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[Lobotomist]

You are right. Now I remember that Shadowrun Returns is also Unity game ( hence going to be ported to all mobile devices )

Infact Unity is now the professional choice.

But to return to my original question - I am not a programmer. I am visual artist.

I am looking for a simple tool for simple games and interactve books - tool that is sturdy enough and compiles good to mobiles. Thats all.

Unity costs a fortune , and is professional programming tool - as far as I know.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

it's more professional, yes, however, that doesn't mean it's necessarily any harder to use. i'd say it's about as easy to use as game maker is, but both game maker and unity are harder to use than construct 2 is, because construct 2 is mostly visual programming rather than code. but unity isn't any harder than GM, both require decent coding skills to create decent games

that leaves the main obstacle: price. unity costs a lot more than gm studio, that is true. the free version of unity is capable of making full games, but to get your game on multiple platforms costs a huge amount, yeah

however, i feel that game maker studio is overpriced for what it is -- several hundreds of dollars, and it's not much more functional than game maker 8, which is like 40$ or something. in fact game maker 8 is in some ways superior to studio, due to studio not having very much in the way of extension capabilities for example (so you give up a lot when moving from 8 to studio)

you can still use the free version of unity to make decent games for non-mobile platforms though (windows, mac, linux). and even the free version of unity is more capable than the paid version of game maker studio. the problem is if you want to port to mobile, then unity is way more expensive

so basically i'd recommend

(a) if you are on a limited budget and really want to make mobile games, game maker studio is probably the best choice

(b) however if you just want to make 2D PC games, you are probably better off with the free version of unity than you are with buying game maker studio

(c) if you are really scared of code and vow to make a good game without having to write thousands of lines of code, then get construct 2

[Lobotomist]

Well I am considering construct 2. But reports on its crappy performance (on mobiles) is whats worrying me.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

ya, that does sound bad. as far as i know there's no good way to make high-performance mobile games without the requirement to learn coding. maybe one day the problems will be overcome, but maybe not

[Tumetsu]

Unity has quite good performance on mobiles. However, if you are going to make 2d games on it you probably have to use 2d tookit or something similar. It was a real pain to do 2d game without one.

[gamepopper]

I've been using Construct2 a lot recently (more than I was planning to at least) and I find it a very good game engine. It's straightforward, very efficient with a large range of exporting options for a low-cost engine. I'm currently working on my first game for Desura, Secret of Escape, and I've barely had any struggle with it.

The only issue I've found so far is performance on mobile devices, but that has only occurred when using WebGL effects. That maybe down to HTML5 though, since even Scirra advises users not to over do on effects, particles and physics anyway.

While I do own Game Maker Studio, I haven't been using it actively since Game Maker 8 first came out. Despite that, I like the prebuilt functions, the ability of using a scripting language that you can debug and test directly instead of Construct2's Javascript SDK and WebGL shader functionality, neither of which you can test or debug while it's open. I also like how in the Paid versions, you can choose which format to debug and test in, like HTML5 or Windows 8, instead of the Desktop build.

However, it might be me being rusty, but I've had some functionality issues. I've tried experimenting around with basic input and physics and it doesn't always seem to work with me.

Although one thing to think about is the pricing in both. Both Game Maker Studio and Construct2 have a free version, with limitations attached. Paid versions are different however:
(as of posting)
Construct2 has two paid versions, Standard ($119) and Business ($399). Both remove the restrictions and have mostly the same functionalities. Only real difference is that Business allows you to use full commercial use, when Standard limits commercial use to less than $5000. Included with the paid version is the ability to export to iOS, Android and Desktop Apps (meaning Windows, Mac and Linux).

Game Maker Studio has three paid versions, Standard ($49.99), Pro ($99.99) and Master ($499.99). These remove the restrictions, but the difference between the Standard and the other two, are the extra tool features like Team, Texture Management and Mobile Testing, and the ability to export to extra formats.

However, if you go Pro, you have to pay extra to export to other formats like Android, iOS and Ubuntu, but even HTML5 and Windows Phone 8, both of which Construct2 does for free. These export options don't come cheap either, ranging from $99.99 to $199.99. The price between paying Pro and getting all exports and the Master version is around $400. Meaning if you want to use Game Maker Studio, and have the same amount of export options as Construct2, you are better off paying for the Master version.

This of course assumes you want to export to multiple smartphone and web formats, but even then, it's better off paying once for Construct2, even if you are not going to make games for Android or iOS or whatever.

[Lobotomist]

This of course assumes you want to export to multiple smartphone and web formats, but even then, it's better off paying once for Construct2, even if you are not going to make games for Android or iOS or whatever.

I am going to export for both Android and iOS

Thanks for very informative post mate

[Sean Raia]

Unity is to photoshop as Gamemaker is to GIMP

I personally will stick with Gamemaker because I have a boner for lightweight/simple software.

Although both GM/Unity are both great tools in their own respect.

Fuck construct.

[RyanHuggins]

This of course assumes you want to export to multiple smartphone and web formats, but even then, it's better off paying once for Construct2, even if you are not going to make games for Android or iOS or whatever.

I am going to export for both Android and iOS

Thanks for very informative post mate

As far as I know the performance for GM on mobile systems isn't incredible quite yet, but I'm pretty sure that it's better than Construct 2 (it should improve a lot with the soon-to-come 1.2 update)

Unity however has some ridiculous performance on mobile; but that performance comes at a cost.

[DantronLesotho]

I always liked working with multimedia fusion developer 2 instead of gamemaker, but I haven't tried gamemaker studio.

Keep in mind too that if you're just making interactive books, that's not going to be really processor or memory intensive, so construct 2 would probably be your best bet.

[RyanHuggins]

If he's making arcade games (with a decent number of particles) then I'm not sure how that'd perform in Construct (I also don't know how Construct handles such things though).

[Gal.h]

I was also looking for a  good 2D dev kit with minimal coding.
I trired GM, but didnt like it much.

at the moment i am using unity with playmaker and uni2d, which should cost about the same as GM:S.
btw you can make mobile games with unity free (android and IOS)

[Lobotomist]

Uh..didnt know there is Unity Free, that can publish to Android and Ios ?!
What are the limits ? To me it seems its more limiting for 3D games than potential 2D games ?

And Playmaker sounds great too.

Do you must have Unity 2D to make 2D games ?

And since its vector anyway, can it import flash vector graphics ?
That would be great


But regardless all - even with Playmaker , i doubt its easier than Gamemaker or Construct2 ?? (or that playmaker is as powerfull for dummies)

I may consider this possibility when I get more into coding...

[eyeliner]

Unity can do whatever you want. It's just that flexible:

2D - 2D Toolkit, or Google for 2D in Unity, because 2D toolkit won't do anything you can't do on your own with some work.
Playmaker - is almost like having Construct in Unity. It's harder to make do on your own, so unless you really want to avoid coding, there's no real alternative there.
Vector Graphics - RageSpline.

All this info was easily accessible through Google.

[Lobotomist]

All this info was easily accessible through Google.

No need for patronising. 

Unity may be great tool that can do anything one wants.

But its like buying full set of power tools, when you just need to unscrew one screw. Why? because you might need it in the future.

[Gal.h]

Uh..didnt know there is Unity Free, that can publish to Android and Ios ?!
What are the limits ? To me it seems its more limiting for 3D games than potential 2D games ?

And Playmaker sounds great too.

Do you must have Unity 2D to make 2D games ?

And since its vector anyway, can it import flash vector graphics ?
That would be great


But regardless all - even with Playmaker , i doubt its easier than Gamemaker or Construct2 ?? (or that playmaker is as powerfull for dummies)

I may consider this possibility when I get more into coding...

Yeah, in a recent update (like a month ago) Unity made publishing to Andorid and IOS free (and I think blackberry and windows phone 8 as well). up until than those exports where 500$ each!

There are many assets for using unity in 2D mode, uni2d is just one of them, the most popular is probably 2D toolkit which is even cheaper.

And one more thing, if you really want to stay away from coding, than you should NOT use Game Maker.
Game Maker visual scripting is very outdated and I feel like it down right awful.
GML is easy to learn though, and can be a lot of fun.

So yeah it kinda ironic, but when I use Game Maker all I do is programming, while when I use Unity I mostly use PlayMaker.

[Lobotomist]

And one more thing, if you really want to stay away from coding, than you should NOT use Game Maker.
Game Maker visual scripting is very outdated and I feel like it down right awful.

Well. I doesnt necesseraly need to be visual code if scripting language is easy enough. And quick. Whole idea is to make simple games quickly and withouth advanced programming skills.

But I must admit this Unity stuff sounds good, and its probably way to go for more serious games.

On the second thought both construct 2 and Unity use JavaScript (or can use it) and since I allready have basic familiarity (Action script) , its not impossible to start with Construct 2 and than ease in to Unity later on ... or ?

Btw found out uniSWF can import complete flash movie clips to use inside unity...nice...

[QuaziGNRLnose]

If you're only aiming for windows desktop applications and speed is an issue, construct classic (the free original version) is extremely flexible and compiles it's event code to run as fast as a C++ application. It does have a few quirks you learn to work around (quirks which were fixed in construct 2). None of the other tools get close to it's speed however, I've used them all. It can be used to make pretty much any kind of 2D game, I've even made 3D ones, using it's 'event coding' system which is basically just visual programming. If you want to transition into C++ development because you feel you need to do something the engine can't easily do, you can learn as you work on your game by writing custom plugins in C++ for construct instead of having to scrap whatever you worked on in the tool.

[Tanner]

A rising 2D toolkit in Unity is Matt Rix's (developer of Trainyard) Futile. The recent iOS game Pivvot was made in it, if I remember correctly.

[TunaUppercut]

this list is somewhat outdated (april of this year) but it's a good list; it turns out there are 13 unity games on steam, not 10 as i remembered there being:

http://www.mrphilgames.com/what-unity-games-are-on-steam/

of those, most of them are 2D, and most of the 2D ones are beyond what game maker and construct 2 are capable of

Wow, I'm surprised that most of the unity games on steam are 2d games. I thought it would be the exact opposite.