Weapons of Choice

So I'm going to make a game, which programs will I use?

That's always an important initial question for any game designer. Personally I've been getting into the open source software quite a bit, open source programs are free to download and usually have good support. Perfect for a hobbyist not wanting to spend thousands on industry software.



My first and favorite opensource (or otherwise) program is 'Blender3D'. Ive been using it for over 4 years now and have become reasonably experienced. Its great for all 3D work, ie modeling, texturing, rigging, animations and making games with the inbuilt BGE (Blender Game Engine). Its really a very flexible program, doing nearly everything you would ever want. There's also updates all the time, anywhere from 3-6 new versions come out every year, each with heaps of bug fixes and new features usually requested by the Blender community, along with great tutorial support so its nice and easy to learn.

Ive been part of the Blender community for as long as I've been using Blender. The main forum is at Blenderartists.org which features a great community of over 40,000 members. There's also a more game orientated forum at GameBlender.org.
I've also been working as a writer/editor at Blendernation for over a year now, which is great fun.

(Blender can be freely downloaded from www.Blender.org)



For 2D work the opensource program 'GIMP' is the way to go. Its just like Photoshop, except lacking a few features. But hey, it does everything I need it to, and saves me buying photoshop. Plus its regulary getting new features, much like Blender.

(Download from www.GIMP.org)



And for scripting, 'Python' is my program of choice. Mainly because its the native langue of the Blender Game Engine, and of course is free to download. Its even packed into Blender, so you dont really have to download it at all. Probubly one of the easyest scripting languages to learn.

(Download from www.python.org)


I'm also considering the OGRE or CrystalSpace game engines for the game, if the BGE cant handle it (the Blender game engine is lacking in some areas currently, but has improved a lot since a year or so ago)
We'll see how the BGE goes first though, I'd love to be able to promote the BGE and show what its really capable of when in the right hands.