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). |