Authoring Tools
HyperCard, Director, etc.

All of the programming languages mentioned above cover pretty-much every commercial game out there. There is one exception, but it's such a big one that it would be conspicuous by its absence.

Myst.

Yep, the best selling commercial game of all time wasn't written in any of the above languages. While some would say that 99% of Myst was written using 3D modeling tools, the underlying program logic was done in HyperCard.

Most authoring tools are a bit like Visual Basic, only they work at a much higher level. Most of the tools use some kind of click-and-drag flowchart motif to model control flow. Many contain embedded interpreted programming languages, but these languages aren't nearly as robust as the standalone languages mentioned above.

Advantages: Fast prototyping --if your game fits the motif the tool's made for, you can probably get your game running faster than any other language. In many cases, you can make a rudimentary game without writing any code. You can broadcast many authored apps on web pages with plug-ins like Shockwave and IconAuthor Player.

Disadvantages: Proprietary, so you're at the mercy of the tool-maker as to what features will be added. You've gotta really look at these tools to see if they'll do everything that your game's gonna require, because there are things that authoring tools simply can't do. Some of these tools produce frighteningly bloated apps.

Portability: Since authoring tools are proprietary, your portability is limited to whatever they offer. Some systems, like Director, can author and run on several platforms. Some tools can author on one platform but play on several. Some are single-platform beasts.

Games Written in Authoring Tools: Myst and a few other "exploration" games of the same genre. All of the Shockwave games on the web.

Resources: Director. HyperCard. SuperCard. IconAuthor. Authorware.

Conclusion