I am a programmer by trade for over 35 years and have worked on just about every platform invented.

I decided when I retired I would go write games for the experience and to kill some time challenging my brain.

AppGameKit looked like fun and seemed to be well though out.

Years ago I bought my sons Black Basic and remebered the excitement in their eyes when they started digging into what was possible with it.

It's been over a month now, and I have well over 300 hours in this thing. (Running Steam is not required to run and use AGK)

In fact, it was so fun and intuitive, I started developing games instead of playing them for a past time.

The Tier 1 platform is not handicapped compared to Tier 2, and perfect place to get started. So if when know what you are doing the basic side of AGK is not a let down. In fact, it work fantasically and I will have my first game published on the Tier 1 platform shortly.

I went from a game concept to a working ready to publish game in three weeks, having never used the platform before!

You don't have to been logged into steam to run it, so your time and data isn't tracked for all to see.

If you want a solid foundation to learn game development from start to published, you can't go wrong with AGK.

Their example videos are excellent, the DLC is awesome and the help library is first rate.

There were a few extra things I needed for my app that most will never care about, but I was able to write those on another platform and import the controls to my AGK app.

Don't think twice about buying this product over your next steam game.

Learn something new and who knows, maybe even make a living with it!

I wish that Steam would implement a star rating style system, so that we have more choices than just "recommend" or "don't recommend". I do recommend the App Game Kit; it really does make writing games (especially for mobile) fast and easy. Also, the possibility to write once and target multiple platforms is really nice.

Edit: Over the years since I wrote this review, I've seen a history of poor support, slow to update to new requirements, and finally, completely dropping the product. If you purchased this already, it will still work, but you won't be able to actually publish any of your apps anywhere, so it's not that useful anymore. A good idea, but they just didn't support it the way it needed.

That said, I do have some complaints, but they don't stop me from recommending. Ultimately, I'd like to give the software... maybe a 7/10? If you are already familiar with programming there will be a number of things that feel awkward about programming with AGK's Tier 1 custom language. This is especially true if you are used to object oriented programming. It's not a show stopper, and you should be able to work out how to do what you want to do, but it can cause some headaches when you want to do things that have become second-nature that simply can't be done that way here. There are no objects, no pointers, very few datatypes, and essentially no scope management aside from functions. Global variables, something generally frowned upon in best-practices for most languages, are almost unavoidable here. One can use the Tier 2 system, which allows for coding in an external compiler and just use the AGK libraries, but then you lose the cross-platform targeting, which is one of the beauties of this system.
The documentation is often sparse and occasionally inacurrate, and the user-submitted code samples they include should be taken with a grain of salt - they are often useful to get the idea of what the API functions do, but they often get the details wrong, especially when you get into the 3D functions. The program IDE itself is pretty sparse, and the autocomplete/hint system very quickly gets confused about uer defined type structures and functions. The debugger is only somewhat useful - if you're used to any enterprise level IDE you will be very dissapointed in the features there.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention something that came as a bit of a surprise to me. Maybe I didn't read closely enough, but I did not initially realize that to deploy to iOS, you need to be running on a Mac. Period. As far as I can tell, there is no way to deploy an iOS app from Windows or Linux. The menu item is there, but it tells you it needs Apple's XCode to be installed. So that kind of diminishes the whole "target multiple platforms" perk. It still counts, but with an asterisk.

If the devs ever read this, the one language feature I would wish for (out of the many that I think would be nice) would be function pointers. If you could implement function pointers, then we could come close to some simple OOP, which would be nice.
***
Edit:
Oh, man, I just started trying to use arrays, and holy hell. I said the one feature I would ask for is function pointers? Well, strike that. Fix the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ arrays first. After banging my head against the desk for about an hour, I finally noticed something in the docs that I had overlooked:

Note that because arrays start at index 0 and allow the size parameter as a valid index, an array defined as "DIM myArray[2]" or "myArray as integer[2]" would have 3 elements (0,1, and 2) but array.length will return "2" to reflect the size parameter that was used to declare it. Therefore an array of length 0 has one element and an empty array will return the length "-1".

Seriously, what? myArray as integer[2] would have 3 elements? An array with 0 elements returns a length of -1, and an array with 1 element returns a length of 0? What? The developers of this software obviously must know how to code, otherwise how could they create the software in the first place? But knowing how to code, how could they possibly think that made any sense at all? I can think of no language I have ever used that works like that, ever. I understand that some things are done in this system to make it more useable to non-coders, but that is super unintuative.
For the sake of all that is holy, please fix that insanity.
***

Still, if you're looking for a way to quickly create games, especially mobile games for both Android and iOS, this is a good way to do it. It could use some improvement and polishing, but it does get the job done.

A little background for context: I have been coding for 30 years in a wide variety of languages and using AGK, and more recently AGK2, for a couple of years now.

So let's clear something up straight away, despite the name AGK isn't just for creating mobile style apps, it can create anything you want on a multitude of platforms. Your imagination is the only real limit.

If you're a beginner or just prefer it then you can code in good old BASIC, or like me you might prefer to use C++ and the added flexibility that brings. Whichever you choose the comprehensive list of commands and features within AGK2 are identical (all explained well in the supporting help files).

In today's constantly changing market no language can afford to stand still and the developers at The Game Creators have realised that too. They are always listening, with feature requests, updates and bug fixes dealt with promptly and the AGK user community are always consulted on any major decisions. It's a language whose future we can all help shape.

The one area I was initially skeptical of was the claim that you could "code once and deploy easily to multiple mobile & desktop platforms". Surely some platform specific changes would be required? Well no, once you have your development environment setup it really does do what it claims. PC, Mac, iOS, Android, OUYA etc. it works. Want to develop for the iPhone but don't want to deal with Object-C? No problem, with user-friendly AGK2 you'll never see a line of Obj-C code.

AGK2 is already a great language to work with, The Game Creators plans for the future are exciting (advanced 3D, extra platform support etc.) and the current price really is unbelievable.

If you're a developer, whether an absolute beginner or experienced, I recommend you look at AGK2.

AGK2 isn't prefect and I can tell you it's a waste of time to compare it with Unity or UE4. For one they are two different animals.

One of the biggest's question is ..... *drum roll* ... Yes!, you do need a bit of programming understanding/knowledge and if you don't then I'd suggest trying out http://www.codecademy.com/ and see if you seems to understand it then look into learning AGK Basic.

Pros:
- AGK Basic! (If you have never programmed before in your life and wish to try out programming then this is a great start)
- C++ Support (I'm a C++ fan)
- Visual Studios Community/2013 template support
- Lots of AGK Basic example projects (I was a bit shocked by this)
- Has an interesting stream app so you can see it on things like on mobile without having to upload it to the device.
- It's a library and not an engine editor like Unity (I think this is a pro because I'm not weighed down by stuff I don't need)
- Multiplayer support (Basic support but since you can use C++ you can add a different one)
- You can make apps and games (It's a library so you have total control)
- it's very cheap for a full library that is easy to pick up and go
- Cross Platform Support for games (Windows, Mac, IOS, Android, Linux)


Cons:
- I think it lacks on the documentation side (It could use more I think)
- It's a library (yes this is a con too because it's a lot harder to pick up compare to like Unity but once you do it's so worth it)
- Without looking stuff up, it can be a bit overwelming to get started. (Well what isn't?)
- No level editors (Well it's not an engine editor so this is excepted, It's not Unity)
- No Linux Editor

Here is the Documentation: http://www.appgamekit.com/documentation/home.html

If you are intrested in this then I'd say try out the demo on steam or their web site.


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You may think I'm bias but it is harder to find cons with a library then an editor. Only things a library can do wrong is not have a certain command not implemented. The rest is up to you to build. It's true I've nevered like Unity or UE4 but that is because I do prefer Libraries like SFML or SDL and this is just something else that is fun to play with and see what I can make.

At the time of writing this, Steam indicates I've used AGK V2 for 182 hours. To be true, I've put a *lot* more hours in the offline-version, neglecting my wife, friends and peculiar looking goldfish which was born with one eye. Why? Well, let me try to explain...


What is it
App Game Kit v2 is a product for the easy creation of apps and games on multiple platforms (Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, HTML5 etc.) The program is aimed at those who like to program for a hobby or small indie developers. With AGK you can build both 2D and 3D products: it has commands for 2D sprites and 3D-objects, but also for physics, text, video, sound, camera's and social media. Some of these are extremely powerful. Want to generate a 3D terrain from a 2D picture? No problem... whereas at one time you had to code your own algorithm to interpret pixels and transform them to vertices, AGK creates an object with a single command. Poof! It's there.. now add some movement controls and fly around in this world you've created.


How is it used?
AGK can be used in two ways: 1) as an easy to understand programming language based on BASIC with it's own development enviroment (indicated as "Tier 1"), and 2) as a 'library' of functions for C++ projects, which you can use from within Visual Studio and the likes ("Tier 2").

I use Tier 1. The BASIC-derived language and nice IDE make coding easy for beginners. This is further enhanced by the help-function: information about all the commands is avaiable on-line and at the press of a button (Select a command and hit F1). Most of the explanations even come with small examples, allowing one to learn quickly. Should you get stuck you can always ask for help on the friendly TGC forums[forum.thegamecreators.com].

For the largest part of it's existence, AGK was about traditional coding: you open up the IDE, write your code, compile it and watch it run or debug it. This is the way I personally prefer it, but then, I grew up using GW-BASIC and Turbo Pascal (and am thus old, nostalgic and unthrustworthy). For those who do not wish to work that way, TGC has recently created a Visual Editor that is sold seperately: a program that you can use to 'drag and drop' elements of an app or game on the screen and set their behaviour. I have no experience with this add-on but it's nice to know it's there.


But... isn't BASIC really old and un-hip?
Certainly. Ever since the famous Edsger Dijkstra told his students that programmers with prior exposure to BASIC would become “mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration", people have been afraid to say out loud they actually liked it because it was easy and understandable. Many people don't realize how empowering the original inclusion of BASIC with early micro-computers was: suddenly, you could make a machine do stuff without needing a degree in mathematics or having the IQ of that Russian chess guy. AGK empowers you in the same way. (Also, I'd argue that it is really a badge of honor to be regarded as "mentally mutilated").


Okay, so... how does it perform?
Fast. Really. BASIC used to get a bad reputation because it had to be interpreted at run-time, making it slower than other, more low-level programming languages. While this is still the case, this is not the bottleneck it used to be. Plus: the old ways of numbered lines, obscure PEEKS and evil GOTO-statements are gone. Programming in Tier 1 is actually very modern and elegant and you can do stuff quickly. (But don't tell other people this... Especially Edsgar!).


How is it supported?
I came to AGK early, when it version 1 was still in beta. At the time, I was enthousiastic about it's predecessor, DarkBasic Pro, but found that the latter was aging. AGK offered a more elegant syntax with commands that were more consistently named. TGC - the company that create and publish the software - have been thorough in their support and are continually upgrading it. The current iteration has matured a lot compared to the original. I am most enthousiastic about the support for third-party plug-inns. Recently, a collection of easy to use Shaders have been released and a VR-add on that allows one to program for HMD's like the Vive and Oculus Rift. All in all, I would guess that AGK is one of the most 'complete' coding products you can buy.

Edit, november 2019: TGC have released a follow-up to AGK of sorts, with the name of "App Game Kit Studio". This program has improvements like an integrated debugger, a visual scene editor and support for the Vulkan graphics API. The language used by the different versions remains the same: code written for the original AGK will run fine in AGK Studio and vice versa.


Any other thoughts?
Sure, time for a quick reality-check: while you can produce impressive stuff quickly, learning to code takes time. You have to be willing to invest in it, staring at lines of text while sipping hot coffee and the like. When you are okay with that, hit that shopping-cart icon. Add me as a friend if you like. I would love to see what you create!

p.s. if you would like to experiment with some dark themes for the IDE, I've created a few that you can use beside the standard themes. The relevant thread and screenshots can be found here[forum.thegamecreators.com].

I've been using this for years, so it's certainly time I posted a review. This is an excellent language for those wanting to delve into game development. It more than capable of creating professional games and apps. (We have 7 games on Steam, all of which do pretty well.). We've developed games ranging from shoot 'em up - through strategy and even a text adventure, so whatever your game/app idea, AppGameKit is, with a little work, a very capable tool.

Totally recommended.

AGK is a nice, easy-to-use game development platform. I have mainly used it for 2D games, such as Toxic Terror, Boot Hill Blaster, and Daisia[fascimania.itch.io], but it also has some quite capable 3D functionality as well.

It has its own Basic language (tier 1) or one can also develop in C++ with it (tier 2). I've been using its Basic language which is quick to learn, especially if you have prior experience with other Basic languages. Exporting to APK for Android is pretty easy to do. Being able to broadcast the game from the Windows IDE to Android for quick testing is a very handy feature as well.

It's probably important to note that AGK is not a game engine itself. One still has to create their own game. It just provides tools that simplify the rendering and other back-end processes so one can focus more on designing the game itself.

There is an active and helpful community around AGK both on Steam and at their forum[forum.thegamecreators.com].

It turned out disappointing the developers targeting indie developers with early access promises.

When they left you in the dust and start a new product with the same name, shortcomings and problems that is supposed to be offered/fixed as a solution to anyone in the first place, is soon repurposed as early access and a new product to them.

If you want to play around with game making, you have better luck with
other program, with support and attention to what it claims to be.

Even if you absolutely want to play around with BASIC or C++ which it is to be the playground target for it, other software and dialect of BASIC and more consistent options are nicer for that purpose and they dont try to sell you too many promises that can not sustain.

The basic dialect seemed to be leaving a lot to wish for compared to other basic as well.

It is not much more than questionable marketing to offer the same early access repeatedly on top of itself in a successor to its early backers that funded it, even if they can buy into early access again many times again if they want to. Just to bury everything but the advertising that holds it up.

If anything else, early access is way too much requirement for a game development software, if it can not already be used as a complete and simple tool to begin, then it isnt a ready development tool.

It is being held back as early access and being repurposed for advertising to be sold with the wrong motivation being rebooted into a early access, from being a community driven kickstart supported project before.

This review is inconsequently about multiple products they use to advertise their softwares multiple times or repurpose them as early access. That is what early access never was meant for if it means jumping between product versions, IMHO.

AppGameKit claims to be a multi-platform development studio for apps and games. However, this comes with some caveats that you may be unaware of, because they're not told to you before you buy.

Caveat #1: You have to write in BASIC if you want multi-platform applications. If you don't know what BASIC is, in short, it's an extremely old and rarely used programming language that, many many years ago, was used as an introductory language to programming because of its easy to understand syntax. My first language ever learned was BASIC, when I was in middle school. That said, I would never, ever code anything in BASIC in the year 2019. BASIC is rarely used, and for good reason. It's not object oriented, which is a massive downside, especially for game design. The difference is monumental. In object-oriented programming, you can create a piece of code that represents a game object, like a person or a creature. You can first create an object that is the base for all your living things. This object might contain a health value, and other physical properties that every living thing has. Then, you can make an object that's a person and have it inheret all the properties from that first object, and a creature that also inherets from that, and define the person and creature with their individual properties. This prevents you from having to re-write code repeatedly when you're building large applications or games, because you can define objects and re-use them later. It might sound complicated, but it's a fairly simple concept, and there are plenty of guides to help you understand it. But, BASIC doesn't allow for this style of programming. Instead, you'll need to re-write that code for each individual entity. Besides being unable to use OOP, BASIC lacks in much of the functionality that modern-day programming languages have. It's meant to be simple and easy to use, not versatile, and for modern day games, you'd be much better off picking up a modern-day game engine in a modern-day language. I'm not a fan of Unity, but, it's free for individual use, and you have the option of coding in many different languages, while keeping it multi-platform simaltaneously. So, essentially everything AGK advertises, without the crappy programming language.

Caveat #2: If you want to produce games for iOS, you have to own a Mac and spend $99/year on an Apple developer account. So, on top of the $80 you're spending on AGK (plus all those extra "DLC" apps that you'll end up wanting) you'll be throwing another $100/year down the drain just to produce on iOS, which is a large portion of the app market, let's be real. This can't much be blamed on the AGK devs, but, they should be upfront about it in their advertising.

Caveat #3: If you do write in BASIC, your programs will be slower than if you wrote in another language. This is because the engine interprets BASIC on each individual system type and then runs it on that system. This is how AGK is able to run on multiple platforms, and why writing it in C++ won't allow you to multi-platform. In short, you're taking a huge performance hit and your programs will be limited in scope.

There are plenty of multi-platform game engines out there. Many of them function similarly, but through a scripting language or languages that are much more versatile than BASIC. I could rant for a very long time about why BASIC is a bad choice for your video game. But, let's avoid that and instead just look at the reality of it. What language are video games usually written in? The answer to that is usually C++. Some engines run on other languages, like C#. These are object oriented languages and are much, much more versatile than BASIC.

I spent some time in the IDE trying to get a project set up, and see if maybe, despite the horrible choice in language, this program was somehow worth the ridiculous pricetag. I created a project, and tried to run the default project it generated. I was greeted with error message after error message. I spent nearly a half hour trying to get the default project to compile, but, the documentation is horrendous, and Google (which, with any other language or IDE I've been able to search and find my problem's resolution within a few minutes) resulted with nothing of use.

Spend your money on an engine that is well-known and has good support in place. Spend your time learning a language that can be used in professional settings. Don't waste your money on this program, it most certainly is not worth it.

And before ending this review I'd like to talk a little about this most recent Free AGK Event that the devs did. When most of us that tried to join in on the free event downloaded the program, we were greeted with a Free Weekend version. This resulted in a TON of negative reviews. The devs responded to each of these reviews asking for them to change it to a positive rating, since they made a mistake and sent out the wrong bundle. As a result, all those negative reviews suddenly turned positive. Countless reviews from people who've not even tried the kit, with 0.1h in it, giving a positive review based solely on the fact that the devs claimed a mistake.

I was asked to either remove my review or make a legitimate review of the software. I was admittedly already unimpressed -- despite it being a mistake, it's a fairly big mistake, AND as a result of their mistake, they've received tons of positive reviews from people who actually haven't even tried the software. After just a few hours peaking behind the curtain, I can safely say that I would not recommend this software to anyone, let alone a beginning programmer. I'd be much more likely to recommend Unity or just straight up learning C# or C++. There are plenty of FREE game development kits out there that don't try to con you out of $80 for subpar software that looks like it's from the 90's, and further try to con you out of hundreds in DLC packs. Seems to me the devs saw an easy cash grab opportunity and jumped on it, advertising their crappy software as an easy-to-learn game development kit, when the reality is that it isn't easy to learn, the documentation is horrendous, and newbie developers would be much better off learning a language that could actually benefit them in the long run. I strongly dislike this software, and strongly recommend against it.

Spend your money and time on something that can really help you in the long run. Pick up a real programming language that people actually use this year, not in the year 1990.

cool now i can make half life 3