How does Easel compare to Roblox?

Roblox is one of the most popular game engines in the world, with built-in support for multiplayer games, and an enormous user base of players and developers.

Multiplayer

While Roblox has built-in support for multiplayer games, it requires the developer to understand the differences between the server and client environments. Developers must know when and how to perform remote procedure calls to synchronize game state between the different machines. Multiplayer is often beyond the scope of what a beginner programmer can understand.

Easel, on the other hand, lets you code as if all your players are in one shared world, like a singleplayer game, and it takes care of all the multiplayer synchronization for you. This makes Easel a much better choice for beginner programmers who want to make multiplayer games.

2D vs 3D

Roblox is a 3D game engine, and so it requires understand 3D math and concepts to use effectively. Easel is a 2D game engine, which comes more naturally to beginner programmers, and allows them to focus on learning the basics of game development without getting overwhelmed by 3D concepts.

Low-end vs High-end Devices

Easel is designed to run on low-end hardware, and can run on devices that Roblox cannot. It can run on any device with a web browser, including Chromebooks and iPads (with a keyboard), which are popular devices among high school students. This makes Easel much more accessible as a platform for learning game development.

Democratizing Multiplayer

Most Roblox players would not be able to make a multiplayer game on Roblox, but most Easel players would be able to make a multiplayer game on Easel. This creates a pathway where Easel players have the option to go behind the curtain of their favorite Easel game, and to almost accidentally learn coding in the process.

Easel is designed to democratize multiplayer game development by making it accessible to everyone, regardless of their programming experience.