Esenthel vs Skyline

Esenthel has a built-in code editor which drastically simplifies the programming process.

Programming with Esenthel is based on C++, however, when using the code editor there's no need to make separate .cpp or .h files. Code can be written once and the editor will be separating definitions and declarations automatically in the background allowing for quicker development.

Built in pure C++ so it is easy to use and extend however needed.

Esenthel is available on Steam.

Esenthel comes with tools allowing for multiple developers to work on one project at the same time in collaborative mode. Every change made is instantly visible by other team members.

The author is very device minded and able to handle any problem quickly and effectively and he has a good track record of listening to requests.

Having easy access to the full source makes it possible for any skilled developer to add features that a project requires.

Free to try, with license as cheap as 9.50$/month (with yearly subscription), 11.40$/month (monthly subscription) or full source code license 228$/year.

The engine is rock solid and stable which, considering its extensive feature set, is a huge plus for game developers

Android and iOS support is pretty stable and easy to develop on. It's possible to, for example, develop the entire game on Windows or Mac and then easily compile for Android and iOS.

• 3D - FBX, DAE, OBJ, 3DS, B3D, MS3D, BVH, ASE, PSK/PSA
• 2D - BMP, PNG, JPG, TGA, DDS, TIF, WEBP, PSD, ICO
• Videos - VP9, Theora
• Sounds - OGG, WAV, MP3 (once decoding patents expire)

New features or update to features are provided monthly.

IAP support for both mobile and desktop devices.

LZMA, LZHAM, LZ4, ZLIB, Snappy, RLE

Oculus Rift API integrated into the engine platform.

• Graphics - DirectX 9/10/11, OpenGL, OpenGL ES, WebGL
• Sound - DirectSound, OpenAL, OpenSL

A growing community that is always helpful with dev response times averaging less then 24 hours. Often less than 12.

Skyline provides a straightforward drag and drop development environment that can be customized to suit individual preferences. Playing the game and animating the scene can be done from within the editor at any time.

Future versions will allow extending editor's functionality with plugins and offer an official way of trading custom plugins.

Skyline's commercial edition costs just £40, has no royalties or earning limitations and includes 2 activations per license purchase and a year of free updates.

Skyline can be run on a machine with 2GHz Dual Core CPU, 2GB of RAM and Nvidia's 9800 GT (or equivalent) GPU. While, obviously, higher specs are recommended, it's reasonable to expect around 60fps on small scenes with these specs.

The Terrain editor is easy to use and will include features such as hole cutting.
There is a differed lighting render for internal scenes, which makes creating multi light and beautiful/atmospheric scenes so much easier.

All the tools for the terrain are in one place such as placing road/paths, vegetation, billboards, and the settings are easy to locate and change.

Planned features include:
Hole cutting in terrain and
Terrain paging.

Making a game in the current top engines is hard work, making something small and basic in Skyline is not. Easy to learn drag an drop model placement and editing supplemented with easy to follow video's on forum make the process straightforward.

Including image based lighting.

A free version that's limited to non-commercial usage and lacks a few features is available.

Rendering of a water plane looks fantastic and is easily edited for different effects.

The schematic editor is designed to make it easier for non-programmers to create games.

Not much in it at the moment but is starting to grow and will continue to grow with an increase of users.

There are many additions to the engine that are on the road map such as multi threading and tree physics.
The feature list is constantly evolving with each user request and idea put forth.

Skyline has a custom editor that gives the user of making their own tools for use directly in the editor to develop their games. All the editors are made using the Qt Designer and programmed in lua inside the engine itself.

Open-Source Virtual Reality support is in development.

Shadow editor.
Weapon Class Editor.
Mesh Editor.
Advanced Mesh Editor.
GUI Editor.
Script Editor.
Environment Editor (volumetric clouds and day night cycle, lightening, ocean settings, height fog).
Particle Editor.
Path editor.
Schematic editor.
Navmesh editor.
Material editor.

The documentation is been rewritten and follows a structure like a course.
Introduction to > Level designer with examples > Artists

There is also video tutorials, video examples and video tutorial series been produced.

There are user created demo scenes, examples and more.

Making HUDs and GUIs has never been easier

Full PBR workflow, your not stuck to Secular or Metallic it has both

Can contact the Skyline developers and they will always respond and help as fast as they can.