Moai (Getmoai.com, only 2d (for now)) is the engine/platform I'm using for the game I'm developing (Indiedb.com). I chose it mainly because of the flexibility it offers, but as it turns out it offers much much more. For one, it deploys to iPhone and Android with (mostly) the same code, which is key - as I wanted to develop a mobile game =P. Other important features:
- The game code is in lua (a common scripting language for games), which is a nice deviation from the C++/C#/Java I do at work.
- It also runs on Windows and Mac, which is incredibly useful while developing. While I'm implementing features, I can always test/debug on my pc - and only have to deploy to my phone when I feel that I have everything ironed out.
- Moai comes with free sandbox cloud support. I have a database, with code (also lua) for handling requests from the game clients (phones, pcs, etc), all through the website. This made it extremely easy to get multi-player working. It will also make it a breeze to implement leaderboards, acheivements, and notifications.
- Another plus (though I haven't used it yet) is that the platform is open source, so you can go into the C++ and make changes if you need some kind of major change.
- Several big/successful games have been developed with Moai (Getmoai.com).
- UI, images, and animation are all incredibly easy to add to your project.
I have encountered a couple of problems along the way, one being that it was pretty difficult to figure out the process for deploying to my phone, but since I figured it out its no longer a problem. The other thing is that Moai doesn't yet implement the Android keyboard, so I had to do my own custom implementation (just an hour or 2 of work).
All in all it is an extremely useful platform that I would recommend to any capable developer. It is an all-in-one solution for developing mobile games, w/o needing other platforms or multiple programming languages.
