Stencyl

Stencyl is an authoring tool and an IDE. The application includes several modules used to accomplish the necessary tasks to create games with the software.

• The Behavior Editor is used to create and edit code and game logic in modular pieces known as behaviours and events.
• The Tileset Editor is used to import and edit tilesets, including their collision shapes, appearance, and animations.
• The Actor Editor is used to create and edit game entities (Actors) and their settings, including behaviours, physics, and animations.
• The Scene Designer is used to create and edit levels and game states (Scenes) by using actors, tilesets, and behaviours.

Additional tools permit the user to import images for use as foregrounds and backgrounds in scenes, import and edit fonts, import sounds and music files (MP3 and OGG are supported, depending on the export target), and alter game settings such as player controls and game resolution. A library of common behaviours is included with Stencyl to reduce the need to recreate common game behaviours, and several game "kits" provide functional starting points for common 2D game genres.

When creating a new behaviour, the option is presented to create it either in Code Mode or Design Mode. Using Code Mode for a behaviour permits the user to program logic in traditional textual form and optionally open the code in an external editor. Alternatively, Design Mode is a GUI that allows users to create modular game logic for actors and scenes using a visual programming language. The concept of Design Mode as a form of end-user development originated with MIT's Scratch computer language learning environment, and was used with permission for Stencyl.

As it is a visual programming language, Design Mode users are not required to learn or type out a particular programming language, nor must they concern themselves with syntax. Rather, available actions are dragged and dropped from a palette of "code blocks". These blocks will snap in place together and nest within each other, permitting the creation of advanced logic from basic components. To avoid syntax errors during compilation, not all blocks will snap together. For example, a space that requires a Boolean value will not accept a block that represents a numeric value. The shapes of the block types are different to help represent this to the user as a behaviour-shaping constraint. The number block could be used in conjunction with a comparison block - such as "(Number) equals (Number)" - to evaluate as a True/False statement for the needed Boolean.

StencylForge is an integrated online storage and sharing service for Stencyl games and game assets. It can be used to back up projects and access projects from other computers when logged into Stencyl. User-uploaded content is private by default, but it can also be made public to share with other users. In addition to user-uploaded content, officially sanctioned content such as example games, game kits, behaviours, and art or sound assets are also available and prominently featured on StencylForge.

Integrated with Stencyl is Pencil, an image editor derived from JHLabs Image Editor. Its use in Stencyl is usually secondary, as images are typically imported directly from the computer after being created separately. Stencyl can alternatively be set up to use external image editors, such as Photoshop and GIMP, to modify images already loaded into a project.

Stencyl also supports user-created extensions to add functions to the software. For example, an extension could add new blocks for Design Mode use, such as a third-party API. Another example is an extensive dialogue scripting tool to easily add dialogue and tweak its settings for a game.