Game Maker:Studio is easily my favorite, but i've always been a GM person ever since the 4.3 days -- maybe the fact that i spent so much time with the tool is why i'm so comfortable with it? i will say that GM definitely has its frustrating parts, but i feel like just about every engine does, yeah? i could never get into Construct or Stencyl, and Unity is too overwhelming for my brain to handle. GM:Studio seems to be just right for me, giving me a solid set of tools while also giving me the ability to add onto it fairly easily and without learning *too* much code. (it's also a fantastic tool for prototyping!)

for pixel art, i use GraphicsGale, which is kinda like a "Photoshop Lite, for pixel art and animations" if i had to summarize it. it's about $20 or $30 from HumanBalance, but it's a great program -- albeit a little buggy in places.

We use the Corona SDK. I've used it personally since 2010 and then when I formed Glitch in 2012 it made sense to continue using it. It's strictly 2D ( well there's some perspective stuff you can mess with to get 2.5d sorta ) and uses Lua. It's lovely to work in ( both for prototypes and full games ) and has a fantastic community. - https://coronalabs.com/

I've been using Blitz 3D since I started. It's actually pretty good, but it's no longer supported and it's showing its age. I definitely want to use something new for my next project, something with similar features (3D graphics / code is all text rather than an editor / light on RAM) so I'm checking this thread to look for recommendations. (If you've got a good one, just reply to me directly)

(I've tried unity but found it too fiddly. Same goes for Unreal, and I'm trying to get to grips with monogame but I'm having lots of compatibility issues with models.)

As for everything else, I use milkshape for modelling (this is also really old, and I wouldn't recommend it per se, but it is surprisingly easy/fast to use for simple low poly models, so that's something), audacity and a korg M1 for music/sound.

For the most part I've just been coding my games in Javascript and Python (the latter using PyGame), but I also tried my hand at Ren'Py, and loved it. On the rare occasions that I used pixel art, The GIMP turned out to be surprisingly well-suited, if overkill. It was also useful for altering some 3rd-party art that didn't quite fit my needs, thanks to all those filters. But I've been trying out all kinds of other tools, for various purposes. It's always a good idea to be curious.

My pixel art workflow is kind of weird. I make backgrounds/tiles/decoration art with GIMP, but items/characters/animations with aseprite. I make low-poly 3D models with wings3D, I won't/can't really do hi-poly.

I like the freedom coding in PyGame with no engine gives you, but nowadays I also make games in HaxeFlixel. I can add python libraries like MoviePy and create small video clips and tweet them right from inside the game. Distributing a game with PyGame and native dependencies is a pain though.

I have discovered the Yarn dialog editor. That is pretty good.

I came across this 3D posing program called DesignDoll yesterday that's designed to make to make poses for drawing. It's not a free program ($80 for the license) but you can fiddle around with it in trial mode. Trial mode lacks the ability to export the models to OBJ, loading (you can save in trial mode though) saved files, and the use of the program's community submissions. It's a pretty cool program for those dealing with detailed 2D figures as it is pretty limited as a 3D program, but it gives more than enough for details needed for proportions.

A lot of these people have recommended amazing tools, and I don't have much to add when it comes to game design. However, I will add Aria Maetosa as a good open source MIDI creation software. I have had so much fun remixing and recreating past songs since I have no idea how to write my own stuff, but I hope for all my games to at least use this software for music.

I was surprised to not see Clickteam Fusion here. Hundreds of games have been made in Fusion including big ones like Knytt Underground. It has been around in its various incarnations for almost two decades and is still going strong. It's the engine that Construct directly ripped off (apparently Scirra have even forced their way into Clickteam conventions before trying to market Construct).

Fusion is very accessible to beginners, however as a game industry veteran knowing dozens of languages and engines, I still use Fusion all the time! Almost all the games on my website were made in it. It's deceptively powerful as its mouse-based scripting language lets you lay down the logic for a game much, much faster than in traditional languages. I know Unity inside and out but I can probably make a 2D game around 3-4 times faster in Fusion (no joke).

I have been using the App Game Kit (AGK) since 2013. It's a great little development environment that is cross platform (Windows, Linux, it's, Blackberry and Android with RaspberryPi in the works). I've managed to win an Ultrabook, an All-In-One and a tablet using this engine. I thoroughly recommend it. You can get it via www.appgamekit.com

I've also used Game Guru which is a great FPS engine that enables rapid level creation. This is also from The Game Creators via www.thegamecreators.com

For screen recording I've always used the free version of Screencast-O-Matic. It has some nice features, allows 15 mins of recording, you can hide the mouse pointer and export to AVi, MP4 or GIF.

I don't believe this one has been mentioned but I am suddenly very impressed with open source 2D digital painting software Krita, especially given that the next, currently pre-alpha, version can even do animation:

//player.vimeo.com/video/160449173

Will definitely be using that if I need to do any detailed colour 2D animation in the future.

For game audio, Acoustica's MixCraft is pretty nice. 

Why are these not clickable?

• Flash/Adobe Animate
• Photoshop

This one might not be a good game maker, but people used it to make, types of games..... I guess. But, Alice 3?

Hi,

Here is my list of tools for HTM5 games:

• Ubuntu
• Vscodium (vscode without trackers)
• Phaser 3 (game engine)
• Gimp
• Tiled
• sfxr (sound fx)
• Reaper (sequencer)
• Github
• Qjoypad (map gamepads buttons to keyboard keys)

I like Clickteam Fusion as i can make my games pretty fast, though i am starting to through some programming into the mix for things the engine cannot handle on its own :)

I am leaving it here...some may find it useful 

TextureWorks: Artificial Intelligence Based texture Synthesizer, image high resolution convertor & texture Map generator with over 1600 free textures. 

Wishlist it on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140360/TextureWorks/

I like using Construct 2 for my modern stuff and for retro hardware I use Arcade Game Designer. Making graphics and designing levels for either I use Gimp and Tiled.

I always go the complex way. My current engine is NALA of which the current version uses MonoGame, but I'm not sure it will stay that way forever. As for the scripting language I use NIL, which much like MoonScript compiles down to Lua, however NIL has a completely different approach, and is made to be much stricter than Lua, and most of all meant for projects that can easily surpass over thousands lines of source code, without getting odd bugs just because you misspelled a variable name (which has always been an issue in Lua when creating larger projects), NIL has also a few quicker (and cleaner) ways to set up meta-tables. 

I coded NALA myself, and NALA in turn uses my Bubble FrameWork, and Kthura Map Editor, the JCR6 file system and some other features most of all with RPG games in min (except from MonoGame, all those things were also coded by me myself and I... I guess I just like to be self-reliant).

I used OGRE as the renderer in my game and Bullet Physics for collisions and other physics tasks. I added Lua as my scripting engine and built the rest of the engine to glue them all together. Given how sophisticated popular game engines like Unity or Unreal have become, the idea of building a custom engine seems almost like an unproductive thought, but an issue in my case was that I needed to expose a scripting debugger to my players and none of the known engines can do that. Turns out it was a lot of fun just to work on it. So I would definitely say.. go custom if you value the journey more than the destination.

My favorite Game Making Tool probably is Blender. It allows you to model anything you could need for a game, and (in versions previous to 2.8) has a game engine that allows you to run quick physics tests, etc. I'm currently working on a game using the BGE (Blender Game Engine) but have been trying to learn Unreal Engine 4.

Please consider adding my 2D multi-platform game engine/framework nCine. You can also find it here on Itch.io.

Since I like to have full control over my program, I use my own engines for my games. I want to support systems & platforms that Unity and Unreal probably never will, and old graphics cards because I don’t need the newer features.

If you´re looking for genre-specific engines, there are also Adventure Game Studio and Visionaire Studio for Point and Click Adventure games. Personally, i was never able to get the hang of AGS. But i´m using Visionaire Studio right now, which works out better for me, so far.

Hi, I'm Joël.

I use unity + the fungus plugin to create my visual novel but being more of a photographer/videographer I also use:

Da Vinci resolve and Premiere pro for my videos and Silkypix and Paint.net for my photos.

By the way, is there an engine in the list that you would recommended for FMV kind of games (with easier ways to integrate videos) ?

I use Construct 2 for 2d games, Unity for 3d. I also use Photoshop.

But I also have a sprawling pipeline of scattered stuff used largely for video editing and VFX and the tools used there easily spill over into gamedev where cutscenes and the like are concerned.

I.e. Vegas Pro, Hitfilm Pro, Lightwave (yes, really, I and many others still use Lightwave) and Blender, etc. Plus a lot of smaller utilities with niche but still significant use cases. I did a fair number of my 3d assets in LW. http://matthornb.itch.io/ Those 3d assets and a lot of other stuff are going on sale right now (April 10-12, 2020)

And in some cases with projects such as Miniature Multiverse, I find myself doing odd things when working with miniature art graphics lately - like simulating fluid water flowing around a rough 3d photogrammetric scan of a level that is otherwise miniature art so that the reflections on the liquid match the rest of the scene plausibly. I will do stuff like digitally extending a miniature set with digital skies, oceans and similar extensions matched in position to each node. The result is a rather unique sort of feeling of wandering around a place that 'feels' sort of weirdly analog. Because much of it actually is built realistically with O scale minis.

http://www.miniaturemultiverse.com/

I would have to say Unity. I use it even for really simple 2D games.

I tried Unreal Engine last year but the node system doesn't come easy to me. Plus,  it kept crashing on my computer.

It’s not on here, but I usually use Clip Studio Paint for art. However I’m not sure if I should switch to Krita for animations. Unity is my preferred engine for games. 

I have been using Clickteam (Klick and Play, The games Factory, Fusion, Fusion 2.0, Fusion 2.5), Game maker, C++(textbased game) and Qbasic.

I am not a good programmer but i have a bit of understand.  There are a lot of extensions made by the community and as of later years not so many bugs. I few years ago i could stop working on a project because it was toobig and had too many bugs digging too deep into the core game mechanics. You could argue that my current project, MadCowBalls2 is half a game and half a framework to support most 2d games.

At the moment im using Clickteam Fusion 2.5, BTV Solo and Gimp. If someone want some help with something in any of the Clickteam applications mentioned above im happy to help out.

For me it is : 

Programming - C++ / C# , 

Media library -  SDL2.0.  

Draw sprites - Paint.Net, 

music creation - LLMS.

I am learning C++/#  language

My favourite list currently:

• Engine: Godot
• Art: Aseprite / Krita / ProCreate
• Audio: Ableton Live
• Version Control: Git
• Documentation: OneNotes / Word / GoodNotes / StarUML
• File Management / Text Editor: Terminal / Atom

Atom + at least 50 packages, C++, OpenGL and Tiled, sometimes AngelScript. GIMP for pixel art. I do the rest from scratch.

I just discovered Coppercube, a visial editor for the copperlicht engine, can import an enormous amount of 3D file formats and has a ton of candy to explore. Can publish for Win, Mac, Android and HTML5 by one click.  It was called Unity-light... Some features are somewhat halfbaken, but it allows to insert your JS, making it very flexible.  Esp. beginners are quickly getting results.

CopperCube features

UNITY, BLENDER, AUDACITY

I fell like a good tool to add on the sound section would be Bosca Ceoil as it is very easy for beginners!

So very cool to see such a wide variety of tools and engines employed in development. Here's our current list. I am sure I am missing some small utilities. Some of these can be their own topics when talking about a DAW, so broad strokes here.

Godot Engine is the engine we're creating games in now (we used to work in Unity).

For assets and images Blender and Krita are our go to. Though for doing straight pixel work we've been using PikoPixel.

Audio and video production is a pretty heavy topic. Traktion Waveform is our DAW. Kdenlive for creating videos. OBS Studio for recording raw video. We do use straight FFmpeg via command line for automation and fun audio and video tricks.

For testing our games on other platforms we're using VirtualBox (macOS virtualizing mostly) and Wine.

When in need of a text editor, we go between Atom and gedit. Atom has a neat trick for doing collaborative editing.

Last, but perhaps one of the most important tools you can deploy, git for source control. No frills. Straight command line.

Alright...if I forgot anything....well...I'll try to add it if it comes to mind.

~ Skunkie

What about Godot? A shame it’s not on that list. It’s super powerfull and totally free for any kind of project, big or small. I’m baffled.

I'm using the Unity5x engine, I favor MonoDevelop when coding, although I use Visual Studio when I need to create extra devtools and I haven't managed to get Stetic UI designer to work for MD :( 

For asset creation I use Blender and GIMP. 

I previously used Azure Team Services for project management, but I recently began creating my own management tool for the fun of it, and also to remove alot of the stuff that I never had any use of in Azure. Difficult to not see it as my favorite management tool considering I'm able to tailor it completely after my own needs...

I'm using another tool I created for fun (GIFSnapper) to capture and generate GIF animations on screen for content to dev. logs, and to record videos I really like OBS Studio

Started learning Unity a few months ago, having dabbled in modding the Subnautica games. Foolishly (I think) settled on the High Def Render Pipeline for our game, which has been a challenge. Lots of churn going on with Unity builds and the different render pipelines. I do like it though, and as a coder at heart I like working with C#. Totally rely on the Asset Store for visuals and audio - artistic talent of a dead slug, me! 😁

for making the games: Unity engine

for coding: Visual studio code

for designing: Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

I have also used Game Maker so I kind of have to put that, but I've also dabbled in RPG Maker and had a lot of fun with it.

I don't really see CSP (Clip Studio Paint) in the painting software list. Maybe I missed it. You could add that one. It's pretty cool.

I wanna recommend Photopea https://www.photopea.com/ for psd recovery though. If a file gets corrupted (usually if your PC shuts down while saving a file) it's GG. Or at least I thought so, having been unable to recover my file until I found this tool. You might lose some layers but generally the .psd will be intact.

This one just caught my eye, a new open source game engine implemented in Rust https://bevyengine.org/

I'm genuinely surprised Godot isn't listed on here (unless someone already mentioned it and I overlooked it.) Godot is a powerful open source engine with loads of built in tools and well written documentation. It also has it's own language, gdscript, which Python programmers well find fairly comfortable. It also allows for making a game in C# with the aid of .NET Core or Mono. 

It's a good engine, and I think the devs around here would get a kick out of it. https://godotengine.org/

EDIT: And I now see that it has been mentioned before. However I'm more than happy to sing it's praises regardless.

I like to use SFXR (https://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html) for sound effects and Figma (figma.com) for graphics. They're both pretty good

i mainly use clickteam fusion 2.5 (with the games factory 1.06) and unity for game development

also learning many cool game engines like construct series and gamemaker 8.1

for sfx stuff i use labchrip

also for drawing graphics i use paint, paint.net, paint 3d and krita (i also use flash if i need to make animated stuff)

i also use piskel for pixel art because i have no money for aseprite and yeah

labchrip, thanks for this app! I try to use it! 

This is a great list! I stumbled upon this thread after just recently starting a list of open source gamedev  tools (for my own reference, and something to do between actual gamedev projects). Edit: now i remember I've posted here before.

https://github.com/technicat/gamedev

Non-functioning links: BDX, Flixel, and Blitz 3D

i usually use  unity, gamemaker, coppercube most of the time

but right now im working on next version of hell engine

a lightweight simple and codeless game engine to create raytracing shooter games created in Python (Core) and GameMaker (Editor)

download it here :  https://mohamadhanijanaty85.itch.io/hell-engine

All my stuff is make in PlayBASIC, but then again I did write it..  so whatever  

As a tabletop game designer, artist, writer, and publisher, I gotta say that Notepad as a digital tool on smartphones and laptops is one of the tools I use a LOT. also physical notepads, too. Libre Office: Libre Office Writer and Libre Officer Calc, are also very often used. 3D Paint is one of those tools that I happen to use regularly, because it is easy to use, available almost everywhere, and you can use it on the net, too. I list these because I use these all regularly among other tools, programs, etc., but I also like these. Simple free tools that are usually already even on library computers. I like to keep my easy, simple and carefree.

And I shall mention these, too.

I have used Rupert Spore’s Fictional Area Creation Tool ( https://rupert-spore.itch.io/fictional-area-creation-tool-fact ) as a writing prompt tool and as an inspiration sparkler.

I've also used Creature Feature All Dice Table by Jesse Galena and Thomas George as an inspiration ignition as part of my creative writing process. You can get yourself the latest copy of it (https://rexiconjesse.itch.io/creature-feature) on their creator page ( https://rexiconjesse.itch.io/ )

Aseperite is worth every penny

GODOT Engine

Affinity Photo/Designer Graphics 

Ableton Live Audio

Is what I use and like the most :)

I personally like tyranobuilder! I like making visual novels with added in RPG elements, being a mix of the two genres, and while it takes a bit of work to squeeze into the engine it works quite nicely

I'm giving it my all to learn SDL2 and I have made quite a good progress if I do say so myself. So far, SDL2 is just downright amazing. It's low-level, difficult, lots of code and all but it's still good.

OOP with SDL2 is incredibly easy and perfect. It's low-level for which you have to write much more code but you get much more control over your game. Writing a lot of code isn't really a problem as long as you abide with OOP for reusable code which is really helpful. You can use OpenGL with SDL2 if you want, SDL2 has been around for decades, SDL2 is under active development, SDL2 has a large community, SDL2 games work on a lot of platforms etc.

Seriously, SDL2 might be difficult and low-level and you have to write lots of code or probably the fact that it's mainly used with C/C++. But it has a lot of pros and is heavenly to me. I only started learning about a week ago and I've made nice progress.

Where is godot?!

I use C++ 99% of the time for everything. I'm currently using SFML but I haven't made any games with it yet. I'm also learning Modern OpenGL on the other hand to do some crazy graphics stuff.

Always been a Gamemaker1 guy. Dabbled a bit in PICO-8 though too.

And recently I came across Flickgame.org. As more of an artist than a programmer I had a blast with it. Most beginner-friendly "engine" ever!

Also: SFXR for simple SFX

pocket platformer, mosi, bitsy 3d color and godot eventually. rest is plain code...

Python Arcade: https://api.arcade.academy/en/latest/

My workflow is Aseprite for Graphics, Tiled for map design, and Phaser.js as the game engine, all of which have been mentioned here :-p

I use Godot engine to making games (im new from using this), Krita to draw sprites, create some banners or animations
LMMS to making some music for my games and Audacity to edit something audio stuff-
 

Favourite tools. Audacity, absynth, unity, blender, seashore, my guitar 

Unity

Mixamo

Rokoku

VisualStudios community

Blender

I need something for create audio.

Pixel studio and GIMP for pixel and digital arts, Godot for game engine. Godot's in-built GDScript editor and visual studio code are my favourite IDEs.

I think Corel Painter would be a good addition to the graphics side of things. I've been using it instead of photoshop for years and at least for me it's much nicer to work with when it comes to actual drawing/ painting. Photoshop is still much better for any sort of photo emitting of course.

I tried to use MagicaVoxel you already have on the list, just to try out the voxel thing. It seemed like a pretty good tool, but damn it, the whole menu layout is unintuitive as hell.

I use Unity as my game engine to create games and write with C# because it's basically all I know. For 3D graphics and design I use blender and for 2D I usually use adobe illustrator for sprites or photoshop. I'm planning on using Adobe Animate for animation but i'm not into the stuff yet. I use Visual Studio as my IDE because it's default for Unity and is just easy for me. I use Garageband for creating soundtracks and plan on upgrading to something more complex like FLStudio or maybe Logic Pro when I become better at it.

I use Scratch 3 and TurboWarp :)

coppercube 3d all the way for me
gimp for image editing
blender3d for modeling and animation
LMMS for tunes
i use game sound generators most often for soundsfx