When comparing Moai vs Pixel Vision 8, the Slant community recommends Moai for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D Lua game engines?” Moai is ranked 8th while Pixel Vision 8 is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Moai is:
The Moai SDK Forum is active and users will go to great extents to answer queries, post code snippets, beta test, and even purchase and give feedback on each others' games.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Helpful community
The Moai SDK Forum is active and users will go to great extents to answer queries, post code snippets, beta test, and even purchase and give feedback on each others' games.
Pro Helpful and detailed documentation
Although the Moai SDK is very advanced and uses complicated features, the documentation wiki thoroughly and clearly explains how to use these features, such as the Moai Cloud(a service that provides web services for your game), and multiple ways to build from source.
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 Not for beginning developers
The Moai SDK has very advanced features which allow it to create powerful games. A drawback from this is that it is not very suitable for beginners.
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.