremely flexible.
Comment

Pro
 Great performance

Corona SDK greatly outperforms HTML5 game engines, it uses GPU effectively and Lua scripting doesn't affect performance in a noticeable way because the core of the engine is written in pure C++ and OpenGL.
Comment

Pro
 Corona SDK has a built-in physics engine

Physics are commonly used for apps that involve a simulation of objects that move, collide, and interact under various physical forces like gravity. Corona makes it very easy to add physics to your apps, even if you've never worked with a physics engine before.
Comment

Con
 Making a device build requires internet connection

To build your app for the device (iOS/Android/AppleTV) Corona requires to fetch resources from online. This would include base application template and plugins. This allows not to perform local build or use Xcode or Android Studio to do a build. Even Large games/apps would build very fast with good internet connection. Your code never leaves computed. Corona SDK would transfer some information to determine which plugins and pieces has to be transferred in order to make a final steps in build. As a bonus - you get basically one button press to get from your Corona Simulator game to game on a device.
Comment

Con
 Free, but not completely

Such conventional plugins as a reference to AdMob for example, cost $300 per year!
Comment

Pro
 One code base, multiple app stores

Projects written in Lua can target multiple devices without rewriting in Objective-C / Swift, Java, C#, etc. Developers reach more users without writing more code.
Comment

Pro
 Very simple to use

Comment

Pro
 Very comprehensive API

It's very quick to get things up and running with Corona SDK. The API is extensive and while it's not 100% feature-complete with the iOS API, it's close enough that you could create tons of games and never run into a roadblock. The API docs can be found here.
Comment

Pro
 Content scaling 

It's easy to create a game that looks good on many different sized mobile devices.
Comment

Pro
 Free

Corona SDK is completely free as of March 2, 2015. That includes pro-tier plugins.
Comment

Pro
 Exceptional support

The Corona forums are full of helpful people and the documentation is always up-to-date with plenty of example code.
Comment

Pro
 You can test code / asset changes immediately on multiple platforms and devices at once automatically without the need to build or send to them

No need to build for each device, upload and re-install. Simply tick a single check-box for live builds and every time you update your project in the simulator it will automatically and almost instantly send to every device currently running your app / game. It literally just appears with the new version live and running.
Comment

Pro
 A lot of plugins available

Comment

Pro
 Easily Extendable

Corona provides many ways for developers to extend their apps with native code using Corona Enterprise. This allows developers to add Corona support for features they need when they need them. No need to wait until the Corona team gets to implementing a feature in Corona SDK.
Comment

Con
 Not flexible and has limited capabilities/features

Structure and API aren't flexible and there is no dynamic scripting ("loadstring" is disabled) or multithreading on mobile. (Actually this is enabled; just not for mobile which is because Apple won't accept dynamic scripting apps).
Comment

Pro
 Perfect for creating games

Corona has a fast and helpful community for game creators. You get instant help for every problem and powerful maths solutions and everything else game related!
Comment

Con
 Only for 2D

One can use Corona SDK for creating only 2D and 2.5D Apps.
Comment

Con
 Not very popular for Android use

As an engine made for iOS with Android support as a side note, there are many options that are much better choices than Cocos-2D
Comment

Con
 Poor documentation

Most existing documentation is out of date. API documentation sometimes exists, though is usually just a one-liner and more often than not is completely absent. New features and significant system rewrites often make it to a major release without a single line of documentation accompanying them.
Comment

Pro
 A proven engine for mobile development

25% of iPhone games are made using Cocos2D-x (A Cocos2D mobile variant.) This means you will not be alone in development, and will have access to a large community and know you are developing for an engine that works.
Comment

Pro
 Greater performance than high level APIs

Cocos2d-x is C++ based engine and it has CPU advantages for most platforms because of that. It uses polygonal mesh methods for sprite rendering for using GPU advantages. (You also use quad methods for benefit CPU).
Comment

Pro
 Supports 3D models with skeleton animation

A new feature since Cocos2d-x v3.1 is support for 3D models (in your 2D game), not only this but support for skeleton animations is included too! This awesome feature allows for impressive characters in your game along with easier, more fluid and realistic animations.
Comment

Pro
 Great script language support 

It support Lua and Javascript with full feature support. Especially with Cocos2d-JS you can develop games cross web and native, and the native solution have great performance with JS Bindings, much better than hybrid solution
Comment

Con
 Can seem very complex for a novice developer

There isn't much documentation or tutorials.
Comment

Con
 Poor support and non-existent community

Up until 2013, this was one of the best engines around. However, since then it was bought by a Chinese company and began stagnating - it's virtually in a slow death. Most developers abandoned Cocos in favor of more modern solutions leaving the community weak and the forums with little or no traffic. Although the Cocos2d-x Forum seems to have a decent community going.
Comment

Con
 Fragmentation; hard to find useful tutorials

Cocos2d family includes different projects: cocos2d-x, cocos2d-html5, cocos2d-objc, cocos2d-XNA. Most tutorials describe techniques specific to single project of the family, and cannot be applied to other projects.
Comment

Pro
 Future-proof

Cocos2D-x is not only open source but also supported by Chukong Technologies of China and USA. Regularly updated and adding support for the latest technologies. 2014 has already seen the release of Version 3, a new Cocos Studio development toolkit (optional) and support for new technologies like skeleton animation systems Spine and Adobe DragonBone.
Comment

Pro
 Good documentation

Documentation includes a programming guide, API reference, video tutorials and massive reference test code project showing all functions and giving working code to the user.
Comment

Pro
 Cross-platform

Web, desktop (win, osx, linux) and mobile (android, ios) targets are all supported at native speeds.
Comment

Con
 Hasn't matured yet

OpenFL is a relatively young framework and unexpected behaviour can still be encountered.
Comment

Pro
 Free and open source

Comment

Pro
 Uses C#

Comment

Con
 Not an engine, more needs to be done by hand

Comment

Pro
 Based on XNA

Can use existing XNA documentation and APIs.
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Pro
 Great pipeline tools

Comment

Con
 Not as popular as alternatives

Comment

Con
 Documentation can be hit or miss

MonoGame specific documentation is not as common as XNA documentation, but XNA documentation can be used with MonoGame
Comment

Con
 Very high build size

A blank project will build in to a minimum of 200 MB.
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Pro
 Free development license, including source code

The engine, including full access to source code, is licensed to developers for 5% royalty on resulting revenue if it exceeds $3000 per quarter.
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Con
 Extremely long build times

Making a full rebuild, including engine can take a good 30minutes. If you plan to use Unreal professionally, you better get some licenses for Incredibuild as well.
Comment

Con
 Hard engine for beginners

This engine is not easy for beginners.
Comment

Pro
 Professional feature set for all aspects of game development

Almost everything a game developer wants has a deep and sophisticated tool waiting for them in UE4. No external plugins are needed to make powerful materials, FX, terrain, cinematics, gameplay logic, AI, animation graphs, post process effects, lighting etc.
Comment

Con
 Royalty based

5% of profits will go to Unreal after $3000 earned in a quarter.
Comment

Con
 Difficult for mac users

If you're installing it on mac, you simply download epic games launcher and watch it download nothing endlessly.
Comment

Con
 Steep learning curve

Especially when compared to its primary competitor, Unity.
Comment

Con
 Poor documentation

Most of the "documentation" for code is actually just automatically generated from the source. If you're interested in knowing how things are supposed to work, you must either go to their answers site or pay for UDN. Often their examples won't even compile, since they were written for now outdated versions.
Comment

Con
 Bad support

The epic games team only assists with billing and account issues, not bugs.
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Pro
 Instant on device testing

Gideros provides on device players for iOS and Android that can be used to instantly try out your code directly from the Gideros IDE.
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Pro
 Local builds

You can build apps without an online dependency.
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Pro
 Free and open source

Gideros is open sourced and completely free to use - there are no limitations to developing and publishing apps.
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Pro
 Supports many platforms

Gideros supports iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, WindowsRT, Windows Phone and HTML5 platforms.
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Pro
 Easy plugin architecture

Gideros Studio has a very powerful feature which enables developers to use a C/C++/Java/ObjC library next to Lua. This way it's possible to call the library functions under Lua, get the results and interpret them directly under Gideros Studio.
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Pro
 Auto scaling and image resolutions

Gideros provides an easy way to target various screen sizes by providing automatic scaling options and choosing the best image resolution based on device screen automatically.
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Pro
 Friendly & helpful community

Gideros has an active forum where you can find friendly and helpful advice.
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Pro
 Very easy to learn

Gideros uses the Lua programming language which is very easy to learn (and very powerful). There are some excellent video tutorials too, to help you get started. The Gideros forum community are also very friendly and helpful if you any any problems.
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Pro
 All in one studio, no complicated setup

Gideros Studio is incredibly easy to set up. Once installed it is very easy to create a new project or open one of the many example projects. Trying out an example on the desktop is two clicks away.
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Pro
 New features and improvements are released regularly

Gideros is being constantly updated and improved by the main developers.
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Pro
 Amazing 2D performance

2D performance is amazing.
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Con
 Few resources, but growing

Gideros has a small community, and therefore do not have as many "How to make a game" tutorials. However, there are a couple of excellent books available that can take you through the fundamentals.
Comment

Con
 The Gideros IDE is not as fully featured as other IDEs

The Gideros IDE is not as fully featured as other IDEs, but you can easily use the very powerful and compatible ZeroBrane Studio IDE.
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Pro
 Versatility, code once and deploy

Graphics commands are built in and easy to use but are as powerful as you need it to be.
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Pro
 HTML5 support

The AppGameKit Basic can now export to HTML5.
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Pro
 Instant testing on multiple devices at once

AppGameKit supports instant testing on all connected devices. With the push of a button you can run your game on any device connected to the development machine.
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Pro
 Easy basic programming

Program in tier 1 BASIC programming for every 3D game need.
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Pro
 Cross platform

Supports developing games for Android, iOS, Windows PC, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi, and HTML5.
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Pro
 Uses a powerful scripting language built for game development

Software produced with the App Game Kit is written in a language called AGK Script. This language has powerful inbuild commands including commands for 2D graphics, physics and networking. The commands make use of the platforms' native functions to improve performance. They are also designed to enhance code readability. The AGK Script commands have extensive online documentation.
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Pro
 You only need to to pay for the license

There is no charge for upgrades, or for extra platforms (the HTML5 version just appeared in the latest version), there are no subscription fees or other usage charges. If you publish onto either Apple or Google's stores you will have to pay their costs, of course, but the makers of AGK do not take a cut of this themselves.
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Pro
 Fast development

There are plenty of functions which facilitate development and deployment. For example, the AGK player immediately plays the updated bytecode on Android devices then the online site helps with building an APK file for Google Play Store in minutes.
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Pro
 Good support

Informed, timely and intelligent feedback from the AGK forum.
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Con
 $80 even if your game doesn't fly

Comment

Con
 Terrible scripting language

MS Basic from the 70's has more features. Procedural, no OO, inheritance, basic user defined types with overloading. Nothing. It even has GOSUB.
Comment

Pro
 Comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

AGK comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on the Code::Blocks IDE for writing AGK scripts. A key feature of the IDE is its ability to broadcast compiled programs to other devices for testing.
Comment

Pro
 Plug-in support for Windows

Plug-ins can now be added to the Windows platform. Create your own Tier BASIC commands and call them using the AppGameKit Basic script language style.
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Pro
 Raspberry Pi free version available

A Raspberry Pi version is available and free. Users just need to register with the developer and then they can download.
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Pro
 Good performance

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Pro
 Free Android version

There is a free version available on Android that allows you to write games and applications directly on your Android device for when you are out and about.
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Pro
 Can be used for advanced games programming in C++

Libraries which provide the same functionality are available for all five supported platforms, so you can code in C++.
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Pro
 Highly customizable IDE

Although users must work within the IDE and editor, GMS2 has many options to customize the look and feel
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Pro
 Good documentation

Comment

Pro
 Well-optimized engine

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Con
 Unstable

Users frequently report crashes and hangs, particularly when working with assets, and the software uses a complicated underlying meta-file structure that may become corrupted and cannot be rebuilt
Comment

Con
 Not the best scripting language out there

GML is just weird; if you want to learn programming, it is not the best because it teaches bad habits and has many odd shortcuts and shortcomings that won't transfer to a real language
Comment

Con
 Small development team

The core programming team is only 5-10 people, with about 30 employees total, so bug fixes can take a long time to be addressed, and there aren't many official tutorials
Comment

Pro
 Has a trial version (but limited functions, can't export)

Comment

Pro
 Many unofficial tutorials

Most GMS1 tutorials are fine for GMS2
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Pro
 Huge, generous community

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Pro
 Good user interface

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Pro
 Quick prototyping

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Con
 Limited support for OOP

Comment

Pro
 Runs in the browser

If I don't have my Chromebook, Construct 3 will run in the browser
Comment

Pro
 No installation required

As it runs in the browser I can load it on any computer and show my friends my work really quickly!
Comment

Pro
 Fast and small

Construct 3 loads really fast, other software I use have a large download size
Comment

Con
 Subscription based

It is subscription based pricing, I don't mind this at all as the prices are reasonable but might not be for everyone.
Comment

Pro
 Timeline

It has a timeline feature which allows you to make amazing animations
Comment

Pro
 Works on Chromebooks

Construct 3 works on my Chromebook without any issues!
Comment

Con
 Expensive

This game maker is very expensive at $99. Also, to get a free trial for 1 month, you need a credit card.
Comment

Con
 You are restricted by it's limitations

For example, you can only make certain kind of games.
Comment

Pro
 Rapid development

Using the QML language allows for some powerful features that cut code lines and time. Another helpful feature that can help in this area is that there are more than 50 game demos of all genres that come with full source code, meaning one can easily check to see how something was done.
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Pro
 Easy to learn

Felgo is among the easiest cross-platform tools to use according to a survey done by research2guidance.
Comment

Con
 No 3rd party tutorials

There are little to none amount of tutorials for Felgo other than what was made by the engine developers themselves.
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Pro
 Cross platforms with HTML5 + JS

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Pro
 Long-standing

This software has been around since 1994 (then called Klik & Play) and is still going very strong. Also, one of the founders of Clickteam was the developer of STOS BASIC and AMOS BASIC for the Atari ST and Amiga computers.
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Pro
 Box2D physics engine included on all platforms 

Clickteam Fusion 2.5 brings to you the box2D physics engine.
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Pro
 Export native runtime for all platforms 

Be it Windows EXE, Android APK, iOS, HTML5 and Flash SWF, Fusion 2.5 is able to export your game to fast, truly native runtime for specified platform with a click.
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Pro
 Intuitive drag & drop interface & visual event editor 

CF2.5 uses a straightforward drag & drop editor that allows for easy level, animation and event creation without having to write a single line of code.
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Pro
 Supportive, passionate community 

Any time you have a question or a problem, the community and the software developers are there to help you out either on forums or steam. The devs repond quickly to private messages or instantly on ClickConverse (chat). Additionally, many users have support sites with open source examples and tutorials.
Comment

Pro
 Balanced feature set 

An excellent compromise between ease of use, power, flexibility and ability to export to different platforms. Easy to learn for beginners with the ability to make complex things, of course, at the expense of a larger effort. Good rapid application development tool for making 2D games.
Comment

Pro
 Developers work so closely with the user base 

Dedicated Bug tracking system linked to user forum for ease of access.
Comment

Pro
 Free version

A free version is available for download here.
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Pro
 Permissive runtime license agreement 

With the Developer edition of the product, there are absolutely no limits or requirements when selling your creations. You are free to make as much money as you want (this applies to the Standard edition too), and you don't have to include any logos or credits in your creations.
Comment

Pro
 Upgrade discounts 

If you buy Fusion 2.5, and later decide you want to upgrade to the Developer version, or in the case of moving from MMF2 to F2.5, the company offers upgrade discounts.
Comment

Pro
 Well-optimized 

Runs well under high object numbers, particularly on PC and iOS thanks to hardware acceleration.
Comment

Pro
 Community-driven extensive object repository

Click Fusion has a great selection of extensions submitted by the community. The extensions cover a variety of game-building tasks including parsing of strings using up to two alternating delimiters using the "Tokenizer Object", generating random numbers without reusing them from multiple lists which can be refilled and distinctively replenished with the "Random Multipool Object" among others.
Comment

Pro
 Can also create Windows applications 

CF allows creating Windows applications. Additionally, due to hundreds of available extensions, the process is quick.
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Con
 No console/Linux exporters 

Comment

Con
 Some features are really outdated and major updates are few and rare 

There are some features that could make the software a lot more powerful but I feel like Clickteam does not have the staff resources to handle updating the software to be competitive with similar software. Fusion 3 is in the works but it feels like we are just waiting around for years to get features that are currently standard elsewhere.
Comment

Pro
 A great unofficial community for Spanish-speaking users

A great community in Spanish where you will receive all the help you need to solve your doubts and problems. You'll also find all kinds of resources and materials in Spanish. Una gran comunidad en español en donde recibirás toda la ayuda que necesites para solucionar tus dudas y problemas. También encontrarás todo tipo de recursos, tutoriales y ejemplos en español.
Comment

Pro
 Great IRL user events

Clickteam holds user conventions for customers to come along, meet the staff and hang out with people who they've met online. This furthers the community spirit which is so prevalent around Clickteam's products and it's a fantastic weekend.
Comment

Con
 The Free Edition is severely limited 

Comment

Con
 Poor native movements 

The native non-physical movements are practically unusable if you don't want to use Box2D physics in your game.
Comment

Con
 Cannot script editor 

You cannot script the IDE or editor with e.g. macros or custom functionality, like you can in other popular game engines.
Comment

Con
 No animation/object hierarchy 

You need to position/rotate objects manually.
Comment

Con
 Need to write C++ extensions when existing extensions don't cut it 

If you need e.g. a Steamworks extension or 3D display extension, you need to move out from the event system and create extensions in C++ with a cumbersome API. Fusion does not have FFI calls like other programming languages
Comment

Con
 Slow event system 

Since the event system is interpreted, complex frames will start to slow down. This is also caused by poor code reuse, as usually, you need to copy+paste events with new conditions, making it impossible to cache intermediate results.
Comment

Con
 No native animator with curves, etc 

Comment

Con
 Need to copy & paste events into every frame 

Yeah, basically Clickteam REALLY needs to add the ability to allow events to be shared globally across multiple frames! If you are developing your app all in one frame this is not a problem, but for a more robust game for instance a game that has the player going into other frames, you need to copy and paste ALL the code from one frame to the other! This is tedious and time consuming, crippling the flow of your idea once you learn that you need to think 20 steps ahead for a larger project, ultimately slowing you to a crawl or out right halt! Since you fear proceeding until you think you have absolutely covered all the possible things that can pop up on your first frame, carried out through whatever other frames you have in mind. This limits your ability to create a really ambitious project in ClickFusion 2.5 because you can't plan on having your code globalized throughout your whole projects future...
Comment

Con
 Windows-only development 

Only Windows machines can be used to develop with.
Comment

Con
 Many extensions not available on non-Windows platforms 

A lot of community-made extensions are only written for Windows, making it hard to port your game to other platforms.
Comment

Con
 Its Event Editor can be cumbersome if you are working on complex project 

While Fusion's visual programming event system is great to simplifying things, but it can be even much more cumbersome to work with than reading lines of codes when you are working on a complex project. Especially if your events involves many nested conditions and lots of objects on the frame. You are able to group events and objects, but it doesn't help at all if there's lots of conditions on event and it becomes pretty hard to read.
Comment

Pro
 The con is garbage, Python 3 support is present

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Con
 No Python 3 support yet

Comment

Con
 Abandoned

No work on the engine has been done since 2013.
Comment

Con
 Doesn't support current SDK

Only works on older SDK that isn't even supported anymore by google or Android Studio.
Comment

Pro
 Functionality can be extended

AndEngine has extensions that can add additional functionality to the engine.
Comment

Con
 Poorly documented

Documentation is severely lacking.
Comment

Pro
 Very easy to use

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Pro
 Free and no ads

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Con
 Cannot enter in houses

Comment

Pro
 Native code support

Developers can make native calls directly from Monkey code. This allows access to any native functionality and platform-specific features.
Comment

Pro
 Uses a great, easy to learn language

Monkey X uses a custom programming language (called Monkey) for all its scripting needs. Monkey is rather easy to learn, it's object-oriented which will help most programmers with understanding it. It's also statically typed and uses a garbage collector, helping to avoid manual memory management.
Comment

Con
 DISCONTINUED as of June 2017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_X Replaced by "Cerberus X" and Monkey 2.
Comment

Pro
 Very rapid prototyping

Monkey compiles to HTML 5 so it is very easy to make a small change and quickly preview it in a web browser.
Comment

Pro
 Not running in its own VM

Unlike other multi-platform engines (Unity3D, Corona, etc), Monkey-X games do not run explicitly in their own virtual machines. Your code is translated into the native languages of each target platform, and then compiled as a native executable. For some platforms "native" is still a VM, but there is no overhead compared to other apps on that platform.
Comment

Pro
 Out of the box support for Admob

Add Advertisements to your app with just some lines of code.
Comment

Con
 The documentation is not very thorough

The documentation contains a reasonably detailed language overview, and a somewhat-generated list of the included modules, classes, and methods. Module descriptions are rather lax, but usually present. Method descriptions tend to be short, and a majority of them contain no usage snippets; most parameters have very minimal descriptions. And there are no community collaboration features to help improve it, besides GitHub.
Comment

Pro
 Built-in modules for quickly building games

Monkey X has a selection of great built-in modules. Graphics Audio Input Data and Filesystems Networking Math Text and Strings Collections Online Services
Comment

Con
 You'll have to learn a new programming language 

Even though this is not a problem if you're new to programming (since you'll have to learn a language anyway), having to learn a new language develop games is a lot of friction for people that already know how to program in other languages.
Comment

Pro
 Cross-platform

Write your code once for multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, HTML5, Flash, Windows, OS X, Linux, and many more. Develop using Windows, OS X, or Linux.
Comment

Pro
 Easy to learn

With it's Object orientation and clean syntax its a brilliant language to learn if you have never done any programming before and yet still has all the power it needs to make full games and apps.
Comment

Pro
 Lots of great examples 

Monkey X includes over 50 examples ranging from complete sample games to demos of single features.
Comment

Pro
 Helpful community

Helpful community for beginners is available both in english and russian.
Comment

Pro
 Many community modules available

The community has created essential modules: Spine for animations Box2D and Chipmunk for physics Game frameworks such as Ignition, fantomEngine, and Flixel Diddy for lots of extra functionality FontMachine for custom bitmap fonts MiniB3D for 3D gaming And several others...
Comment

Con
 No real asset store 

Untangling how to keep assets in the ".data" requires attention and a filenaming convention.
Comment

Pro
 Partly open-source 

The entirety of the base-language itself is open source. Commercial modules such as Mojo for non-free platforms cost a one-time fee. Though Mojo is not free for all targets, the targets for these platforms are, meaning it is possible to implement other frameworks for these targets. The Desktop (GLFW and C++ based) and HTML5 implementations of Mojo are currently free and open source. The language's development is completely public, and is managed via GitHub.
Comment

Con
 Development may have stalled

Frequent small updates to Monkey X can be seen on the development branch at GitHub, but the master branch hasn't seen a commit since June 2013.
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