Recently there has been a demand for tools that allow the user to create video games for PC and consoles. Many options have appeared in recent years, and in this article I will describe some of them. I’ll also cover some of the terminology in this topic and provide some alternatives for creating your own games on PC.

Create your own video games for consoles:

The only console system you can currently create games for is Xbox 360. To do so, you must download XNA and join their “Creators Club” for $99.00 per year. XNA has been designed to be fairly easy to use, but some programming experience is required.

Create your own video games for PC:

There are plenty of options if you want to make your own games on PC. The first thing you need to know is the difference between a game engine and a GCS (Game Creation System).

Game Engines:

A game engine is just that, an engine. Little to no tools come with it, so some programming is required. There are many commercial engines available, such as Unreal Engine or CryEngine 2, and almost as many free alternatives. Crystal Space 3D and the Irrlicht Engine are examples of the latter.

GCS:

If you don’t want to mess with any programming, you need a GCS. A GCS packages a game engine along with a variety of tools that can be used to create a game. There are plenty of commercial options, like Torque or Gamestudio, but no comprehensive free or open source alternatives. Delta 3D is one of those options, but you’ll need additional tools to create games with it.

I should also mention that GCS may not be perfect for your particular needs when creating a PC game. As a result, most game developers use many custom tools tailored to their needs. So the best thing to do is to use tools that are specialized in different aspects of game development. You will need a good programming environment, a good image editor, a good sound and music editor, and a good animation modeling studio.

Today’s industry standard modeling and animation studios are 3DS Max and Maya. However, True Space and Blender offer great free alternatives and are backed by large supportive communities. Industry standard image editing programs are Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop, but the free alternatives Gimp and Paint.NET will work just as well. Expensive programs like Cakewalk are used for creating music and sounds, but Audacity is a free alternative. The best free programming environment is Microsoft Visual Studio Express.

Creating video games takes a lot of work, but with the right tools it can be done quite quickly and easily. Now that you know what tools to look for, it should be much easier to find what you need.