Best (free) game-making software?

[chukrum47]

Greetings everyone!

So I'm looking to create a game. Now, when I say that I don't mean to sell it, or even to distribute it beyond a few friends at the most. I simply want to create a game because it seems like fun!

However, I don't know what software to use to create said game. The only real requirement is that it be free! I'd prefer it be fairly easy to use and learn, and I don't mind writing code at all since I've spent a lot of time programming in different languages (C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Python). Also, as my skill in artistry is nonexistent any free art libraries would also be appreciated!

So, what software would my fellow Escapist users recommend? I've been looking at Unity the most, and Game Maker Studio as an alternative.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Esotera]

Unity is pretty swell, it's fairly intuitive but is also pretty powerful. I was a complete noob but managed to get the following world created in a couple of hours:


I'd advise you get someone to help out with making art files, and focus on the programming as you have the experience. Unity uses a dialect of Python but I think most people use javascript, which shouldn't be at all hard to pick up. GameMaker is the dumbed down version of Unity and I think it's less powerful, haven't used it as much.

 

[Starnerf]

I'd suggest Unity [http://unity3d.com/] as well, it's a very powerful setup and quite easy to use. It also supports C# scripting in addition to Python and Javascript, so you should feel right at home. It has very good documentation regarding the public APIs they provide, though they don't provide any access to the engine's source. Unity also has a webstore with tons of art assets and game samples (some for free, but most for a fee) so you should be able to at least get simple scenes going with the free assets.

Another option is Torque [http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-3d], which is also very powerful and was recently made open-source under the MIT license, so you can screw around with it all you like. It's written in C++ and has pretty good documentation. Torque will let you do a lot more modification to the engine itself than Unity would. However, Torque's editor isn't as streamlined or intuitive as Unity's is, in my experience, so I'd say try both and see which one you like.