stencyl

Stencyl
Release date:
Made by:	Jonathan Chung
Runs on:	Linux Mac OS Windows
Exports to:	Android Flash iOS Linux Mac OS Windows

Stencyl is a drag-and-drop tool like scratch, but with a considerably greater depth of features more suited to game-makers both new and old, such as built-in Box2D physics for collision, and the ability to add custom haxe code if your needs are not met by the large number of existing tools in Stencyl's palette.

Features

The most appealing feature of Stencyl when one starts may be Stencylforge, a collection of resources that one may learn from or use in a game. Sadly, one cannot upload to StencylForge any longer, because the creators of Stencyl didn't like that people used it simply as a temporary storage space for games and resources. However, it still is a great learning resource, and the forums are very active, so if you ask a question, you can expect a reply within the next day.

The game objects are called "Actors," and the game is divided into "Scenes". Variables are called "Attributes," and variables that are global across all scenes are called "Game Attributes," and are saved with Stencyl's save function.

Stencyl lets you publish Flash games for free, but to publish desktop and mobile builds, you have to register. The registration fee is 100 dollars for every year.

IMPORTANT NOTES

When a first-timer tries to make a larger game in stencyl, they may run into a white screen when a game gets past a certain size. This can easily be fixed when opening a game by going to settings>advanced, and unchecking all the project scales except 1x. Also, when having many actors in a scene, it is almost always preferable to turn continuous collision checking off in the physics tab.