When comparing GameMaker Studio 2 vs TIC-80, the Slant community recommends TIC-80 for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” TIC-80 is ranked 49th while GameMaker Studio 2 is ranked 67th. The most important reason people chose TIC-80 is:
The app contains tools for coding, sprite editing, map editing, sfx and music editing.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Quick prototyping
Pro Good user interface
Pro Well-optimized engine
Pro Has a trial version (but limited functions, can't export)
Pro Many unofficial tutorials
Most GMS1 tutorials are fine for GMS2
Pro Highly customizable IDE
Although users must work within the IDE and editor, GMS2 has many options to customize the look and feel
Pro Good documentation
Pro Huge, generous community
Pro All tools in one place
The app contains tools for coding, sprite editing, map editing, sfx and music editing.
Pro Free
Free version already includes most features but a paid version is available.
Pro Retro-styled and restricted environment
Pixelated Software with a good retro style.
Pro Many Scripting languages' supported
Use awesome scripting languages like: Lua, Wren, Moonscript, JS, Ruby, etc.
Pro Export
Exports easily to Windows, Windows-XP, mac, Linux and HTML.
Pro Noob underdog
You can imagine this engine Shiva Lua scripting language making 2d side scrolling Megaman style games a Bandai trademark.
Cons
Con Not the best scripting language out there
GML is just weird; if you want to learn programming, it is not the best because it teaches bad habits and has many odd shortcuts and shortcomings that won't transfer to a real language
Con HTML5 export is buggy, doesn't "just work"
Con Quite expensive
Windows ($100) + HTML5 ($140) + Mobile ($400) + UWP ($400) is $1,050, plus $800 anually for each console export separately. But doesn't do anything any of the free engines can't do, and the stability and tech support aren't great.
Con Unstable
Users frequently report crashes and hangs, particularly when working with assets, and the software uses a complicated underlying meta-file structure that may become corrupted and cannot be rebuilt
Con Limited support for OOP
Con Small development team
The core programming team is only 5-10 people, with about 30 employees total, so bug fixes can take a long time to be addressed, and there aren't many official tutorials