You forgot OpenGL and PhysX ;)... the two single most useful "tools" ever created? *maybe a little bit biased* They surely deserve a big font when you add them to the list above. I'm sure!

Another tool that might be of interest would be Visual Studio and the extension Productivity Power Tools.

Btw.. why not recommend the accessible version of UDK, Cryengine and Unity?
http://www.crydev.net/dm_eds/download_detail.php?id=4
http://www.unrealengine.com/udk/
http://unity3d.com/unity/download/

Personally I’m not much of a fan for them, but still useful for many people.

Yeah, sorry, added them. I just didn't have the links on hand then, but it is all still a bit messy here, all new. I'm just trying to set some stuff up so we have some sort of starting point to develop further, so your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! =)

No problem : )


But seriously, anyone out there using visual studio should check Productivity Power Tools out. It is made by Microsoft so it is as official as an extension can be.

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/d0d33361-18e2-46c0-8ff2-4adea1e34fef/
(Should be noted that I do not usually use extensions and try to keep it to a minimal)

I can no longer work without them... and I am almost serious when I say that. Have a look at the feature list and I hope that everyone can see that they have some good aspects and really nothing bad. And every setting can be separately turned off anyways. I can wholeheartedly recommend it! I think the only ones that will not like it is the old programmer that have been programming since the Stone Age... but they will probably not use VS anyways? xD... and if they do and reject this extension, it’s their loss, seriously.

If you are working on several projects in one solution this is invaluable! When I'm working I am often editing files in the game engine, the tools and the game at the same time and to be able to easily tell them apart is invaluable. To see errors and search hits in the scroll bar is extremely useful as well.

But that is only a few of the features.

Maybe I should have started a new thread for this? ^^;;… but did not intend it do be a discussion really. Just a tip to all programmers out there…

yeah ok, but now we are getting too Tool/Programming related =) ... hmm this could overflow if I start talking about 3D Studio Max Tools and Ableton Live VSTs so yeah, a code productivity thread could be cool =)
So we can keep this one engine related.

http://www.synapsegaming.com/products/sunburn/engine/

I did my game in Torque 2D. The actual Game Builder portion isn't too useful, but I like the scripting language. Not sure if people want to debate the merits of engines or not, but it might be a nice topic for discussion. They are reportedly in a massive overhaul of the engine, which it does sorely need. Though, they do give you the source code for the engine itself... which is the only reason it is really useable - since you can customize/fix things yourself.

I had another look at all the engines here, made me think about my choice a lot, as flixel is maybe one of the "simple" ones and the non-hardware acceleration keeps bringing me down a bit... but in the end, I know I can get my game finished with it, it has all I need and in worst case - 30 FPS for "slower" cpu's does the job too and haters gonna hate any way so I'm going to stick with it, but for my next project I want some hardware boost =D

Having used pretty much all of them the obvious one Unity 3D wins for most things

Thanks for reminding me to update this. Been a while and I'm pretty happy with GameMaker for 2D. (dispite the name)

As an aside, the PhysX source code has been released...

added and made it pretty =)

Originally posted by James:

added and made it pretty =)

Ok, I've made my serious start on the road to game dev so expect me to keep you busy throwing all the various great resources your way for inclusion here etc.

My first addition is some great reading material...

Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory (2nd Edition)
Why do I mention this book when there are many books on the subject of game dev?

1) Jason is none other than a lead programmer at Naughty Dog (Uncharted & Last Of Us fame)
2) Jason lectures at USC
3) This book is exactly what people need if they are wanting to get a foothold on game engine design concepts and best practices. It is great for seasoned coders (C++) and due to Jason being smack bang in the cutting edge end of the industry, his knowledge is priceless.

Finally, more likely good for this thread is the fact that 'id Software' allow you to download the source code for Quake and Quake 2 here...

http://www.idsoftware.com/business/techdownloads

!!! ^ The above link is dead ^ !!!

id Software went 1 better and have put up most games source code up on GitHub.
Check it out...
https://github.com/id-Software

You can download most of their old games source code including
Quake 1 and 2,
original wolfenstein
and newish Return to castle wolfenstien single player
and even Doom 3 BFG edition.

Very impressive and generous of them.


Anymore good stuff I find on my journey James, I will be sure to share!

Edit: The makers of Space Engineers have released their source code also...

https://github.com/KeenSoftwareHouse