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Add to SafariWhen comparing Phaser.io vs Adventure Game Studio, the Slant community recommends Phaser.io for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” Phaser.io is ranked 8th while Adventure Game Studio is ranked 23rd.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Built-in Arcade Particle system
Pro Great community resources
Pro Very active development
This is one of the most developed frameworks right now.
Pro WebGL and Canvas rendering modes
You can choose WebGL or classic HTML canvas element for game rendering.
Pro Good tutorials, courses and books
There are plenty of great learning resources available for Phaser.io.
Pro Super-simple loading of assets
Pro Excellent tools for sprites
Pro Support for Arcade Physics, Ninja Physics and p2.js
Pro Easy to learn
Most tasks are done just using 2 or 3 lines of code.
Pro Very fast to develop with
If you're browsing Slant, you probably already have a JavaScript enabled browser, which is most of what you need to get started learning JavaScript. The requirement to run a server locally on your computer while developing might make things a little more difficult
Pro No install required
All you need to do is attach Phaser script to a HTML page even without installing any extensions.
Pro Easy to understand if you have used flash
Phaser provides a similar approach as to that of Flash games, where you can load assets and place them on a stage, and even improves upon the shortcomings of actionscript. It is very easy to shift from flash to HTML5 development because of this approach.
Pro You can run it in the cloud
You can use it in popular online editors like replit, codandbox, etc.
Pro Animating is easy
Pro Has separate versions maintained by developer and the community
The creator of phaser(photonstorm) has given the older(Phaser 2.0) source code to the community for their own maintenance, and has made Phaser 3.0 with a different style and approach, trying to make it easier for beginners to learn.
Pro Easy to learn tool
Good for newbie game creators. Can be used for prototyping: on several occasions was used to make a demo/experimental version before creating a final commercial product on different engine.
Pro Completely free and open source
AGS is licensed under Artistic License 2.0 and is completely free for use for creating both freeware and commercial games.
Pro Relatively well documented
Besides the manual there are multiple text and video tutorials and code samples written by community.
Pro Used for a number of high-profile commercial releases
Adventure Game Studio has been used to develop games such as "Resonance", "Blackwell" series, "Gemini Rue", "Primordia".
Pro Lots of assets available
An extensive library of game templates and script modules accumulated over years. You can construct a simple game in hours (if you know what you are doing).
Pro Friendly community
An old, big and active community which would support newcomers not only in learning basics of the engine, but can help with every aspect of game making (including art, voice acting, moral support, etc).
Cons
Con Using Cordova to Export for Mobile
To export to mobile games you need to use cordova.
Con Official documentation is not so good
Con Poor performance
As long as your map is not larger than 600*400px, everything is fine.
Con Extremely many bugs
Con Developer ignores community needs
Con Natively supports only 2D
2D only native support, 3D could be supported with plugins though.
Con Uses dated tech
Engine is based on the old technologies, which impose number of limitations and may cause problems on latest systems (level of annoyance varies depending on your priorities).
Con Graphics renderer is a bit dated
Graphics renderer is not well optimized for high-resolution games and complex effects.
Con No visual editor for scripts
You have to actually write all scripts yourself.
Con Development is slow
Further development of the engine is currently slow, done by only few people in their free time.
Con AGS Script isn't as full-featured as other scripting languages
Its own scripting language has lower syntax capabilities compared to modern script languages.
Con Assets cover almost exclusively adventure/quest genre
The features, script functions and game templates are very biased towards adventure/quest genre. The non-adventure games were made in AGS (2D shooters, platformers, turn-based strategies), but their development usually requires to write everything from scratch.
Con Workflow is closely coupled with the editor
Workflow is very tied to the editor and custom file formats, which can cause problems for bigger, more professional projects (interfering with source control, parallel development, automated builds, etc)
