Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AppGameKit VS Defold Engine

Compare AppGameKit VS Defold Engine and see what are their differences

AppGameKit logo AppGameKit

AppGameKit is a game development platform for mobile devices.

Defold Engine logo Defold Engine

Defold lets you quickly build high performing, cross-platform games together with your team.
  • AppGameKit Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-23
  • Defold Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19

AppGameKit features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    AppGameKit allows developers to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. This saves time and effort in porting games to different devices.
  • Ease of Use
    The language and API are designed to be straightforward and accessible, making it easier for beginners and hobbyists to get started with game development.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    AppGameKit provides detailed documentation and tutorials, which can help both new and experienced developers understand how to utilize its features effectively.
  • Active Community
    The platform has an active online community where developers can share resources, ask questions, and assist each other, fostering collaborative learning and problem-solving.
  • Rapid Development
    The scripting language and tools allow for rapid prototyping and development, making it easier to iterate game design and mechanics quickly.

Possible disadvantages of AppGameKit

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Compared to some other game engines, AppGameKit may lack certain advanced features and tools, which could be a limitation for highly complex or high-performance games.
  • Paid Licensing
    While there is a free trial, the full version of AppGameKit requires a purchase. This can be a barrier for some indie developers or students with limited budgets.
  • Performance Overhead
    Using a higher-level scripting language can introduce some performance overhead, which might not be ideal for games requiring high optimization and efficiency.
  • Less Popularity
    AppGameKit is not as widely used as some other game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine, which means fewer third-party resources, plugins, and tutorials are available.
  • Basic 3D Support
    While AppGameKit supports 3D game development, its 3D capabilities are not as robust or feature-rich as those found in more specialized 3D engines.

Defold Engine features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Defold is a highly lightweight engine, which makes it easy to download, install, and run on most systems without consuming significant resources.
  • Cross-Platform Development
    Defold supports multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and HTML5, enabling developers to create games that work across a wide range of devices and operating systems.
  • Performance
    The engine is optimized for high performance, which is crucial for creating responsive and smooth gaming experiences.
  • Easy to Learn
    Defold offers a user-friendly interface and good documentation, making it accessible for beginners and professionals alike.
  • Integrated Development Environment
    Defold comes with its own IDE, which includes features like a scene editor, code editor, and asset management, streamlining the development workflow.
  • Community and Support
    The Defold community is active and supportive, with forums, tutorials, and official documentation available to help new and experienced developers.
  • Lua Scripting
    Defold uses Lua, a lightweight scripting language, which is both powerful and relatively easy to learn, allowing for fast prototyping and development.
  • Free License
    Defold is available for free, making it a cost-effective option for indie developers and small studios.

Possible disadvantages of Defold Engine

  • Limited 3D Capabilities
    While Defold does support 3D development, its capabilities are limited compared to other engines like Unity or Unreal, which might not be suitable for complex 3D games.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basics are easy to grasp, mastering advanced features requires a significant amount of time and effort due to a lack of extensive tutorials and examples.
  • Smaller Community
    The Defold community, although supportive, is smaller compared to communities for other game engines like Unity or Unreal, potentially limiting collaborative opportunities and third-party resources.
  • Editor Limitations
    Some developers find the Defold IDE lacking in advanced features that are available in other game development environments, which might hinder productivity.
  • Dependency on Lua
    The necessity to use Lua scripting can be a downside for developers who are not familiar with or do not wish to learn this language.
  • Less Asset Market Support
    Compared to other popular engines, there are fewer ready-made assets and plugins available for Defold, which can slow down the development process.

Analysis of AppGameKit

Overall verdict

  • Overall, AppGameKit is a solid choice for both beginners and intermediate developers who are interested in 2D and basic 3D game development. It strikes a balance between ease of use and flexibility, although it might not be the best option for highly advanced 3D graphics or very large-scale projects.

Why this product is good

  • AppGameKit is considered a good tool for game development because of its simplicity and cross-platform support. It is designed to let developers write code that can be easily deployed to multiple platforms, such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and HTML5. The language used is BASIC-based, which makes it accessible for beginners while still offering sufficient depth for more complex game functionalities.

Recommended for

  • Beginner game developers
  • Developers looking for cross-platform deployment
  • Individuals or small teams creating 2D games
  • Hobbyists and educators teaching game design basics

Analysis of Defold Engine

Overall verdict

  • Defold is a solid choice for 2D game developers who prioritize performance and a lightweight setup. While it may not be as feature-rich for 3D games compared to some other engines, it excels in its niche, providing an excellent development experience for those focused primarily on 2D games.

Why this product is good

  • Defold Engine is a cross-platform game engine known for its efficiency and ease of use. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for 2D game development, including a visual editor, scripting in Lua, and an integrated development environment. Defold is also lightweight, which means it runs well even on older hardware. The engine has a strong focus on performance and offers robust support for both web and mobile platforms. Additionally, being open source and supported by a dedicated community, it allows developers to contribute and customize the engine as needed.

Recommended for

    Defold Engine is recommended for indie developers, small teams, and hobbyists focusing on 2D game development. It's particularly suitable for those who appreciate an open-source platform with an active community, and who need support for web and mobile platforms out of the box.

AppGameKit videos

AppGameKit Studio -- Introduction and Crash Course Tutorial

Defold Engine videos

Defold Engine Open Sourced!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AppGameKit and Defold Engine)
Game Development
47 47%
53% 53
Game Engine
42 42%
58% 58
3D Game Engine
35 35%
65% 65
Java
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare AppGameKit and Defold Engine

AppGameKit Reviews

The Top 10 Video Game Engines
AppGameKit utilizes Vulkan as its coding language and doubles down on its cross-platform support. You can get started easily, have everything running quickly, and branch out to different platforms, achieving a large amount of exposure for your game.
Top 10 Mobile Game Development Tools For Intellectual Games
AppGamekit shares a similarity with Marmalade of “write once and run anywhere.” It uses its own scripting language that is quite easy to learn as it is similar to C++. The game development tool is user-friendly and caters to every type of developer from beginners to experts.
Source: unaryteam.com
The Best 15 Mobile Game Engines / Development Platforms & Tools in 2020
AppGameKit is great but it’s not C++ like. I would say it’s BASIC kinda language. But it’s not the exact BASIC that you know from Visual Basic, still quite familiar. New(ish) AppGameKit Studio has great features and fully backwards compatible with AppGameKit Classic.
Source: thetool.io

Defold Engine Reviews

The Best Gaming Engines You Should Consider for 2023
Defold is a 2D game engine developed by the creators of Candy Crush, King. It’s designed to make 2D game development easier than ever, and compatible with many platforms, including mobile, desktop, and web.
Best Game Engines for Linux in 2021
Defold is the ultimate game engine for Web and Mobile. You create your game with Lua scripts in Defold.
Source: kerneltips.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Defold Engine seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 50 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AppGameKit mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of AppGameKit yet. Tracking of AppGameKit recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Defold Engine mentions (50)

  • Building Game Prototypes with LÖVE
    Defold is not as well-known as Löve, but it seems to fit your description: https://defold.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
    Humble Bundle has a Godot bundle is available for the next day or so. That might be a good one to look at if you're ok with leaning into code a bit (gdscript is very very similar to python). https://www.humblebundle.com/software/learn-godot-43-complete-course-bundle-software Also check out the RPG Maker bundle. That's pretty point-and-click. You can have something basic up and running in a couple minutes... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Rawdrawandroid – Build Android apps without any Java, in C and Make
    Defold is another great open source Lua-based cross-platform game engine, and has a healthy ecosystem. https://defold.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Alternatives to Unity, Unreal, and Godot for 3D games
    Https://defold.com might anyway be something that is interesting for you. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Which GUI toolkit that can be easily distributed to win/mac/linux?
    Or maybe defold can be forced to only render when UI changed '__'). Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing AppGameKit and Defold Engine, you can also consider the following products

Godot Engine - Feature-packed 2D and 3D open source game engine.

MonoGame - MonoGame is an open source implementation of the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework.

GDevelop - GDevelop is an open-source game making software designed to be used by everyone.

ct.js - ct.js is a 2D game editor (desktop app) based on web technologies.

Construct 2 - Scirra Construct is a 2D game development engine with a focus on building games visually.

BYOND - BYOND is the premier community for making and playing online multiplayer games.