With the recent release of the free version of the Unreal Engine and the announcement of the free Source 2 Engine, you now have even more options for making your own games. But picking out the best engine for you and your skillset is a little tough. Let's take a look at some of the best free software for a variety of skillsets.
Before you can really dig into most of these tools, you'll need at least a foundation in programming. But whether you're a child or an adult, we've got you covered. As far as making your first game, our friends over at Kotaku have you covered. That said, not all of these tools even require coding skills, so you might be able to jump right in.
If you're just starting out making games and you don't have any experience with programming, you might want to start with some of the easier to use tools. Two of the most popular and well-received are Stencyl and GameMaker. Both are very easy to use for beginners and have churned out some quality titles.
Stencyl is a tool to create games without code. It's an entirely drag-and-drop interface and you can publish your games to Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and Flash. If you've ever used something like Scratch, you'll be immediately familiar with Stencyl's LEGO-like approach to building code by arranging blocks. Stencyl aims to make creating sprite-based games very easy, so it tends to be most used for puzzle and side-scroller games. It's tough to do anything very complex with Stencyl, so if you're looking to do something like an RPG or strategy game, you'll likely want to look elsewhere. Some popular games built with Stencyl include Impossible Pixel and Zuki's Quest. Stencyl also has a built-in tutorial that'll teach you just about everything you need to know.
GameMaker is another free, easy to use tool made for beginners where you can create games for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Like Stencyl, it's mostly drag-and-drop, but also includes hooks for creating multiplayer games, linking external SDKs, digging directly into the code and more. The free version of GameMaker exports with a watermark, but it's still a decent place to start and comes packed with a tutorial for learning the basics. GameMaker's much more versatile than Stencyl in the style of games it can handle, and they have a bunch of guides for different types of games to teach you the basics. Popular games made with GameMaker include the original version of Spelunky and Hotline Miami.
Of course, there are a lot of other options for similar tools. Buildbox is a newer tool that gives you a trial period and training program to learn how to use it, and GameSalad's a long-running and popular platform as well, though it's often reported as being buggy and unstable. Construct is also worth a look if you want to make HTML5 games. The problem with all of these options is that you end up being pretty restricted in your design. Since they're made for beginners, you end up breaking the tool when you try to do anything particularly complicated. This means they end up producing buggy, unplayable games if you try working too far outside of their system. Still, they're a great place to start and are good for people who don't have a lot of coding experience.
Cocos2D is an open source tool for creating 2D games. Your finished game can be published on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, or the web.
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The Best Free Tools for Making Your Own Video Games