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[Annabelle Kennedy]

IDraw Charamaker

OMG someone else who uses this!

i get errors and lose work sometimes but its my favorite pixel program!!

[Kekskiller]

A little program that will keep you awake on late night development:
http://www.grc.com/freeware/clickey.htm

:D

[increpare]

A little program that will keep you awake on late night development:
http://www.grc.com/freeware/clickey.htm

:D

I sometimes use a robotic feedback filter (the i-robot (I think it's called) example from Chuck) at night which gives the key sounds a really scary reverb effects when I type.

[muku]

A little program that will keep you awake on late night development:
http://www.grc.com/freeware/clickey.htm

:D

Oh, man. This just made me think of a little TSR utility I wrote in assembler for DOS back in the day which did exactly this via the built-in speaker. I was armed with nothing else but the DEBUG program which came with DOS at the time, a book about the IBM PC by Peter Norton and Ralph Brown's interrupt list, which I had snatched off the cover disk of some cheap shareware mag. It's pretty amazing to think I figured all that stuff out without the help of something like the Internet. I still remember the sense of accomplishment I got when it finally worked. (insert dreamy-eyed emoticon here) Those were the days... right?

[BlueSweatshirt]

I can't believe no one has suggested FruityLoops yet, at least I haven't seen it.

By the way, what's with the Cave Story guy? 

[GregWS]

OK, so I can't believe no one here seems to know about SketchUp http://sketchup.google.com/

Basically, the best/fastest 3d modeler out there (free/full versions; the only significant thing missing in free is what types of model files the model can be exported too, but there is a work around for this).  It's a phenomenal way to "sketch in 3d," and you really do have to try it out to see what I mean.

It has real-time rendering, and there's a lot of different fully customizable "styles" to render the model in; some make the model look as though it's hand drawn, or painted, or drawn with sharpies, or not "drawn" at all.

In terms of indie game uses, it would be incredible for level design, and you can export "fly through" videos of your model, so an initial cut scene (sorry, no actual animation) of a level could be possible.  I think it would really excel as a way to make pre-rendered graphics (I've done this and it does work), and any low-poly or cubic (boxy stuff) is really really fast, so it's good for that too.

The free version exports videos and images (lots of different file types) but can only export the actual 3d model to .skp (the SketchUp format) and .kmz which is meant for Google Earth, but apparently can be loaded in Blender and then exported to whatever format you need.  So, this work around makes the free version more than adequate.  I think the only reason why the free-version is so fully featured is because Google bought them out awhile ago and can definitely afford to give out software like this; plus, because it's used in the design industry, they likely make quite a bit of subscriptions from companies for commercial use (the free version is meant for non-commercial use only).

SketchUp's got a couple built in tutorials, and unlike most tutorials, they don't suck, so they're worth a try.  Hope you guys like it! 

[hryx]

I second mtPaint, Renoise, and Notepad++.

[moi]

I'm looking for a tool that takes a mockup and breaks it into tiles and save the tiles.
I know there is on in the RGS, but any other options available?
If I had an easy to use tool to make this job it would make my life considerably easier.

[muku]

This isn't specifically a developer tool, but it's incredibly useful for organizing notes etc. It's called bLADE Wiki and it's a Personal Wiki, basically, a Wiki that runs on your desktop. No messing around with hosting or setting up a server. You just need .NET 2.0, but most Windows people probably have that nowadays. There's even a version for Windows Mobile devices that syncs with the desktop version.

I've just installed this yesterday and I already have a couple of pages written up, it's great for jotting down game ideas or basically anything you want to take notes on. I just keep it always running in the system tray and bring it up whenever I need it. Oh, and it's free.

[MekanikDestructiwKommando]

Do all of those image editors do alpha channel transparency? Wondering which one I should download if I just want to do simple (one layer, even) sprites with transparent backgrounds?

[Cagey]

Paint.net does alpha layers. Its what the new MS paint should have been. Otherwise Gimp does almost everything photoshop does, but it has a sharper learning curve.

[dmoonfire]

This isn't specifically a developer tool, but it's incredibly useful for organizing notes etc. It's called bLADE Wiki and it's a Personal Wiki, basically, a Wiki that runs on your desktop. No messing around with hosting or setting up a server. You just need .NET 2.0, but most Windows people probably have that nowadays. There's even a version for Windows Mobile devices that syncs with the desktop version.

I've just installed this yesterday and I already have a couple of pages written up, it's great for jotting down game ideas or basically anything you want to take notes on. I just keep it always running in the system tray and bring it up whenever I need it. Oh, and it's free.

There is also Tomboy which is pretty good for notes. The next release is suppose to really polish up the Windows side of things, but its a CLI (.NET) application also.

Paint.net is a great little application, but I still prefer Gimp.

[muku]

There is also Tomboy which is pretty good for notes. The next release is suppose to really polish up the Windows side of things, but its a CLI (.NET) application also.

I looked at that too, but was under the impression that it's purely a Linux application. In any case, it uses GTK, so it won't sit too well as a Windows program. Apart from that, it does seem very nice.

[Mr.moo]

i'm looking for a simple program to make a platformer/cute em up..

[michael]

cute em up?

[Mr. Yes]

cute em up?

Yes. They typically will consist of a player struggling to hug as many enemies as possible; the hugs will transform those ugly villains into cute little animals. Cute 'em ups are my favorite game genre.

[george]

Found this site today,

http://gamedevelopertools.com/index.php

Seems decently comprehensive if maybe not super deep at the moment, plus they have reviews and ratings.

[Don Andy]

Found this site today,

http://gamedevelopertools.com/index.php

Seems decently comprehensive if maybe not super deep at the moment, plus they have reviews and ratings.

Wow, this site has stuff I googled months for and still didn't find.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

http://icofx.ro/

Just discovered this free icon editor for Windows. I was hoping to use it to change the icon on my Windows EXEs.

Have anyone used this before?
Does anyone recommend any tools for changing the icon on an EXE file?

[Farbs]

Does anyone recommend any tools for changing the icon on an EXE file?

I usually just do it in visual studio via resources. It's a pain in the butt in the version of VS express I have though. I had to create the .rc file by hand.