How to Learn

Polycode is a free, open-source (licensed under the MIT license), and cross-platform "framework for creative coding". This term is seldom heard inside the game development community, but what it basically means is simple: Polycode provides you with tools to express your creativity through code, and although it is fully qualified to bear the "game engine" moniker, it prefers not to.Read More…

Phaser is an open source HTML5 game framework created by Photon Storm. It's designed to create games that will run on desktop and mobile web browsers. A lot of focus was given to performance inside of mobile web browsers, a growing and important area of web gaming.Read More…

Over the past decade, board games have gained increased prominence within the game industry. With the growing popularity of Euro-style board games, such as Settlers of Catan, and the constant influx of new games and game types such as Dominion, the popular deck-building game, board games have seen an unexpected resurgence among gamers of all kinds. While board games share many ideas with video games, they are played in a very different way, and often use very different game mechanics. Designing for board games brings about different challenges than designing for video games, but the skills can be applied universally to make all of your games better.Read More…

Orx is an open source, portable 2D game engine, which currently runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android (2.3+), and uses OpenGL (ES for iOS/Android) for render acceleration. It's data-driven, and uses a simple yet powerful configuration system which allows you to quickly prototype and validate ideas. In this article, I'll share tips and resources for learning Orx, and show you what it's capable of.Read More…

Three.js is an open-source JavaScript library/API used to create and display animated 3D computer graphics on a web browser, compatible with the HTML5 canvas element, WebGL, and SVG. In this How to Learn article, we'll explore the capabilities of this engine and share resources and suggestions to help you start developing games with it right away.Read More…

Loom SDK is an open source cross-platform development kit, written in C++, that enables you to create games and applications for different platforms very quickly. It offers a command line interface and features such as live asset reloading, live code compiling, and multiple devices deployment, while preserving the flexibility of a native and open source SDK.Read More…

GameMaker: Studio is a full game development tool, featuring a level editor, asset manager, code editor, and its own scripting language known as GameMaker Language (GML). Earlier versions of GameMaker were were very basic, and many people will remember them as being mostly for total beginners - to make a game commercially with them would have seemed like a joke. Things are different now, with several commercial successes, including some very high profile games.Read More…

Starling Framework is a free, open-source framework written using ActionScript 3.0. The primary purpose of this framework is to make it extremely easy for developers to build games for the Adobe Flash Platform. In this article, we'll introduce you to Starling, and share tips, screencasts, tutorials, and resources for getting started with it.Read More…

jMonkeyEngine 3, better known as jME 3, is an open-source 3D game development engine written entirely in Java. Using this engine, game developers can exploit Java's capabilities to develop games not just for modern operating systems, but also for the Android market. In this How to Learn article, we'll explore this engine's capabilities and the resources it offers to help you start working on your game as fast as possible.Read More…

CryEngine SDK (Software Development Kit) is a free to download version of the widely known CryEngine 3. It can be used to create a variety of video games, interactive software and animated shorts. CryEngine is one of the most beginner-friendly engines out there to learn, and in this article I'll share tutorials and other resources to get you started developing games with it.Read More…

The next generation of game consoles is here. This time around, nipping at the heels of the giants (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) are the microconsoles: less powerful, cheaper, and more welcoming to indie game developers. The superstar of this new family of game consoles is the Ouya. In this How to Learn guide, we'll introduce you to the Ouya platform and its capabilities, share links to resources, and present a few suggestions to get you started developing games with it.Read More…

Flixel is a free and open source 2D game development framework written by Adam "Atomic" Saltsman (Canabalt, Hundreds) in AS3 for making Flash games. It is a very mature, flexible and robust library. In this article, we'll introduce you to the platform and its capabilities, and share tutorials, plugins, and suggestions to get you started developing games with it.Read More…