Freeware Game Creation Engines

[Lotus]

A lot of times when I see someone wanting to make an RPG here, they get directed to either Game Maker, which has a free version but it's not all that great, or RPG Maker, a commercial program. I've been doing research on free programs for a few months now and I've acquired links to a lot of freeware game creation programs (some are even open source, like Ren'py). All of these programs are free but I can't give advice on how to use most of them as I've only used AGS, Ren'py, and just recently RPG Toolkit. Almost all of them do have documentation you can consult or communities to ask questions.

If you have the dedication and programming expertise, you could use Ren'py to do pretty much whatever you want. This list is for those who don't feel they have the knowledge and patience required to make a Ren'py based rpg or whatever. Many but not all of the links are to RPG engines; some links are to point and click engines, some to other visual novel engines (including one online engine), and there's at least one to a text adventure engine.

If you would like to contribute a free game creation program, feel free! I'll update this post and credit you for contributing :3 Please make sure there is a free version of the program, not just a demo.
I organized this post a bit but as I've not used most of these engines they may not be in the right place or may need to be in another section as well. Feel free to tell me if I messed up categorizing an engine, I'll fix it.

Online Game Creators (Makes games that are playable online; one of the programs is available online but the rest you have to download)
http://www.kongregate.com/games/Paltar/ ... p-tutorial
Suggested by RayRayTea. That tutorial is how to set up FlashDevelop, a free flash creation tool, so that you can make flash games.

http://unity3d.com/unity/
Suggested by RayRayTea. It looks like a 3D engine, and can make games for the browser, desktop, Wii and XBOX 360, and Android and iOS. [Mac, Windows]

http://www.visualnoveldai.com/novelstream
Online visual novel engine. [Online so works with all systems?]


3D Game Engine
http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/Store/_ind ... nload=true
Suggested by RayRayTea. Successor to BlitzMAX. Can be used for free if you develop non-commercial HTML5 applications [Mac, Windows; Linux on the way?]

http://glint3d.capricorn76.com/

It's a Lua-based 2D/3D engine based on Irrlicht for the 3D part. Supports different sound environments, skyboxes, has the GUI framework in place.. not sure about video support yet.

[Mac, Win]

http://www.panda3d.org/
Suggested by jack_norton. 3D game engine. Uses Python and C++ [Mac, Win, Linux]
http://www.glbasic.com/main.php?lang=en&site=download
Suggested by RayRayTea. Create apps for non commercial 2D programs running on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

http://unity3d.com/unity/
Suggested by RayRayTea. It looks like a 3D engine, and can make games for the browser, desktop, Wii and XBOX 360, and Android and iOS. [Mac, Windows]


2D Game Engines

http://cs2.suki.jp/
Suggested by HigurashiKira. Visual Novel Engine, Japanese only at the looks of it. [Win only]

Oh, to explain the CAT System2 engine

It's a ADV game engine which comes with movements and effects installed in it (a lot like Ren'Py) it comes with a built in particle creator and is able to handle special movements like having sprites fling across the screen in an arc or even having them move while talking.

http://www.pygame.org/news.html
Pro: You can integrate Pygame games(?) into Ren'py games. Con: Requires at least basic or intermediate Python programming experience. The very first step in the newbie guide is to be comfortable with Python. [Mac, Win, Linux]

http://rpgtoolkit.net/home/
I'm personally using this one, it looks pretty neat. As the title suggests it specializes in RPG games. The tutorial section also has some helpful tuts on creating pixel art and other subjects! [Win]

http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker
This is the popular GameMaker. I hate this engine and wouldn't recommend it, but that's just me. Only the lite version is free. I think it can make RPGs and other types of games, like 2D shooters. [Mac, Win]

http://verge-rpg.com/
RPG engine, I've not fiddled with this one. From what I can tell, it can be used to make puzzle and other types of games. [Mac, Win]

http://teacup.lunaen.com/index.php?topic=19.0
Other popular visual novel engines. [Varies from engine to engine]

http://www.visualnoveldai.com/novelstream
Online visual novel engine. [Online so works with all systems?]

http://www.visualnovelty.com/
The VN engine Novelty. [Win]

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ac.shtml

Adventure Studio! I love this engine, there's so much you can do with it. [Win]
A great example of games made with this engine are the Chzo Mythos series, if you've not checked them out already please do! <333
The series consists of 5 days a stranger, 7 days a skeptic, Trilby's notes, and 6 Days a sacrifice. That's also the order you're supposed to play them in.

http://spheredev.org/wiki/Main_Page
RPG again, not fiddled with this one.
[Mac, Win, Linux]

http://hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/Main_Page.html
[Mac, Win]

http://www.engine001.com/
[Win]

http://markdamonhughes.com/Delver/
[Mac, Win, Linux]

http://markdamonhughes.com/Hephaestus/
[Mac, Win, Linux]

http://wiki.renai.us/wiki/Engines_and_D ... tion_Tools
[Varies from engine to engine]

Misc Game Engines

http://freewarehome.com/
Under "Game Creation" in the side toolbar. This site also has links to hundreds of other freeware programs.[Varies from engine to engine]

http://www.textadventures.co.uk/quest/
The humble text adventure. <3 [Win]

http://gamesalad.com/products/creator
A Mac only game engine, so I'm not sure what it's capable of. [I just said it's Mac only ;P]

[luminarious]

I must also mention Glint 3D that I am currently learning. It's a Lua-based 2D/3D engine based on Irrlicht for the 3D part. Supports different sound environments, skyboxes, has the GUI framework in place.. not sure about video support yet. He released the 1.0 version a few months ago and afaik, hasn't started actively promoting it.

If I was a better programmer, I'd try building a proper VN framework/ editor for that engine.

[jack_norton]

Well there's also Panda3d which uses python and is free

[Lotus]

I updated the first post
What operating systems can Panda3D run on? I can't seem to find out from the website.
Edit: I'm blonde :B I figured out what OS it can run on.

[HigurashiKira]

There's the CAT System2, a Visual Novel engine by Windmill

http://cs2.suki.jp/

Games like Utatemeguri and Secret Game: CODE Revise were made on this engine. Too bad I can't read moon, the engine is soo neat ;__;

[LVUER]

Panda 3d? Is it good? Right now I use Unity and I get a headache... It's hard and need a high spec PC...

[Tachyglossus]

That's quite a cool list. I'll have to check some of them out. I keep meaning to check out AGS, but just haven't yet.

(I Loved the Chzo series! Ever play the more action oriented Trilby spinoff Art of Theft? It's not as cool plot-wise but fun to play)

[Lotus]

@Tachyglossus I love AGS, it's tied with Ren'py for my favorite game engine.
I've tried playing Art of Theft but I didn't like it as much. It didn't have Cabby :B I love Princey <3 Have you tried the 1213 series? That's a really good one even though I never beat the final boss because of a bug. I don't know how it eeennndsss *shakesfist*

@HigurashiKira I'll add it C:

[Tachyglossus]

(Continues to go off topic)
Yes I played 1213... well... sort of. I kind of had my brother play most of it while I watched over his shoulder. Hee hee... there's a special gag ending that made me giggle madly.

[HigurashiKira]

Oh, to explain the CAT System2 engine

It's a ADV game engine which comes with movements and effects installed in it (a lot like Ren'Py) it comes with a built in particle creator and is able to handle special movements like having sprites fling across the screen in an arc or even having them move while talking.

In short this engine is awesomeness packed in a 144MB folder :'3
Sadly for Mac users, it's only for Windows

[RayRayTea]

It's probably worth mentioning that one can freely develop games for Flash too, although (obviously) not using Flash CS5 or older incarnations, but something like FlashDevelop (Windows only - here's how to set it up) instead...

Also there's a free version of Unity3D (Mac, Windows).
Monkey (successor to BlitzMAX) can be used for free if you develop non-commercial HTML5 applications (Mac, Windows; Linux on the way?).
There's a free license for GLBasic (Mac, Windows, Linux) too.

[Lotus]

Ooh, thanks for mentioning FlashDevelop! I've heard of it before but was a little intimidated because of the lack of tools (like the drawing tools), but now that I think on it some more it would probably be similar to working with Ren'py. I'll update the first post in a bit with your suggestions and organize it because I'm a tad OCD :B

[RayRayTea]

FlashDevelop is actually much better in this regard as it's an IDE. For example it has all kinds of toolbars that show you new stuff as you add it in the code (can't find a video that shows it nicely - it has to be seen anyway), built in file browser with lots of functions, help... and million of other things that make life easier. It's just nice to work with. I don't like Flash nor AS3 though so

[Lotus]

For anyone interested in using FlashDevelop, here is a page with some code libraries for Flash games, and here is another tutorial for starting out with FlashDevelop. It seems like making games with FlashDevelop is harder than with Flash but you can brag to others that you can make Flash games without spending $700 on software and without resorting to pirating 8D

Here's an example of a Flash game made completely with open source software (I believe this was made with FlashDevelop and Flixel). It's similar in gameplay to Cave Story, if you've ever played that.
Flixel is another free flash tool that can be used in conjunction with FlashDevelop, http://flixel.org/

[Fawn]

Engine001 is really really good, from my experience. It's a mix of RPGmaker (which is excellent for rpgs, but not free) and Game Maker (which can be good, but confusing, and not free for the full version) all in a nice free package. There's so much to do with it, and it's a bit easier than the previously mentioned engines (you don't have to make specific code for a platformer or an RPG, it already has built in, customizable templates!).
You have to get a license to sell your games, which is actually pretty cheap (about 60 bucks), but you can download and use the full version for free.