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Construct 2 VS PixiJS

Compare Construct 2 VS PixiJS and see what are their differences

Construct 2 logo Construct 2

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

PixiJS logo PixiJS

Fast and flexible WebGL-based HTML5 game and app development library.
  • Construct 2 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-21
  • PixiJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-25

Construct 2 features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Construct 2 offers a drag-and-drop interface, making it accessible for users without programming skills to create games.
  • Fast Prototyping
    The visual scripting system allows for quick iteration and experimentation, enabling rapid development and testing of game concepts.
  • Cross-Platform Export
    Games developed in Construct 2 can be exported to multiple platforms including HTML5, Android, iOS, Windows, and more.
  • Extensive Documentation and Community Support
    Construct 2 has comprehensive documentation and an active community, which provides tutorials, forums, and asset stores that help in learning and improving game development skills.
  • Performance Optimization
    Construct 2 is built to optimize the performance of games running on various devices, ensuring smoother gameplay experience.

Possible disadvantages of Construct 2

  • Limited 3D Support
    Construct 2 is primarily a 2D game engine and lacks the capability to handle 3D game development efficiently.
  • Licensing Cost
    While there is a free version, more advanced features and export options require purchasing a license, which can be costly for some users.
  • Performance Overhead
    Games built with Construct 2 can have performance overhead compared to those developed with native code, which can affect the performance on less powerful devices.
  • Limited Customization
    While the visual scripting language is powerful, it can be restrictive for advanced users who need more control and customization over their game logic and performance.
  • Dependency on HTML5
    Construct 2’s primary export format is HTML5, which may not be suitable for all types of games, particularly those that require high-performance or native features.
  • Secondary Focus on Newer Engine
    Construct 2 is not the latest engine from Scirra; Construct 3 is its successor. Newer updates and features are likely to prioritize Construct 3, potentially slowing down the development and support for Construct 2.

PixiJS features and specs

  • Performance
    PixiJS provides high performance through the use of WebGL, offering fast rendering capabilities that can handle complex scenes and animations efficiently.
  • Cross-Platform
    PixiJS is compatible with various platforms, including desktops, tablets, and mobile devices, ensuring a consistent experience across different environments.
  • Rich Features
    It comes with a variety of built-in features such as sprites, filters, masks, and support for different shapes and textures, which makes it powerful for creating interactive graphics.
  • Ease of Use
    The library offers a user-friendly API and extensive documentation, making it easy to learn and integrate into projects, even for developers who are new to WebGL.
  • Community Support
    PixiJS has an active community and a wealth of resources including forums, tutorials, and GitHub repositories, which help users troubleshoot issues and improve their projects.

Possible disadvantages of PixiJS

  • Size
    PixiJS can be relatively large in terms of file size, which may affect load times and performance, particularly for users with slow internet connections or limited bandwidth.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Since PixiJS relies heavily on WebGL, it may face compatibility issues with older browsers or devices that do not support advanced WebGL features.
  • Complexity
    While powerful, PixiJS can become complex when building more advanced applications, requiring a deep understanding of 3D graphics and WebGL concepts.
  • Limited 3D Support
    PixiJS is primarily a 2D rendering engine and lacks comprehensive support for 3D graphics, which might be a limitation for projects requiring 3D rendering.
  • Memory Management
    Handling memory efficiently can be challenging, especially in complex scenes with many textures and sprites, leading to potential memory leaks or performance degradation.

Analysis of PixiJS

Overall verdict

  • PixiJS is an excellent choice for developers looking for a versatile and efficient 2D rendering engine. Its features and community support make it suitable for both beginners and experienced developers needing a reliable and performance-oriented solution.

Why this product is good

  • PixiJS is a popular 2D rendering engine for creating interactive and visually appealing graphics. It is highly efficient and built on WebGL, which allows for high-performance rendering. PixiJS is also valued for its simplicity, flexibility, and ease of integration with other libraries and frameworks. It has a large community and a wealth of documentation and tutorials available, making it easier for developers to learn and troubleshoot issues. Furthermore, PixiJS supports a variety of rendering needs, such as games, web applications, and other graphic-intensive projects.

Recommended for

  • Developers creating 2D games or interactive applications
  • Projects that require high-performance graphics rendering
  • Web applications needing complex animations and graphics
  • Developers looking for a library with extensive community support and resources

Construct 2 videos

Construct 2 - How To Make a Game - Review

More videos:

  • Review - Construct 2 = Easiest Game Maker EVER!

PixiJS videos

PixiJS Part 3: Renderer, Ticker, & Stage

More videos:

  • Review - Learn PixiJS in 20 Minutes

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Construct 2 and PixiJS)
Game Development
71 71%
29% 29
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Game Engine
67 67%
33% 33
Flowcharts
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Construct 2 and PixiJS

Construct 2 Reviews

The Top 10 Video Game Engines
What better than an HTML-based engine to wrap up the list? Construct 2 doesn’t hinge on your ability to code. Sign me up!
The Best 15 Mobile Game Engines / Development Platforms & Tools in 2020
Construct 2 is a HTML5 platform for creating 2D games. It is very easy to use as coding is not required and it has many features that will help you in developing visually appealing games in a short time. It also allows for multiplatform export so your project will be ready to be launched in different devices at once.
Source: thetool.io

PixiJS Reviews

We have no reviews of PixiJS yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PixiJS seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 72 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.

Construct 2 mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Construct 2 yet. Tracking of Construct 2 recommendations started around Mar 2021.

PixiJS mentions (72)

  • Trying to Replace the DOM with Canvas — And Failing
    To improve performance, another team built a POC replacing standard DOM elements with a canvas managed by a library called pixi.js. The idea was to boost rendering speed. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Building an AI Powered Camera for David Bowie
    We can now decide how we want to display the data.image result back to our user. You can simply throw it up in an tag or generate a reveal video on the fly like I’ve done using Pixi.JS and MediaRecorder. Perhaps a topic for another dev blog. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Tattooing The Black Keys Fans Using MediaDevices and PixiJS
    For this application, we gain access to the user’s camera using MediaDevices and then place it onto a PixiJS canvas as a video sprite. Then, we load the tattoo as an additional sprite and give it a bit of opacity and blending to bleed it into the user’s skin. Simple controls are added to allow the user to rotate, scale, and position the tattoo for the perfect inking. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Chapter 1: Boring SVG Manipulation
    And canvas felt almost natural and invoked heavy nostalgia from the first time I touched keyboard and wrote primitive program to draw a house out of lines utilizing Basic. Later on I had a chance to broaden my expertise, when I was doing my hobby game project with Pixi and small bits and pieces on FindLabs pages. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • JSON Canvas – An open file format for infinite canvas data
    The canvas in Obsidian is as the whole app very well made. I wondered what they are using as well. My guess is https://www.xyflow.com/, which is for drawing nodes. More general purpose would be http://fabricjs.com/. Or very low level https://pixijs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Construct 2 and PixiJS, you can also consider the following products

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

Three.js - A JavaScript 3D library which makes WebGL simpler.

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

Phaser - Desktop and Mobile HTML5 game framework. A fast, free and fun open source framework for Canvas and WebGL powered browser games.

Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 4 is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.

Paper.js - Open source vector graphics scripting framework that runs on top of the HTML5 Canvas.