The Game Tool Hitlist
My quest to use a wide variety of tools and make games with them.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I've long been curious about the huge amount of engines, frameworks, fantasy consoles, etc etc etc that exists out there to make games of all kinds with. There's the usual suspects like the bigger name engines (Unity, Unreal, Godot, GameMaker...), but then there's also the frameworks (Love2D, Raylib, SDL...), the purpose-built tools (RPG Maker, Adventure Game Studio...), and the tiny tools (Twine, Bitsy, Flickgame, Decker...), and I have the compulsion to mess with all of the ones I have interest in some way. Thus... This page... The perfect excuse.
On this quest, I will take a look at all of the toolsets I have an interest in and try to make at least one game in them. I'd like to shoot for three but it's very likely that I will hate the workflow of a tool or two Unity, so I won't force myself to finish one if I really can't stand it. There's games to be made.
In the following contents of the page will be my thoughts on the different tools I have used categorized by type, and then sorted alphabetically, no more than a few paragraphs each, and if I do have more to say, I will instead have a paragraph or two summarizing my thoughts and then a link to its related blog post I make going into more detail.
Let's get started...
Engines
They're the whole package. Editors, physics, scripted objects, something something so forth... All-in-one, general purpse toolsets that can be used to make anything you want, out of the box. Ex. Unity, Unreal, Godot
GameMaker
TO BE HIT
Godot
TO BE HIT
Unity
TO BE HIT
Unreal
TO BE HIT
Frameworks
The foundations of a game. They come with the stuff for handling window management, input, displaying images, but usually doesn't come with an editor or physics and pre-made objects. The tools you need to make the tools to make the rest of your game, while handling the more boring stuff that was previously listed, so you can focus on making game code primarily.
HaxeFlixel
TO BE HIT
Love2D
TO BE HIT
Picotron
TO BE HIT
Pygame
TO BE HIT
Raylib
TO BE HIT
SDL
TO BE HIT
Purpose-Built Tools
These are basically engines, but made for a very specific type of game or platform. They can theoretically do a variety of games, but you usually have to fight it or modify it to do these things. Think specialty engines for making RPGs, visual novels, and the like,, or tools that can only output for a specific platform (like a retro game console).
GB Studio
TO BE HIT
Narrat
TO BE HIT
Ren'Py
TO BE HIT
RPG Maker
TO BE HIT
Tiny Tools
These are micro-tools to make micro-games. Highly specific genres and gameplay styles, intended for little tiny games that you're intended to finish within an hour, maybe. Fun objects typically made by individuals for individual use.
Bitsy
TO BE HIT
Decker
TO BE HIT
Flickgame
TO BE HIT
Flicksy
TO BE HIT
PICO-8
TO BE HIT
Pocket Platformer
TO BE HIT
Twine
TO BE HIT
VIDEOTOME
TO BE HIT