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tools-list

Tools HTML

Open source, experimental, and tiny tools roundup

This is a list of small, free, or experimental tools that might be useful in building your game / website / interactive project. Although I’ve included ‘standards’, this list has a focus on artful tools and toys that are as fun to use as they are functional.
The goal of this list is to enable making outside of closed production ecosystems or walled software gardens.

NEW — I’ve built a web interface for sorting through the tools!

Visit at; tinytools.directory
All additions to the list should now go through the website, which takes submissions from this handy form. (I will still be updating the following markdown list with changes, but it may be behind the web interface.)

Table of Contents

  • Games-focused tools

    • Game Engines:

      •   <li>
    <a rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" href="#Fantasy-consoles">Fantasy consoles</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" href="#Game-Engine-extenders">Game Engine extenders</a>:</p> <ul dir="auto">
      <li>
        <a rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" href="#Neat-Unity-Extenders">Neat Unity Extenders</a>
      </li>
      <li>
        <a rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" href="#Neat-Godot-Extenders">Neat Godot Extenders</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  
  <li>
    <a rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" href="#Maps-place-levels">Maps, place, & levels</a>
  </li>
</ul>
    • Making “assets” – images, models, sound, video

      Games-focused tools:

      Game Engines:

      Tiny/weirdo game engines:

      Game engines that let you make a full game, but often within a particular style, ethos, framework, or with other limitations. Generally quick to pick up and work with, made for accessibility.

      • Flickgame – A truly tiny engine, link frames to other frames. Share online or export.
      • Flickgame Import – A Flickgame hack that allows you to import external images.
      • Flickgame Dither – Flickgame hack with different textured/dithered brushes.
      • GB Studio – A drag and drop gameboy interface that lets you do some scripting. Export to html or an actual gameboy rom!
      • Bitsy – Bitsy is a simple sprite-based editor that lets you build rooms & worlds. Walk around and talk to people and be somewhere. Has a strong community.
      • Borksy – Bitsy with hacks built-in.
      • Bitsy HD – Bitsy at double the size.
      • bitsy hacks – Hacks that extend the functionality of bitsy in various ways.
      • bitsy mixer template – Hacks that extend the functionality of bitsy in various ways.
      • Flicksy – A tool for drawing and assembling graphical hypertext games – lets you import drawings!
      • Mosi – Similar to bitsy, but with more color & sound support, and more advanced scripting options.
      • Bravitzlana – A tool for making small interactive scenes (3d! kind of) that you can share with people.
      • PuzzleScript – An open source, HTML5 puzzle-game oriented editor.
      • Dungeonscript – Puzzlescript, but first person
      • RPG Paper Maker – An extremely cute jrpg-focused engine that lets you place flat sprites in a 3d world. (free, but $70 if you sell your game commercially)
      • Flatgames – Flatgames tutorial – as much a concept as a tool (2d, a raw combination of movement, art and sound.
      • Flatpack – Flatpack bundles Flatgame ideas up into a tool that you can import into Unity or run on Android.
      • Tiny Game Maker – For small, one screen games without programming.
      • Kooltool – An experimental game making tool which has Kidpix vibes.
      • The Unfolding Game Engine – One to watch (in early access right now). A “paint a world” engine that lets you make your world while playing it. 2.5d.
      • Multiverse – Not out yet – a storytelling and game making tools/game.
      • Bitmelo – A game editor and engine for making small pixel art games. In early access, exports to HTML5.
      • Sok Worlds – ($3) A truly wild game/tool where you make and explore 3d collage worlds (images from the pixabay API, but there are over a million to choose from.).
      • Sok Stories – ($3) A drawing-based way to make and share games.
      • Wick – Also an animation program, a friendly flash-like for multimedia projects that allows interaction and game-like play.
      • Unicorn Console – A “a quick and dirty engine … with a resolution of 400×240 pixels.”
      • Vipercard – An open source reimagining of 1987’s Hypercard.
      • Twine – An open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories. Has a big community and multiple versions and themes.
      • Choicescript – Like Twine, but for more traditional CYOA gamebooks-with-stats. Tight community on the forums.
      • Tiny Choice – The tiniest of twine-likes, written in the browser.
      • Inform – A design system for interactive fiction which has been around for a while!
      • Ink – A narrative engine designed to slot into a game engine.
      • StudyCrafter – A scratch-like platform where you can play, share, and create interactive projects, on the browser or offline, and collect data from players.
      • Inklewriter – The “baby” Ink, runs in browser and great for CYOA, same UI as Sorcery!
      • The Adliberum Engine – (Free but on Steam, early access) Make text adventures, muds and text-powered roleplaying games.
      • Yarn Spinner – The friendly tool for writing game dialogue.
      • Cheap Bots Done Quick – A site where you can make a twitterbot today.
      • Visual Pinball – A pinball making engine.

      Indie/open source bigger game engines:

      Indie and open source game engines with more flexibility and power than the little engines above, and generally also another layer of complication. (Perhaps most useful if you are concerned about free but closed-source engines like Unity.)

      • Superpowers – HTML5 2d + 3d engine, coding in Typescript.
      • HaxeFlixel – Cross-platform development, open source
      • Godot – Perhaps the most complete and well documented open source engine, for 2d and 3d.
      • Heaps – A free and open source cross platform graphics engine written in Haxe.
      • DOME – A framework for making 2D games using the Wren programming language.
      • luxe – In development: a 2d-focused engine, code in Wren.
      • LITIENGINE – A free and open source Java 2D Game Engine.
      • Starling – A Cross Platform Game Engine.
      • LÖVR– An open source framework for rapidly building VR experiences in Lua.
      • Ren’Py – Free, open source cross-platform Visual Novel development engine.
      • Adventure Game Studio – Free engine for making point & click adventure games.
      • Phaser.io – Desktop and mobile HTML5 game framework, using javascript.
      • Pixelbox.js – Combination editor and a simple JavaScript library.
      • Amulet – A free Lua-based audio/visual toolkit suitable for small games and experimentation, with online editor.
      • nCine – An open source cross-platform 2D game engine with an emphasis on performance.

      Fantasy consoles:

      A fantasy console is like a regular console (machine specs, dev tools, community), but without hardware. It is like an emulator for a machine that never existed. Generally, these are in the form of an application.

      • Pico8 – ($15) Probably the most popular fantasy console for game dev, pico8 has harsh limitations but that are intentionally chosen. Code is written in lua. Export to standalone HTML+JS or PNG (a fantasy cartridge).
      • Tic-80 – Coding in lua and moonscript. export to html or .tic.
      • Pixel Vision 8 – (Free, pro version is $30) A no-console fantasy computer, navigate like the familiar icon-based desktops you know.
      • LIKO-12 – Entirely open-source and free, written in Lua. The dev says: “Why did I develop this? Because I wanted to buy PICO-8 but that’s not possible without credit cards (no internet shopping in Syria)”.
      • Pix64 – An extremely tiny fantasy console (64×64 px).
      • Homegirl Pro – A fantasy console with a very different vibe! This one…


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