Resources

Resources are always being updated.

EDIT: Added VGAD Resources section for content put together by us, because we started actually making things.

The following links are split into two sections:

  • VGAD Resources: stuff we made – usually very comprehensive, focused and aimed for beginners/newcomers.
  • Useful Web Resources: links to help you learn, or to find ready-made resources to help you make a game.
    • Assets: existing graphics, music, sound effects, etc. that you can use in your own projects.
  • Useful Tools: links to software and tools that will allow you to create your own resources/assets, games, etc.

Official VGAD Resources

Stuff we made for events:

Useful Web Resources

UAlberta Resources:

Game Design / Articles:

Learning to Code:

Other tools:

  • Slack
    A team communication app.
  • Trello
    An online board with lists and cards to keep track of tasks and projects.
  • OBS Studio
    Open Broadcaster Software studio is a free and open-source software for screen recording and streaming.
  • OpenCV (C++, C, Python, Java)
    open-source Computer Vision Library is an open-source computer vision and machine learning software library.
  • Loopscicle
    an editor to create or edit gifs, free but can pay to get rid of watermark.
  • instant storm 2.0
    Is a freeware flash screensaver creator that turns Adobe Flash files (SWF) into screensavers.

Assets:

Game Art Bundles:

Open Art:

Textures (3D):

3D Models/Objects:

Sound:

Music:

Useful Tools

Game Engines, Frameworks, Libs, etc.:

Programming:

Art/Painting Software:

  • Gimp
    GIMP is a free and open-source cross-platform raster graphics editor
    A good alternative to photoshop to edit images/photos etc. Can paint with it too.
  • Krita
    Krita is a professional free and open-source painting program. Loads of brushes etc.
  • Paint.NET
    Another free image and photo editing software for windows.
  • GraphicsGale
    Good tool for pixel art and spriting, has a free version.
  • PaintOfPersia
    Is a free rotoscoping pixel-art tool where you can trace/draw on top of any window, wallpaper or video etc.

3D:

  • Blender
    A free & open-source 3D modeling, sculpting, and animation software
  • Sculptris
    A free 3D sculpting tool, kind of the free version of zbrush.
  • Crocotile3D
    A tool for creating 3D scenes with tiles. Think of it as creating 2D tilemaps with three dimensions.
    Free to use and save & export under 100 tiles, have to purchase it for using more than 100 tiles.
  • Pixexix
    It lets you draw onto your 3D models using any 2D image editor. Purchase of Pro version needed if you want bigger resolution bigger than 1024^2.

Animation (2D):

  • OpenToonz
    Free and open-source animation production software which supports both vector & raster animating, tweening, skeletal animation, cut-out rigging, and much more.
    Quite complex but very powerful, a good free alternative to Adobe Animate.
  • Gimp with plug-ins like Narly Sprite
    Gimp with this plugin allows multiple layers per frame, duplicate frames, exporting to sprite sheet or flattened layers with frame number for gimp gif exporting, previous frame transparency (primitive onion skinning), and some more things.
  • Krita
    Has frame-by-frame raster animation, with very customizable onion skinning.
  • Paint.NET with sprite plugin
    Can help out with sprite sheet editing and save as gif too.

Pixel Art/Animation Software:

  • GraphicsGale
    Good tool for pixel art and spriting, has a free version.
  • Piskel
    Online animated sprite and pixel art editing/creating, and you can freely download an offline version of the app too.
  • Paint of Persia
    Is a free rotoscoping pixel-art tool where you can trace/draw on top of any window, wallpaper or video etc.
  • Aseprite
    Similarly also a good tool for pixel art and spriting, but you’ll have to purchase it, unless you can compile the source yourself.
  • Pyxeledit
    A paid pixel art drawing application especially designed for working with tiles.
    It also supports making animations, and exporting them as sprite sheets or animated GIFs.
    It has an outdated free version.

Image/Animation Tools:

  • Shoebox
    A free Adobe Air based app, sort of a swiss knife for ui or sprite sheets, it has things like sprite sheet packer & extracter, slicer, frame sheet, bitmap font, tile extractor from a screenshot of a game, and texture ripper etc.
  • Spritesheet preview
    A simple and free tool to preview sprite sheets
  • Peasy
    is a simple and free tool that generates polygonal hulls from transparent png images, and exports it as a JSON.
    These polygonal hulls are used for more accurate collision checking in e.g. Box2D.
  • Pngyu
    Good solution to reduce PNG image sizes via lossy compression.
    Pngyu is simple PNG image file compression tool which uses pngquant as a compression engine.
  • ScreenToGif
    A free and open-source software for when you need a small gif or video to show off your new game features for twitter etc.

Sound Editing Software:

  • Audacity
    Audacity is free, open-source, cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing.

Sound Effect Creation:

  • BFXR
    A free sound effect generator, and can export the results in wav format.
  • ChipTone
    Free online tool for generating sound effects. Can export the result in wav format.

Sound Effects:

Music:

Music Creation:

  • LMMS
    A free, cross-platform tool for creating melodies and beats, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples and much more.

Music Creation (Midi):

  • MidiEditor
    A free software to make, edit, and play Midi data.
  • Anvil Studio
    Another free software to create, edit, and play Midi data.

Music Trackers:

  • MilkyTracker
    A free multi-platform music application for creating .MOD and .XM module files.
  • OpenMPT
    Open ModPlug Tracker is a free tracker for windows.
  • sunvox
    A small, fast and powerful modular synthesizer with pattern-based sequencer (tracker), free except for iOS or Android mobile devices.
  • Bosca Ceoil
    A free and easy to use tool for creating music. Online on web or download the offline app.
  • PixiTracker
    A simple and fun tool to quickly create musical sketches, chiptunes and sound experiments.

Online Music Creation Tools:

Music Generators (taken from https://www.yoyogames.com/blog/119/procedural-music-a-viable-alternative):

  • CGmusic
    Software with algorithms to create midi music for you.
  • Soundhelix
    Free open-source tool for generating more modern music, but has a very steep learning curve.
  • MusiGenisis
    Trial is fully functional but cannot export. Purchases are not available either anymore,
    you could try contacting them and hopefully get responses, but there possibly other solutions to capture the audio.
  • Wolfram’s Tones
  • Fake Music Generator
    Creates an entire album using CGmusic’s software.

Video Editing:

  • Lightworks
    a professional-quality video editor that is free for home use.
  • Shotcut
    a free, open-source, cross-platform video editor.
  • Openshot
    a free and open-source video editor.
  • Kdenlive
    a free and open-source video editor.
  • avidemux
    a free and open-source video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks