A question about Construct 3 vs...others, for education.

Ok, so I don't post here often, I'm not sure if I ever have. I am an owner of Construct 2 and I basically just messed around with it years ago while teaching grade 10 to 12 computer programming to see if it was an option for the classroom. After the subscription was put in, I basically just didn't bother signing up as it wasn't a primary tool and I wasn't going to pay monthly or yearly just to have access to the full program. Recently I've been contracted to run an after school class (and potentially a summer session) for up to 20 students, teaching programming through game design. The age range is 15 to 18, inner city, potentially wildly varying ability levels. My thought was that I want a system that offers a visual programming interface along with the ability to program in a traditional language, which is what the course is more about. The visual programming would be both a lead in to concepts, and a fall back for accessibility.

Scratch is too simplistic and some kids will have had exposure to that in grade school, so I've ruled that out. The three contenders that came to mind are Construct, Gdevelop, and Gamemaker.

My question is, what is the compelling argument to be made for paying $20 to $30 per seat for a Construct 3 license when I can use Gdevelop for free, and now, as of a few days ago, Gamemaker? I realize that Construct has the advantage of using a standard language like Javascript (or Typescript) rather than GML in Gamemaker, but Gdevelop also has Javascript support...

Since I haven't used Construct 3 in 6 years or more, I can't really speak to or decipher what I'd be getting here, that I can't get somewhere else. Seems like the business model has been outdated/usurped by a combination of both FOSS and proprietary competition. That's not to say I don't like Construct or think it's bad software, and I'm sure it's fine for some who have a familiarity/comfort with the details of how it works, performance, what it can export to and how, plugins, etc., but for more general use where familiarity or business considerations are not a factor...I don't see it.

No flame war, just a genuine question. I need to make a decision in the next month and a half. All answers appreciated.

Very important that to make sure student engaged with project they are about to initiate. As consequence the tool/software need to be as intuitive as possible to them since they have a lot of ideas to execute. It is more to teach them how to program different aspect of game element and get their hands wet. I'll put aside the "correct way" to code and let the student decide how they want to program a game. Using event sheet? Easy enough. Creating script by hands? Possible. Need more visual approach? Yes Buildbox is way to go. Other consideration would be boundaries, affordness & available support.

A few of Construct's strong points in education off the top of my head:

• The full version runs in the browser. No need to install/configure anything, and runs on Chromebooks, which are used widely in education.
• Data privacy: Construct does not require user accounts, and we do not have our own cloud hosting for user projects, meaning you can trust you and your student's data remains private.
• Mature feature set, such as a fully integrated built-in animation/image editor, timeline animations, hierarchies, sub-layers, advanced effects; a whole host of objects like mature data storage capabilities with Array, Binary Data, Clipboard, Cryptography, CSV, Dictionary, File System, JSON, storage, XML; multimedia features like audio effects, geolocation, speech recognition/synthesis, QR codes, and using camera inputs; more advanced features like Bluetooth, drawing canvas, internationalization, sharing; sophisticated networking capabilities with AJAX, WebSockets, Multiplayer... there's really just too much stuff to list, and it all increases the creative possibilities and kinds of things that can be covered in lessons. One of the problems we have is Construct has so many features, it's actually hard to convey them all!
• Mature block-based system with event sheets, which covers programming concepts like loops, functions and even polymorphism with custom actions, helping teach more complex concepts without needing to move to coding
• Integrate not just JavaScript but also (as of recently) TypeScript, as well as HTML and CSS, all industry-standard technologies you can get a job in, so what students learn can directly help them in their future careers
• A clear, easy-to-use user interface that is quick to get to grips with
• 350+ built-in example projects
• Construct has a free edition too, which can suffice for small scale use
• Probably lots more I forgot to mention

Free tools have been around for years, like Godot and Unity, and people still choose Construct for its strengths, and I think that will continue for a long time to come!