To be a professional game developer, you will need great creativity, coding, and programming skills as there is no tool handily available that can make you a good game designer instantly. If you are an amateur trying your hand at developing games, then you need not get disheartened, as there are few tools to help you get started. You might have thought of creating a stunning game that may feature exciting combat with creepy conversations and a great universe where every task seems impossible and there are many more fantasies that your mind can imagine. Maybe you have even imagined hiring artists, programmers and opening a studio and bring your imagination onto the screen, or you might have enrolled yourself to study game development.
The truth is that game development is much more complicated and difficult than most people imagine, but it’s also not impossible. Like every other software development cycle if you keep the basic principles, learning and derivatives of the game intact, and if you grasp the theory by mastering the basic programming along with graphics learning then you surely can give direction to your thoughts and imagination. This way you might attract eyes of some game development company searching for a talented all-rounder. There’s nothing that can stop you from becoming a game developer, as long as you have the motivation. There are numerous free tools out there in the online world of web to get you started if you have a working PC. These free tools will help you get insight of the game development processes.
So let’s get started with some popular free game development softwares that are worth your time:
Stencyl
It is a very popular tool for individuals who are beginner and don’t possess expert coding skills. It’s a great tool to create game without code. This tool offers large collection of pre-made blocks of code. It has a drag and drop interface and allows individual to publish games to Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and Flash. This tool follows simple LEGO like approach of building code by positioning blocks. The biggest advantage of using Stencyl is that you don’t need to be an expert at coding and you still can create high level stuff without writing a single line of code.
Construct 2
If you want to take a quick dive deep into the world of gaming culture, then Construct 2 is for you. Though the free version has numerous features any beginner can utilize the paid version offer some great features. Construct 2 don’t use jargon but uses simple English terminology and is big on WYSIWYG pick and drop editing. This tool let you go to limit and enhance your game development knowledge immensely.
GameMaker
It is another free, easy to use tool to create games for Mac, Windows, Linux and Android. It has the same drag and drop approach like Stencyl, but has additional feature like hooks to create multiplayer games, digging directly into the code, linking external SDKs and many more. Though the free version of this tool exports with a watermark but still it is a good platform to learn the gaming basics. It can handle more game styles than Stencyl and is more versatile.
Ren’Py
It’s a more advanced alternative for individuals who have exhausted the basic game development options. It is commendably open source and genre specific tool best suited for visual novels and puzzlers.
Cocos2D:
It is a great open source tool for 2D games creation. It allows users to publish their games on Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and Windows Phone. This tool requires individuals to be equipped with C++, Lua and Javascript to start making anything with Cocos2D. Once getting familiarity with the languages Cocos2D is very easy to use and packed with full IDE for developing games. It is completely free and have no strings attached. It has been used to create many successful games like the award winning Badland.
Corona
It is basically a 2D game simulator and a cloud build app. This tool uses Lua scripts for writing and can make use of various skins, resolutions and ratios just like the Mystique and X-Men. It has a very easy language and requires developers just 4 hours to get familiar with the platform. When developer is ready to setup or install, the game is created in the cloud. Corona only accepts iOS, Android, Nook, and Kindle. It comes with a free version but you need to buy the paid version for full capability.
Unity
If you are interested in creating more complex 3D games, then Unity is one of most popular free tools available. It is one of the most sought after game development tool and available for a huge variety of platforms. It supports 2D and 3D games creation and an excellent choice for any genre. It’s not entirely for amateur coders but also not hellish to learn. It has a build automation tool with a debugger to smooth beginner bumps. It supports platforms like Mac, Windows, Playstation, Xbox, iOS, Android and many more. It also supports assets from renowned 3ds like Maya, Max, Cinema 4D, Softimage, Blender etc. The free version comes with many amazing features but the paid version let game developers receive funding for their games.
Unreal
Like Unity it’s another heavyweight when we talk about tools for game creation. Games created by this tool can be published on platforms like Mac, Android, iOS, Xbox One, Playstation and many more to mention here. It has everything like 3d modeling tools, landscape systems to create stunning games. The beauty of this tool is that it has a higher learning curve as compared to other tools even for an individual having expertise in C++. The developers can even reverse engineer nodes of Unreal to get an insight about how it works.
Other game development software tools you can use for your game development quest are:
- Appcelerator Titanium
- WGame
- Sio2
- Loom Engine
- SDL
- SFML
- Torgue2D
- Sencha
- Angel2D
- Libgdx
- Sparkrift
- XNA
- Citrus
- Haxe + OpenFL
- QT-Project
- Moai
- Delta Engine
- Binpress
- V-Play.net
- Duality
- Kivy
- Haxeflixel
- Oxygine
- Gideros
- Shiva3D
You can use any of the above-mentioned game development tools developed by startups and many renowned game development companies that motivate budding game developers, as well as experts to show their gaming skills.
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