I belive i would like to try making games but my laptop isint that powerful. Its a thinkpad from like 10 years ago, i upgraded it to a 250gb ssd, and 16gb of low voltage ddr3, i also put linux on it to screeze out as much as possible. So i need something that will run but im struggling on choosing expecially sense i want to start for free. I want to start with something dead simple and work my way up.
What would you suggest and why so?
Maybe a Briggs 10 hp would be a good starter.
I’ll join the chorus recommending Godot. A lot lighter than Unity or Unreal, it’s open source, well documented and quite capable. It’s got a lot of features, in a lot of ways it isn’t “dead simple.”
I might recommend starting off using Python’s Pygame library. Do something like create Flappy Bird in it, that will give you a pretty good idea of how a video game works under the hood, and it’ll run on a potato.
For pixel art you might go with LibreSprite or Pixelorama. These will allow you to create tile sets for backgrounds as well as character sprites.
If you’re looking to get into 3D art, you’ve basically got to go with Blender.
“Lightweight” and “small” isn’t the same as simple. People seriously gotta stop recommending godot to beginners. It’s good as a general engine, but a lot to take in for a beginner.
Pygame is a great choice. I would add Love2D as a similar alternative if you don’t jive with Python.
Off topic but Godot has a serious cult problem. Say anything that could possibly be interpreted as negative about it, and you’re going to get someone writing a very emotional response. It’s pretty much at the Apple fan boy level, which is bad but mostly weird.
I did call Godot lighter than Unity or Unreal, which I believe to be factually accurate. I have run Godot on a 2014 era laptop, it runs well on a system of that vintage.
It is a full featured 2D/3D game engine and development environment, which can be a lot to take in. A lot of what I learned about game development I learned from a Youtube channel called Clear Code, who made the same snake game in both Pygame and Godot.
Python and Pygame does away with the cluttered IDE, and you can build a functioning game in one file, then you translate those concepts to a more full-on game engine which is going to be a bit more practicable for making larger games with things like tilesets and more complicated physics and collisions and whatnot. I’d hate to try making a Zelda-like game in something like Pygame. Fear the men who made A Link to the Past in 6502 assembly.
I did call Godot lighter than Unity or Unreal, which I believe to be factually accurate. I have run Godot on a 2014 era laptop, it runs well on a system of that vintage.
None of that is relevant. By that metric, Pygame/Love2D are objectively the better choice over Godot, as they’re smaller and lighter.
I have been working on games (and many engines) for over 15 years. I know what Godot is, and what it isn’t. It’s the best choice for certain team compositions and certain game types, but it isn’t good at everything. In fact, it’s quite bad for very large and complex productions because of architectural issues (but that’s irrelevant for 99% of its users)
It’s also not good for beginners for many reasons. The first is that it’s complex, as it aims to be a full featured professional tool. The second is that it’s weird, and does things differently from the rest of the industry. Its inheritance-based node structure was considered obsolete in the 2000s by the rest of the industry, yet Godot still uses it. They’ve hybridized it to introduce composition, which salvages it somewhat, but it still is a bad design with well-known pitfalls.
GDScript is a shitty attempt to copy Python, and it lacks a lot of what a modern programming language has. It also is integrated into the editor in odd ways, like the Qt-esque “signals and slots” system (which is controversial even in Qt). It’s designed around OOP, yet it blurs the lines between whar an object is and what a module is, which is extremely odd.
I’m not trying to shit on Godot. Like I said, it has its strengths, and for certain types of games and team compositions it is the perfect choice. But it should NOT be recommended to beginners.
…IMO
I’d hate to try making a Zelda-like game in something like Pygame.
I gather that you’re struggling to understand how Python modules work, based on how you explained Pygame. You are not supposed to write your whole game in a single python file.
Also, you can make use of tools like Tiled, Ogmo, etc to create levels and load them in Pygame or Love2D. You can even embed scripts or data onto entities within those level editors. You could even use Blender if you wanted to, either by writing a custom exporter (in Python), or hijacking one of the existing ones.
You can go very far without a full IDE like Godot has, especially if you’re creative.
Godot. You could try to see if Godot 3 will work better than Godot 4.
Godot 3 is a bit older but still is getting fixes and some new features. (long term support driven by community)
Godot is a cult
Consider Defold: https://defold.com/
You can try pico-8 for free just missing some features https://www.pico-8-edu.com/
Great way to have a play around and develop some simple games, and you get to get your feet wet with spriting, programming, level making, music. Lots of good tutorials available online too.
Probably not what you are looking for, but I think a great place to start is Pico-8, there is an education version, but it only costs $15 to start making games in Lua with the real version on your machine. Although it’s very limited (think like Game Boy color games) you will learn a lot of the basics, there’s 1000’s of games you can look at the code of, and a good community and learning resources.
It’s a quick easy way to get started in game creation, and if you’re new to programming it will be a while before you run out of challenges.
Like a number of commenters have said, it depends on what type of games you want to make - Pico-8 is limited, deliberately.
That’s very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Certainly it’s not something I will ever use but it’s neat to know it exists.
If you’re looking for SUPER simple: https://scratch.mit.edu/
godot, though there are some others specialized for specific types of games if you have a genre in mind
It depends. What kind of game are you looking to create?
If you know a bit of Python then Godot is a good place. It’s GDScript is very similar.
Godot is an open source game engine that is rising after Unity keeps shooting themselves in the foot with price changes and pricing structure changes.
That’s hard to say without knowing your background. If you know your way around a programming language already, simply using a library or framework for that particular language might be the easiest solution for you. If you have no background in programming, simpler tools might work better, such as fusion 2.5 or other purely visual programming apps. If you have a decent understanding about algorithms without a preference for a specific language, dedicated engines such as Godot might work best.
Making your own engine is always free. But not very easy.
What kind of game are you trying to make?
