Slate: What are the best 2D Game Engines?

Construct 2 comes in at 3rd place, but that can be changed!

All in all it's a great side-by-side comparison of current tools available to developers.

http://www.slant.co/topics/341/~what-ar ... me-engines

I'd say Construct 2 belongs at the top because the topic is specifically "2D Engines", were it Indie game engines overall then it could be second place to Unity since its definitely not better than Unity for 3D.

However, as someone who switched from using Clickteam products (KnP, TGF, MMF, MMF 2) and never looked back, I definitely don't see why Fusion 2.5 is as high up as it is.

However, things like this seem to be just a "who has the biggest fanbase" poll rather than a true poll of what's the best tool to use, so things like "who has a better free demo" will mean they have more fans to review it and push it right to the top.

Clickteam fusion going as 2nd place from all listed alternative does not seems that right.. It really feels pretty wrong, I can see people using it, but liking it that much? I don't really trust that top thingy, I can stand C2 not being first, but see clickteam fusion as 2nd while C2 is 3rd, there is something fishy about this.

Upvoted C2 for the reasons I like about it.

Oh there's certainly a bias towards userbase size, but the pros/cons feature is very interesting for those looking for new tools, i.e

http://www.slant.co/topics/341/viewpoin ... onstruct-2

For those interested, there is a 3D variant of this list.

Game Develop looks suspiciously similar to CC/C2 however...

The pros are actually well described, but let's hope the cons aren't as wrong as

:"Weak

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Construct 2 offers a rather limited feature set if you intend to make anything past a basic, formulaic game."

for the other engines or else it would not be an indicator of cons of said engines

Scirra should focus to support unfinished games by offering money or prizes, There are tons of unfinished games made by C2.

This is a very tough subject to answer correctly. That site does a terrible job on answering which is the best 2D engine because "best 2D engine" has a ton of different angles to evaluate.

In terms of speed and performance, LibGDX is ridiculously fast. Have a read on this post:

http://www.badlogicgames.com/forum/view ... 11&t=13805

There are other examples to be found with benchmarks that show it is absolutely wonderful.

On the other hand, managing memory with libgdx can be tedious and sometimes frustrating, and the fact that the engine uses 0,0 xy coordinates at the bottom left instead of the top left can really cause a lot of confusion! Especially when dealing with custom cameras etc.

Construct 2 has a lot of the boring already pre-made, but is also extremely powerful. The event system while an acquired taste -- really is very powerful. I have some event sheets in my game that span longer than certain classes I have done with libgdx for my games. The developers for C2 really are special. Ashley is a very unique and talented individual with a bright bright future. I have a ton of faith with Scirra.

Clickteam fusion? I mean really? It is so outdated and not even in the same league anymore. I do not know why that is even on the list.

LOVE is awesome in it's own right. Really a solid engine.

Gamemaker... this horse has been beaten to death on the forums.

I personally enjoyed using Monogame, except for the content pipeline. It was awkward. Also GODOT is really really cool, and complicated.

Game Develop recently went open source, so we will see where that leads. I am glad that I have supported Scirra and absolutely love working with C2.

Well I'm a Unity programmer that does a lot of 2D work. I can honestly say that Unity is a fantastic game dev kit. But It's not that good at 2D. It's a shoe horned 3D system into a 2d. So Unity shouldn't even be on the list for 2D game engines. Since it is Unity should be lower in a good judging of tools. Much lower.

I have Fusion, but never used the tools. I got it on the humble bundle deal for super cheap. But Fusion didn't seem as good. But I won't judge it. But between Unity and C2. Unity 2D should be under C2 for 2D.

Oh well. this isn't a comparision of what's better, but what's more popular.

jayderyu : although Unity isn't optimized for 2d, it really benefits from the large pool of polished systems from the asset store! Coming from a 3d background, the asset pipeline doesn't feel too awkward, even for 2d. But well, I'm on the design side of things, can't say much about programming. Only that c2 requires a very small time investment to get into, compared to Unity !

Fusion 2.5 is in second place because their forum has a gigantic banner telling people to vote for it. I'm sure if the other game engine sites had that the results would be radically different. I imagine less than 10% of devs using these engines have seen this poll anyway.