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).

Kajam are month-long competitions in which people make a video game from scratch, focusing each time on a different, specific aspect of game making. They are perfect to learn, experiment and improve your gamedev skills.

Divisions

Anyone can enter in any of the following divisions:

• Solo, in which you make a whole game alone ;
• Team, in which any number of persons can gather to make a game ;
• Unranked, for those not interested in the competitive aspect of the event.

Everyone has around three weeks to submit their games.

Rankings

After the jam, Solo and Team divisions will be ranked separately through community voting: any person who entered the event will be able to play, rate and comment other people's games for one week, until the final results are released. On each game you play, you will get to rate a single aspect of game development, which is different every time!

Unranked games won't get ratings but can expect as much plays & feedback as the others.

What is allowed/not allowed?

Solo/Team divisions

Unless a particular Kajam states otherwise, the following rules apply:

• Tools: All software is allowed without restriction. It is recommended though that your game engine supports targetting either HTML5, Windows or Linux, to make sure most contestants can play it.
• Code reuse: You are allowed to use/reuse any outside library or personal code made prior to the event, or code bits found from sources like StackOverflow or blogs. You can also prepare your project by initializing the sources in advance. However, you cannot work on a game you started before the event.
• Audio/Graphical asset reuse: You are free to reuse any assets as long as you respect their licenses.
• Post-jam changes: During the game rating phase, you are not allowed to add any features, assets or contents to your game. While you're supposed to have properly tested your game, stuff happens, so we do allow to:
  • Package or improve the packaging of your game ;
  • Port your game to other platforms ;
  • Fix bugs ;
  • Fix balance issues or annoyances but only if they're so terrible that people can't properly finish your game.

Unranked division

Since there is no ratings involved, the rules are much more relaxed. The only rules are:

• You cannot work on a game you started before the event.
• Make sure to respect the licenses of the assets you grab.

For best feedback, it is advised to let people know what you did/did not make during the jam.

In case of doubts…

In those cases where you really want to do something, but it's unclear whether you can, or not doing it just seems unfair, do it, and mention what you did in your game description. After all, this is a completely informal competition, there's no prizes involved, we're just here to make games and have fun!

The Alakajam! competitions let people make a video game from scratch in a week-end, then play and rate each other! All games are made around a theme chosen by the community.

Divisions

Anyone can enter in any of the following divisions:

• Solo, in which you make a whole game alone in 48 hours ;
• Team, in which any number of persons can gather to make a game in 48 hours ;
• Unranked, a more open division which grants about 72 hours to finish the game. Useful for those not interested in the competitive aspect of the event, or feel like the rules are too restrictve for them, or simply did not finish their game in time.

The jam always starts on a Friday, 7pm UTC.

Rankings

After the jam, Solo and Team divisions will be ranked separately through community voting: any person who entered the event will be able to play, rate and comment other people's games for two weeks, until the final results are released. On each game you play, you will get to rate six aspects of game making:

Rating category	Description
Overall	How much you liked the game in general.
Graphics	Your appreciation of all the visual aspects of the game. This can be opted-out if you want to (e.g. text-based game).
Audio	Your appreciation of all the sound-related aspects of the game. This can be opted-out if you want to (e.g. silent game).
Gameplay	Your appreciation of the gameplay, contents & balancing.
Originality	How original you found the game, its art and sound.
Theme	How well and how interestingly the game fit to the theme.

Unranked games won't get ratings but can expect as much plays & feedback as the others.

Submitting games

In order to join the event, all you need is to have an account and create your entry page when your game is done. Go to the Games tab of the event, and look for the Create entry button to get started. After creating your entry, you will be able to edit it, even after the end of the event.

Important: You must submit your game before the end of the jam! We leave an extra hour after the 48 hour deadline for everyone to submit their Solo/Team games, but after that the options lock down, and only the Unranked division remains available. Creating entries is completely disabled when the Unranked jam ends.

Note: Sharing the sources is not mandatory but appreciated.

What is allowed?

Solo/Team divisions

• Tools: All software is allowed without restriction. It is recommended though that your game engine supports targetting either HTML5, Windows or Linux, to make sure most contestants can play it.
• Code reuse: You are allowed to use/reuse any outside library or personal code made prior to the event, or code bits found from sources like StackOverflow or blogs. You can also prepare your project by initializing the sources in advance. However, you cannot work on a game you started before the event.
• Graphical asset reuse: You must make all your graphical assets during the event. Creative use of existing assets ("derivative work") is acceptable, as long as you list the original assets in your entry page, for the raters to appreciate. You are also allowed to use:
  • Third-party fonts and brushes ;
  • Procedurally generated assets ;
  • Your engine's default appearance for UI elements ;
  • Pre-made game author & engine splash screens.
• Audio asset reuse: You must make all your audio assets during the event. However, you are allowed to use:
  • Any existing sounds for SFX or as short samples for music, including drums and other sampled instruments ;
  • Assets created from sound generation or speech synthesis tools.
• Post-jam changes: From the minute the jam ends, you are not allowed to add any features, assets or contents to your game. While you're supposed to have properly tested your game, stuff happens, so we do allow to:
  • Package or improve the packaging of your game ;
  • Port your game to other platforms ;
  • Fix bugs ;
  • Fix balance issues or annoyances but only if they're so terrible that people can't properly finish your game.

All third-party assets listed above are allowed as long as you have the license to use them. Check the licensing terms and in doubt, consult the author.

Unranked division

Since there is no ratings involved, the rules are much more relaxed. While the ranked divisions are only made for video games, card & board games are allowed here. The only rules are:

• You cannot work on a game you started before the event. You can however use any assets you made beforehand.
• All third-party assets are allowed as long as you have the license to use them.

Note: For best feedback, it is advised to let people know what you did/did not make during the jam.

In case of doubts…

Obviously, those rules don't cover every scenario (for instance you may realize the music volume is super low, or in-game instructions are wrong, etc.).

…So in those cases where you want to do something but it's unclear if you can, or not doing it seems unfair, do it, and mention what you did in your game description. After all, this is a completely informal competition, there's no prizes involved, we're just here to make games and have fun!

From September 22th to 24th, a competition we be held to make you complete a game, from scratch, in just 48 hours! Want to know how things will be run? Keep reading.

Schedule

• Sep. 8th - Sep. 22th: Theme selection phase. You will get to suggest ideas for what the theme of the week-end will be. Then you will be able to vote on all the other ideas.
• Sep. 22th - Sep. 24th: The actual competition! As the theme is announced at 7pm UTC, you have 48 hours to finish your game, either solo or as a team, to be part of the official competition.
• Sep. 22th - Sep. 25th: The unranked jam! If you needed more time to finish your entry, or just want to have people play your game without the competitive aspect, this is your chance. All entrants have an extra day to complete and submit an out-of-competition entry.
• Sep. 24th - Oct. 8th: Game testing & voting phase. For two weeks, all entrants will be invited to rate and post comments to other people's games.
• Oct. 8th: The results are released!

Rules

The detailed rules are available under the Help tab:

Alakajam! competition rules

How to enter

If you're interested in joining the 1st Alakajam!, either in the competition or just for having players & feedback, all you need is to create an account here, so you can start voting on themes when the time comes. And of course for submitting your entry during the jam :)

By then, you can also publish a blog post presenting yourself and your plans for the event. Will you join solo? With friends? With what techs? Let us know!

To stay tuned, you can of course follow the event either on Twitter or Reddit.

Before the event

Until the event starts, all you can do is create blog posts. Feel free to introduce yourself or the game you plan to make/submit.

Submitting a game

Once the event starts, you can submit any game you worked on this year. You can use this event as a game jam, making and submitting a game especially for it, though there is no particular "theme" to follow.

It's okay if the game is unfinished, closed-source, made as a team, we don't mind either if the game was started before 2017. The only requirements are that the game must be yours.

Exchanging feedback

Any comment you post on another entry will count towards increasing your Feedback Score. That score is used to determine in which order games are listed on the event. You will get notifications if someone wrote a comment on your entry or answered your comments using @-based mentions.

After the event

Newcomers will no longer be able to submit games, but you can still exchange feedback after the event ends.
There will be no judging or ranking or the game, but instead as a reward, videos will be made of all the entries and posted on YouTube.

Alakajam! is a brand new gamedev community created by Ludum Dare veterans. We're currently hard at work towards hosting a first competition, that will take place for 48 hours during the 22-24 September week-end. It will be organized not unlike Ludum Dare or itch.io jams:

• A theme selection phase will be held a couple weeks before the event starts
• When the theme is announced, you will have from Friday 8pm GMT to Sunday 8pm GMT to make a game, either solo or as a team
• Community ratings & feedback will then take place for a couple weeks, until the final rankings are released :)

Stay tuned for more announcements around the event, either on Twitter or Reddit!

All the gameplay videos planned for the Feedback Fortnight! entries are now online. You can browse them at:

We had a lot of fun playing through these, and hope you'll find interesting feedback in watching them.

It's now time for the team to focus on the website development (theme voting teaser), so we can have the September competition run as smoothly as possible. See you then!

Dear Ludum-darer,

You just stumbled on Alakajam!, a new site made by @wan (creator of Feedback Friends) with the help of other Ludum Dare veterans.

Because the world always needs more game jams, we're building this sort of spin-off community with the goal to organize regular gamedev events:

• Alakajam! competitions, taking place over a week-end a bit like Ludum Dare, except that start/end times will be more suited to European timezones.
• Kajam! month-long events, inviting people to learn and experiment around a specific topic.
• And finally Feedback Fortnights, to show off projects made outside of game jams.

 > The 1st Alakajam! competition will be held 22-24 September!

If you're interested or just want to stay in the loop, you can follow us on Twitter or Reddit. You're also welcome to our IRC channel where were discussing how to reinvent the game jam formula, and of course where we're organizing the site development.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to Alakajam!

The 1st Feedback Fortnight has just reached is deadline, congratulations to all who took part! For this very first event we'd like to thank everyone who joined the community, be it by submitting a game, sharing feedback on the site or simply hanging out on our little IRC channel. Not mentioning code contributors (@dollarone, @thomastc & @toasty) who are now part of the team whether they want it or not ;)

Anyway, this is of course just a start, so here is the roadmap for the weeks to come:

Feedback Fortnight videos & discussion

As you already know, we started making videos of each game, and you can expect the remaining ones to appear within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, you're invited to go try the other games and exchange feedback. The more comments you make, the bigger your Feedback Score is, the bigger your chances are to get comments in exchange!

1st Alakajam! competition: 22-24 September

Now that the site is up and running, the next step for Alakajam! is to host a first real competition. It will take place for 48 hours during the 22-24 September week-end, and will have features not unlike the ones you may know from Ludum Dare or itch.io jams:

• A theme selection phase will be held a couple weeks before the event starts
• When the theme is announced, you will have 48 hours to make a game, either solo or as a team
• Community ratings & feedback will then take place for a couple weeks, until the final rankings are released :)

Stay tuned for more announcements around the event, either on Twitter or Reddit!

Behind the scenes: site updates

The development of the website will be in flux throughout the summer, with the implementation of everything required to make that competition take place. We also hope to release cool features like adding games from outside events to your profile, turning it into a cool portfolio of all your past jams if you want.

If you're interested in helping, the site is made with NodeJS and hosted on Github where issues await any volunteers.

Thanks for reading, and see you later!

Today is the final day for joining the Feedback Fortnight! After that it will be too late for adding new games, but it will still be possible for everyone (even if you didn't enter) to play and provide feedback to the submitted entries.

As a reward for those who took part in this first, experimental event, we started making videos of each submission, in which we play the game for the first time (as an exemple see the video below). So if you haven't already, join us and post any game you worked on this year!