In part I we took a look at a few tools available for PC users who want to experiment with making games of their own. Today we look at tools available for anyone running a non-Windows machine, or even those of you with access to only an iPad at present.
Let’s start with the cross platform tools:
Ren’Py
Built using the Python programming language, the Ren’Py engine is for anyone wanting to dive into making visual or kinetic novels. Many people are as driven by the idea of telling a story as they are of making a game that fits into their favorite genre. So testing yourself with a project in Ren’Py may be a great place to start making games. It’s available for Mac, Linux, and PC, exporting to those formats as well as Android, all for free!
A few commercially successful games have been developed using this engine, including the English teacher in Korea turned visual novelist, Christine Love’s Analogue: A Hate Story. You can start writing your game here.
(See: SUTD Game Innovation Programme pairs students with industry experts)
Stencyl
Available for PC, Mac and Linux, Stencyl employs a visual drag-and-drop editor to allow you to develop games with very little coding, though you’ll need to cut your teeth at game logic to get the most out of this 2D-game making software. It’s based on the flexible Haxe language, which was designed to be as cross-platform as possible. Games like Papers, Please were coded in Haxe, and the lovely platformer Ghost Song: A Journey of Hope, which was successfully funded on Kickstarter, is being made using Stencyl, though the developer flirted with the idea of using Unity at the time of the campaign .
You only need one license of Stencyl to publish to web, desktop and mobile, but you’ll need access to a Windows machine to publish on Windows and a Mac for OSX and iOS. With any tool, if you plan to release on iOS you’ll need to enroll in Apple’s developer program, which comes with an annual fee. You can start making browser games with Stencyl for free.
Unity
No list of game development tools is complete without Unity, and the weapon of choice for huge segments of the indie community is free to use. It does, however, requires a license for certain features and to publish. Licenses can be billed monthly or bought outright. Look to spend several thousand dollars if you want to publish across all platforms. If you want to see your 2D or 3D game released, you are probably going to need some coding knowledge or at least have enlist the help of someone who does. Visual editors, like Playmaker by Hutong Games, make it possible to do a lot with very little programming knowledge, however.
Unity is easily the most expensive option on this list, but it is free to play around with or for educational use.
Gamesalad
Another visual editor, this one is available for PC and Mac users alike, and like Scirra Construct 2 mentioned in our first guide, is capable of exporting to most non-console platforms. Gamesalad is free to try and $300 for a license, but should be all you need to serve that Flappy Bird clone you’ve been dreaming of cooking up. Relying on a visual editor and promising results with less coding, this one is exclusively for 2D games and is geared heavily toward mobile developers. It boasts several titles that have been featured in the top 100 apps on the Apple App Store. Here’s the link.
(See: This Chinese high school kid is developing a console FPS)
Codea
Some games and apps developed with Codea
Until now, all the software I’ve mentioned requires you to have access to a computer, but this final app made by the studio Two Lives Left allows for you to develop games on your iPad. It’s priced at $10, but already boasts several games that have been released, including Cargo Bots by the developers themselves. It’s based on a language called Lua, and requires you to actually code your game, unlike some of the visual editors above. But with a very small install size, and the ability to run on a tablet, it may be the best option for someone between computers. Give Codea a peek, here.
This concludes our list of development tools that could help you on your way to making games. If we’ve missed something, be sure to mention it in the comments. And if you’re going to start making a game right away, feel free to tell us a little bit about it below.
CHECK OUT PART I:
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This post Make your first game, part II: cross-platform and iPad tools. appeared first on Tech in Asia.