This page compiles a list of free resources for making games, especially for beginners. If you have suggestions to add please let us know!
Graphics software
| Name |
Description |
| Gimp |
Popular general purpose software for drawing and manipulating images. Open Source. |
| Inkscape |
Popular vector graphics software. Open Source. |
| Blender |
Popular 3D modeling & animation software. Open Source. |
| Paint.NET |
Intuitive image editing, like Paint but enhanced with layers, transparency, etc. (Windows only). |
| MagicaVoxel |
Voxel editor, which is a cool way to make original assets, either in 2D or 3D. |
| Piskel |
Editor for animated sprites, has an online version. Ad-supported. |
| GraphicsGale |
Old-school looking but powerful sprite editor, supports animations. |
Audio software
| Name |
Description |
| sfxr |
Excellent and accessible tool for creating sounds effects. Online variants have been made since: bfxr (Flash) and jfxr (JavaScript). |
| Chiptone |
Visual, powerful, online sound generator. |
| Audacity |
Simple and popular audio recording, mixing & conversion software. Perfect for turning WAVs into lighter formats. |
| Beepbox |
The easiest music making tool you could find. Online and Open Source. |
| Bosca Ceoil |
Easy music editor, great for beginners. Misses an undo button. Open Source. |
| TIC-80 |
While a full-featured fantasy console, you could just use its accessible music tracker. Open Source. |
| Audiotool |
Online, knobs-and-cables music editor. Exporting requires a free account. |
| LMMS |
Full featured, cross-platform music creation software inspired by FL Studio. Open Source. |
Game engines/frameworks
| Name |
Description |
| Unity |
Popular and feature-rich engine, both for 3D and 2D games. Requires programming in either JS or C#. Free version has few limitations and plenty to work with. |
| Godot Engine |
Powerful engine for 3D and 2D games. Uses a Python-like language. Open Source. |
| GDevelop |
2D game engine letting you write logic without knowledge of coding. Open Source. |
| Stencyl |
2D game engine that uses visual blocks instead of code. Free version lets you publish for the web. |
| Scratch |
Very accessible, and even kid-friendly engine for creating visual stories, animations and games. |
| Löve2D |
Popular 2D game framework built to be easy to use. Uses the accessible Lua language. Open source. |
| TIC-80 |
Fantasy console, similar to the popular but paid Pico-8. Customizable palette. Open Source. |
| PhaserJS |
JavaScript framework to make 2D games for the browser. Open source. |
| Twine |
Engine for writing interactive stories with no code at all. Open Source. |
| RPGBoss |
RPG Maker clone, for creating RPGs without code. Open source. |
Free assets
| Name |
Description |
| Open Game Art |
The main reference for finding graphics & audio to reuse with permissive licenses. |
| Free Music Archive |
A large database of permissive music (mostly Creative Commons), featuring a wide range of styles. |
| FreeSound |
A huge database of sound effects. |
Miscellaneous
| Name |
Description |
| TilEd |
Powerful editor for 2D maps (platformers, RPGs, etc.), which can then be exported in either its own TFX format or simple JSON. Open Source. |
| Open Broadcaster Software |
Lets you record your desktop to either videos or streaming platforms. |
| ScreenToGif |
Powerful tool for recording short sequences from your screen, editing them and exporting them as gifs (Windows only). |
Wan • 8 years ago