Amateur Game development tools

This topic is about kits & tools for amateur game development.

I would appreciate it to read suggestions of yours. So mention all you know about tools, of which you think amateur developers can't do without.
By the way, the emphasis lies at stuff for beginners or intermediates, so preferably keep off mentioning advanced stuff (unless you think it's vital).

- Game Maker: A good programme* to learn the basics of (game) programming. It is based on the Delphi programming language and is working with sprite graphics. However, lastmentioned does not exclude advanced users from making 3D effects.
The more recent versions of the software have a good seperation between features for beginners and the more advanced stuff.

*Brittish spelling

-Panda3d: Panda3D has a short and easy learning curve and is well suited for beginners. Best of all, it's free.

Good, I am up to teach myself to program with Python. After some practice, I will be able to use that dev kit instead of Game Maker (which is becoming less useful for me in my opinion).

And it appears to be Linux compatible! Might come in handy in future, when I want to start developing a little for Ubuntu/Gnome/Debian based OSes.

At the moment of editing, I would like to say I should correct myself. I will probably not use any of the Linux versions, because their filenames indicate a different architecture (i386) then Ubuntu has in my case (I use the 64 bit edition of version 7.10)

All you need to know is Visual3d.net, I've been following this project for over a year now. They have some incredible talent on board. Thanks to XNA you can develop for PC and Xbox360 at the same time.

Use Visual3D.NET's runtime design toolset to script interactive worlds using the most widely used programming languages including:

* C#
* Visual Basic
* C++
* Java (J#)
* JavaScript
* Python
* and Visual Script Diagrams

Originally Posted by rootw0rm

All you need to know is Visual3d.net, I've been following this project for over a year now. They have some incredible talent on board. Thanks to XNA you can develop for PC and Xbox360 at the same time.

Use Visual3D.NET's runtime design toolset to script interactive worlds using the most widely used programming languages including:

* C#
* Visual Basic
* C++
* Java (J#)
* JavaScript
* Python
* and Visual Script Diagrams

Yeah, the bèta looks awesome! Though the fact that it is still bèta, gives it a license agreement that is un-useful for people who wish to use it for their "real" projects, i.e. for games they wish to publish. But I think that this one is the one to choose after I have found more time for it ( + more time to learn C / Python).

Originally Posted by Richard_Rahl

Yeah, the bèta looks awesome! Though the fact that it is still bèta, gives it a license agreement that is un-useful for people who wish to use it for their "real" projects, i.e. for games they wish to publish. But I think that this one is the one to choose after I have found more time for it ( + more time to learn C / Python).

freeware/shareware publishing I hope? Don't think you can get retail-worth products that quick/easily.

Originally Posted by hiv

freeware/shareware publishing I hope? Don't think you can get retail-worth products that quick/easily.

Indeed, freeware/shareware. I know that developing commercial software is not that simple :biggrin:

if its firstperson. then id engine. most of the work besides modeling and mapping in just done in the def files

I can remember some fps creating program Gazz used to make a game where you have to shoot germans which he wanted to make into flash to display in his sig

on a scale of 1-10, how difficult would you say Python is to learn?


because all this stuff seems very interesting and i would like to try my hand at it