Game Design Software

benjaminmage

I'm thinking of learning a good game design software in order to produce graphics for my app.
What are some of the good, free, easy-to-learn game design software available?

JimmyMesser

for design:
Gimp & Inkscape

for animation:

Synfig or Gimp

You can do a lot with Gimp, but Synfig allows you to bone rig your characters.
Making it super easy "once they are setup" to animate and pose.

benjaminmage

@JimmyMesser Thank you! 1 question though, are we able to import animation into gamesalad? cause from what i've been doing, i have to drag in like 100 .pngs files to make my own animation.

JimmyMesser

In short, yes but you have to import image sequences like you have been doing.

Animation software will just make it easier and quicker to create the sequences.
and in some cases will allow you to make sequences much shorter then you would otherwise.

I'm putting together a tutorial over the next 2 weeks.

floatingwoo

@benjaminmage When you are ready to drop your .pngs into the animation window select the first and last image of the sequence in the image window, basically selecting all of the images and drag it to the animation window. A dialog window will come up saying "is this a sequence?" Select yes and your done. Unless you have messed with the naming of the images.

JimmyMesser

Remember to number them Maninhat_1 etc

benjaminmage

@floatingwoo @JimmyMesser Oh alright thanks guys!!

benjaminmage

@floatingwoo @JimmyMesser Oh ya by the way, i've got an actor size 90 by 90 (square) in Ipad portrait. Thing is, when i test the scene on iphone 5 portrait/iphone 6 portrait, it becomes a rectangle instead of a square. How do i ensure it becomes a square on all devices?

JimmyMesser

you either have to create you game in a universal build, or make different formats.
personally I would get on youtube and find a tutorial on making your game a universal build.

gingagaming

@benjaminmage said:
floatingwoo JimmyMesser Oh ya by the way, i've got an actor size 90 by 90 (square) in Ipad portrait. Thing is, when i test the scene on iphone 5 portrait/iphone 6 portrait, it becomes a rectangle instead of a square. How do i ensure it becomes a square on all devices?

To further clarify on what @JimmyMesser has said, the reason it appears rectanglar it because you choose the "stretch" option when publishing. Simply deselect this and choose overscan when publishing. You may need to rearrange some of your actors to ensure they are on screen to support both phones as well as tablets. Which is what jimmy was saying about making it universal.

benjaminmage

@gingagaming Hi, i didn't select the stretch option or not that i've seen that option anywhere on my gs pc. All i did was, hitting the "play" button at the top to run my project and tested my scenes on iphone 5/6 portrait and ipad. How do i fix this?