When comparing Allegro vs GDevApp, the Slant community recommends Allegro for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” Allegro is ranked 12th while GDevApp is ranked 83rd. The most important reason people chose Allegro is:
The Allegro community has produced a lot of great tutorials and resources. Allegro [Wiki](https://wiki.allegro.cc/index.php?title=Main_Page), Mike Geig's Allegro [Tutorials](http://fixbyproximity.com/2d-game-development-course/), Rachel Morris' [Tutorials](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4RqHtEAAds), CodingMadeEasy's [Tutorials](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6B459AAE1642C8B4&feature=plcp).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports desktop and mobile
Support for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iPhone, and Android
Pro Good engine architecture
Allegro is well designed, easy to use and has many useful features.
Pro Good documentation and lots of tutorials
Since it has been in development since mid-90s with hundreds of people contributing to both the engine and documentation, it has all of its bases covered when it comes to standard support.
Pro Per-platform library optimization
Allegro uses DirectX for Windows, and OpenGL for other targets.
Pro Freedom to implement your own game engine
You are not bound to the limits of existing game engines, and you can actually implement your own engine.
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 ones (like the behavior to destroy objects when outside the screen or the one to drag objects with mouse or touch).
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 beginner-friendly way of making games and is still efficient for advanced usage, contrary to most other "block"/"drag'n'drop" systems.
Pro Intuitive interface
Pro Based on GDevelop
The entire webapp is based on GDevelop, an open source native game development software available for Windows & Linux, so it benefits from its advanced development.
Pro Can download an archive of the game source
Even though the tool depends on having a server up and running, you can download a copy of your game to run locally, or host somewhere else.
Pro Great UI
Sleek and user-friendly UI.
Pro Can export your game as HTML5 and for Android
Games can be packaged for Android without relying on any third party tool. You can also export your game and download it to host it on your server or let it be hosted on GDevApp.com.
Pro Shallow learning curve
Cons
Con Learning curve for hobbyist developers
Hobbyist developers coding alone may experience a learning curve with Allegro of about 200 hours (if you are rusty on C++). To learn quickly, see Mike Geig's tutorials at Fix By Proximity. This learning curve may be fine if you are considering going professional, but are still unsure.
For hobbyist developers not planning on going professional, you may want to look into a complete 2D game engine, rather than a coding library. For example, there are "non-coding" engines that provide support for coded plugins or scripting. But, if you are a dedicated hobbyist planning to use Allegro as your coding library of choice, you can still develop great games as a hobbyist.
Con Isn't great for C++
If you are a fan of object oriented programming, and want to use this library, then the chances are that you are going to be creating a lot of wrappers for functions in this library.
In short, if you're a C++ person, it could be recommended to check out SFML instead.
Con Depends on a hosting service
If the website goes down or closes down, you'll no longer be able to develop your games using this system (but you can download a backup of your game from time to time and open it with GDevelop).
Con Cannot deploy native games
For now, games developed with GDevApp can only be deployed for the Web. Android deployment is in the works, but even then, they won't be native since they are built with web technologies.