2d Development Frameworks/suits/engines

[API-Beast]

@Gil:
The main difference is that it is using typed arrays exclusively, whose usage the Javascript interpreter can optimize heavily. A human would use plain old dynamic Javascript variables pretty much anywhere.

Also C++ is static typed and as such can be optimized ahead of time, since Emscripten is using Clang these optimizations are fairly advanced and can eliminate a lot more code than any Javascript preprocessor could.

And yes, it did use ASM.js at some point, but not sure if that is still the case.

[Atnas]

Gosu: C++/Ruby development library. Super easy, super fun. Used it quite extensively and made my own engine/map editor as well as other tools and prototypes with the ruby library a few years ago. Still use it now and then. https://www.libgosu.org/

Godot: Open source 3D/2D node based game engine. Think if Unity actually had a proper 2d engine and a python-esque scripting language. Only lacking documentation. Been using it for various things, I really like it. Uses either C++ or GDscript, which is easy to learn. http://www.godotengine.org/projects/godot-engine

[wzl]

Personally i don't care one bit about web capabilities for games. I don't want to play games in browsers.
That said, i have to agree that it's nice sometimes for smaller games. The flash-game era was glorious and spawned quite a number of great things.

I did some experiments with allegro tonight. After some struggles with setting up for vs2010 and finally migrating to vs2015 (which was super ezpz with nuget) i must say i'm quite satisfied with it so far.
Granted, you have to write your own systems with it (input management, sprite handling/animation), but i don't mind that. The rendering capabilities are straight forward and apparently really fast. API reminds a little of gdi+ actually in its simple-ness. Input handling works well, although i didn't check for gamepad support yet.
You have primitive rendering available out of the box which is super nice to have for prototyping, font rendering with ttf support. The only thing that i haven't stumbled upon is music playback. I read about midi support, but nothing besides that. Would love some xm/it playback if not ogg streaming.
So far it supplies me with everything i need. I'll continue to work with it, even if my cpp skills are hella rusty.

Thanks for mentioning it ambi! 

[Atnas]

Re: HTML5

I think if you don't intend to sell your game, and are instead looking for exposure, HTML5 is extremely helpful in that regard, as it removes the download barrier.

Also most browsers, consoles, phones etc can play HTML5 games, so it has become a single click deploy option.

@wzl, what if the game was in a wrapper that you played from your desktop, does that change if you care for the game?

[wzl]

Thats true, web based games are excellent for game jams as well, simply because of the lack of barriers.
The multi-platform aspect is a good point as well.

@atnas
mind you, i didn't say i don't care about the games. I don't want to play web-based, in browsers. I want an offline available standalone desktop application. 

turns out theres a dumb mod library for allegro   

Oh yeah:

Flashpunk
Library for developing in flash. As3 has its own quirks and things you have to get accustomed to. It doesn't hold up to an actual programming language and you're bound to the proprietary platform that is flash, if you dont mind that. Other than that it was quite fun to work with. Nice capabilities and visual runtime debugging tools (visualization of hitboxes etc). In the end the fact that it's flash made me stop using it.
As an aside, there is also HaxePunk, which is basically the same, but for Haxe.

[Gil]

The main difference is that it is using typed arrays exclusively, whose usage the Javascript interpreter can optimize heavily. A human would use plain old dynamic Javascript variables pretty much anywhere.

Ah yes, I could see how typed arrays make everything a lot faster. I'll make a mental note to make myself a small library for those if I ever do something that needs to be faster.

[Atnas]

@atnas
mind you, i didn't say i don't care about the games. I don't want to play web-based, in browsers. I want an offline available standalone desktop application. 

Apologies for misreading what you typed.

It's interesting, I notice I feel this way myself for certain games as well. I think it has something to do with method of consumption. A browser represents a window for information. Traditionally we consumed games as physical media, giving them a physicality that establishes them as an object in our minds. Our feelings for games are easier assigned when we have an object. Like a pet or possession, it belongs to you, you can touch it, etc. That game is silicon, its plastic, its in your hand, you traveled to purchase it, you must put it away when you're done or you'll misplace it. Value.

Downloads definitely have a bit of that physicality to them, getting that weighty zip and uncompressing it, or installing it, feeling like you own the game, now you can touch and enjoy it. Well, you can't. But definitely more than you can if you just click a link and the game is right there. As disconnected as a lets play, you are just looking at the game, you do not feel as though you possess it.

[Digivoxel]

@atnas
mind you, i didn't say i don't care about the games. I don't want to play web-based, in browsers. I want an offline available standalone desktop application. 

Stuff about Browsers or something

To add on to what @Atnas said, @Wzl a lot of browser games can be played offline Of course you would need to have that browser.

A good example of this is google chrome. If you have google, turn off your internet. Then on the browser attempt to go to google.com. You should see a dinosaur. Press Space I think twice and you'll be playing a browser game offline

[Kasumi]

SDL: Pretty similar to Allegro which was already posted earlier in this thread. It provides cross-platform ways to do things like draw stuff, resize windows, whatever. For use with C(++). I forgot why I chose it over Allegro, but I've used it to make level editors and tiny client prototypes.

Some of the input stuff's a little weird at first (reading keyboard keys), but I've never found myself frustrated with what it provides. Here's a basic tutorial set.

[ErekT]

Construct2 is really nice. I've tried a few high-level languages and game creation thingies and none of them come close for getting stuff done fast.

Monkey-X is also pretty great. High-level language along the lines of Love.