The Ultimate List of Game Developer Tools

The video gaming industry is one of the largest industries in the world, bigger than the music and movie industries combined. Video games have evolved from pixelated screens and limited sound to a realistic experience. Today, powerful game development tools enable us to create interactive worlds, tell stories, and immerse ourselves in different realms.

Are you a budding game developer looking to hone your skills in game development? Game development is a vast field with numerous specializations. This article will discuss the best game developer tools available on the market today.

The 10 Best Game Developer Tools

1. RPG Maker
2. Unreal Engine 4
3. GameMaker Studio 2
4. Unity
5. C++
6. Visual Studio
7. Marmalade
8. Blender
9. Quixel Bridge
10. Adobe Photoshop

What Are Game Developer Tools?

A game development tool is an application software that aids all aspects of game creation, such as animation, modeling, texturing, writing, and sound. There are hundreds of free and paid game development tools available for programmers of all skill levels. Some of these tools are intended to develop specific game genres, while others have a more versatile application.

What Are the Main Types of Game Developer Tools?

Every video game is created using one of the four types of game developer tools. Game development involves many stages and activities such as design, level creation, prototyping, and programming. These tools provide the infrastructure that supports the development and execution of these areas. The various types of game developer tools are listed below.

Game Engines

Game development engines are the core software environment and framework with the settings and configuration for designing and optimizing games across various programming languages. It provides the programming interface for the technical implementation of the game such as the physics simulation, collision detection, asset management, artificial intelligence, and graphics rendering.

Examples of Game Engine Tools

• Unreal Engine 4
• Unity
• GameMaker Studio 2
• RPG Maker

Coding and Programming Tools

Programming is an integral part of game development. Game developers should learn multiple programming languages to create game mechanics and configurations. Whether the game is designed for use as a mobile game, computer game, or gaming console application influences the choice of coding tools. The degree of interactivity also affects the programming language used.

Examples of Coding and Programming Tools

• C++
• Visual Studio

Software Development Kit (SDK)

Software development kits are a set of software tools, programs, libraries, source code samples, documentation, and apps that game developers can use to create their own apps. You can save time by incorporating SDK into your game development process. Instead of writing many lines of code for every game, you can use an SDK to provide the necessary coding facilities.

Examples of Software Development Kit Tools

• Marmalade SDK
• Quixel Bridge

Art and Visual Tools

Art and visual tools facilitate game art design. They are used to create the artistic aspects of games. All video game development begins with rough sketches of the game environment, characters, settings, and objects. These tools allow you to create animations, character shapes, and game pathways.

Examples of Art and Visual Tools

• Adobe Photoshop
• GIMP

Game Development Cheat Sheet: A Tabular List of Game Developer Tools

Tool	Uses	Companies That Use It	Cost	Availability
RPG Maker	Developing RPG Games	Manticore Games Inc, BackerKit, Happy Code, Autism Queensland	Free trial for 30 days, $80/license	Commercial
Unreal Engine 4	An engine and editor for photorealistic rendering, lifelike animation, robust data translation, and dynamic effects	Foretag, Dreamentum, Survivalist games, Rokoko, Propeterra	Free	Open Source
Game Maker Studio 2	2D game development	Sbug Games, Bit Ink Studios, Cereal Games, Actual Nerds, PugFugly Games	Free	Open Source
Unity Technologies	Provides powerful animation tools for making 2D/3D animations from scratch	Electronic Arts, Sony, Nintendo, Blizzard, Bioware, Activision, Insomniac Games	Free	Open Source
C++	Game development language with high performance and flexibility	Rockstar Games, Capcom, ID Software, Valve Turtle Rock Studio	Free	Open Source
Visual Studio	A library of coding tools for designing 3D assets, debugging, and developing DirectX games	BAASS Business Dolutions Inc, MSL Group, Lorven Technologies	Free	Open Source
Marmalade	Creating games over different operating systems	PopCap Games, Electronic Arts, Bizarre Creations, 22Cans, Zynga	Free	Open Source
Quixel Bridge	Provides graphic design resources for game artwork	4A Games, Bungle Inc, DICE, Walt Disney, Legendary Pictures	Free	Open Source
Adobe Photoshop	Developing digital art for games	Whitepot Studio, Illumine, Scythe Dev Team, Haunt Studios	Free trial for 7 days, $20.99/month	Commercial
GIMP	Game scene editor for creating 2D graphics	GEO 101 Design, Kopf Consulting, Keyhole Software	Free	Open Source

The Best Game Developer Tools, Explained

Game developers employ many purpose-driven development tools to make different types of games. Whether you want to create a simple platform game for mobile devices or a complex 4K graphics game for your gaming station, it all starts with game development tools, design software, and programming languages. Read on for more details on the tools listed above.

RPG Maker

• Type: Game Engine
• Companies That Use RPG Maker: Manticore Games Inc, BackerKit, Happy Code, Autism Queensland
• RPG Maker Cost and Availability: $80, Commercial

RPG Maker is one of the world’s most popular video game development tools. It is mainly used to create role-playing games (RPG). It’s an excellent learning tool for those new to game development or those interested in developing a game without extensive programming knowledge.

RPG Maker is a complete game development tool in the sense that it has everything you need to create an entire game, ranging from music to level designs. You can create any game you want by utilizing custom code, map editors, asset packs, character generators, and databases. There are different products under the RPG Maker franchise.

Unreal Engine 4 (and Unreal Engine 5)

• Type: Game Engine
• Companies That Use Unreal Engine: Foretag, Dreamentum, Survivalist games, Rokoko, Propeterra
• Unreal Engine Cost and Availability: Free, Open Source

Unreal Engine is a popular cross-platform commercial game engine development software, owned and managed by Epic Games. It is used to transform ideas into visual content. It is the technology behind most popular games such as Fortnite, Hellblade, Street Fighter 5, and Tetris Effect.

Unreal Engine can be used to create any type of game, from a 2D platformer and 3D applications to open-world role-playing games. Game developers can enjoy exclusive features such as live debugging, hot reloading, built-in editor, cinematic tools, and post-processing effects.

GameMaker Studio 2

• Type: Game Engine
• Companies That Use Game Maker Studio: Sbug Games, Bit Ink Studios, Cereal Games, Actual Nerds, PugFugly Games
• Game Maker Studio Cost and Availability: Free, Open Source

GameMaker Studio 2 has an extensive game development suite for 2D game development. Its approach to game architecture and C-like scripting language makes it possible to create an entire game by simply dragging and dropping variables on an interactive interface.

GameMaker Studio is compatible with a wide range of popular platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch, without requiring you to modify your lines of code. However, you must pay to use this feature.

Unity Technologies

• Type: Game Engine
• Companies That Use Unity: Electronic Arts, Sony, Nintendo, Blizzard, Bioware, Activision, Insomniac Games
• Unity Cost and Availability: Free, Open Source

Unity is a popular game development tool with numerous features and functionalities that allow you to create almost any game you can think of. It was used to create popular games like Lara Croft Go, Pokemon Go, and Cuphead. It works with a C# scripting API, built-in visual studio integration, and powerful animation tools for 2D/3D mobile game development.

The Unity game engine offers an easy-to-use interface, making it simple and fast to develop games. It is also better for games that would be developed over numerous platforms. Unity is a cross-platform commercial game engine so you can move your games to a new ecosystem with little or no adjustment to your codes.

C++

• Type: Coding and Programming Tool
• Companies That Use C++: Rockstar Games, Capcom, ID Software, Valve Turtle Rock Studio
• Cost and Availability: Free, Open Source

C++ is a programming language that is widely used in game development. It is an object oriented language, meaning that every part of the code can be broken down and divided into objects. As a result, it is simple and easy to reuse.

Although it is difficult to learn, game creators and developers must learn C++ because it gives them greater control over parameters, memory management, and hardware. It also necessitates limited and good optimization facilities in database and system programming. Some of the best coding apps to learn C++ are Mimo and Programming Hub.

Visual Studio

• Type: Coding and Programming Tool
• Companies That Use Visual Studio: BAASS Business Solutions Inc, MSL Group, Lorven Technologies
• Visual StudioCost and Availability: Free, Open Source

Visual Studio offers an interactive platform for building high-performance 2D and 3D games for a wide range of devices such as smartphones, tablets, and desktops. It also provides a library of tools for writing shader codes, designing 3D assets, debugging, and developing DirectX games.

The integrated development environment (IDE) for visual studio makes it easier to code by incorporating features such as Intellisense, which eliminates errors and provides function parameters.

Marmalade

• Type: Software Development Kit
• Companies That Use Marmalade: PopCap Games, Electronic Arts, Bizarre Creations, 22Cans, Zynga
• Marmalade Cost and Availability: Free, Open Source

Marmalade is a software development kit that allows games to have cross-platform functionality. Marmalade provides a user-friendly graphical user interface for C++ programming, simulation testing, and device testing.

Game developers can deploy code on multiple operating systems from a single base without significant performance overhead. It also includes third-party extensions and standard coding libraries.

Quixel Bridge

• Type: Software Development Kit
• Companies That Use Quixel Bridge: 4A Games, Bungle Inc, DICE, Walt Disney, Legendary Pictures
• Quixel Bridge Cost and Availability: Free, Open Source

Quixel bridge is one of the world’s largest scan libraries for game and movie production. It provides a huge collection of high-quality 3D assets, flaws, atlases, vegetation, and media tools. You can easily create beautiful graphics for your game production using Quixel Bridge Megascans.

This kit allows game developers to easily download any resources they require for their projects. Quixel Bridge offers seamless integration with popular game engines like Unreal Engine and Maya.

Adobe Photoshop

• Type: Art and Visual Tool
• Companies That Use Adobe Photoshop: Whitepot Studio, Illumine, Scythe Dev Team, Haunt Studios
• Adobe Photoshop Cost and Availability: $20.99/month, Commercial

Adobe Photoshop is arguably the world’s most widely used software for creating digital art. It offers many features and plugins for creating attractive textures, characters, 2D graphics, and artwork for games.

GIMP

• Type: Art and Visual Tool
• Companies That Use GIMP: GEO 101 Design, Kopf Consulting, Keyhole Software
• GIMP Cost and Availability: Free, Open Source

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a cross-platform graphic design editor for creating 2D graphics art for your games. It offers many features and capabilities for game development, such as painting, complex image manipulation, animation, file handling, and image rendering. It can do almost everything Photoshop can do and it’s completely free.

Why Game Developer Tools Are Important

A game developer is only as good as their game development tools. If you want to create the next big game, you should only use the best software that can handle all of your gaming development needs.

There are many aspects of game development, such as modeling, music, writing, animation, and graphic design. Game development tools provide the infrastructure and technology for all areas of game production.

Game Developer Tools FAQ