1. Programming

In regard to programming, you need a simple ASCII text editor and a compiler. For the compiler, GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) is certainly the most popular and supports a wide variety of architectures and operating systems. Developed for the GNU project is a suite of compilers from the command line (with Makefile), but there are also IDE (1) like KDevelop (GNU / Linux) or Dev C + + (Windows). The supported languages are C, C + +, Objective C, Fortran, Java, and Ada. Native code for the Windows port of GCC is MinGW.

GCC website: gcc.gnu.org.

The text editor can be any text editor that can save plain text (ASCII), with syntax of preference: Emacs, VIM, etc.

2. Graphics and 3D modeling

To create textures and other 2D images of your game, free software and multi-platform design and editing digital images that you need is The Gimp. You can find it on gimp.org.

Regarding the 3D modeling, with Blender is that you must do it! Although its interface is a bit austere at first glance, it remains a powerful 3D creation software. See blender.org.

Other 3D modeling software free Wings3D. It is more “simplistic” and that Blender does not support animations, but is easy to take over. For small jobs, for example. wings3d.com.

3. Level Design

For the creation of level, there is no real software “generalist.” For some games you can use GtkRadiant (qeradiant.com/?data=editors/gtk), or in the model in Blender and then converting them into a format specific to your game otherwise you will have develop your own editing tools level.

4. Soundscape

There are several audio editing software free:

* Audacity: GNU / Linux, Mac OS X, Windows – audacity.sourceforge.net.

* Ardor: GNU / Linux, Mac OS X – ardour.org.

* Ecasound: all UNIX-like, Windows (via Cygwin) – wakkanet.fi/ ~ kaiv / ecasound.

5. Documentation

The documentation is also important, especially for free software. It is preferable therefore to document the tools that you have developed to make conversions / compilations between different file formats. You can also document the code’s own game if another team wants to take over and modify it, or simply for other programmers on your team.

The Free Software Foundation has also created a free license for everything related to the documentation: the FDL (Free Documentation License). It is also a license under copyleft, therefore any product has to keep the same license. An unofficial French adaptation is available on wikipedia.org/wiki/FDL.

6. Game Engines

There is already a multitude of engines and free game engines graphics that you can (re) use. Among them:

* Ogre 3D, which is written in C + + and licensed under LGPL, a derivative of the GPL (ogre3d.org).

* Crystal Space 3D, also in C + + and under LGPL (crystal.sourceforge.net).

* Quake II, which the source code of the game (C) rose fully GPL Quake I as above (but less relevant) (idsoftware.com).

* Irrlicht, License Open Source project-specific and written in C + +. Not MacOS version (irrlicht.sourceforge.net/).