Toolbox: books, courses and software for small game makers

Most of what you need to make a small game is free. This page lists what our writers actually reach for, the free tools first, and a few paid books, courses and programs where they earn their place. Partner boxes are marked; everything else is simply a recommendation.

Free tools we use all the time

• Code: Rust with cargo, a good editor with rust-analyzer, and a debugger you have actually set up once. For C or C++ projects, the same idea with clangd.
• Pixel art: Aseprite is the favourite (it is paid, but you can build it from source), LibreSprite and Pixelorama are free alternatives. Our pixel art guide uses nothing beyond the basics they all share.
• Levels: LDtk and Tiled for tilemaps, both free, both export formats that Rust crates can read.
• Audio: Audacity for editing, sfxr-style generators for quick sound effects, and a small set of licensed music loops. See game audio basics.
• Profiling: a frame timer in your own debug overlay first, then a proper profiler once you know where to look.

Books

A few books have aged well because they explain ideas rather than APIs: game programming patterns, engine architecture, real-time rendering and the classic texts on game feel and level design. They are worth buying second hand or borrowing from a library, and the Book on this site points to the chapters that match them.

Courses

Video courses suit some people better than text, especially for art and animation, where watching a stroke being drawn teaches more than a paragraph about it. Pick a course for one skill at a time, and finish a small project with it before buying the next one.

Software worth paying for

Most paid tools in small game making are optional. The ones that tend to pay back are a video editor once you need trailers and devlog clips, and a way to test builds on the operating systems you do not use every day.