Game Dev Resource Thread

[Teuthida]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to provide a list of resources for game developers out there. I'll try to keep things on the list free for the most part, and this is by no means a complete list or resources for people to use! But it should be enough to get any aspiring developer started. I haven't tried some of these so I'm not sure how great they are! If anyone has things to add please feel free to post them in the thread, these are just resources I've thought of off the top of my head.

 

GAME BUILDING:

Adventure Game Studio - Windows only; has an active community/userbase. Wadjet Eye makes most of their games using AGS, such as Gemini Rue and Resonance.

Spring Engine - Multi-platform (Windows & Linux, Mac support in progress). Open source. Used for building RTS games.

GameMaker - Link is for the Windows version, as I have heard GameMaker on Mac is buggy as hell. "Lite" version is free, everything else is at least $50.

Sphere RPG Engine - Windows only, Mac & Linux support in progress. Java-based.

Ren'Py - Multi-platform (Windows, Max, & Linux), open source. Python-based. Used to make visual novels or life simulation games, such as Magical Diary by Hanako Games and the Heileen series by Tycoon Games.

Novelty - Windows only. Also for making visual novels. Targeted towards people who have no programming experience, although there is a scripting interface for users with C++ or Java knowledge.

Construct - Windows only. Open source, HTML5. Free if you're not planning on selling your game.

UDK - Windows only. Free to use so long as you're not selling a game commercially - if you want to sell a game made with UDK you have to purchase a $99 commercial license.

Unity - Multi-platform (Linux support coming with Unity 4). Y'all know what Unity is I don't need to explain this

Twine - Multi-platform. Used for writing interactive fiction and text adventures. No programming experience required.

Inform - Multi-platform. Used for writing interactive fiction that also prides itself on being accessible to people with no programming language.

XNA - Windows only. For XNA Game Studio: Windows games are free to release, but if you want to export your creation to the Xbox 360 you'll need to pay a $99 annual licensing fee for admission to the XNA Creator's Club.

Blender - Multi-platform, open source. 3D art asset creation. Modeling, rigging, sculpting, animating, etc. Also features a built-in game engine.

Ogre3D - Multi-platform, open source. 3D engine with a lot of support and extensions.

 

WRITER RESOURCES:

FreeMind - Multi-platform mind-mapping software.

Labyrinth - (I think this is Windows only?) More mind-mapping and story-charting goodness.

yWriter - Windows only. Text editor that organizes your document by chapters and scenes, and allows you to store character notes as well as other things. I love this software.

Scrivener - Mac and Windows, $40. I haven't personally used this so I'm not sure if it's worth it but it seems very cool!

 

Enjoy! Start making things!

[Osvir]

Sweet! Lots to suck my teeth in <3 thank you :D

[NoMan2000]

I agree, this is a great post. The mods should sticky it.

[mr.Ermac]

Thanks friend, I'am actually going to be making a sort of game prototyping tool for my last year project at uni, so the tools you linked will help out in regards to what is expected from such tools. Cheers

[Tale]

Thank you for this. The mind-mapping software, FreeMind, looks pretty dang nifty.

[Mishka]

I would add XNA. It's Windows and XBox only, but C# is very functional and easy to learn.

[J.Burke]

I believe Roby used XNA for his XBLA game.

 

Ogre 3D is another decent open source engine for programmers. You get the benefit of full source code, and it has TONS of extensions made for it. I spent a lot of time playing with it in college.

[Mishka]

I am torn between Ogre 3D and Blender. I haven't really gotten into 3D games yet though, so only picked a few of the quick courses Blender offers.

 

EDIT: Edit

Edited October 18, 2012 by Mishka

[Teuthida]

Thanks for all the great additions! Since I just signed up I actually didn't know that I couldn't edit my post after a bit of time had passed, so I'm not sure how to update the list. Could I message one of the mods with the updates?

[Tale]

Thanks for all the great additions! Since I just signed up I actually didn't know that I couldn't edit my post after a bit of time had passed, so I'm not sure how to update the list. Could I message one of the mods with the updates?

Yes, you can. The globals could do it or you could message one of us rank & file and we'll pass it along.

[Mishka]

I think you can still edit? :S

 

Oh no, you're right. After some time passes you can't. Ooops!

Edited October 18, 2012 by Mishka

[Roby Atadero]

I believe Roby used XNA for his XBLA game.

 

Ogre 3D is another decent open source engine for programmers. You get the benefit of full source code, and it has TONS of extensions made for it. I spent a lot of time playing with it in college.

 

Yup, right before I got hired here I was working on this game at home using XNA: http://www.spoidsgame.com/

 

The reason XNA is cool is because it gives you the opportunity to work on something that also runs on a major console. And when it comes to game development, there are a lot of issues and standards you have to adhere to when working on consoles and TV's as opposed to games that are strictly PC and monitor based. You can't even publish a game on the Xbox Live Indie Arcade if you don't pass the certification requirements that a lot of AAA games have to adhere to as well. So, working with XNA on Xbox you get to learn about all of this, which, directly translates to useful knowledge in the professional game industry.

 

But like Burke mentioned, Ogre3D is a very nice open source 3D engine. I had to do a project during college too that used it (and we used Blender as the primary modeling program). And as for reference, here is what came out of it: http://www.robyatade...rojects/ascent/ (mind you this was a college project many years back where we had a few months to work on it and that's it). Not only that, but we were able to make it run on both Linux and Windows because of it's cross platform support. So, if you are looking for an open source 3D engine, you can't go wrong with Ogre3D.

[KhaineGB]

Very nice list!

 

I do actually want to work on an indie RPG game at some point, so I'll be bookmarking this post. If you have any links for programming tutorials (especially if they're game-orientated), those would be awesome to see!

 

Haven't done any programming for 10 years... and even then it was a mixture of Delphi and Java.

 

The mind-mapper software is going to be very useful in the immediate future though.

Edited October 19, 2012 by KhaineGB

[Teuthida]

Very nice list!

 

I do actually want to work on an indie RPG game at some point, so I'll be bookmarking this post. If you have any links for programming tutorials (especially if they're game-orientated), those would be awesome to see!

 

Haven't done any programming for 10 years... and even then it was a mixture of Delphi and Java.

 

The mind-mapper software is going to be very useful in the immediate future though.

 

I'm glad it was helpful! I'll start looking for some tutorials for the main post - those would be good resources to have for a lot of developers just starting off.

 

I'm also happy people find the mind-mapping software useful. I used to think it was sort of silly at first, but now mind-mapping has become one of the most crucial steps to my narrative design. Especially if you plan on having branching paths or a lot of characters, it's a great way of keeping your thoughts organized.

[KhaineGB]

It's good for me because I've just started writing up some plots for my weekly Pathfinder game.

 

ATM I'm actually running a published adventure (not mine, Pazio's), and I've asked my players to supply character backgrounds. So... now I'm working on personal plots for them to try and encourage a little character growth... maybe challenge their viewpoints a bit.

 

So yeah, that stuff is going to be amazing for me.

[J.Burke]

Basic C++ tutorial and reference site. I used this website as a reference site through college, and it served me pretty well. -- http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

NeHe openGL tutorials. A lot of assumptions that you are compiling for windows, but that's not a huge deal. -- http://nehe.gamedev.net/

dx tutorial -- last i checked kinda dated, but did the trick for learning the basics of direct x -- http://www.directxtutorial.com/

 

I'm pretty sure i have a bunch of other tutorials / reference sites bookmarked on my personal computer (at the office still), but in general, if you are looking for a more thorough / advanced understanding of things, you're better off going with a decent book. I have a pretty nice sized collection of textbooks on a variety of computer science / math related topics, and I'm starting to have a decent collection of technical ebooks that I reference from my tablet. I'll see about getting a small book list up on here sometime in the near future.

 

-Burke

[KhaineGB]

Thanks Burke. Looks like a few great places to start

 

You're correct in the assumption I'd be compiling for windows. I'd also like to look into Linux and OS X at some point, but as I don't have access to an OS X machine, that's way down on the list.

 

May even try compiling for the XBox 360 at one point too.

[Malcador]

^{Ugh, bad flashbacks at the mention of OGRE (that old Pogo web browser AT&T wanted done..). Still cool list though, if only I had talent at designing models}

[JWestfall]

As my hobby efforts have mostly been in programming rogue-like games, here are some links for anyone interested in those:

 

RogueBasin - A number of articles relating to RL game development, and links to other sites and the RL community in general.

LibTCOD - A library handling the "backbone" of most RL games

Amit's Game Programming - Not directly related to RL games, but a number of good articles and algorithms here.