When comparing Loom SDK vs Blacksmith 2D, the Slant community recommends Loom SDK for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” Loom SDK is ranked 45th while Blacksmith 2D is ranked 48th. The most important reason people chose Loom SDK is:
Loom can live update changes in realtime, allowing you to see them on multiple devices immediately.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Live reload of code and assets across multiple platforms
Loom can live update changes in realtime, allowing you to see them on multiple devices immediately.
Pro Powerful command line workflow
Loom Turbo ($5/mo) gives access to powerful command line tools. For example, "loom new" to make a new project, "loom run" to run it. Packaging, deploy, and live reload are done automatically for you.
Pro Open source
The Loom runtime and LoomScript compiler are open source, with code available on GitHub, allowing you to have the freedom to fix the bugs and add the features your game needs.
Pro Examples
Loom includes over 30 examples ranging from complete sample games to demos of single features.
Pro Familiar and powerful scripting
Loom's scripting language is immediately familiar if you know JavaScript, ActionScript, TypeScript, C#, or Java. Internally, it uses a proven VM technology with over 10 years of heavy use in games.
Pro Good support
Loom devs are helpful.
Pro Cross-platform
Loom can deploy to Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android (including Nook, Kindle Fire and Ouya). There are also custom port available for WP8, Blackberry and consoles.
Pro Cache as bitmap
Automatically detects changes and updates bitmap cache. Allows to gain even more performance on heavy scenes and runs smoothly on old devices.
Pro Most valuable when size matters
All engine code is written in ES6, fully GCC typed, allowing to eliminate all dead code from your app.
Pro Advanced scene graph and rendering pipeline
Dirty flag tracks scene changes and avoids unnecessary calculations and context calls. If no changes were made to the scene since last frame, no rendering will be done. Battery efficient.
Pro Good performance
According to the tests on the Github page, the performance is better than in Phaser!
Pro Good and clear source code
The source code is well commented and easy to understand.
Pro Super small build size
Super small build size through dead code elimination. The best for playable ads and Facebook Instant Games.
Cons
Con Documentation is lacking
Con No visual tools support
There's no level editor, asset viewer or any other visual tools in Loom SDK. Everything has to go through command line. I think it's fine if you really like typing.
Con Small community
The project is young, so the community is extremely small.