1. GameSalad

2. Stencyl

3. Game Maker Studio 2

4. FlowLab

5. Click Team Fusion 2.5

6. Construct
7. Game Froot

 

4. FlowLab

 

FlowLab is one of those online only game makers. Usage is pretty simple although the initial tutorial does not give you much help in terms of complexity. The program is friendly to new users but takes time to get used to as all of them. Free version only allows you to make 3 games and use 50 objects so that might not be enough for you to decide on it.

 

Tutorial

 

The base tutorial makes you create a simple game with a space man jumping around the screen. You are basically placing sprites onto the screen and making the scene with it. Defining those sprites tells them how to behave.

 

Screenshot 1

 

Interface

 

Everything is basically done by right clicking into the screen and selecting an option from a wheel. With those options you build up a scene, ad players, enemies, etc... In the same screen you also define physics, behaviors and graphics.

 

Screenshot 2

 

Behaviors

 

Behaviors once again define each sprite and what it can do. There are some bundles of preset behaviors available for selection, run and jump for example in the case of tutorial. This one defines the arrow left, right and up keys to act as the controls for running and jumping action of your character.

 

Screenshot 3

 

Pricing

 

Pricing is again monthly/yearly based and as the free option does not provide very much in terms of testing functionality you're ending up with a 60$ a year minimum price tag. The main difference between options is basically that you get unlimited accounts for 4x the price of the Indie version. So if you're running a studio you can have that just under 200$ a year.

 

Screenshot 4

 

Showcase

 

Once again you can find many games on the site and as usual those are pretty basic. Of course graphics is not the main thing in a game so if you're looking for something similar to the examples there...

 

Score

 

Yet again this program provides a good learning experience but lacks the game complexity I'm looking for. It's not hard to learn but the basic tutorial does not show you all the kinks while the free version might not be enough for really getting all necessary knowledge. It's nice that you can do everything in the browser but then again what happens when you press the back button on your mouse :D

 

Difficulty: 9
Literature: 8
Cost: 4
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Overall score: 6