When comparing ENIGMA Development Environment vs Pixel Vision 8, the Slant community recommends Pixel Vision 8 for most people. In the question“What are the best 100% free and easy game engines for beginners?” Pixel Vision 8 is ranked 28th while ENIGMA Development Environment is ranked 32nd. The most important reason people chose Pixel Vision 8 is:
Although it started as a commercial product, it is now open-source.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Raw C++ power and GML accessibility
Almost full support for GML,
The ability to create and access C++ types, templates, and functions, compile DLLs and other C/C++ scripts
Pro Cross platform
Support for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Pro Compatible with GameMaker
Enigma can support over 90% of gamemaker's GML language
Pro Friendly user interface
besides the powerful combination between GML and C++, beginners can also use drag and dropping.
Pro Free and Open Source
Pro Faster than GameMaker
Written in C++, many features have been demonstrated running much faster than interpreted equivalents in GameMaker (up to 10-20 times faster than GM 8.1).
Pro Under active development
Changes are made daily to add new functions/fixing bugs.
Pro Helpful error messages
A full stack trace with available cores and memory information as well as operating system and Java version including file names and number is generated whenever an exception is encountered, with a handy link to submit the issue to GitHub.
Pro Free and open-source
Although it started as a commercial product, it is now open-source.
Pro Most customizable
This is the first of its kind, being fully customizable. You can customize the game size, color pallete, sound and more.
Cons
Con A few bugs & glitches
Because Enigma is under very rapid development, with new functions added almost daily, some bugs and unexaplainable glitches can happen, though they also gets patched quickly.
Con No code refactoring
Like any C++ based programs, the ability to refactor is limited. However, the new Ide for engima will support a few refactoring cababilities
Con Development has been on pause for a while due to lack of time on the part of the original developer
It's open source, so someone else could pick it up, but no one has at this point.