When comparing Defold vs Wave, the Slant community recommends Defold for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” Defold is ranked 21st while Wave is ranked 33rd. The most important reason people chose Defold is:
Defold uses Lua, which is regarded as an easy to learn language by most.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to learn
Defold uses Lua, which is regarded as an easy to learn language by most.
Pro Completely free of charge
Software and online dashboard are free of charge.
Pro Good combination of visual editing + code (Lua)
You can do a lot with drag and drop, but you're not limited -- the code (Lua, which is easy to learn) allows you more power than just visual editing usually gives you.
Pro Fast results
Going from idea to result is very important for the creative process.
Pro Visual editor
Pro Very performant
Being crossplatform it is important to work on low end devices.
Pro Easy and fast export for various platforms
Pro Great community
A very active and friendly community in forums.
Pro Source code available
You can download and modify the source code of the Editor and the engine for free.
Pro Collaborative
You can invite friends from the dashboard and create games together.
Pro Hot reload
It allows you to change scripts in a game while it is running live. Common use-cases is to tweak gameplay parameters or to perform debugging on a running game.
Pro Extensive learning material
In addition to online API documentation, the Wave Engine team provides tutorials via IndieDB, plus sample projects and "QuickStarters" via GitHub.
Pro Supports coding in C#, F# and Visual Basic
Wave Engine explicitly supports all three core .Net Platform languages.
Pro Oculus Rift support
The Wave Engine team provides an official, open-source Oculus Rift extension via GitHub.
Pro Many components are open source
Several core components and official extensions of the Wave Engine are publicly hosted on GitHub.
Cons
Con Mandatory splash screen
Games and applications made with Wave Engine must display a splash screen advertising it. No splash-free license option is available.
Con Not many tutorials available
Con Outdated UI
The UI looks like it is from Windows XP days. A refresh is much needed.