impact.pngImpact is unlike the other Indie Tools I have been writing about, mainly in that it is a JavaScript game engine that allows you to develop HTML5 games for desktop and mobile platforms. It is thus an environment that is mainly meant for programmers, even though it does provide certain tools that anyone can use.

Having established that, let's see what Impact does. Well, for starters, it can compile games that will run on all HTML5 capable browsers, including those of the iOS and Android devices. It will also compile games that are publishable on the App Store and Google Play and, importantly, comes with a powerful debugger, an incredibly handy and rather intuitive level editor and access to the GameDev XDK by AppMobi.

Oh, and the following tutorial video should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect:

Now, as I did have a couple of developer friends play around a bit with Impact. I'm happy to report they both found it to be a powerful tool that, at times, impressed them. Both thought its environment was very efficient too, so I do suppose that should be quite an endorsement. As for me, well, I did manage to install the thing without breaking anything on my local PHP server.