General Category > Software and games

The Starving Developer's Quickstart Guide UPDATED June 9th, 2007

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Orange Brat:
This is a compilation list featuring useful reference sites, quality programs and tools, and services that are ideal for the indie developer on a tight budget.

Bolded items are programs worth checking out first. This is based on my opinion, as well as others but they are very nice and do what they do very well.

If someone finds any dead links, errors, unforgivable omissions ( :D ), or something else, please post away.

2D:
Paint.NET - free paint program that should get you by for most things...NET 2.0 and soon NET 3.0 required
The Gimp - Photoshop knockoff..free & very powerful but has a quirky UI
Project Dogwaffle - "natural" paint & animation program...free version but commercial versions are stellar
ArtRage 2 - very inexpensive “natural” paint program...poor man's Dogwaffle
Paintshop Pro - paint program...commercial product
Pixel - Photoshop knockoff
Deep Paint 2 - free & powerful paint program
openCanvas - paint program...commercial product
Flash Maker - cheap Flash-like editor
Inkscape - Illustrator/Freehand knockoff with PDF export...free and it gets the job done
Anime Studio - 2D bones based animation...has some 3D import capabilities...formerly known as Moho
Texture Maker - general purpose seamless texture generator
Wood Workshop - procedural seamless wood texture generator...free
Genetica 2 - procedural seamless texture generator...Wood Workshop is based on it
Caustics Generator - water texture generator...free
Graffiti Creator - online graffiti generator...free and new commercial version
PNG Gauntlet - fantastic PNG converter & optimizer
GUIGenie - GUI builder...free

3D:
Blender - jack of all trades...free and powerful
Wings 3D - modeling/rendering with FBX import/export but no animation or bones support...free
Silo - modeling/rendering...like Wings only better and commercial
CB Model Pro - intuitive, Zbrush-like program for organic modeling and painting. OBJ export and free after email registration. Ideal for high poly models for normalmaps
Milkshape - modeling/animation...essential for model format conversion purposes
Gamespace - modeling/animation/rendering...commercial
MarbleCLAY - lots of features and free...must register to unlock some features...click English for English page
AC3D - easy on the eyes UI...your standard modeling app
Misfit Model 3D - open source modeling program
SharpConstruct - mold organic models from clay-like materials
Daz Studio - Poser-like figure creation and similar license restrictions apply. Nice for 2D renders or 2D animations...free
MakeHuman - figure creation...free
3D World Studio - level editor...commercial
Truebones.com - inexpensive motion capture...if you can get it to work (try fragMotion), this is both a steal and an animation paradise
DeleD - level and model editor hybrid...free version
TreeMagik - low poly tree creator
Ultimate Unwrap - model unwrapping and UVs
UVMapper Classic - OBJ model unwrapping and UVs..free version
fragMotion - character animation program...fantastic and powerful....low cost
CharacterFX - old animation program
LifeForms Gamepak 1 - premade game animations
Character Shop - premade game animations
Nem's Terrain Generator
Terragen - photorealistic scenery rendering
FreeWorld3D - terrain editor targeted for game development...commercial and superb
World Machine - procedural terrain generator w/erosion...free version
gile(s) - global illumination editor(texture baking/lightmaps)
Newton Dynamics - free physics engine

Other:
Inno Setup - installer..free
CreateInstall - installer..free version
NSIS - installer...free
Molebox - non extracting file packer
TalkToMe - lipsyncing SDK for 2D or 3D
Audacity - audio editor..free
Kristal Audio Engine - Cubase clone...free and open source
Divx - video codec...high compression & quality..free for noncommercial use
XVid - superior open source video codec....will open Divx files.....free to use
TMPGEnc - video convertor
Fraps - video capture...free version
Taksi - FRAPS knockoff...open source video capture...free
Virtualdub - powerful video compression app...free
VLC Media Player - open source video/audio player...free
dBPowerAMP - audio convertor with nice UI...lots of codecs...free
Exact Audio Copy - free audio ripper..the best in the world
BurnAtOnce - feature rich CD/DVD burning application...free
LAME MP3 Encoder - the best MP3 encoder...use with Exact Audio Copy
Font Creator - a nice TTF creator, editor, and viewer
SubtitlesK5ky - add subtitles to AVI..free
RAD Video Tools - video/image/sound convertor & tweaker...free
Open Office - MS Office knockoff....graphics, spreadsheets, powerpoint, word processing and more.....free
7-Zip - file archiver/compression...free
Motek Entertainment - huge BVH repository
TikiWiki - free
osCommerce - open source online shop e-commerce software...free
SmartFTP - free FTP client
Core FTP LE - free FTP client
Website Baker - open source PHP website software...free
WordPress - free blog software, "5-minute installation"
Photobucket - online image hosting
Putfile - online image hosting
Large file upload services - useful for large resource and demo dispersement
Bittorrent - useful for large resource and demo dispersement..eliminates webhosting and bandwidth consumption...free
Pidgin - multi-platform, multi-protocol, instant messaging client; formerly known as Gaim...free
Trillian - multi-protocol, instant messaging client...free
Open Clip Art Library - vector based....read license...free
1001 Free Fonts - free fonts

Reference and organizations:
Anatomy Atlases - large selection of anatomy atlases
3D Science - medical models and images...prices vary...some freebies
Human Photo References for 3D Artists and Game Makers - this site contains nudity...you've been warned
More human photo references and environmental textures - this site contains nudity...you've been warned
Morgue File - royalty free photo reference site...commercial usage permitted
Buildings & Structural reference sites - just what it says
Public domain art links - just what it says
Google Earth - satellite photos of just about everywhere...broadband required....free
LipSync - tutorial
Low poly modeling and texturing tutorials
Onnovanbraam blueprints - vehicles & people
Vehicle blueprints
ANIMAX - free textures
Turbo Squid - 2D/3D resource buy/sell site
CafePress - service that allows you to sell merchandise based on your company/game...free
IGDA - International Game Developer's Association
DevMaster - game developer siste
Gamasutra - free registration is mandatory to read articles on this game developer/news site
Gamedev - popular game developer information site
GameTab - game reviews and news compilation site
GameProducer.Net - insider info and tips blog from a real game producer
Indiegamer Forums - discuss everything related to indie life and more with real indies
Publishers - just what it says…a list of publishers
Shareware Directories - listing of most of the major shareware distributors
PAD file information - PAD files are used to expediate online, automated information gathering
3D Engines Database - huge list of 3D engines
2D Adventure Engines - list of 2D engines..most are specifically made for point & click adventure games

Here's another list on the Gamedev forum. There's a bit of overlap, but it's biased more towards programmers: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=324643

Here's yet another list containing hundreds of freeware/shareware programs: http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/freeware.html

And another: http://www.bakhter.com/

***UPDATED: June 9th 2007***

Mnemonic:
Thank you, Orange Brat. I linked this thread from the "Links" section.

odnorf:
ok... let me add a few more usefull links...

GRAPHICS RELATED
Opensource Web Design - The title says it all!!!
OpenClipart - Free (read the licence) clipart gallery (in the SVG vector format)
Scribus - Opensource & multiplatform (not for win32 yet) DTP program (like Quark Xpress & Adobe InDesign)
PDFCreator - Opensource & multiplatform PDF creator (not as many features as Acrobat but if you can't afford it...)
Pixel32 - Shareware Image editing program with a photoshop like interface. Very cheap and very powerfull. If you can't afford Photoshop and don't like Gimp then this might be a good choice. Oh... and it's multiplatform. It runs on more OS I can count (even on some I'm not sure I know).

VARIOUS PROGRAMS
VLC Media Player - Opensource & multiplatform media player that can play MANY MANY video and audio formats (including DVD)
X-Chat - Opensource & multiplatform IRC client
FileZilla - Opensource FTP Client (win32 only)
ClamWin - Opensource Antivirus for windows based on the opensource & multiplatform clamav engine
RK Launcher - A similar to the MacOS dock for windows. (Closed source but free)
Proccess Explorer - Great replacement for windows Task Manager (Closed source but free)
PSPad - A great text editor with more features I'll ever use (Closed source but free)

deadworm222:
MUSIC
Buzz Tracker - A digital, high-quality modular tracker-composer and music production studio with (among other things) VST(i) and MIDI IN/OUT support.
Kristal Audio Engine - Cubase clone for Windows (freeware, sadly without MIDI sequencing at the moment)
Rose Garden - Cubase-like app for Linux.

Mnemonic:
I increased the limit to 20000 characters, so you should be safe for a while :) Perhaps the links section could be moved to WME Wiki in the future..?

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