When comparing HaxePunk vs GLBasic, the Slant community recommends HaxePunk for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” HaxePunk is ranked 22nd while GLBasic is ranked 76th. The most important reason people chose HaxePunk is:
Useful for mobile games and soon consoles (OpenFL has a console port in the works).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Joystick and multi-touch support
Useful for mobile games and soon consoles (OpenFL has a console port in the works).
Pro Crossplatform testing/releasing
HaxePunk uses OpenFL which means you can compile to just about every device. A lot of the rendering code has been optimized so if you use HaxePunk’s graphic classes you are pretty much ready to deploy on any target.
Pro Generic entity system
A generic Entity system that only uses what you “attach” to it. If you need collision masks they are available but if an entity doesn’t need to collide with anything then simply don’t add a mask. Same goes for graphics.
Pro Written in Haxe instead of AS3
This comes with blazing fast compile times, proper static typing, multiple output targets, and a powerful macro system.
Pro Multiple collision masks
HaxePunk has added several collision masks beyond what FlashPunk had including a grid with slope values, circles, and polygons. This is in addition to FlashPunk’s tile grid and hitbox.
Pro Tweens
Tweens are available just like they are in FlashPunk. If you need to interpolate values for sounds, movement, etc… it’s probably already available as a tween. There is also a VarTween that lets you interpolate any value you want.
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 Messy / fragmented documentation
Not a lot of documentation is available.
Con Small comunity
It’s a small but growing community.
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.