Alight, I‘ve been promising to make a list o’ linky for y’all for some time now. Time to get started! If you’ve been following along with The Brick Dead Project, a chronicle of first foray into video game creation, you know I’m pretty far from an expert with only a couple months under my belt. Still, the resources provided from open source projects, retail demos, and generous artists have enabled me to create some pretty spectacular results. Now, I’d like to pass on some of my favorite places for software and inspiration to you.
Being a noob in the scene, this is far from an exhaustive list. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments.
A word of warning: If you’re looking to move beyond the hobbyist level and create something you can sell, pay careful attention to the licensing agreements for your software/assets. Terms of use on this stuff can range from public domain, to requiring a nod in the credits, to a percentage of your revenue.
Game Development Environments/Engines
Retail “Demo” Style GDE/SDKs
Cry Engine – Complete and free for non-commercial use
Unity – Free “Indie” version available, but missing “Pro” features *Update: Unity 5 is now feature complete for Personal Edition (free) users.
Unreal – Unreal 4 has just gone free for personal use. Royalties are owed if you make over a certain income.
Free, Open Source GDE/SDKs
Art Creation/Editing Tools (Textures, Models, Etc.)
123D – A series of apps from Autodesk focusing on modeling
Blender – Modeling, animation
GIMP – 2D art, photo editing
Krita – Digital painting
MakeHuman – Modeling
MaP Zone – Textures
Sculptris – Modeling
SketchUp Make – Modeling
Wings 3D – Modeling
NeoTextureEdit – Procedural texture creation
Audio Creation/Editing Tools (Music, Sound Effects, Etc.)
Audacity – Sound editing
LMMS – Linux MultiMedia Studio (Windows version available). Music recording, mixing, editing
FamiTracker – Music creator from 8/16bit console generations
BFXE – 8-bit sound generator
as3sfxr – 8-bit sound generator
clker – Drawing, “Vector” conversions, and a wealth of public domain icons/clip-art
Assets
So, maybe you lack the skills or ability to create every, little sound or picture you need. These sites can help. Some of these locations only offer a taste of their content to the monetarily impaired. Everybody likes to eat, ya know? Still, the content freely available, either by virtue of quality or quantity, warrants a look.
General – A Little of Everything
Open Game Art – One of my favorites of the sites and communities I’ve discovered!
Unity Asset Store – Even if you’re not using Unity, it’s probably worth installing the free version and using it to unpack all the goodies available
Animation
Carnegie Mellon University Motion Capture Database
Mixamo – Small selection of free models and animations
WidgetWorx SpriteLib – Sprites
Fonts
The League of Moveable Type – Bonus points for a great name!
Models
Mixamo – Small selection of free models and animations
NASA 3D Resources – Yeah, that NASA
TurboSquid – Free and paid models
ADL 3D Repository – Maintained by the U.S. Government?!
Music
FreePD – Public domain music
International Music Score Library Project – Public domain music
Sound
DrPerrer’s sfxr – Retro sound generator
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