When comparing libGDX vs GLBasic, the Slant community recommends libGDX for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” libGDX is ranked 14th while GLBasic is ranked 76th. The most important reason people chose libGDX is:
Lots of references, tutorials and open source code to learn from.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Lots of resources to learn from
Lots of references, tutorials and open source code to learn from.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Uses Box2D
A Java port of the Box2D physics engine is included in libGDX.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Very easy to customize
Pro Constantly improved
LibGDX itself is pretty mature, and get updates not quite frequently, but various libraries for it are actively updated.
Pro Across platform support
You can write once and run anywhere (Android, IOS, Desktop, Browser) also lately came with lib to deal with VR.
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.
Pro Lots of tutorials to get you going
Even though the official documentation might be lacking, there are many tutorials on YouTube for libGDX.
Pro Excellent font rendering support
Very good tools for rendering fonts.
Pro Similar to the Microsoft XNA framework
Old XNA users may like libGDX since it's API is actually very similar to XNA's.
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.
Pro Easy to develop with
Language is easy to use, with a fast compiler.
Pro Fast 2D
Pro Easy to learn
Pro Support
Forum support is great. No advertising in program or forums. Company has been going for over 10 years.
Pro 3D
Unlike most multi-platform development systems, 3D is available across most of them.
Pro Multi-platform
Code can be written once and will work on supported platforms with very little modification.
Pro No hidden fees
PC version is free.
Full Multi-platform version requires one-off very reasonable price, and all further updates are free, however you can run a watermarked demo on your chosen platform with the free demo version.
Pro C/C++ support
C/C++ code can be included inline or as a DLL/.o/dylib file.
Pro HTML 5 compiling is now faster and works better
Pro Default GUI system works fine, and has all the needed widgets needed
Only problem is position is based on position of previous widget.
Pro Compiler is fast and produces efficient code
Pro Free for home development
Create apps for non commercial 2D programs running on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. The extension to create programs for other platforms, 3D or network applications requires a license key. Otherwise the "Premium" programs are limited to 10 min runtime for test purposes. There is no trial limit for the development environment.
Pro Networking
Easy-to-use networking system with either TCP or UDP.
Pro Books
Programmers reference guide, user guide and various others are free.
Pro Gaming related functions
Viewports, sprites, rotating/animating and zooming sprites, collision detection and pathfinding.
Cons
Con Not starter friendly
Even default applications fail to load in Android. It doesn't have any documentation on errors either.
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.
Con The project slowed down in development
The number of active developers has decreased, many open issues and pull requests.
Con Build system is clunky
LibGDX uses Gradle, which is very demanding of memory and makes IDEs freeze on anything if your computer is not powerful enough.
Con Does not create compiled code
LibGDX runs entirely on Java and does not create executable binaries.
Con A bit difficult to use
This engine is not well put together. Is made from various free modules each with their own peculiarities. At times it feels you need to learn a couple of libraries rather than just one. Is not an engine for beginners as it requires coding. Lots of coding. You need to be intermediate to advanced in Java to develop in LibGDX.
Con Command set has hardly changed or been updated/improved over the years
Con Poor 2d collision detection with rotated sprites
2d sprite rotation with collision detection isn't present and requires some annoying run-arounds to achieve what is a staple of other game engines.
Con No multi-platform editor
Whilst Linux and Mac IDE's were started, they were never completed.
Con No clear way to monetize apps
It's impossible to place ads. There is a third party in-app purchase library hidden somewhere deep within the forums which hasn't been updated for years.
Con Issues don't get fixed
The Blender exporter and the 3D converter have been broken and remain unfixed for years.
Con Only supports .ddd 3D format
This format does not support bones and only keyframe animation. 3d files will become extremely large if there are animations in models.
Con HTML 5
HTML 5 compiling is rather slow, and doesn't allow all GLBasic features
Con Poor GUI creation library
Its library for GUI creation is abysmal and not acceptable.
Con Poor documentation
There is next to no documentation on using OpenGL commands in GLBasic.