I have just finished my first game using SpriteKit and about to release it, but I'm looking for another 2D game engine that can export to both ios & android, plus I don't like SpriteKit all that much. I did some research and found out that both Corona and Marmalade uses lua which is supposed to be a very easy language to pick-up, also unity2d seems to be the most powerful engine out there but from what I read it's not the best when it comes to 2D plus it has some issues regarding performance or Monodevelop. So if someone can recommend me one of those engines it would be much appreciated.
I recommend Unity as it will not limit you to do 2d games and the skills you pickup will be valuable as it can be scripted in c#..which is a real programming language. It also has a large active community and there is an abundance of assets and plugins of all kinds....and the standard edition is free! /Stefan
Unity is not simply an engine but also a collection of thousands amazing plugins and assets on Unity Asset Store + a huge community where developers help each other and create tutorials. For 2d games there're absolutely no performance issues. You can go with Unity's native 2d or pick 2d Toolkit for more sophisticated workflow. Monodevelop is a good IDE in my opinion, but you can use Visual Studio + ReSharper on Windows. Corona could be ok, but it's definitely less developed and powerful than Unity. Marmelade is just not popular enough.
Corona user here. With some experience with Unity 2D for a game jam. And Some AAA experience as well. I liked the new Unity 2D stuff, but am more than happy I've gone with Corona SDK. The framework is simple and easy to work with. I've had almost zero problems with cross-platform support on multiple devices. They have a strong community with lots of documentation and references. There is quiet a bit going on in the Unity APIs. It is powerful, but you'll most likely have more to learn if you go the Unity route than if you go Corona. Corona is built for 2D. Built for mobile / tablets. Unity is trying to adhere to everyone and anyone. And C# being a real language compared to lua is absurd. You'll find far more lua in the AAA game scene than C#.
I'm sorry if that came across wrong, I didn't try to bash LUA. What I was trying to say, but obviously failed, is that c# is a widely used programming language in software development. It would be useful to learn for anybody interested in a career in software development. Googling around would show that it is consistently on the lists of top languages to learn.
*raises hand* C++ guy here. Remember: "What is the best ice-cream? Chocolate or Vanilla?". People pick what they like. Everyone likes different things. Doesn't mean the other thing is necessarily wrong. Personally the only Engine I would be tempted to use is Unreal. That is me personally though.
Thank you guys, i really appreciate everyone's input. Seems that most recommendations are in favor of unity, I did some research and indeed found that unity has a large community with a huge asset store and lots of online tutorials that covers almost every aspect, Corona on the other hand is very simple and its simulator is fantastic ( I actually downloaded it) but the lack of a proper IDE make it a turn off, and also there are not a lot of resources for it. I think I will download unity and start playing with it and see how things will go from there. My problem with unity (unreal or any of those big engines) at first was that I have no intention of making 3D games (at least for now) and I also didn't want my working environment to be fiddled with lots of stuff i will never going to use like lightning, shaders, and those other 3D elements.
Perhaps spend a few days doing tutorials on each engine and see one which feels 'right' for you, especially if you have a certain background in other programming languages. I've briefly used Objective-C and X-code and that felt wrong because of my background of C++ and ActionScript. We could have gone with Marmalade & C++ but due to the experience in the team, it tipped towards Unity & C# feeling 'right'. This was just when Unity introduced 2D support, which probably helped tip it in their favour.
Don't worry about this, we're doing Unity 2d games for over 2 years and I've never encountered any 3d stuff. Unity Editor even has "2d" switch nowadays. By the way, 3d could be handy to see your Z-ordered layers from another angle.
