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[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Okay, as a simple commitment to the community I'd like to start a list of software (excluding Compiler's and IDE's) for beginning indie developers, that is either free or available for a relatively low price. Currently it's just a list of few titles that came to my mind, but please post cuggestions to this list, so we can make it as complete as possible!
Graphics

2D Graphics

GIMP
Website : http://www.gimp.org/
License : GNU GPL
Platforms : Cross-platform

The most famous free image manipulation program. Although powerful and extensible, many people criticize it for a unintuitive and clumsy interface. Still it is the best thing you can get for free.

GIMPShop
Website : http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294 (Windows version
License : GNU GPL
Platforms : Cross-platform

A praiseworthy project of upgrading the GIMP interface to modern standards, in this case making the interface look more like Adobe Photoshop.

Pixel image editor
Website : http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294 (Windows version)
License : Commercial (39$)
Platforms : Cross-platform

This may be a rising star to provide a cheap alternative for Adobe Photoshop.

Inkscape
Website: http://www.inkscape.org/
License: GNU GPL
Platforms: Cross-platform

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

mtPaint
Website: http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/
License: GNU
Platforms: Windows/Linux

mtPaint is a powerful paint program designed for pixel artists.  Supports animated gifs, too.

Pixen
Website: http://opensword.org/Pixen/
License: MIT License
Platforms: Mac OS X

Pixen is an innovative graphics editor for the Mac. It's designed from top to bottom for pixel artists.

Paint.NET
Website : http://www.getpaint.net/
License : MIT License
Platforms : Windows (.NET)

A powerful alternative to Windows Paint, unfortunately requiring the .NET platform.

3D Graphics

Blender
Website : http://www.blender.org/
License : GNU GPL
Platforms : Cross-platform

The only free alternative for a commercial 3D application. While it has a clumsy interface and is years behind such programs as 3DS Max, it is the only reasonable way to do any 3D art for free.

Milkshape
Website : http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/
License : Commercial (25$)
Platforms : Windows

A popular model editor. Exports and imports many formats, and allows lowpoly editing with the vertex and face control.

gameSpace
Website : http://www.caligari.com/gamespace/
License : Commercial (299$)
Platforms : Windows

A stripdown of trueSpace aimed at game developers. It has a fully functional "Lite" version with export only to the .x format, and restriction on polygon count available for free.

Wings 3D
Website : http://www.wings3d.com/
License : BSD license
Platforms : Cross-platform

A low to medium mesh modeller. The interface may seem quite clumsy, especialy to windows users.

Terragen
Website : http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
License : Commercial ($99)
Platforms : Windows and Mac

A very powerful scenery generator. Especialy useful for creating skyboxes. Free version with limited output resolution for non-commercial purposes is available.

Sound/Music

Anvil studio
Website : http://anvilstudio.com/
License : Freeware/Commercial enhancement
Platforms : Windows

A great tool for creating MIDI files.

Audacity
Website : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
License : GNU GPL
Platforms : Cross-platform

A free digital audio editor.

sfxr
Website : http://www.cyd.liu.se/~tompe573/hp/project_sfxr.html
License : Open Source
Platforms : Win32

DrPetter's simple, easy-to-use retro sfx generator!

ModPlug Tracker
Website : http://www.modplug.com/
License : GNU GPL
Platforms : Windows

A brilliant free tracker for MOD/IT/XM and other formats.

Musagi
Website : http://www.cyd.liu.se/~tompe573/hp/project_musagi.html
License : Freeware
Platforms : Win32

DrPetter's awesome music editor/synthesizer.

PXTone
Website : http://buzinkai.net/PXTone/tutorial/
License : Freeware
Platforms : Win32

Music editor by Pixel of Cave Story fame!

Development

Project Control

DevjaVu
Website : http://www.devjavu.com/
License : Commercial ($50/mo, $20/mo)
Platforms : Cross-platform

Free ninja-powered project hosting with Subversion and Trac, maintained by our beloved admin, Jeff Lindsay.

Subversion
Website : http://subversion.tigris.org/
License : Apache/BSD Style
Platforms : Cross-platform

A popular Revision/Version Control system, a good alternative for CVS.

Text Editing

Notepad ++
Website : http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
License : GPL
Platforms : Cross-platform

Easy-to-use and powerful Notepad replacement.  Probably the last text editor you'll ever need.

[Terry]

Excellent list - the only thing I would add is (maybe) GraphicsGale

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Excellent list - the only thing I would add is (maybe) GraphicsGale

Ummm... is there a English version? If not, then it hardly can be considered a NEWBIE tool, exept for those who know the language :/

[Akhel]

Ummm... is there a English version?

http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/index.html Upper right corner.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

For convenience and speed sake, please include the following things when proposing an entry : Name, Website, License, Platforms and a sentence or two about the program .

[nihil]

Inkscape
Website: http://www.inkscape.org/
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Platforms: MS Windows (NT/2000/XP), All POSIX (Linux/BSD/UNIX-like OSes), Linux, Mac OS X

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.


Pixen
Website: http://opensword.org/Pixen/
License: MIT License
Platforms: Mac OS X

Pixen is an innovative graphics editor for the Mac. It's designed from top to bottom for pixel artists.

[ravuya]

For Windows systems (and soon Mono-capable machines), Paint.NET is a very capable image tool.

Mappy (WIN) is a powerful tool for laying out tile maps of every description.

Campaign Cartographer (WIN) makes obscenely gorgeous RPG-style maps which look good for menu backgrounds and whatnot.

TortoiseSVN is a good SVN client for Windows that integrates with the Explorer shell. There's also a prototype version for Mac OS X that also works well, but is incomplete.

gMAX (Windows) is a crippled version of 3D Studio Max which allows you to create game content for a limited collection of games -- if you have a loader ready, you could conceivably use this to build content for your own 3D games.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

nihil, I added your entries. ravua -- added Paint.Net. As for the others, maybe I should create a mapping category? Tortoise is already covered by SVN (it is linked from their page). As for gMAX it's unfortunately not sold anymore .

[ravuya]

Hmm, but gmax is still available from the Turbo Squid site, it appears. It was always free, IIRC.

DelEd is a 3D level editor, a lot like UnrealEd or Valve's Hammer.

[moi]

Gile{s}  (Global illumination editor) is a lightmapper. It's  very specialized tool but what it does it does it very well. You can't create 3D model, just import models, place them in the scene, add lights and compute lightmaps for the models.
But it's a really good tools if you want to use models with static lighting.
IMO the lighting is a bit better than Deled with more flexibility for the export formats and things like that.
Platform : Windows
License : shareware 40€

[lowpoly]

Softimage Mod Tool
License: Non-Commercial
Platform: Windows XP/2K + .NET

Haven't used this myself, but it's basically a stripped down version of the modeling and animation parts of Softimage. Let's you export animated meshes up to 7000 polys, so def enough for characters. Looks to have all the expected crippling as well (watermarks, small render sizes, etc.)

[progrium]

DevjaVu
Free ninja-powered project hosting with Subversion and Trac

Subversion is great, but why waste time setting it up and maintaining it? Plus, you'll get the best web-based project environment there is: Trac. Use it to track todos, bugs, progress, documentation, etc... especially great for teams.

Plus, you can bug me if it sucks.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Gile{s}  (Global illumination editor) is a lightmapper. It's  very specialized tool but what it does it does it very well.
[...]
IMO the lighting is a bit better than Deled with more flexibility for the export formats and things like that.
Platform : Windows
License : shareware 40€

40 euro for a tool that just does lightmaps? Maybe it's just me being poor, but that's a pro level of payment, not indie IMHO :/.

DevjaVu
Free ninja-powered project hosting with Subversion and Trac

Subversion is great, but why waste time setting it up and maintaining it? Plus, you'll get the best web-based project environment there is: Trac. Use it to track todos, bugs, progress, documentation, etc... especially great for teams.

Plus, you can bug me if it sucks.

Oh yeah, I wanted to bug you about it right after I saw it in the self-introduce thread... where's the catch with that one? I'd love to get a non-public SVN repository for my games, but sadly my hosting doesn't allow it... :/.

[progrium]

Right now, our private beta accounts don't have many limitations, but in a couple months when we launch our free accounts will be limited to 3 committers and have ads on public wiki pages. Our premium accounts will include customization, better security, plugins, and all kinds of stuff.

So... no catch, we're just so awesome you'll want to upgrade if you can afford it (which you probably will).

Feel free to request a beta invitation if you haven't already. -goes to check invitations-

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Right now, our private beta accounts don't have many limitations, but in a couple months when we launch our free accounts will be limited to 3 committers and have ads on public wiki pages. Our premium accounts will include customization, better security, plugins, and all kinds of stuff.

Aaah, I thought so :/

So... no catch, we're just so awesome you'll want to upgrade if you can afford it (which you probably will).

You overestimate the budget of a eastern donationware programmer .

Feel free to request a beta invitation if you haven't already. -goes to check invitations-

Just did it.

[portabello]

Here are some pretty good music apps:

Renoise
http://www.renoise.com/
Avaliable for windows and osx
It costs about 50 dollars, but the demo has every feature except for a WAV writer and ASIO support.

Its a really good music tracker with tons of features, not the least of which is vst ans vsti support.  It is constantly being updated and has an active user community.  Highly recomended.

----------------

Milky Tracker
http://www.milkytracker.net
Avaliable for OS X (Universal & PowerPC)
Windows CE (ARM/MIPS/x86 Pocket & Handheld PC, Gizmondo)
Windows (Unicode NT/2K/XP/2K3)
Windows (ANSI 9x/Me)
Solaris9 & 10 (SPARC)
Linux (x86, x86_64, PowerPC, ARM Zaurus, GP2X)
FreeBSD (x86)
Amiga OS 4

Freeware
Its pretty much an updated version of Fasttracker2.  Does a lot of the same stuff as modplug but with an interface like FT2.

----------------------------
adlib tracker 2
http://www.adlibtracker.net/
Avaliable for DOS
Freeware

yet another tracker.  Instead of samples, this one uses the adlib chip found in older soundcards.  It also has the coolest interface ever.  Kind of pointless without the soundcard to go with it or at least someway to emulate it (dosbox vdmsound etc.)

---------------------------

Pure Data
http://puredata.info/
Avaliable for Windows, OSX, GNU/Linux
Open Source!

PD is pretty much a stripped down freeware version of Max/MSP, the popular graphical audio programming environment.  It has a steep learning curve, but once mastered can do pretty much anything.  A good place to start learning PD is http://www.obiwannabe.co.uk/

[progrium]

Pure Data is awesome!!

[Xion]

Excellent list - the only thing I would add is (certainly) GraphicsGale

I second that motion.
GGale is a good, cheaper alternative to...

Pro Motion
Website:http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/
License:Commercial (I guess), $29.95-92.00
Platforms:Windows, I guess. I dunno about others.

It's the ultimate (supposedly) pixel pushing program and is used for many commercial games. Has an extensive list of features and mappable shortcut keys (I believe).

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

I'll update the list as soon as I'm back from the Students Conference.

[Dan MacDonald]

I'm a big fan of Silo 3D for low poly modeling, I guess it does high poly relief mapping and that kid of thing but I never use it.

http://www.nevercenter.com/


Oh and for 3d animation and rigging I really enjoyed Pacemaker (for low cost alternatives)

http://www.goddysey.com/pacemaker.htm