This page is intended to be a list of resources for hobbyist game developers. I will attempt to keep it somewhat current. If you’re looking for copies of my games to add to your site, please see the Release Chronology tab.

Free Tools

• FlashDevelop IDE- a free development environment for working with .as (actionscript) files
• FlexSDK- you need this to compile actionscript files into a .swf
• GiMP- a free image editor which I like. Supports layers. I’m not aware of anything photoshop can do that this can’t…
• Audacity – free sound editor which I like.
• sfxr – Generates clicks, beeps, and other sound effects

Useful Reference

• AS3 Language and Components Reference- Adobe’s Livedocs which explain AS3. Bookmark this. You need it.
• Programming Actionscript 3 – Helped me a lot with syntax when transitioning from C++. Somehow I got a pdf of the entire document, but I can’t find a link to that file anymore.

Frameworks

I prefer to write my own, but some people have found success using pre-built frameworks.

• Flixel – Very popular AS3 framework, notable for being the engine behind Cannabalt.
• FlashPunk – Newly released on 8 Jan 2010, claims to be optimized for bitmap graphics

Engines

Again, to the extent I use physics I tend to roll my own, and I haven’t attempted anything in 3d, but if you need a library here’s what’s out there.

• Box2D – Highly popular 2d physics engine. See Emanuele Feronato’s site for implementation tutorials if you need help.
• Papervision3D – 3D library for flash.. the frontpage example is pretty neat.

Multiplayer Solutions

• PlayerIO – White-label variant of Nonoba multiplayer API

Free Graphics

• Renier’s Tileset - Rendered Isometric Sprites and 3d Meshes.
• Open Game Art- Becareful you understand that some open source licenses will require you to release your source code…
• LostGarden – Several high quality sprite sheets, and a blog that’s worth reading
• Explosion Generator – Creates animated explosions
• First Seed Material – Click ‘English’ at the top right if you can’t read Japanese.

Distribution, Advertisement, Licensing

• Mochiads – Company which provides many free services to Flash game developers in exchange for placing ads in your game
• FlashGameLicense – Marketplace for finding a sponsor for your Flash game… also has a distribution arm
• Thumbnail Generator - Rapidly creates thumbnail images

Forums which I lurk in frequently

• Mochiads
• Indiegamer

(Last edit 30 May 2010)

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