I made a game on GMS2 and tons in C3 here is what I think!

Gamemaker pros:

Windows games runs natively when minimized..... that allows you to recreate some cool Idle games such as Soda Dungeon where the game plays by itself.

GML == You have more logical operators for making Iffs such as && etc...(Iffs in C3 are usually messy unless I am doing something wrong...)

You can use Gamemaker on Steam.

You dont need to use resource hacker and greenworks for achievments...

This is natively done on Gamemaker...

Gamemaker cons:

You cant test layouts.... You must run the whole game....(Breaker)

Poor font support (We cant use custom fonts like we can in C3)

Poor text input (You must code every text input using draw_text())

Gamemaker is heavier then C3.

C3 pros:

I must be honest C3 looks like it has way more features then GMS2.

C3 is muuuuuch faster!(Why reinvent the wheel?)

Veredict!

C3 design pleases me the most!(I like GMS2 tough and a lot!)

It really depends on what you consider primordial...

I think GMS2 is better for making IDLE-GAMES since it can run games on Background.

C3 is the best engine in my opion tough GMS2 7/10 C3 8/10

I feel like both engines should learn about its limitations! And being supper honest I feel like C3 is much more maintained and better supported!

Coding does indeed make you look more professional but why would you code if you dont need to?

Thanks for the feedback! For what it's worth we recently made an update that automatically sets the right icons for Windows and macOS exports, so you don't need Resource Hacker for Construct any more either. JavaScript is also a far more capable language than GML. Also, even if you make an idle game, it should not stay active running in the background - this is a common design mistake, it will only waste battery life. Instead it should fully go to sleep, saving system resources and battery, and when it wakes up, you can calculate how much time has gone past and instantly simulate that much time passing.