There are many 2D game engines out there for you to choose from, and you want to make a fully informed decision prior to investing time and efforts into it.
Fusion has not received significant updates until recently, with the 2.5+ DLC feature, which enhances event editing and allows for finer construction of event actions. In terms of GUI of the IDE, it is easier to use then GM Studio 2 but is not as good as that of Construct 3 and GDevelop (this is strictly my personal opinion). The engine runs locally and does not require login via the internet every time you use it. It also does not require you to pay any yearly or monthly licensing fee, which is reasonable. However, your development station must be Window based.
Fusion has good support for local Windows apps. You can even build Windows Screen Saver with it. 2.5+ has support for the latest DirectX version as well.
GM Studio 2 provides extensive support for scripting. If you love to code, you should go with GM Studio 2. If you prefer drag and drop for everything, this may not be a good option for you. And remember, it requires that you pay annually for licensing. It runs locally but requires that you register for an account to login. It does support a wide range of export options, including XBox One and PS4! Your development station must be either Window or Mac based.
The ability to code extensively makes GM Studio 2 the choice for serious coders who want to make games. GML is more script like and is not as abstract as C++.
GM Studio 2 can take earlier GM Studio files and many earlier actions will be converted to compatibility scripts which are easier to understand. It also has strong support for up to 8 view ports on the same screen (so you can divide the screen into 8 windows each with a different view settings looking at the same object).
Construct 3 is very powerful, with a very good UI and a very capable event system. It is now entirely cloud based and it requires yearly/monthly payment plan (which is what drove people away). It has its own build service for subscriber as well. You can export to FB Instant Game and other mobile platforms through it. Exporting to local Windows is via NW.js. Since it is browser based you can use whatever development platform you like without restrictions.
Construct 3 has the best event sheet facilities among all these game engines. And it can import most Construct 2 capx files with ease.
Construct 2 is local and requires no annual plan but there is no more new features being added to it. FB Instant Game is not supported.
GDevelop is almost as capable and flexible as Construct 3 but is open source and free. Support for platformer, topdown shooter and physics enabled game is rich. It even has its own free build service for users who make builds no more than twice a day. HTML 5, Windows, Mac, Linux and even FB Instant Game are supported (since beta 5). iOS is not yet supported as of the time of this writing. In terms of development, you can use the online browser based version or the more powerful local version which runs on Windows, Linux or Mac.
Personally, I love GDevelop. Its JSON project format makes compatibility between versions much less of a problem. And it is open source, so I have less worry on whether the entity behind it will suddenly have it discont.
SuperPowers is a less well known engine. It looks like its key selling point is collaboration. It provides a server side software that can run on your PC, and that team members can use web browser to connect to it to create games. At first glance it looks like it is a very easy-to-use drag-and-drop engine. However, when I looked into the object behaviors what I found was a full screen of code… it just doesn’t look like it is anything close to an easy engine. With GM Studio 2 you can still use drag and drop in many actions. With SuperPowers, it seems like you simply cannot get anything done without coding. The language it uses is called TypeScript, which is a Javascript variant.
At this moment I don’t think SupowerPowers is a good choice for starters. However, you do want to know that it is 3D capable… at least it can create simple 3D games that are truly 3D, not sprite based clones!
