Recommended programs to make apps with?

[dannymations 0]

Hi! I'm new here and I wanted to start making pony stuff like apps, games and animations, but I don't know where to start or what programs to use! If you could help me out, I'd really really love that! Thanks lots!   

[Rikifive 24,183]

As an indie game developer, I could share few thoughts with you regarding some programs, where games could be made. It all depends on what exactly you're looking for. 

[dannymations 0]

I'm kinda just looking around to mess around with a program until I get a feel for it and actually get an idea for what to make. But I'm fine with anything as long as its free tbh?

[Rikifive 24,183]

Well, there are different ways to approach that.

If you know some scripting languages, you can just write the game just like you'd like it to be.

There are also programs, that make that process more automatic for you.

 

So if you're looking for making an RPG, then there is software that focuses on that and allows you to use an editor to easily configure things around.

There are also more professional programs, so it really depends on your experience and what type of game you want to make as to not search far, 2D and 3D games are almost totally different things.

 

But from what you've said, I think that giving Game Maker: Studio a try wouldn't be a bad idea. It is capable of doing various types of games ~ puzzles, platformers, RPG etc..

It supports both, drag&drop functions as well as direct scripting things. With some tutorials, you'd be able to make some games and take first steps into scriptwriting.

 

Anyway, the programs I've used/I'm using aren't free, though Game Maker has a free version, where you can make games normally, but just can't export them and share with the others without buying a licence first. 

Edited November 23, 2016 by Rikifive

[EclipseNightshade 26]

Well, there are different ways to approach that.

If you know some scripting languages, you can just write the game just like you'd like it to be.

There are also programs, that make that process more automatic for you.

 

So if you're looking for making an RPG, then there is software that focuses on that and allows you to use an editor to easily configure things around.

There are also more professional programs, so it really depends on your experience and what type of game you want to make as to not search far, 2D and 3D games are almost totally different things.

 

But from what you've said, I think that giving Game Maker: Studio a try wouldn't be a bad idea. It is capable of doing various types of games ~ puzzles, platformers, RPG etc..

It supports both, drag&drop functions as well as direct scripting things. With some tutorials, you'd be able to make some games and take first steps into scriptwriting.

 

Anyway, the programs I've used/I'm using aren't free, though Game Maker has a free version, where you can make games normally, but just can't export them and share with the others without buying a licence first. 

 

Actually, you can export a game off a standard liscence (which is free and is what i have).

[Rikifive 24,183]

If I'm not mistaking, there was another free licence, where you could compile your games but you were limited to few objects, scripts etc..

Though I may be mistaking, I don't remember. 

[EclipseNightshade 26]

You are limited, yes, but very minimally. I don't even realize this when I'm programming because of it. There's no resource limit. I know there used to be before the GM Studio days, among many other things such as creating your own surfaces. The only thing I can think of the top of my head where you're limited is in the realm of 3D. You can't make a 3D game in a standard liscence, that's for sure.

[Rikifive 24,183]

Well, that's good then. ^^

 

Making 3D games requires much more work, even when it comes to create resources, like character models. Starting small with 2D/2.5D games should be a good idea.

 

Anyway, that's where obviously you can make games, so I hope that somehow answers to your question. 

[Kagami-sama 320]

 

 

Recommended programs to make apps with?

Notepad. Plain and simple. Everything can be made with notepad!

[Moore Tides 9]

I have not made a game yet but for apps my goto is QT and QML, for any platform.  If I do make a game it would be with this combination:

• Gimp for images and frame-by-frame animation (I am told Gimp can somehow import Paintshop vectors now, but I have not tried)
• Audacity for sound and music editing
• Kdenlive for video editing
• Blender for 3d models and animation
• Unity3D for games and full composition.

_{Qt Creator for QT}

Edited February 16, 2017 by Moore Tides

[Shadow the First 101]

So, you asked for a free game making program? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but:

 

No game making app is free. For that, you'd have to spend a few years learning a coding language, and then find a program actually capable of running it. You'd have to pay in other programs for things, like "remove watermark", "make more than 1 game", or maybe "regain access", or "unlock abilities".

On 11/23/2016 at 7:17 PM, Kagami-sama said:

 

 

Notepad. Plain and simple. Everything can be made with notepad!

As Big Macintosh says: "Eeyup". 

[Codelyy 1,286]

6 minutes ago, Shadow the First said:

So, you asked for a free game making program? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but:

 

No game making app is free. For that, you'd have to spend a few years learning a coding language, and then find a program actually capable of running it. You'd have to pay in other programs for things, like "remove watermark", "make more than 1 game", or maybe "regain access", or "unlock abilities".

As Big Macintosh says: "Eeyup". 

What do you mean no game making app is free? What about Unity, Unreal and Game Maker?

[Gamer_KM 90]

I use multi media maker 2,(The engine that FNaF is using) it works for the most part

[Shadow Beam 1,179]

Moving thread into Button Mash's Code Library. In spite of the user not being among us anymore, it might prove itself useful for other individuals with interest in dabbling into game developing.

Have a lovely day everyone.

[Anonymous Old User Who Has Left 599]

AR is the swag these days. Try 3D models in Unity with Xcode and Objective-C for iOS, or C# and Visual Studio/Xamarin for Android.

As others have said, use Blender for creating said models for games. I'm not sure if VUE will work tho...

[AdventLegacy 3]

I'm in the earliest stages of developing a pony-themed RTS (see mlpforums.com/topic/175916-era-equestria-a-pony-themed-rts/ for more info), and I've been looking around for a good, open-source game engine to build it with. I've taken notes on a few and I thought I'd share what I found.

First off, there are a TON of open-source game engines. Literally dozens. Many of them are not being maintained or lack a lot of functionality, though. At a minimum, I want a maintained engine that supports the following:
    3D graphics
    Particle systems (for magic effects)
    Ability to import models from Blender (the only open-source 3D modeling and animation suite I know how to use)
    Multiplayer networking
    Exports to Windows, Linux, and MacOS
Another plus would be a versatile animation system (i.e. it allows the user to blend animations together so a character can attack while running or flying at the same time, for example). Below is a list of 3D game engines I've considered, with some notes on each. As I said earlier, there are many more game engines out there, so I may be missing a couple of good ones. I tried to pick only ones that are currently maintained.

Blender Game Engine
    people generally say that it's good for prototyping but not for making a full game.
    It needs 3rd party plugins for particles.
    Scripting is done in Python.
    It does not come with a high-level networking API. You have to code all the networking yourself.

Armory3D
    Fully integrated with Blender.
    Graphics look exceptionally good.
    Scripting is done in Haxe.
    Seems really cool, but it's not quite complete and there are bugs. Their website says the engine is still a work in progress.

Spring RTS
    A game engine made specifically for RTSs.
    Interesting side-note: It just so happens that "Zero-K", an RTS made in Spring RTS, is going to release on Steam in 12 days.
    Scripting is done in Lua.
    Proven multiplayer capability.
    This one sounds very interesting to me, but I'm concerned about there being enough support. There don't seem to be many tutorials around. I'm also concerned whether the engine has enough flexibility. For example, there are a set number of unit classes (which define specific ways that the units can move). This probably means that flying units would have to fly all the time; pegasi could not land. It may be possible to create my own Lua script to make that happen, but I'm not sure how much work that would entail. Some people have said that making a game in Spring RTS is more like making a mod than making your own game.

Godot
    Very popular, relatively good support.
    Some have said that it's not as good with 3D games, but I think this was only the case prior to version 3.0.
    There's a lot of excitement around Godot's recent decision to incorporate "Vulkan", which looks like some high-performance, cross-platform graphics API.
    It has a notably good animation system, and any property can be "animated" including functions.
    Scripting is done in either GDScript (Godot's own scripting language), C++, C#, or VisualScript
    Includes both high-level and low-level networking APIs
    One thing that personally bugs me is that each "node" can only have 1 script attached to it, making component-based programming a little trickier.

Panda3D

 

    Scripting is done in either C++ or Python.
    I don't think it has any high-level networking API. Panda3D was originally created to make a multiplayer game for Disney, though, so maybe I'm wrong? Multiplayer is conspicuously missing from their features page.
    My overall impression is that Panda3D was once a great engine, but is rapidly becoming obsolete. It does not support mobile platforms, and writing shaders is very hard.

Torque 3D
    Seems to have pretty good support.
    Scripting is done in TorqueScript (Torque 3D's own scripting language).
    Includes high-level networking stuff.
    Animation blending exists but is limited (all bones must be used in the animation blend).

Urho3D
    inspired by Ogre 3D and Horde 3D (rendering engines)
    scripting is done in AngelScript or Lua (or C++ too, I think?)
    has animation blending, but it sounds like it's limited like Torque3D's (blending uses entire skeleton).
    I think it has high-level networking stuff.
    It's been around since at least 2009. It used to go by the name Bofh3D
    The editor isn't very pretty from what I've seen (but hey; if it works, it works).
    It sounds like a bit of a pain to set up. You have to download the source code and compile it yourself.

Irrlicht
    Unofficial bindings allow scripting to be done in a variety of languages, including C#, VisualBasic, Dephi, Java, ruby, perl, python, Lua, Autolt, and C++.
    Supports a variety of Desktop environments, but is lacking in official mobile support.
    Apparently, it does not support audio on its own. However, there are various audio tools that are designed to integrate well with Irrlicht, such as irrKlang.
    Does not have any high-level networking API. You need to code it all yourself.
    It's been around since ~2006
    It seems to me that Irrlicht itself is somewhat bare-bones and focused on graphics, so you'll need to pull in some unofficial contributions and 3rd-party software to make a complete game.

The big picture: Godot is a relatively young game engine (4 years old) and seems to be the popular choice in the open-source world these days. It looks quite good. Torque 3D and Urho3D have been around for longer (~8 years) and also look pretty good. Armory 3D is showing a lot of potential, but is not quite ready for prime time. Panda 3D was first released 16 years ago and is showing its age. Irrlicht requires integration with 3rd-party software for sound. It's been around for 12 years and is also getting old, but during that time many unofficial language bindings and supporting 3rd-party software have emerged for it. The Blender Game Engine is lacking some features and may not be a good choice for your final game engine (but may be OK for rapid prototyping). Spring RTS is specifically geared towards making RTSs. Several snazzy RTSs have been made with it, but it may lack flexibility.

Edited April 28, 2018 by AdventLegacy
Added two more game engines and made a couple of minor edits

[StormyVenture 31]

Love2D is a good game engine, especially if you're relatively new to developing games and don't mind learning a new programming language. Getting started is pretty simple and  mostly involves defining a few functions that the engine will call at particular points and then filling those in with the code you want to run. It is rather barebones though, so unless you start digging into libraries, you do have to kind of pieces things together yourself.

• https://love2d.org/
• https://love2d.org/wiki/Main_Page