Some posts ago we brought to your knowledge Unity, a heavyweight video game development tool. Now we present you a simpler tool, one that creates 2D games, StencylWorks.

HOW DOES STENCYL… WORKS?

Not sure to be honest. Here at dotTech, as you probably already know, we are not game developers. In fact, we are more the outdoorsy type of people. What we do know is that this software allows you to create the coolest mobile, flash, and HTML5 games the world has ever seen and without the need to actually know code (you can code if you want but you don’t really need to). [Note: At this moment in time StencylWorks supports exporting Stencyl games as native iOS apps and flash games. Ability to export as native Android apps is expected to arrive in Spring 2012 while exporting as HTML5 games is expected to be available sometime in 2012.] It’s all very visual and drag n’ drop friendly with plenty of resources for you to use it at your own will. The software is clearly Mac driven and if you are developing games on a Mac you will definitely have the upper hand but games can be developed on Windows and Linux, too. On a Mac you’ll be able to test your games in a web browser, in the iOS Simulator, or on your iOS device. If you’re not on a Mac, you can test games Flash or use the StencylBuilder service to test the games on your iOS device. StencylWorks is free but if you’re serious about game creation and want to start making money by selling your games at the App Store you need to go Pro with StencylWorks for $149/year. The Pro plan also includes exclusive benefits like priority support and early access to upcoming products. Don’t forget that in order to to submit games to Apple App Store you need to do it on a Mac computer (Apple requirements — pompous jerks).

StencylWorks is growing fast and has, as already mentioned, has big plans for a near future: the 2.0 version of StencylWorks,  Stencyl for Android,  Stencyl for HTML 5 and the Stencyl Market are some of those plans.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

When you start Stencyl for the first time you need to create an account:

Once your account is created, a upgrade download will appear and you can choose to do it or leave it for later:

Once you do all that, you are good to go — start developing:

POWER UP

StencylWorks looks solid and has Success Stories to prove that it does work. StencylWorks leaves the code learning curve behind and focuses on giving you the tools to create games strictly from the user point of view. In other words, it let’s you put your gaming ideas directly into work and skips the programming classes. You may not create Halo 98764 but it is definitely worth a shot if game development is something you have always wanted to try.

Grab StencylWorks from the links below:

Price: Free (unless you wanna go Pro) 

Version reviewed: v1.3.4 (b413) – with the upgrade mentioned above you get v1.4.1 (b415)

Supported OS: Game development can be done on Windows, Mac, and Linux 

Download Size: 55.4 MB

Malware Status: N/A — too large for VirusTotal

StencylWorks homepage [direct download]