[New] Cocos2DX vs. Unity. What to Choose for 2D Development?

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So I recently found that my previous post has been getting comparatively higher hits. Since the post is a bit old and Cocos Creator has since become stable, I think it's about time to write an updated post with the comparisons.

 This time however, I'll give a verdict straight away first.

If you want to create a 2D Game, then...

(1) Unity: Choose Unity if you have all or most of the below
  1. Already have a Unity License (or are willing to make do with Free version)
  2. Have good experience with Unity and don't want to learn a new platform all over again.
  3. Not comfortable with JavaScript (well it's there in Unity too. but you have other choices as well)
  4. Are not sure if your project is going to end up as a 2D game or 3D game (yeah, that happens!).
  5. Paying for Plugins/Additional OS Platforms etc. is not an issue.
  6. Around 10-15 MB addition to Build size doesn't affect your Target Audience.
  7. You want to support Consoles as well as Mobiles for your game.
(2) Cocos Creator: For everything else Cocos2D-X is the winner!


Why do I say that?
Okay, I'm a bit biased, because I'm an Indie and I love Free. So I'll start with :
  1. Biggest Plus Point >> No licensing cost (Good for business as well as Indies)
  2. New enhanced IDE (Cocos Creator), which simplifies life for newcomers.
  3. Good Documentation
  4. Great Community Support
  5. Major platforms are supported Natively (iOS, Android, Mac) as well as through HTML5 (running inside browsers of Mobiles, Windows, Mac as well as Linux)
  6. Almost all Ad network, Analytics, Push notification plugins are available Free
  7. Stable and Active Platform (New updates etc.)
  8. Smaller Build size compared to Unity
  9. Sprite/Image quality remains intact on import in Cocos. In Unity, if you import a high quality image without compression, you could add anywhere between 2-4 MB  to your build size.
PS: As of now I have still not switched to Cocos Creator. For the time being I'm using the older (officially deprecated but still functional) Cocos Studio 2 for UI layout and C++ for coding. The sole reason for this is that even though Cocos Creator builds are far smaller compared to Unity, it's still 4-5 MB higher compared to the C++ Cocos2DX.
And build size matters for my target audience.

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