07.20Indie Game Tools - by Dan Goodman
A lot of what gets talked about in the “professional” game development sphere is the high-end high-priced tools or those that were developed internally by a dedicated programmer or team of programmers. Where does this leave the smaller groups that are popping up now, those that are developing primarily for the iPhone or the web?
Luckily, there is a lot of great software out there that is either open source or very cheap, and the very best solutions have risen to the top. Most of us have heard of Blender, Gimp, the Torque Engine and Unity (which includes a $200 “indie” version), and there are a great deal more. Check out IndieGameTools.com for a good list of the best stuff.
While some of these tools are really great, there will always be a need for custom tools, that aren’t very useful to other developers. Smaller developers should consider partnering with a small tools development company or individual contractor. there are a few people out there who are doing this sort of work and banding together can be mutually beneficial. Getting someone experience to help out in this area can give a leg up on the competition, after all, the better the tools, the easier it is to make a great game.
[...] my buddy Darius Kazemi (and originally the IGDA Tools SIG blog, Toolsmiths) – a great site that lists and ranks game dev tools that come with an indie price [...]
July 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Indeed! The small, custom tool can be the most effective weapon in a tools arsenal. I’ve always shied away from large, monolithic tools or systems which purport to solve every problem. Aside from the cost issue, their very size makes them hard to adapt, and you may find that they are fine for 95% of cases, but useless for 5%, and because the large tool requires things to be done in a particular way, it’s very hard to get that last 5% working.
There’s always room for off the shelf solutions though – a flexible build system like JamPlus, or in fact any scripting system. That, coupled with a good collection of clean, well built small tools is I think the best all-round solution. Each tool has a clearly defined role, and if the inputs and outputs are kept simple, then in turn that leads to a clean build pipeline as well, while still leaving ample opportunity for customisation to fit the game’s needs.
Also, to toot our own horn, the ‘custom tool development’ is one of our (Black Company Studios) specialities. We do consulting with larger developers (Microsoft Games Studios and Evolution) on their development partner’s tools/pipelines/process, but we like working with small developers like ourselves who haven’t had a chance to invest heavily in their tools yet. After all, it’s much easier to write good tools from a relatively clean slate, than to try and refactor an existing poor pipeline. We are small and flexible, so we can provide targetted, affordable custom solutions, consulting on pipelines, ready access to all of our own tools and pipeline, and all the expertise we have from working with larger pipelines.
I don’t want to try to put a link in and appear like a spam-bot, but Google for Black Company Studios and you’ll find us; and I’m always happy to hear from other developers who’d like to work with us on tools.
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Thanks for the shout out, IndieGameTools.com continues to grow and as more people find us the database grows stronger. It is fast becoming a useful resource for Indie developers.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:56 am