The Best Game Developer Tools (ULTIMATE List To Start A Game Studio!)

What tools exactly do you need to start an indie game studio, and at that, a thriving one?
► Learn how to become a full time game dev, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-i...
► Enroll in my 3D workshop, free!: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-i...
► Make your game instantly beautiful with my free workbook: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-i...
► Get my 2D game kit, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-i...
► Join my 2D character workshop, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-i...
► Wishlist Twisted Tower: store.steampowered.com/app/15...
► Learn how to make money as a KZbinr: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-i...
► What I believe: • What I Believe
Chapters
Intro 00:00
Core Software 00:30
The Ultimate Game Dev Course 01:30
Core Software Continued 02:35
Websites 03:43
Business Tools 06:15
Marketing Tools 08:11
Cheating 12:15
The Ultimate Game Dev Course Reminder 15:15
Recommended Books on Audible
Think and Grow Rich
How To Win Friends and Influence People
Unleash The Power Within
Traffic Secrets
Entreleadership
The Bible In A Year
The Go Giver
How To Write Copy That Sells
Launch by Jeff Walker
The 80/20 Principle
Crushing It!
The Millionaire Next Door
The Power of Habit
Next Generation Leader
12 Rules For Life

[@thomasbrush]

POLL (COMMENT BELOW): If you had to pick ONE tool that you spend the MOST of your time using during your game dev journey, what would it be! Comment below. My vote is Audible! ► Learn how to become a full time game dev, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-how-to-make-six-figures ► Enroll in my 3D workshop, free!: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-15-minute-3D-game ► Make your game instantly beautiful with my free workbook: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-instant-beauty-color-workbook ► Get my 2D game kit, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-2D-game-kit ► Join my 2D character workshop, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-2d-character-art-workshop ► Wishlist Twisted Tower: store.steampowered.com/app/1575990/Twisted_Tower/ ► Learn how to make money as a KZbinr: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-indie-game-income-workshop

[@fkhg1]

i would like to purchase the course, but only the part from Jason because i already have your course

[@THE_C0MEDY]

Rider from jetbrains. It is way more fun to use than visual studio. Plus if you are a student you can get it for free

[@Mrjononotbono]

Unity 😂

[@silvanojr85]

Hi Thomas! Thanks for the awesome video! Blender for sure, since I am a 3D Artist.

[@jdat2020a]

KZbin.

[@RogerTheil]

REALLY love how many advice videos you've been putting out lately. You're the best on KZbin at these videos.

[@specterent]

I was considering the Ultimate Game Dev Course and realizing my dreams, then I saw the price tag and realized some dreams are better to let go than have to take a loan against my house to achieve. Joking aside, the price tag is too steep for me and my situation, but I love your advice videos and enjoy all of them.

[@Mythiosss]

I know it's a bit late but you can self learn everything mate with a lot of work and efforts with courses I never saw any results but since I started to work and play around the engine by myself I learnt and remembered better than using tutorials/courses so don't give up yet and believe in yourself

[@naturestudioz9738]

I just wanted to say that this is the best video you have done, from the effects to the humor. I also wanted to say that i learned some stuff from this video. Keep up the great work Thomas!

[@dischodave]

Just to add to this, there are free alternatives to a few of the programs mentioned. Krita/GIMP as a photoshop replacement, Blender has video editing too. Maybe not as user-friendly as Premier but would do in a pinch. Not to undermine the recommendations or anything, just adding a few more to the mix. :)

Indeed, Krita is quite useful My artists use it instead of Gimp and Photoshop.

[@LTMenezes]

Da Vinci is free and very user friendly

[@itsArridian]

Kdenlive is the goat of video editing, Da Vinci is good for powerful computers

[@Atomic2153]

Davinci resolve is a great free video editor. They have a payed version but you really don’t need it unless your like a full movie studio

[@greatfruit3509]

If I had to choose a tool to use 60% of the time then I would choose Aseprite. I already use it almost constantly while developing my game cause it is a very well made and helpful pixel art tool. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to make a pixelated game.

[@Atharv0812]

I really appreciate the editing of this video.great work!!

[@blackivy011]

You’re really spitting out the videos lately! Thanks man. Really love your videos and appreciate you. I’m pretty experienced at this point with Game Dev but I still like seeing how you compile all the steps into these videos lol. I’d love to see more of those podcast videos with other game devs like you were doing before! I’m sure they don’t get you the views, but I’m telling you they’re soooo valuable to people like me who have already been doing game dev for a while and want to learn what kind of strategies other successful game devs are utilizing. Also, I use Unreal engine over Unity and I’d LOVE to see you make a review video on UE to see what you think of it over Unity. Thank you as always Thomas.

[@LordBete]

You can also use Ableton, Cubase, FL Studio, Studio One and many others for music production on windows

[@Amiro05]

The thomas in the background is a great addition 😂 Great video!

[@Hueventure]

I am 100% on the creator suite, g Suite tools, etc. I'm building my first game now, but when I was doing just art stuff, I wish I had taken the time to notice and understand these tools built around social media, basic web, and marketing. Because they are free websites and platforms we think about the post fast and get rich fast ways of doing things, but these creator components aren't really new. They've been sitting there for awhile now and mainly to aid in making our post and marketing more business like. Now I post on FB and Insta cross post in creator suite only instead of individually. Ty, all of this stuff is great advice.

[@punnynewsgamereviews4425]

very useful! Music has always been a bit of an issue for me, which I find particularly important in establishing the immersive atmosphere and feel of the game

[@Benji-Lindz]

That 1080 music is going to be stuck in my head the rest of the day. Amazing.

[@dreamisover9813]

Awesome video idea! The Satisfactory devs had a long video on their channel channel too about which tools they use. You asked per mail what tool we'd use if we had to spent 60% of our times with it. For me, that's easily Unity. I mainly use Unity and Visual Studio Community. I haven't dived into animation or art a lot, so most music, textures, models and animations I use are from online assets. I also have audacity and Blender installed for rare cases where I need them, but then they are super handy. For version control I use git with SourceTree as graphical user interface

[@BalaStudio]

Thank you so much Thomas. You are absolutely great

[@TamashiiRyu]

Tom, you're on fire man. Forward, always!

[@shawnburke4347]

Thanks for all the GREAT INFO. It's nice to know tidbits that get from 0 to Hero.

[@jaulloa21]

I think making games is ok to amazing but at the same time. Alot of ppl coming in are naive and dont know what the hell they're trying to make. Simply playing a fun game, gives the reward they're after at the moment.

[@xtexasredx6051]

Gotta give cred for the editing here, was on point! Thanks for the tips

[@rmt3589]

This is amazing! Overpowered! I'll probably swap out some of these for my own choices, but having a list of what & why I need is amazing! Will probably use Adobe and Sonic Pi for making music, garage band if I really need it. I also use Unsplash for a ton of art stuff as it is, though I'll check into these others.

[@SuPeRNinJaRed]

Thomas I didn't know you were a CINCO celery man too! LOADING... TAYNE

[@ThunderPlayStudios]

the video i never knew I need

[@ruupsel12]

Great video man i learned a lot!

[@shinyPikachux]

Some alternative softwares: Krita or Gimp for Photoshop. Davince Resolve for Premier. Another option for music production is FL Studio, Reaper, or Cakewalk. FL has varying purchase tiers, Reaper is $60, and Cakewalk is free. After trying to figure out what I wanted to use to learn how to make music, and compairing all the other DAWs (Digital Audio Workspace), I ended up choosing FL. It was a little more expensive, I think I got the $200 tier, but you get all updates to the software for free and there are a bunch of tutorials you can find for it. Reaper looked like it would work, but I didn't like it enough to justify not choosing it, and Cakewalk... Works, but it's an older software and in using it for a month I felt like a snail trying to do the most basic things in it, but it does work.

[@jojobrojoe593]

yay Krtia supporter I use that too but

[@dragonwarriorz1]

LMMS is another cool free music program / DAW

[@h0sti1e17]

Fairlight inside Resolve is also a great audio tool and I prefer it to Audacity.

[@newcamelot8841]

very good video lots of good info as all ways

[@Husmanmusic]

Dude this ad read is brilliant! Haha had me lol

[@supertenchoo4271]

I like that "stop me! it wasn't me" by the way great video

[@daviddeneui6424]

Great water-themed music in this video👏🏻

[@colonelb]

Googling all the time is common for all software development, not just game dev, so anyone getting into programming should set their expectations appropriately. Programming has this reputation of being some precise, engineering, logical discipline and NOTHING could be further from the truth. Programming is like finding an abandoned school bus full of drunk 4 year olds on acid and trying to figure out where they all live so you can take them home. It's a sheer miracle that any software works at all ever. Source: am a senior programmer and architect w/ 25+ years' experience in C++, C# and web technologies that makes HR software for a fortune 1000 company.

[@VanessaDegarmo]

If I had the money I would absolutely get the ultimate course! I am just so broke living paycheck to pay check. I hope you guys have another one like this in the future after I find a way to get $1,000.

[@nickabbath6485]

Hey Thomas! Which tipps would you have for an indie game developer creating 2d horror game? Love your work, it inspires me so much in my journey! Thank you!

[@appdev7864]

Every like is a kiss for this man

[@jamesbushnell4513]

I would use square space if I had to use a tool you recommend for 60% of my time. I actually really like the setup and the customization.

[@rakeshkulaye]

Thank you, Thomas.

[@chadmoberly7044]

Love this... not only the tools but dude, the word of advice at the end. Am I actually scared of learning/applying code? Or am I using that to justify procrastinating? Appreciate your time making this video 🎮

[@RioTFF]

Like the water temple theme. 🌊

[@mordicai4296]

I was about to throw my phone against the wall when I hear square space! 😂 I’m a web dev, and I agree. Don’t waste time with html, css, & JavaScript.

[@JaRew]

I love hearing that DKC music in the background lol

[@AstraGamesStudios]

I loved the video! Thank you so much! I can't express how grateful i am for you and your channel! Btw, what do you think about Unreal? Should i use it? Maybe you could make a video?! 🤞thanks!

[@annogaming9535]

Hello Thomas! I can recommend mailerlite as alternative to mailchimp! And the tool I would use the most is Godot. Affinity Designer for vector art is also very nice because it is subscription free (one time cost) and a bit more premium than InkScape, from what I have tested atleast. AVS Video and Audio Editor are also ok. Lastly notepad++ if you cannot use Word.

[@DeathCloudGames]

That Thomas Brush interruption killed me.

[@BaseRealityVR]

Video comedy editing masterclass 🤣

[@mwn02]

That Thomas Brush in the background tho 😂😂😂

[@rubenrodrigues7903]

What do you use for animation I saw some videos where you use spine but there is no mention of it here, are you using just unity for all animations and dropped spine?

[@joantonio6331]

Love the donkey Kong music in the background

[@chartypeplays2396]

"Your greatest risk as a game developer...has everything to do with you getting in the way of yourself." Oof, I felt that.

[@Andrew-wm7kk]

The fact that you played celery man tells me that you indeed have the highest taste of comedic humour one can possibly achieve

[@TrySomeCG]

hi Thomas, great video man, i was wondering if you plan to split your course like technical gamedev part and marketing part and sell them separately? i would love to buy a marketing only course from you

[@QueenDoot]

I’m loving the Donkey Kong music lol

[@GemTappX]

Some killer software that I use for my studio that are not in the video include: MUSIC: ableton live 10, SOUND DESIGN AND EFFECTS: Adobe Audition, Sfxr. GRAPHICS: Aseprite, Adobe Illustrator.

[@cameroncollins4123]

We need more monitors of you in the background doing stuff!

[@PrinceOfLostKingdom841]

Wow, Iceberg of game dev? that cool

[@tastysnak]

If I had to choose a tool that I'm FORCED to use 60% of the time while I work on my game, it would have to be git. Collaboration aside, it has been a lifesaver on multiple occasions. Being able to easily revert a project back to a previous version is a godsend!

[@nuvotion-live]

Can you imagine development before git? I can’t. It’s like water. Essential for life as a dev.

[@tastysnak]

@@nuvotion-live So much hard drive space saved too, and no more final_version, final_version2, the_real_final_verion, etc.

[@domagojbenko5162]

ue4/5,blender,gimp cascadeur are the ones I use the most for game dev they are amazing

[@its_drjenkins]

I love how TV Thomas is just having a seizure in the background the whole time 😂😂😂

[@lemied23]

I don't use audacity a whole lot, but in my opinion it's dark mode looks alot better than the default skin

[@uncleg1214]

Im suprised you didnt mention the top most used software for indie dev, for me 60 % of my time im in Blender, Reallusion Character Creator 4, Zbrush and Iclone . But its mostly Blender which is becoming more and more a multipurpose all in one software. Not forgetting Krita a photoshop killer.

[@RogerTheil]

The water temple music is pretty appropriate for the marketing section

[@kevinhowlett7126]

Other good cheap to free audio software you can use in Windows include Reaper, Tracktion Waveform, and FL Studio. FL Studio possibly the best, but that one's $200 (includes lifetime updates tho). And Fmod is good for getting sounds into Unity. As for source control, Plastic SCM is awesome and integrated with Unity.

[@ZAPcon]

also i love how background you gets bored and decides to cut up some candy lmao

[@aaronasissoard1098]

15:02 man I felt this 😢

[@koncreate8744]

Davinci resolve is great choice for free video editor which is a industry standard for color grading. Another great professional grade music/audio editor is LMMS which is Open-source 100% free available for windows mac and Linux.

[@Jay_Frank]

5:10 DOGGO. I had to re watch this segment. Doggo distracted me lol

[@RockyMulletGamedev]

6:47 hahaha the gatekeepers need to be called out for sure.

[@uncleyoyo1]

I would use Aseprite, very good pixel art tool. I used it to make animations for people to say thank you for helping me out!

[@SuPeRNinJaRed]

Is title FATHER back on? I saw that you mentioned you did a poll for the name change in your last video is that still on?? No pressure, just wondering ;)

[@THE_C0MEDY]

Rider > visual studio if you can get the free license.

[@frmtheden]

Use Abelton if you only have Windows, If you buy a smaller Novation Keyboard it comes with the Lite Version of Abeltonand it is more than capable of making music for your games. If you want an example of what you can make with Lite version of Abelton All the music on my KZbin was done with Abelton Lite.

[@SquareGlade]

The newer M1 macs run Unity and all of the other tools with comparable performance to gaming PCs. Just saying if you are a game developer and are used to macs (as I am) you can go with them and be fine. Mac is not advised for screen capturing/streaming, etc. though which is would also be pretty handy if you are an indie game developer.

[@Jiggles-ninjapoofgames]

I think I missed the assignment but if I was forced to use a tool 60% of the time it would be either fullscreen a awesome editor asset or grabbit another awesome tool

[@FlameOfInsanity]

I started using PlasticSCM for unity source control, and I use aseprite for my pixel art. Also, I spent half of the video watching Monitor Thomas lol

[@hfg16]

Love ur vibes 😂

[@dannybrat3127]

Since the unity crash, what game engine should I use?

[@sufianahmad7337]

What are your machine specs? Please make a video on hardware also 🙏🙏

[@nerdzmasterz5417]

I'm surprised an indie wouldn't spend 60% of the time working on the game. Some of the tools mentioned also sound helpful, thanks.

[@CatDribble]

stable diffusion can be used for free for ai art, plus it kinda does better then the rest

[@MYNKS18]

Thomas needs sponsorship, hey turbisquid and unity asset store! What are waiting for! Show some love❤️

[@ignitedcms1288]

Most definitely need some music / song production course skipper. 👍

[@09mrbubbles]

I'm finding it difficult to find out what are the industry standard tools for communicating game design. Are they Miro, Figma, something else, or am I way off even with these?

[@jkvanen]

Holy zit i would have never thought that i actually have been using many of these few years while been self-learning everything :D good to know! next step for a studio is to find funding :

[@CappySmack]

I was asked to comment on this: if you had to choose a tool that you're FORCED to use 60% of the time while you work on your game, what would it be? If I am building a video game and want broad platform reach, I would use Unity; however, I am not forced to do this. I could spend time building my own game engine, and I might do so if I did not wish to release any games for several years. I use Unity because I get good results, and some Unity tools and packages help me get my work done quickly enough. I really do not like the C# language, but I can code C#, and I understand how C# does what it does under the covers. In my opinion, UE5 is not quite there yet and not quite on par with Unity for the broad range of support I want now. Once UE5 matures, if Unity does not have a metahuman counterpart, I may consider using UE5. Frankly, I do not understand the source of this question. Perhaps the person who asked this question feels constrained by his or her tool choices and if this is the case, then make different choices. I do not feel constrained because I considered the alternatives and then made a choice; I also revisit this choice whenever I wish and can change it whenever I wish.

[@xxbubba420xx]

So I've always wanted to make a Massive MMOARPG game and have literally done everything on paper. From every monster, animal, item, skill, class, race, plant, tree, fish type, ect.. ect.. to the entire world, map zones, and partial storyline. (I'm not the greatest story teller) what is my next step to start development? I have a decent PC running unity, blender and visual studio currently.

[@anjonk_nill]

Hey! How it's hanging? I've been in a great break, a lot has happened.

[@Jesus-kg4xe]

With the M3 MAX Chip on Apple, do you still bealive that its a MUST to have a Windows? Please don't hate, it's just that I come from a design background and all my equipment is from Apple. But I'd love to become a game dev. so I really need help :( with it. I've read a lot of comments that now 2024 apple is gonna be more focused on 3D projects etc

[@EssDubz]

Is there any equivalent to Mixamo for 2D games? Or a way to get great animations for 2D assets without having to make them yourself? That sounds like a great video topic.

[@thomasbrush]

I actually don't know! Anyone?

[@EssDubz]

@@thomasbrush I saw some tools about turning 3D animations and characters into 2D animations and sprites and thought it seemed like it could potentially be useful when mixed with Mixamo. I'm going to try it when I get a chance, but I'm a programmer not an artist!

[@the_valtriptor]

hey thomas, so the first point u mentioned 'use windows', thats kinda hard for some of us. i use godot game engine and am using linux currently, do u think that i should change my os? i dont have any problem in doing so, but windows is just sluggish and ugly

[@Zodiacman16]

If you want to get into the business of making desktop games, it's unavoidable imo. Windows has a massive market share for gamers, so you have to test the game on Windows anyway to catch all the bugs that may show up on Windows but not macOS or Linux. It makes more sense to use Windows exclusively so you don't have to swap OS all the time.

[@dallen2403]

I think I missed it, but what do you use for animating your 2D art? Adobe Animate or Spine or everything in Unity itself?

[@lewessays]

Just Photoshop....but some people use adobe animate or even Moho but I am not sure if it's specifically for games though.

[@manderm]

As a person on your course, slowly learning about game dev, I've been wondering what the total yearly costs will be of trying to be a self employed indie game developer? It's good to have things like Blender being open source.

[@thomasbrush]

It depends on where you live. I'm in Southeast USA, so we can get away with living on like 40k a year. I think you could probably get by with just a Photoshop subscription and that's it!

[@manderm]

@@thomasbrush brilliant that's good to know. I'm from the UK so obviously different rules apply but for now I think you are right, Photoshop and use free open source software and assets.

[@Adam-kk7nw]

Is learning how to mod game hard ?

[@joel6376]

You don't have to spend $500 a month on mailchimp if you aren't using it - just for those that might think that is a ridiculous amount. Also pricing is subscriber number based, so if you only have a few thousand it is significantly cheaper. As a dev you don't need to be emailing your list monthly - particularly before release. So if you have no game yet you don't need to shell out $500.

[@ShadowedStudios]

Just casually doing a line in the background, no biggie. 3:46 :D

[@verboxinho]

7:20 no way I need to make this detailed presentation for a pitch 🤡😭 WTH. I could fit all my game in those few slides

[@midimusicforever]

I thought asset flipping meant jamming a bunch of free or cheap assets into a game and throing it out on steam without putting any love into it.

[@wilpuriarts5895]

Is Father back to Father or was this recorded before they changed it?

[@misterlight5115]

alright for Discord. I use it for all forms of communication including game dev, gaming, and other stuff. Also, you are right github does intimidate me.

[@bankbarcomo806]

15:00 Motivational books? You mean like Job and Ecclesiastes?

[@orange1304]

Personally, I love Opentoonz/Tahoma2D for 2D animation

[@TheRealJackArthur]

Now that... that's a quality add. lol

[@ZephrusPrime]

Is there a reason you don't use Unreal?

[@heavymetalmixer91]

What about using Cakewalk by Bandlab and Reaper instead of Logic and Audacity?