Apps that Compliment Game Dev

So, you have probably heard by now that learning the concepts of a game engine isn’t enough if you want to make waves in the world of game development, especially if you are an indie developer and don’t have a team to hand off all that extra stuff to.

If this is the first time that you’re hearing something like this, well, you’re welcome. If you do indeed develop your own games, then you know that you require some complimentary services to go along with your order of a freshly served game engine.

Today, let’s discuss exactly what are the extras you need.

Let’s kick off with something that is easy to acquire and learn. Blender. Think of this, what exactly makes a 3D game 3D? If you break it down to the atoms, without 3D models, mechanics and physics for 3 dimensions don’t make any sense - and if you are familiar with popular game engines such as Unity, you know that the in-built 3D models are nothing more than basic 3D shapes – which are good for prototyping, but not good for proper 3D games. So, learning Blender is a good idea. It will give you proper fundamental knowledge in the world of 3D and best of all, it’s free!

In the case of Blender, we recommend you stick with the LTS versions as they offer more stability.

Next, let’s talk about some 2D stuff. If you have played any kind of game whatsoever, be it for mobile devices, PCs or consoles, you know that there are some universal features, but people don’t really pay attention to them. These are your main menus, pause menus, buttons, settings menu, UI elements. Having a good UI is your ticket to having a good UX – and to actually create these UI elements, you’ll need an app such as Photoshop, which is really easy to learn and also has a ton of tutorials and courses. It does come at a cost, which some would argue is totally worth it, including us, but if you don’t want to dash out any money, take a look at some alternatives such as Krita.

Photoshop is great not only for creating UIs for games and apps but also for a whole bunch of other things.

Krita, the free and open-source alternative to Photoshop.

If you want to share your game dev progress and build an audience on social media, you’ll want to record your screen and edit that footage. Which is why learning video editing is a good idea – to make everything from dev logs all the way to shorter videos! Adobe Premiere Pro is a very good option, but just like Photoshop, it is not free - but you know what, just like Photoshop, it does have free alternatives which are good! Check out DaVinci Resolve, watch some tutorial videos or get enrolled in a course, and you’ll be on your way to making great dev logs and videos!

Premiere Pro is a very advanced, yet easy to learn, video editing app that is not limited by the type of video you want but only by your creativity and imagination.

There are of course many other apps are that are good and worth spending the time learning - but we believe these should provide a good starting point (and possibly a good ending point since people have made entire careers based on these apps!). The one thing you should look out for is how big is the community of the app you are interested in. All the apps mentioned here have a very good community support and dedicated forums. The advantage good and large communities have is the support they offer when you experience problems in your project.

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