It really boils down to a few things. +Budget +Willingness to learn a new language
Of course there's a little more involved, but those are what I'd consider the basics. For a free game creation program, you're not completely out of luck.
Game Maker is very user friendly with its drag-n-drop interface. I believe the newest version does require a $99 upgrade from the basic, which does limit the maximum amount of things that can be placed into your project. For starting out though, the basic version will probably be enough to let you learn the do's and dont's of Game Maker. (I do highly recommend attempting to learn GML. It's probably the second easiest programming language to learn in my opinion)
Unity is very nice, can make solid games, but requires learning a language such as Javascript or C#. Unity also has a huge asset store to help kick start your development or inspire new ideas.
BYOND (Build Your Own Net Dream) is a nice, easy to learn, game development software. From what I remember, it's mainly focused on multi-player games. It uses it's own programming language, DM, and from what I remember: it's the easiest language I learned. GML from Game Maker is a very close second though. The thing here is, BYOND does not feature the drag-n-drop, so you must learn the language.
RPG Maker is also a fun, easy to use, game developing program. It's limitation is that it is pretty much limited to RPG's. Shocking, I know. The user friendliness of this is, in my opinion, unparalleled. I played around with this program in my younger days, and it's what got me started on wanting to actually learn how to program (I went RPG Maker -> BYOND -> Game Maker -> Unity). If you're feeling like a champion on RPG Maker, you can learn Ruby to fiddle with the code - though I believe the base code is more than enough for most RPG idea's.
Game Salad is a good starting point, and was free last time I checked. I don't remember all the features honestly, as I only used it on my Macbook (Which I only used for about a month). From what I do remember, it was user friendly and felt aimed towards those who are new to game design. If it was put up against Game Maker though, I'd have to say go with Game Maker. That's an opinion, so it can still be worth checking out.
Stencyl - The Newbie's dream of a flash game creation tool - is a reality. I honestly love Stencyl. It's a easy to learn and easy to use flash game development software that's free. I like the way it's designed because it seems like you don't need any programming knowledge to make your project, but it's actually teaching you what's going on with it's clever puzzle-piece type system. It also has it's own market, like Unity, so you can get some cool scripts to help you out. I will say, their market was much less populated than Unity's though.
All of these are awesome, free game development programs. They each have different things that will satisfy different people. If you only want to make RPG's, get RPG Maker. If you primarily want to make flash games but you don't have time to learn C#, get Stencyl. If you want the freedom to do whatever you want while still not needing to learn a language, Game Maker is your guy. Multi-player only kind of guy? Byond is for you. How about you want to learn and think the only limit should be your imagination? You my friend, need Unity.
I know this post was lengthy, but I wanted to put some of my experience, and I hope it will shed some light on these guys (Seriously though, Stencyl and Unity are awesome). I hope you take what you'd like out of this post, and I can't wait to play your new game! It really boils down to a few things. +Budget +Willingness to learn a new language
Of course there's a little more involved, but those are what I'd consider the basics. For a free game creation program, you're not completely out of luck.
Game Maker is very user friendly with its drag-n-drop interface. I believe the newest version does require a $99 upgrade from the basic, which does limit the maximum amount of things that can be placed into your project. For starting out though, the basic version will probably be enough to let you learn the do's and dont's of Game Maker. (I do highly recommend attempting to learn GML. It's probably the second easiest programming language to learn in my opinion)
Unity is very nice, can make solid games, but requires learning a language such as Javascript or C#. Unity also has a huge asset store to help kick start your development or inspire new ideas.
BYOND (Build Your Own Net Dream) is a nice, easy to learn, game development software. From what I remember, it's mainly focused on multi-player games. It uses it's own programming language, DM, and from what I remember: it's the easiest language I learned. GML from Game Maker is a very close second though. The thing here is, BYOND does not feature the drag-n-drop, so you must learn the language.
RPG Maker is also a fun, easy to use, game developing program. It's limitation is that it is pretty much limited to RPG's. Shocking, I know. The user friendliness of this is, in my opinion, unparalleled. I played around with this program in my younger days, and it's what got me started on wanting to actually learn how to program (I went RPG Maker -> BYOND -> Game Maker -> Unity). If you're feeling like a champion on RPG Maker, you can learn Ruby to fiddle with the code - though I believe the base code is more than enough for most RPG idea's.
Game Salad is a good starting point, and was free last time I checked. I don't remember all the features honestly, as I only used it on my Macbook (Which I only used for about a month). From what I do remember, it was user friendly and felt aimed towards those who are new to game design. If it was put up against Game Maker though, I'd have to say go with Game Maker. That's an opinion, so it can still be worth checking out.
Stencyl - The Newbie's dream of a flash game creation tool - is a reality. I honestly love Stencyl. It's a easy to learn and easy to use flash game development software that's free. I like the way it's designed because it seems like you don't need any programming knowledge to make your project, but it's actually teaching you what's going on with it's clever puzzle-piece type system. It also has it's own market, like Unity, so you can get some cool scripts to help you out. I will say, their market was much less populated than Unity's though.
All of these are awesome, free game development programs. They each have different things that will satisfy different people. If you only want to make RPG's, get RPG Maker. If you primarily want to make flash games but you don't have time to learn C#, get Stencyl. If you want the freedom to do whatever you want while still not needing to learn a language, Game Maker is your guy. Multi-player only kind of guy? Byond is for you. How about you want to learn and think the only limit should be your imagination? You my friend, need Unity.
I know this post was lengthy, but I wanted to put some of my experience, and I hope it will shed some light on these guys (Seriously though, Stencyl and Unity are awesome). I hope you take what you'd like out of this post, and I can't wait to play your new game! |