Polycode vs PlayMaker + Unity3D

Polycode uses Lua and C++ to create native applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Mobile platforms are planned for the future.

Polycode is free and open source (released under the MIT license). The source code is freely available on GitHub.

Recently, the editor and its integrated tools have been released in compiled form. Features coding and scene editing in one application.

Polycode is distributed in a C++ form as well as with IDE. And there's an additional LUA-based scripting system.

You'll need to put more time in learning Unity + Playmaker compared to something like GameSalad. But once get the hang of it and familiarize yourself with what it's possible to build with them, it's quite easy to use.

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.

A lot of third party plugins have support for Playmaker. Playmaker team also invest time to add support for a lot of third party plugins.

Instead of a single "if this then that" event list which can become very cluttered beyond the most basic behaviors, PlayMaker gives each object a list of states where only certain events are triggered, and performing an action also changes state.

This allows for a clean, simple visual representation which helps break complex logical structures into smaller pieces, making them easier to understand.

It basically can do same things as scripting in Unity.