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[Jimmy273]

ZGameEditor(2/2.5/3D)
Main Website: http://www.zgameeditor.org/
Community: http://www.emix8.org/forum
Tutorials: Links can be found on main page.
Cost: FREE!
Programming Required: Component-Driven
Games of Note: Artificial Nature and Gyro-Phyter Neo

Create games that have a redistributable size of only 64kb or less. The game engine use OpenGL for graphics, and a real time synthesizer for audio.

[hexageek]

I'm having a blast with C# + Monodevelop + Tao Framework

I like that it's cross platform. (I think Xbox360 and Wii are potential platforms too. Unity uses mono and for Xbox only thing needed is a simple OpenGL/DirectX wrapper.)

[Hima]

Programming Engines, Frameworks, and Libraries

Gosu
Main Website:  http://www.libgosu.org/
Tutorials: http://code.google.com/p/gosu/wiki/DocsOverview
Cost: FREE! But if you want to make a commercial game, you have to use SDL_Mixer instead of FMOD.dll, unless you  decide to pay for FMOD.
Games of Note: Gosu Showcase
Programming Required: C/C++, Ruby

DXLib
Main Website:  http://homepage2.nifty.com/natupaji/DxLib/
Tutorials: http://homepage2.nifty.com/natupaji/DxLib/dxlecture_main.html
Cost: FREE! and open source also :D
Games of Note:  BIB2 -the 2nd Syndrome-
                                 Shisei Ryujin
Programming Required : C/C++,C# , D, ActiveBasic, VB.Net, HSP ( Hot Soup Processer )
Note : This is a game programming library that is very popular in Japan. It's very easy to use and powerful as well. I'm working on translating a documentation as well as making a tutorial for it so that English speaking user can use it.

[medieval]

Although it's more an open-source game than a really development-directed engine, I think the BQ Engine definitely deserves a place here, even if just for those who are not aware that it's more than just a game.

Programming Engines, Frameworks and Libraries

BQ Engine
Main Website: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=28.0
Tutorials: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=4023.0
Cost: Free.
Games of Note: Balding's Quest (duh)
Programming Required: Lua

[MrChocolateBear]

Has anyone mentioned LÖVE yet?

LÖVE - 2D Game Engine
Main Website:  http://love2d.org/
Community: http://love2d.org/community
Tutorials: http://love2d.org/documentation
Cost: Free
Programming Required: Lua
Games of Note: None

[Batmanifestdestiny]

I have one to add:

L.in.oleum
main website: http://anywherebb.com/
community: http://anywherebb.com/
Tutorials: http://anywherebb.com/postline/posts.php?t=843
Cost: Free
Programming required: L.in.oleum
Games of Note: Noctis V is being made in Lino(short for the full name).

[Triplefox]

Mentioning haXe again. It's a cross-platform compiler for virtual machines; currently Flash, JS, nekoVM, PHP, with beta C++, and in progress V8, .net and Java targets.

main website: http://haxe.org/
community: http://haxe.org/forum
Tutorials: http://haxe.org/doc
Cost: Free
Programming required: haXe (the language is ECMAScript derived, if you have used JS or AS most of the syntax will translate)
Games of Note: MyMiniCity and MyBrute. Viral success stories, they also demo the cross-platform abilities of haXe pretty well.

It's a very good choice if you want to do high-performance Flash coding, as it has significantly better optimization abilities than the Adobe compiler. (For general purpose use, the type system and fast compiles are great bonuses too.) It's already more than possible to make a finished game. What's missing is the full array of SWF-building options offered in the Adobe toolset; preloaders in Flash 9-10, for example, have proven difficult to get working, but I've seen several solutions to it now. Another year out and it'll probably be a first-rate Flash environment that also compiles to iPhone and Android.

[player2]

What do you guys think would be the most efficient language for coding games with ASCII graphics, like ASCIIpOrtal on the blog, ZZT and MegaZeux lookalikes, etc? I've done some work with DarkBasic and actually completed a game with PlayBasic, but I'd like to try something else. Is FreeBasic any better than the previous two?

I should note I'd rather not work with any of the C languages unless that's hands down the way to go for something like this.

[Gold Cray]

I've played with C# some recently, and it looks like it might have some stuff for handling and formatting text output in a Console easily. It's also simpler than the "C languages." I'd have to spend some more time with it to be sure.

[player2]

I did like what little I explored in C# for some reason, but I'm not an extraordinary programmer by any means, and I became daunted by the tutorial I was working through at the time. I'm not opposed to giving that another shot, but some more opinions will help me here. One of my Ruby-obsessed friends wants to try it in that, but I don't know how effective it would be in this case.

[george]

You could take a look at libtcod, a textmode display library (it uses SDL rather than a console) for C and C++ with wrappers in Python, C# and Lisp.

From what I've seen of Cymon's game and know of ZZT I think libtcod could work for that though working with it might take some getting used to (as it uses cells rather than pixels as its main idiom). I find it (the Python wrapper) pretty easy to use and I'm not a programmer by any stretch. It's designed for roguelikes though so it may have some things you don't want as well. Anyway I recommend it.

[Dataflashsabot]

You have Construct listed with the same description as Flash.

[player2]

You could take a look at libtcod, a textmode display library (it uses SDL rather than a console) for C and C++ with wrappers in Python, C# and Lisp.

From what I've seen of Cymon's game and know of ZZT I think libtcod could work for that though working with it might take some getting used to (as it uses cells rather than pixels as its main idiom). I find it (the Python wrapper) pretty easy to use and I'm not a programmer by any stretch. It's designed for roguelikes though so it may have some things you don't want as well. Anyway I recommend it.

I've been reading through the documentation and the libtcod forums, and it sounds really cool. However, I don't have much of an understanding of the back-end of programming languages, and I can't figure out how to install the Python wrapper. I know - total noob. But that's all right! Can anybody help me out?

[kappa]

the Slick2D library is the way to go for any modern 2d Java game. It gives you access to fast hardware accelerated graphics and sound, easy to use API, great tools and community. As well as being regularly updated.

Language: Java
Main Website: http://slick.cokeandcode.com
Tutorials: http://slick.cokeandcode.com/wiki/doku.php?id=tutorials
Community: http://slick.javaunlimited.net/
Cost: FREE & Open Source (BSD License)
Games of Note: Pending.

[Eraser]

The quote for construct is the quote for Flash...
Might also want to update unity, as it's now free.

[JMickle]

Barkley shut up and jam: gaiden is NOT an rpgmaker game, dammit! 

[kiwi]

I think you should include Qt on that list. It's a nice open source framework which comes with its own IDE -Qt Creator-.
Also it looks cool, it has bindings for OpenGL and it's cross platform.

SDK:http://qt.nokia.com/downloads
Qt Creator: http://qt.nokia.com/products/developer-tools

[cmspice]

Qt is designed for windowed applications. The look is dictated by Qt and the entire programming structure is event based. It allows for the creation of an opengl surface to draw on but one is no better off doing that in Qt than in other framework. If you want your game to look like an old windows game with file, edit, about, help etc at the top and big "submit highscore" button when you win, then consider using Qt.

[Mipe]

Qt is designed for windowed applications. The look is dictated by Qt and the entire programming structure is event based. It allows for the creation of an opengl surface to draw on but one is no better off doing that in Qt than in other framework. If you want your game to look like an old windows game with file, edit, about, help etc at the top and big "submit highscore" button when you win, then consider using Qt.

Stars! remake, anyone? 

[Fugsnarf]

People tend to shy away from or even dismiss Dream Maker (BYOND) completely. Dream Maker is actually an excellent game making program to use for new and advanced users alike.

Not only does it come with built-in online capabilities, you can now package an exe file so that it will run a localized version of BYOND for people that don't want to go through downloading BYOND onto their computer.

Dream Maker is also capable of making anything Game Maker can, except for 3D games, but even psuedo 3D games are possible if you put the effort into it : http://www.byond.com/games/Gakumerasara/Vengeance56 , http://www.byond.com/games/Fugsnarf/ZeldaLinksAwakeningPixelMovement

One reason people would shy away from Dream Maker in the past was that you were always limited to 32x32 "icon" files to use in the map files and for character sprites. That's a thing of the past now. You can now make an icon file of any size and edit them in the editor as well.

BYOND now also supports a built-in isometric system! You can actually make icon files have specifically isometric icon states, and also make the map files into maps made for isometric games. You don't need to do any of the math for displaying the isometric game yourself, like you would for a 3D game : http://www.byond.com/members/DreamMakers?command=view_post&post=85501

Dream Maker and BYOND as a whole has really come a long way. I think it deserves some recognition in the listings