Resources I recommend




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Naturally, as a solo dev, I go to a lot of places to get resources I can't make myself. This page is mostly for me so I can keep track of what I use, but feel free to use it for yourself. Some sites only support one keyword, so if you get an error, narrow it done to one. Many of these sites require an account.

If you know any other sites with plenty of free resources and is easy to use, please let me know. I will not use any with dishonest pricing and/or suspicious ads.

Don't forget to credit your sources!
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Create resources

These are all software that is either free or has an unlimited free license.

Creating Audio

  1. TuxGuitar: Even if you don't make music, you can use this program to make jingle sound effects and export them as .wav
  2. LMMS: An easy to use music editor (open source equivilant to FruityLoops) that anyone can learn; even non-musicians.
  3. Audacity: edit sound effects and record.

Creating/Editing Graphics

  1. ActorCore Rig: Simply put, you give it a mesh, it creates a skeleton for humanoid avatars. It specifically has a preset for Unity, Unreal, Blender, and Maya.
  2. Mesh Mixer: An easy to use modeler with basic, but powerful, sculpting, editing, and painting tools. [Starting shapes]
  3. Smoothie-3D: Create 3D models from photos. Note that the photo has to be symetrical.
  4. irfanview: easy to use image converter and editor.
  5. Blender: Takes a while to learn, but it's one of the best 3D modelling software and is completely free
  6. Krita: another free alternative to photoshop, more appealing to the artistic side.
  7. GIMP: Free alternative to photoshop, with the ability to add features via script.
    • Spritesheet: (GIMP script) very handy if you make a big animation in Blender and want to quickly make a png spritesheet.
  8. Neo Texture Edit: free, open source texture creator.
  9. Texture Lab: slightly more advanced than Neo Texture Edit.
  10. Tiled Map Editor: Can export to image and XML.
  11. Libresprite Free alternative to Asperite. Good for drawing sprites and tiles.

Misc

  1. Notepad++: Handy notepad editor. Good for editing both plaintext and code.
  2. Libre Office Free alternative to Microsoft Office. It is more up to date than Open Office is.

Video editing

  1. Shotcut: open source alternative to Final Cut Pro
  2. Windows Live Essentials: Comes with the highest version of Windows Movie Maker, among others.

Game Development

  1. Novashell: Never got out of beta, but good for small 2D games. The language used (lua) is a very easy first programming language to use, and is a good stepping stone for making your first coded game.
  2. Unity (personal license): One of the highest documented engines in the world. As hard as it is to get started, there are tons of video tutorials for beginners and long-term users alike. There are also many add-on plugins that you can use for free.
      Add-ons in the Asset Store you will need frequently
    • iTween: a simple script for tweening positions, scale, rotation, or even custom variables. [Documentation]
    • Realtime CSG: alternative to probuilder. The subtract tool is pretty reliable in this one.
    • A* Pathfinding Project: free version of pathfinding. It's only capable of basics, but better than the built-in pathfinding.
    • Public scripts I wrote: Generates light probes by navigation mesh (this one was partially written by another source on github, comments list source), decoration placer, sprite on top shader, and others.
    • MBS- Modular Building System: The decorations don't work in Unity 6 and the materials in the examples don't work with URP, but the plugin itself works great and a lot of thought has been put into it. Also thanks to Unity's new pricing system, the author has made it free so it's on this list.
  3. Godot: This is similar to Unity, but more lightweight and easier to learn. GDScript (the language that comes with it) is similar to python and intuitive. It's better for 2D games than 3D, but the developers are hard at work making it better. I hope to see it eventually become industry standard.

My resources