

It comes with a sample game included and one nice feature of Stencyl is the ability to seamlessly download additional assets from their website including additional examples and editor extensions. When you first launch Stencyl this is your initial view of the editor:

Stencyl is a relatively self contained providing almost all of the tooling you need in a single editor. There is an HD video version of this guide available here.

Amazingly enough, you may find you do not actually want to! Stencyl provides a high level Lego block type programming experience but coders need not fear, you can drop into code easily if you want. Stencyl is free to use for the Flash target with additional platforms coming with a fee. Stencyl is a cross platform 2D game engine with tools that run on Windows, Mac and Linux and capable of targeting all of those, plus Flash, Android and iOS. The Closer Look At series is a cross between a preview, review and getting started guide and should help you determine if a game engine is right for you. In this “A Closer Look at”, we will be taking an in-depth look at the Stencyl game engine.
