Fledgling Videogame Developer

Since I am interested to use open-source software for game development, my drawing tools can be found from that category also. Currently, my development work is done on Linux laptop, so it also causes some restrictions for the available software. I started sprite creation with a tool called  Aseprite . It is quite simple and easy-to-use free software for creating sprite sheets. ( edit: Aseprite is nowadays paid software ). There are no complex drawing tools included, but with steady hand and patience you can create almost anything. In my case, the only major problem with Aseprite was the low performance on my Linux laptop if  not started at separate XServer (Run " xinit aseprite -- :1"  command in tty1, or something like that).  I have been using  Gimp  for simple image processing even before starting game development activities. However, I thought it was too complex and difficult to use with multiple windows and confusing menus. But then I "found" t...

The visual appearance is an important part of the video game. Just take a look to the most successful games in any category, and you will notice that very few of them contains low-quality graphics.  I am not saying that fun and interesting game (whatever is the definition for that) cannot be done with simple and even low quality graphics. But well-finished graphics makes it easier to market a game to the players. And don't forget the marketing materials, like thumbnails, screenshots and gameplay videos, just to mention some. Unfortunately, I am not very good in creative drawing and I find that one my biggest obstacles when trying to develop better quality games. I am able to draw straight lines and geometric patterns such as engineer (which I am), and that's quite about it. But when I should draw cartoon-like characters or complex background for a game, then I'm in trouble. I just don't know where to start! And if I get started, I will soon get frustrated and do the...

Many things must be taken into account when starting new game project from the scratch. First of all, you have to decide what kind of a game you are planning and what would be the feasible target platform (or platforms) for that. You must understand the limitations of each platform, e.g. available screen resolutions, computing power, input devices, etc. When target platform is decided, it is time to think about what development tools can be used for this project. There are plenty of tools available for hobby game developer and each of them has pros and cons. So it is sometimes bit hard to make selection, and in case of hobby developer the "zero budget" drives to use free (or very cheap) software. I have tried at least following game engines or frameworks: - Unity3D - Blender Game Engine (BGE) - GameMaker - Adobe Flash (CS6) - Löve2D - Stencyl Personnally, I want to promote the usage of open-source software. So my favorites from the list above are Blender and Löve2...