Construct2 vs. GameMaker. Which one works better for Mobiles?

[adiian]

I'd like to know if someone knows how well each of them is working on mobiles. I have some experience using Construct 2 and I find it really, really nice for development. Until now, I was not very involved in using html5 on mobiles/tablets and recently I just made a few tests with Construct2 on a few devices. I found it quite slow for just moving a few sprites on the screen.

 

I'm just curious if someone can tell if this should be the expected behavior on mobiles for html5 or just construct2 is a little bit slow? Did anyone test both Game Maker and Construct 2 to make a comparison from the performance point of view on mobiles?

[Intoxicatious]

Which devices did you use for testing? Certain OS version are better at handling HTML5 than others. I have never used Construct 2 for mobile HTML5, but I have used GameMaker. Most GameMaker games run slowly on older OS versions, but some games do work fine. If you are going for a mobile approach, I would suggest not making high action games and being conscious of how much is going on in your game (memory usage, objects, etc).

[sandy234]

i dont know about construct2 but just stay away from game maker.

[Mayenla]

i dont know about construct2 but just stay away from game maker.

Your reasoning?

[sandy234]

Your reasoning?

Theres so many reason that i can write a book about it.

[Mayenla]

Well I have to say that I've had really no problems with Game Maker: Studio in the HTML5 Mobile scene, it's a great tool and is very fast for development.

[adiian]

I have to say I'm familiar to some degree with both Construct2 and Game Maker. I think both of them are great tools for developing quick games and prototypes. I tested 2 game prototypes built with Construct 2 on several devices, including some quad-core android devices and ios devices. The lowest perfomance-wise I tested on, is iPhone4 updated to ios7 and I was quite surprised to see that just moving 2-3 sprites is a little fragmented. I'm not sure if there is a problem on the specific phone I tested.

 

What I also noticed regarding Contruct2, the fragmentation tends not to be continuous(low fps), it just happens from a few frames to a few frames(like some sort of interruption).

 

I don't have a licence for game maker Html5 export tool, so this is why I'd like to know as many opinions as possible, especially from someone who tested both of them.

[Intoxicatious]

Check out these articles if you like using Construct2:

 

https://www.scirra.com/blog/85/the-great-html5-mobile-gaming-performance-comparison

 

https://www.scirra.com/blog/107/boosting-mobile-html5-game-performance-with-webgl

 

My suggestion would be to find a list of games made using Construct2 and GM:S, and then try them on your devices.

[fatalfluff]

Making mobile HTML5 games is a beast of its own. Taking a Construct2 game that was designed for desktop and "just like that" export it for mobile won't give you good results. You have to be aware of a lot of stuff that causes performance loss, high memory consumption etc. 

 

 

 

My suggestion would be to find a list of games made using Construct2 and GM:S, and then try them on your devices.

 

That would be my advice too. Get ahold of the top 5 games from each toolkit, play them on your devices and eyeball for yourself.

[adiian]

I could find a bunch of html5 games made in game maker by some people active on this forum and they work smooth enough. I couldn't find many Construct 2 games built for mobiles. However my search is not complete.

 

Regarding the scirra tests, I've seen them before. I didn't rely too much on them, first of all because they might be a little biased since scirra sells Construct. Second of all it emphasizes the webGL performance which as I know is not something reliable on mobiles, especially on old ones(the place where you really need it) and third of all because I read the test without webGL was done at a time when game maker HTML5 exporter was beta.