GS or Stencyl???
creativeapps
Member Posts: 1,770
I am hug fan of GS. And using more than 1 year. Its really awesome software. Recently I google it and found about Stencyl and its also provide No Coding feature. I have confusion which one I use for my game. I am emotionally attached with GS forum. But I am not sure when they will launch native code so we solve loading and performance issue. Please suggest which one I am going to use.
NOTE: I am not marketing any of the game engine. I want to clear my confusion.
Thanks,
John
NOTE: I am not marketing any of the game engine. I want to clear my confusion.
Thanks,
John
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
But in all honesty. 3 Months ago I was considering it. I was so sick of just some peoples attitudes, and being promised things that weren't happening.
At this very moment if you knew both programs perfectly I would say Stencyl is probably better, especially since I don't think it's beta either.
HOWEVER.. GS has really shocked me this year, they're taking huge leaps and bounds and delivering their promises. We're finally getting joints and the Lua Drop is going to happen no doubt about it.
I would say why waste time re learning some other software when if you put the time into GS you could just be learning even more and end up making better games.
I think GS is going to stand out from the rest. It's gonna be a great year for GS and i'm happy to be apart of it.
Hope I didn't step on any toes
why dont you try posting on the stencyl forums asking what people there think. since they use the tool every day. there are some prior GS users there too so maybe they will comment.
Is there someway can we find about release time of native code? Its easy for us to make planing. Because few game concepts are not going to work with current versions.
I must say Bye Bye stencyl & Big Hug to GS..:)
It's better to know it's gonna happen this year, then say June and not to have it come due to unforeseen circumstances or for you to leave thinking it'll be too late then for it come out next month.
My personal argument would be GS is pretty much bug free and an excellent community where stencylworks has a developing community and buggy software thats only just out of the pond... Although it may be cheaper... Thats only because they don't offer free to publish...
First of all.. I think stencyl uses lua too...
But as Brian said... Im delighted with GameSalad this year, They've kept on all there promises and brought us everything we want, Even CUSTOM SPLASHSCREENS!
Although I hope GS will get cheaper or at leads change its pricing methods, But it WAS SAID Exactly... And I quote "
Guru Video Channel | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS
Thanks mate! Was unsure...
I also think they will be supporting flurry analytics, admob/ad whirl/universal builds
I think GS biggest problem is the LUA. I think they will be able to pick up the pace once that is gone.
Who will win in the end?
...who knows
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Stencyl is confusing.
Again, just my opinion.
Thanks,
John
- Better Interface
- More features (joins, poly collision,..more)
- Stable
- Share codes online
Gamesalad
- Easy Coding (thats why i stay with it)
For God's sake, gamesalad team please remake GS interface. I spent most of time on clicking and placing graphics.
The most interesting thing about Stencyl is the ability to add custom code/fiddle around with it in xcode. So you can implement any 3rd party tool/network you want. (I think)
I like the direction GS has been going lately in terms of overall quality, communication and features. The QA seems to have improved a lot with new builds. And, for example, the implementation for pro users of playhaven is so easy and seamless - it's really well intergrated. Of course I'm assuming the accounting part of it is set up well. We'll soon see!
I'd hope they go further in that direction and give us more technical info and advice, answering all tech questions directly. And also add more flexibility to creator so we can work more quickly and easily. And if 1.0 can give the performance increases that we all want - that wil be great.
After reading this thread, I decided to finish my GameSalad vs Stencyl post...
http://photics.com/gamesalad-vs-stencyl
Basically, I hate having to start over. I'm a master of GameSalad. Yet, no matter how skilled I get with the software, I cannot advance beyond the allowed features. With the speed of GameSalad development, I don't feel it's worth $499 a year. Game Center has been out for about 1 1/2 years and we still don't have support for achievements. With StencylWorks, I'm the master of my own fate. If my game succeeds or fails, I won't have to wonder... maybe it would have done better with achievements... maybe it would have done better with multiplayer. With StencylWorks, I don't feel limited by the software. Actually, it's the reverse. I feel like I have to stay more alert because Jon is always adding new features. Actually, I think differently about this.
1 - GameSalad too has had serious battles with technical issues. There's a mix sense of joy and dread with each update... as I have to wonder if the update will break my games. I think both have the same solution. I found that my GameSalad games were more resistant to update errors when I was using better "programming". I think this is the same for StencylWorks. Just because a block can be dragged into a spot doesn't mean it really belongs there.
2 - I think this community has grown more hostile. Many of the friendly people left for other communities. I actually feel more relaxed chatting on the Stencyl forum because it feels more mature there. I think the GameSalad Direct rift and the decision to make GameSalad free for iOS publishing changed the community in negative ways. However, there are a lot more yellow posts around here. GameSalad is taking a more engaged role in community relations. The mere fact that this thread exists shows a strength of GameSalad.
3 - Flash publishing with StencylWorks is free. It's the same story as with GameSalad. You just have to pay money to remove the branding. But unlike GameSalad, it's just a one-time fee to remove StencylWorks branding from Flash games. Heh, unfortunately, Flash is a dying medium. I actually like Stencyl because I can see the code. It makes for a better learning experience. As for the videos, I am working on an interactive textbook for StencylWorks. From what I've read, you can actually use Xcode to make customizations. I haven't tried it. Heh, because if I was that good at Xcode I wouldn't need StencylWorks or GameSalad. HA! Yet, what's awesome is that I can see ActionScript or Objective-C code just by clicking a tab. There is something of a "Secret Sauce" thing on the StencylWorks server for iOS games. I'm not too sure of the details. Regardless, it's way more open than GameSalad is right now.
If GameSalad allowed the community to create and share custom behaviors, I think it would be better for the software.
I think the best thing about StencylWorks is that it should get GameSalad moving. Now there is serious competition! And really, there doesn't have to be a single winner. Considering that thousands — even millions — of dollars can be made with good apps, it's not too expensive to maintain a subscription for StencylWorks and GameSalad.
"Stencyl is confusing, and I don't like that interface of puzzle blocks. And I can't stand to watch their videos, "
lol i love that video
Reasons I'm sticking with GS:
1) I like the behavior method of GS as opposed to blocks by Stencyl.
2) If GS really does compile to LUA by Spring, that'll be great.
3) I still have 6 months on pro membership :P
However, there are lots of things that GS needs to do to further game development quality. Besides all the stuff like GC achievements (I'm confused, why is this so hard?) and joints (Yes Beefy!), something like snap to grid would make game production probably 400% (scientific, btw) faster. I've had the mechanisms for doing an RPG for months... But I can't piece together a 10K by 10k world one tile at a time... without snap to grid.
GS, you've got your monetization going (well, not the one that counts admob). Please focus on Creator UI and game engine so we don't have to even think about competitors
If you are sitting here whinging about how GS doesn't do this, and doesn't do that, and the performance is rubbish, and using the editor is a pain in the arse.....go and use Stencyl for a month (or any of the other SDKs out there for that matter). I guarantee you will have a new found respect for what GS does after that month.
That's not to say Stencyl isn't great...it really is a very nice tool to work with once you get used to it (like anything there is a learning curve, son't expect to pick it up and be flying with it in 5 mins). But it's not a case of the "grass being greener" on the Stencyl side of the fence as opposed to the GS side. Both tools have their own quirks, and both tools have their own advantages over the other.
It's true...GS is fiddly at times to work with. So is Syencyl. Although the fiddly things are different things.
All that being said, there are some cool things about Stencyl.
1. It has a tile editor, which can make creating levels for certain styles of games (platformers etc) much easier than in GS
2. The loading performance is really good compared to GS. I assume once LUA is out of the picture, GS should see similar results.
3. Engine performance is slightly better than in GS I think. Although there are certain things NOT to do in an iOS game to make sure you are not killing your frame rate (direct drawing of txt to the screen is one example)
4. Custom fonts built into Stencyl...awesome! nuff said.
5. GC achievements, joints, writeable "list" attributes that work like a single column table (nice)
6. The ability to import behaviours and logic and even actors from their online sharing portal
There are of course some things it does less well
1. You need to think more like a coder when using Stencyl, and less like a designer. GS really really holds your hand through a lot of the more complex stuff and handles more in the background hidden from you.
2. There are quite a few quirks with behaviours you can build, that will work in flash, but fail miserably in iOS....and Stencyl doesn't always make these differences clear. This has caused me a bit of grief on a number of occasions as I have been playing with it. (Although the forum is very very helpful...much like it is here at times)
3. No exporting for Android or HTML5 as of yet
In summery.. is GC better than Stencyl?
Is Stencyl better than GS?
Neither. They are both quite different tools, that just happen to do pretty much the same job.
I am using Stencyl for my latest game...I may well use GS for my next if GS does it better.
edit... Just too add re: editing the xcode project once it's returned back to you after a build.
I am not 100% sure that is the case. I think once it's built to xcode, you can't edit after the fact or it will fail codesigning (I may well be wrong here)
but..... you can put "code blocks" into behaviours as you build the game.
http://community.stencyl.com/index.php?topic=7794.msg49171#new
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I can't get used to the interface, I just don't care for the puzzle block style. That's just me, though. If it works for you, then you should use it. If it doesn't, then don't. It's one of many tools out there now. It's been said many times already, it's not the tool, it's the person wielding the tool. If you make good games, you can make a good game with Stencyl, or GameSalad, or if you make crappy games, it won't matter which tool you decide to make your crap with.