Construct 2 vs Stencyl: The ultimate showdown

I've been working with Stencyl for a year and I love it; but HTML5 is still a beta feature over there and that's going to be very important for me very soon. So can anyone who has experience with both please let me know your opinions on which is better and any difficult things to watch out for in construct.

Also I'm a mac user who'd have to switch over. How difficult would that be?

Arcade game

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/34240

Welcome to the bikiniverse

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/34059

The short answer: Construct 2 is over-all more powerful, but perhaps not as "easy" to use... Stencyl effectively makes "coding" much easier by practically eliminating syntax issues, where C2 can be a little more, fussy, at times.

Basically, the learning curve of C2 is a little more difficult in the long-term, but the achievable results are, in my humble opinion, a lot better.

~Sol

Thanks for your reply. That's not really a problem for me, I can deal with fussy. I think my major problem is going to be making it run on a mac.

one simple word. construct.

i've tried stencyl but it's nowhere near as good as c2.

When ever I test a new Engine , I replicate something from my Engine that I'm using and then note the differences . Personal preference plays a large role and everyone has things that encourage and nags at them , Construct 2 is not perfect but improving all the time..........try it , you might like it...

Definitely Construct 2.

I've used both.. Stencyl is still focused on the outdated Flash and creating a game with Stencyl can still be laggy. However, I did have great success with Stencyl as you can read the link below.

http://community.stencyl.com/index.php/ ... 452.0.html

Thanks for your replies. As Construct 2 is much cheaper than even the teacher's license for stencyl, I think I'm going to look in to making a switch, as soon as I finish my current project.

Construct 2 for sure. It's easier to use, updated frequently, powerful and has a great UI, cheaper, etc.. Before you buy it give the free version a go and follow granpa 's advice to recreate the same thing in C2 you made in Stencyl.

Your biggest problem will be running it on MAC. You'll have to use a VM software to do that. Construct 3 will support MAC, but it's still a long way off, so don't wait for that.

I'm curious: are the games in the arcade section of this webpage HTML5 then?

Glerikud: hurts me to say it because i really enjoy stencyl, but i got some lag and low FPSs even with really basic stuff. It may well be the case that it was due to my lack of programming knowledge, but then as stencyl is made for beginners, I would have expected it to be a little simpler or that those things would be taken care of. It may well be the case that construct 2 has the same problems.

I'm going to take this opportunity to share my game (work in progress). I'll probably finish it in stencyl, it would be too much work to start again with construct 2 now. Link: stencyl.com/game/play/34059

It may well be the case that construct 2 has the same problems.

Do some tests yourself and see how Construct 2's performance fits your needs: https://www.scirra.com/construct2/releases/r227

You might also want to check out this topic, it lists several big games made with Construct 2:

examples-of-big-games-in-c2_t171657?&hilit=steampowered

If you run into performance problems, then the manual (and the community) are here for you:

https://www.scirra.com/manual/134/performance-tips

https://www.scirra.com/manual/183/memory-usage

I went to the mobile showcase area , with all due respect stop it . Our regular googleplay thread has better games then the showcase but thats not important as why . All the games in the showcase seem to use the least amount of actions possible. So I went and downloaded a few and I was right.

Some of the games are fun like tiny dangerous and owens odessey but are devoid of much action. Its like sprite management to the max. Please just go with C2 I thought stencyl was better than what I just experienced . I can tell by playing the games that a lot had to be cut out to run on mobile.

For example my game Operation Undead has enemies coming left and right , bullets flying, large sprites and no slowndown. I don't see any Stencyl game like that in the showcase of Stencyl best games. And my gamme is average action I seen other mobile gammes made with C2 that has even more action then mine.

This is the showcase

http://www.stencyl.com/game/showcaseMobile/

Stencyl's biggest problem is their licensing deal - you pretty much never own a license and you are instead renting the software.

C2 gives you a much better deal - you pay once and then do whatever you do and whenever.You own the license.

http://www.stencyl.com/pricing/

Apart of all that stencyl is much more fragmented and confusing. To set up a single game entity, you have to go through a bazillion setup rooms. Compared to that C2 is much less click heavy and obvious.

Stencyl is not using it's own visual scripting system like construct2 does - it has ripped off the open source "Scratch" one. It is not as clear at construct's and things might get confusing.

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Stencyl free version exports to flash only - so your game is pretty much dead - as nobody supports flash anymore - even adobe.

Construct2 free exports to html5 - which is what is replacing flash now.

pros: Stencyl does have a couple of pros. It's object oriented coding - so you can attach scripts you made to game objects. In construct2, you have to always dance around with picking a specific object by UID or a number of conditions to isolate it. This can be a problem some times - so most game engines are object oriented programming style - attaching instanced scripts to objects. In construct its the other way around with the event sheet. That is of course to some extend a matter of style/taste.

Stencyl can compile to native games and does have an editor that works in linux and mac apart of just windows - their editor is well integrated with the community asset store. These are things that construct3 might be able to sove of course - but until it's out stencyl will have the advantage there.

I do like your game, it's a good thinking puzzle.

As others have echoed, get yourself stuck in to CS2. I've used both and found that whilst Stencyl was easier to pick up, you get more control over what you want to do in CS2.

It shouldn't take you long to pick up though. The online manual is great, the tutorials section is brilliant and there's always people around on the forums to help you on your journey.

Okay, last question: from Stencyl I could get working Android and iOS games without any problems. It interpreted finger touches in the exact way as a mouse click. Is that also true in Construct? And, how simple is it it to export (or convert) to mac?

Okay, last question: from Stencyl I could get working Android and iOS games without any problems. It interpreted finger touches in the exact way as a mouse click. Is that also true in Construct? And, how simple is it it to export (or convert) to mac?

1) Yes the Construct 2 games run fine on mobile fast and smooth.

2) Yes it uses touch input the same maybe a bit better.

3) I don't know about Mac as I'am using a windows PC

If you have an android device then try my games so you can see how smoothly Construct2 runs.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ion.undead

What I want you to notice is how much action is going on and how smoothly it is. Construct2 is the best!!