[ TOOLS for GAME MAKING ]

[Venetia]

[ TOOLS ]

[ EVERY GAME MAKER NEEDS TOOLS ]

[ TOOLS FOR GRAPHICS ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO MAKE SOME ART ]

[ RASTER EDITORS & STUDIOS ]


[ VECTOR OR 3D EDITORS & STUDIOS ]


[ OTHER GRAPHICS EDITORS/SUITES ][ ANIM8OR ||| $: 100% FREE ||| EXTREMELY SIMPLE/BASIC 3D ANIMATION EDITOR ]
[ UNIVERSE IMAGE CREATOR ||| $0:TRY | $25-$55:FULL ||| CREATE REALISTIC IMAGES OF SPACE, GALAXIES, NEBULAE ]
[ PRO MOTION ||| $0:TRY | $78:BUY ||| SPRITE ANIMATOR & PACKAGER FOR VARIOUS GAME ENGINES ]




[ TOOLS FOR WRITING + ORGANIZING ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO WRITE SOME TEXT | KEEP YOU ORGANIZED ]
[ EVERNOTE ||| $0:FULL | $45/YR:EXTENDED+BONUS FEATURES ||| TOOL FOR ORGANIZING ALL YOUR NOTES, CLIPPINGS, SCREENSHOTS, SCANS. OCR FUNCTIONS, BROWSER PLUGINS, MOBILE DEVICE SUPPORT ]
[ GOOGLE DOCS ||| $: 100% FREE ||| EASILY CREATE, EDIT, AND MAINTAIN ALL DOCUMENTS, SPREADSHEETS, ETC. - ACCESS ALL YOUR FILES FROM ANYWHERE, ANYTIME ]
[ WRITEBOARD ||| $: 100% FREE ||| LIKE GOOGLE DOCS, MORE EMPHASIS ON TEAM COLLABORATION ]
[ MICROSOFT WORD ||| $0:TRY $90-130:BUY||| INDUSTRY-STANDARD WORD PROCESSOR ]
[ OPEN OFFICE ||| $: 100% FREE ||| FULL DOCUMENT EDITING SUITE | NOT QUITE AS ROBUST AS MICROSOFT WORD, BUT FREE ]
[ NEW NOVELIST ||| $50:FULL ||| QUICKLY TRACK AND ORGANIZE PLOT POINTS, CHARACTERS, LORE, ETC. ]
[ CHARACTER WRITER ||| $0:TRY | $70:BUY ||| TOOLS FOR CREATING COMPLETE, BELIEVABLE CHARACTER BIOS + CHAR DEVELOPMENT ]
[ SCRIVENER ||| $0:TRY | $40:BUY ||| "CORK BOARD" TYPE PROGRAM THAT STORES AND SORTS MULTIPLE FILE FORMATS TO KEEP ALL DOCS FOR YOUR STORY IN ONE PLACE ]
[ LIBREOFFICE ||| $: 100% FREE ||| A GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO MICROSOFT OFFICE ]
[ JALINGO ||| $: 100% FREE ||| A HANDY MULTI-LANGUAGE, CUSTOMIZABLE DICTIONARY, EASY TO SEARCH, GREAT FOR NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS ]



[ TOOLS FOR AUDIO ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO MAKE SOME NOISE ]
[ AUDACITY ||| $: 100% FREE ||| SIMPLE, YET ROBUST TOOL FOR EDITING OR APPLYING FILTERS TO SOUNDS/MUSIC | MULTI-CHANNEL SUPPORT ]
[ iNUDGE ||| $: 100% FREE ||| IN-BROWSER TRACK CREATOR THAT USES SOUND PATTERNS TO CREATE LOOPS ]
[ ANVIL STUDIO ||| $0:FULL | $20-$100:ADD-ON PACKS ||| ROBUST MIDI COMPOSER ]
[ BFXR ||| $: 100% FREE ||| IN-BROWSER SOUND EFFECT CREATOR, SYNTHING CUSTOMIZABLE GAME NOISES ]
[ MILKY TRACKER ||| $: 100% FREE ||| LIGHTWEIGHT SONG COMPOSER AND EDITOR, MULTI-TRACK SUPPORT ]
[ FINALE ||| $0:TRY | $200-$600:FULL ||| INDUSTRY-STANDARD SONG COMPOSER. ]
[ FL STUDIO ||| $0:TRY | $200:FULL ||| INDUSTRY-STANDARD SONG COMPOSER. ]
[ MUSIC MASTER WORKS ||| $0:TRY | $15-$35:FULL ||| VOICE-TO-NOTE TECHNOLOGY: SING OR HUM INTO YOUR MIC AND THIS OUTPUTS A CUSTOMIZABLE MIDI TRACK BASED ON YOUR VOCALS ]



[ TOOLS FOR PROGRAMMING ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO MAKE SOME CODE ]
[ NOTEPAD++ ||| $: 100% FREE ||| LIMITLESSLY USEFUL PROGRAM FOR WRITING/EDITING CODE IN NEARLY ANY LANGUAGE. ]
[ MS VISUAL STUDIO EXPRESS ||| $: 100% FREE ||| IDEAL IDE FOR WORKING WITH C#, C++, .NET FRAMEWORK, JAVASCRIPT, ASP.NET, AND MORE ]
[ FREEBYTE'S GUIDE TO FREE PROGRAMMING ||| INCLUDES 100'S OF LINKS TO IDEs, COMPILERS, PROGRAMS, & LIBRARIES, FOR ANY PROGRAMMER OR PROGRAMMER-IN-TRAINING ]



[ TOOLS FOR MAP EDITING ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO BUILD YOUR WORLD ]
[ tIDE ||| $: 100% FREE ||| ROBUST TILE MAP CREATOR, MULTI-FORMAT, WITH PARALLAX/ZOOM/NAVIGATION/BRUSH SUPPORT ]
[ TILD MAP EDITOR ||| $: 100% FREE ||| QUICKLY & EASILY SET UP FRONT-VIEW, TOP-DOWN, AND ISOMETRIC TILED MAPS, COMPLETE WITH LAYER SUPPORT ]
[ TILE STUDIO ||| $: 100% FREE ||| MAKE & EDIT TILED MAPS, ESPECIALLY FOR SIDE-VIEW | EDIT TILE GFX ON-THE-FLY ]
[ MAPPY ||| $: 100% FREE ||| CREATE TILED MAPS WITH SQUARE, ISO, OR HEXAGONAL SHAPE SUPPORT ]
[ TERRAGEN 2 ||| $0:LIMITED | $299:FULL | $439:+ANIMATION ||| RENDER BEAUTIFUL 3D ENVIRONMENTS ]



[ TOOLS FOR FONTS & LOGOS ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO PRETTIFY YOUR TEXT ]
[ BMFONT ||| $: 100% FREE ||| CREATE PIXEL FONTS QUICKLY & EASILY ]
[ FONTCREATOR ||| $0:TRY $79:BUY ||| PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL FONT EDITOR, WITH FULL VECTOR OR RASTER SUPPORT | EXPORTS OPENTYPE OR TRUETYPE ]
[ FONTFORGE ||| $: 100% FREE ||| NOT AS EASY TO USE AS FONTCREATOR, BUT FREE ]
[ LOGO DESIGN SUITE ||| $47 - $67 ||| QUICKLY & EASILY CREATE PROFESSIONAL-LOOKING LOGOS WITH LITTLE GRAPHIC DESIGN SKILL ]



[ TOOLS FOR VIDEO ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO CAPTURE VIDEO | SHOW OFF ]
[ HYPERCAM ||| $: 100% FREE ||| POPULAR VIDEO-CAPTURE SOFTWARE ]
[ CAMSTUDIO ||| $: 100% FREE ||| POPULAR VIDEO-CAPTURE SOFTWARE ]
[ CHRONOLAPSE ||| $: 100% FREE ||| VID-CAPTURE YOUR WORK AS YOU GO, AND ANNOTATE/EDIT EASILY ]
[ CAMTASIA STUDIO ||| $299 ||| A MORE PROFESSIONAL VID-CAPTURE SUITE, WITH FULL EDITING INTEGRATION ]
[ DEBUT VID.REC. SOFTWARE ||| $0:TRY | $70:BUY ||| SEMI-PRO VID-CAPTURING SOFTWARE | SOME EDITING ENABLED | WORKS WITH VHS AND DV TOO ]



[ TOOLS FOR HOSTING + PACKAGING ]
[ USE THESE TOOLS TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR STUFF ]
[ INSTALLERS & UPDATERS ]
[ INSTALLCREATOR ||| $0:LIMITED | $149:FULL ||| EASILY CREATE EXE INSTALLERS & UNPACKERS FOR YOUR GAME ]
[ PATCHMAKER ||| $0:LIMITED | $59:FULL ||| EASILY MAKE SECURE UPDATES FOR YOUR EXE GAMES ]
[ IZPACK ||| $: 100% FREE ||| JAVA-BASED APPLET FOR DEPLOYING & INSTALLING EXES ]

[ HOSTING SITES ][ DROPBOX ||| $: 100% FREE ||| HBG-RECOMMENDED UPLOADER FOR GAMES & HTML5 GAMES ]
[ SLACKED'S BITBUCKET ||| $: 100% FREE ||| QUICKLY UPLOAD IMAGES, ZIPS, MP3S, SWFS, ETC. ]
[ WEBGEL (FORMERLY XIEKE) ||| $: 100% FREE ||| QUICKLY UPLOAD IMAGES & RESOURCES | INCLUDES PERSONAL FILE LIST ]
[ MEDIAFIRE ||| $: 100% FREE ||| FREE CLOUD HOSTING FOR ANY TYPE OF FILE ]
[ FILE DROPPER ||| $: 100% FREE ||| HOSTING FOR EVEN UP TO 5GB ]
[ FILEFACTORY ||| $0:BASIC | $12-129:SUBSCRIPTION (MORE FEATURES) ||| ALLOWS FOR VERY, VERY LARGE FILE UPLOADS/STORAGE ]

[ GOT SUGGESTIONS? ]

[ SUGGEST PROGRAMS OR UTILITIES IN THIS THREAD ||| DON'T FORGET TO SUPPLY A LINK ]

 

[Niko_Io]

Thank you very much, Venetia. :biggrin:

 

[joannesalfa]

Nice post! thanks Venetia

 

[coyotecraft]

I wish I knew about inkscape when I was in college. That would have saved me so many trips to the campus computer lab.

 

[Sailerius]

List Microsoft Visual Studio Express ( http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/e ... ns/express ) for programming. It blows every other IDE out of the water and it's free.

 

[Jason]

Venetia

Spoiler

I am disappoint

D:<
No notepad or ms paint...

 

[Tuna]

Very thorough list, Ven.

Under tools for programming, I would suggesting adding Eclipse for people who want to mess around with game development in Java. I know that Android apps are written in Java, and I know classmates of mine have used Eclipse to develop their own apps.

You might also want to add Construct 2 and RM* to the list. :wink:

I also think that this would make a better link to Dropbox. :smug:

 

[bluehazed]

Should put emacs on there for programming! It's got a slight learning curve- but emacs 24 is pretty unified and has a tutorial built right in- and is extremely full featured and extendable via emacs lisp.

There's a package manager too for all of the nice addons.

 

[Venetia]

No notepad or ms paint...

Those both come with Windows. Most people have them. Unless they use Linux or Macs. In which case, they probably can find better things.

And Notepad++ beats the shit and piss and cum out of regular Notepad. There's no point in using regular Notepad at all.
(And MS Paint blows chunks too compared to all the other art software I linked in the OP. But anyway, like I said, most people already have it ...)

You might also want to add Construct 2 and RM* to the list.

The thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=65928 has a list of game engines.
This thread is about TOOLS that you can use to supplement your game-making experience.

I'll look into those other things that were mentioned.

 

[Aepriz]

I'm rather interested in those tools for writing.

Scrivener and Evernote seems to be about the same thing and really handy. If money is not an issue what would be the best option for a windows user? Currently Scrivener seems best to me.

 

[DarksideCreations]

Thank you Venetia for introducing me to tIDE, I have been looking for something like that for ages! Thank you x 875766765.

On a different note, I want to share a cool page where you can make some really cool sound effects.

 

[GameBoy]

Aseprite is awesome, I always liked small, simple programs without unnecessary features. Also it have cool design.

 

[Glitchfinder]

Ven, you might want to consider adding LibreOffice to the list. Of all of the free MS Office alternatives out there, LibreOffice appears to currently be the best, and, as far as I can tell, is actually as good or better than Office at a lot of stuff.

 

[bacon]

Its been noted and added
talk about confusing formatting x;

 

[karl048]

List Microsoft Visual Studio Express comparateur mutuelle chat for programming. It blows every other IDE out of the water and it's free.

Hello!
This is my first time here and i just want to say that I’m very happy to be here and to share my opinion.
Thanks!