Game Creation Resources

Hope to add programming links soon, and more design related links.

Here’s another list which is much more comprehensive than I could hope to compile: http://www.mangatutorials.com/forum/showthread.php?742-The-Ultimate-Indie-Game-Developer-Resource-List&s=c464f498b3a5ace9cea0664c5f823df6

List of useful resources for budding (and experienced) game designers & game creators:

3D Modelling Packages & Resources

• Sketchup -Free.  Google’s awesomely simple, fast and easy to use modeling software.
• 3Ds Max – Expensive, but it’s becoming an industry standard.
• Maya - Expensive and was once THE modeling package to have. Now autodesk (3dsmax) has bought them.
• Blender -Free. Open source 3d modeling software.
• ZBrush - Expensive. Many studios and high-end sculptors use this software.
• Mudbox - Expensive. Many claim its one of the easiest sculpting and painting packages out there though.
• Silo - Cheap. Fast organic modeler.
• Topogun - modeler. Great software for bringing in hi-res models and making them low-res for use in games.
• XNormals - free. Used for burning normal maps, clean and fast.
• Body Paint – Expensive. Model painting package.
• 3D Coat – Cheap. Model painting package.
• UVLayout – Cheap. Fast for creating UV’s for your models.
• Unfold3D – Expensive. Fastest UV’ing software.
• Ghost Town – 3DSMax 2011 Plugin for auto-generating small or largescale cities.

Game Making Software

• CryEngine3 – Crytek’s powerful toolset used to create Crysis 2 is now free download and use. You only pay if you go commercial!
• Unity - Free. Powerful, plenty of options and can be exported to all sorts of different platforms [some incur charges]
• Game Maker -Free. Lots of useful tools, even in the free edition. Upgrade to the pro version for $25!!
• Cocos2d – Free. Strictly for the iPhone, but free with a few titles already released using it.
• Unreal - Free. Dive in with the big-boys. Lots of dev studios use Unreal, so having experience with it a plus. Fee’s only incur when you go to market and sell X amount of units.

2D Graphic Tools

• Photoshop -Expensive, but if you want to get into art, most game studios use this software.
• Painter - Cost. Great for the “real fee” artistry of painting. The classic package.
• Illustrator -Expensive, but used a lot through many industries, including games.
• Art Rage – Cheap. Painting package which is also available on the iPad (if you have one)
• Sketchbook Pro – Cheap. Simplified painting/sketching program. Good drawing tools.
• Inkling Wacom – $199. A new way to take sketches and make them digital. Create new layers, share and export to line art. Looks awesome.

Character Modelers & Resources

Artists need a place to thrive, learn and share their talents. Below are few, highly regarded places for you artistically creative peeps to go. Go forth, learn and prosper!

• Polycount
• CG Talk
• 3D Total
• Game Artisans
• Rendosity
• CGHub
• ZBrush Central
• Creature Spot
• Character Designs
• CG Bootcamp
• Alessando Baldasseroni
• Josh Singh
• Peter Tindall

Concept Art

I’m a sucker for cool art, and you should be too. The amount of work and design that goes into these media is amazing. Below I share some places, companies and people doing cool stuff:

• Conceptart.org
• Concept Art World
• Guild Wars 2 Concept Art
• Ben Mauro
• Carlo Arellano
• Justin Murray
• Anthony Francisco
• Steve Jung
• Jaime Jones
• Paul Richards
• Craig Mullins
• Jason Sheier
• Lim Hur
• Alice Duke
• Anthony Watkins
• Keun Chul
• Anthony Jones
• Khang Le
• Kieran Yanner
• Andrew Kim
• Arnold Tsang
• John Park
• Abe Ong
• Albee Ng
• Eric Chiang
• Xiangyuan Jie
• Tyler West
• Sparth

Documentation & Charts

• Evernote - Awesome note taking software which uses cl0ud technology. It’s really catching on.
• GoogleDocs -Free, flexible and easy to share with friends & colleges. Do flowcharts, presentations, forms and a whole host of other documentation types.
• Microsoft Office – Cost. Most developers do use office for a variety of documentation practices.
• Visio - Expensive. Really easy to create flowcharts and other forms of information planning.
• Gliffy - Cheap. Web-based flowchart software. Easy to use, share and master. 30 Days Free & only $5 per-single seat.
• MindjetPro – Cost. Good software for chartering ideas and how they develop; brain maps!
• Confluence - Free ($10 charity donation + self-server) This is a great, easy wiki system. You have to pay over a certain amount of users, but good for collaboration. We use this at Vigil Games.

Programming

• http://nehe.gamedev.net/
• http://www.codesampler.com/code/
• http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/
• http://content.gpwiki.org/index.php/Game_Programming_Wiki

Animation

• http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/
• http://www.animationarena.com/
• http://www.keyframeonline.com/
• http://animatorsresource.blogspot.com/
• http://framexframe.tumblr.com/

Blogging / Self-Promotion

Blogging sites/software are great ways to promote yourself, your team and your products. You can all collaborate with blogs, twitters, images, videos and whatever you want and a lot are free. If I was starting out in the games industry now, getting a site up and running would be high on the list of things to do. GET A PRESENCE!

• WordPress - Free. It’s what I use for this site. Simple, powerful and really well supported. How can you go wrong?
• CarbonMade – Free. Easy way to create professional, slick looking portfolios for a huge range of industries.
• TypePad - Cost. Not used it personally, but a lot of journalists use it and state it has great collaborative tools/uses.
• Blogger - Free. google’s widely used blogging software. Lots of concept artist use this.
• Wix – Free. create your own flash-based website. Great for photography and other  ”visual” sectors.
• Square Space – Expensive. You can also build an entire site with very little experience. Used by a lot of great sites.

Useful Game Related Sites

• Gamasutra – news, jobs, articles and more.
• Gameindustry.Biz – news, jobs, articles and more.
• Moby Games – find info about game developers and what they’ve worked on
• Game Rankings – not sure about a game, see what the net and others think of it.
• Metracritic – not sure about a game, see what the net and others think of it.
• Gamer DNA – see what’s trending, what gamers are saying about what they’re playing and more.
• Raptr - another way to see and share what’s being played.

Script Writing

For those who like to inspire via creative writing:

• Celtx - FREE. Great piece of software that will format most document types into true script format. PLUS, it will track assets; items, characters, locations etc. great for easily tracking what content is in a script.
• Final Draft – Expensive. More of a film industry/script writing standard.

Bits & Bobs

I found this old page which had a big list of potential useful links, try it out.

Another page just for 3d modeling packages too.