• about me
  • about this site
  • educational gaming
theEvolvedGamer theEvolvedGamer
  • News
    • Evolution
      • Video gamers are sexy, or at least they think they are

        Video gamers are sexy, or at least they think they...

        July 2,2015
      • Gender segregation in e-sports is indefensible – and yet ...

        Gender segregation in e-sports is indefensible –...

        October 9,2014
      • Virtual rape in Grand Theft Auto 5: learning the limits of the game

        Virtual rape in Grand Theft Auto 5: learning the limits...

        August 18,2014
      • Are you ready for the zombie apocalypse? Time to find out

        Are you ready for the zombie apocalypse? Time to find...

        December 16,2013
      • Why boys need female heroes too

        Why boys need female heroes too

        September 9,2013
    • Technology
      • I nd 2 spk 2 u mum: Why texting won't make you feel the love

        I nd 2 spk 2 u mum: Why texting won't make you feel...

        February 9,2012
  • Research
    • Gaming
      • Video gamers are sexy, or at least they think they are

        Video gamers are sexy, or at least they think they...

        July 2,2015
      • Video games make you less sexist? It's not quite that simple

        Video games make you less sexist? It's not quite that...

        May 4,2015
      • Gender segregation in e-sports is indefensible – and yet ...

        Gender segregation in e-sports is indefensible –...

        October 9,2014
      • Gamer disclaimer: virtual worlds can be as fulfilling as real life

        Gamer disclaimer: virtual worlds can be as fulfilling...

        August 15,2014
      • Scientific proof that gamers are ridiculously sexist

        Scientific proof that gamers are ridiculously sexi...

        April 17,2013
    • Learning
      • Gamer disclaimer: virtual worlds can be as fulfilling as real life

        Gamer disclaimer: virtual worlds can be as fulfilling...

        August 15,2014
      • Learning science through gaming!

        Learning science through gaming!

        April 23,2013
      • Action video games improve reading ability in dyslexic children

        Action video games improve reading ability in dyslexic...

        March 7,2013
  • Education
    • Teaching By Gaming
      • Videogames should be a teacher's best friend

        Videogames should be a teacher's best friend

        May 13,2014
      • How I'm trying to make learning fun

        How I'm trying to make learning fun

        August 6,2013
    • Science Games
      • If only Angry Birds taught Algebra

        If only Angry Birds taught Algebra

        December 5,2013
      • Spot the eggs and help science!

        Spot the eggs and help science!

        November 28,2013
      • What makes a 'Goo'd engineer?

        What makes a 'Goo'd engineer?

        November 23,2013
      • Fake chemistry helps you learn programming

        Fake chemistry helps you learn programming

        September 6,2013
      • Wanna be a spider for a day? (or longer)

        Wanna be a spider for a day? (or longer)

        August 29,2013
    • Game Creation Tools
      • Game creation tools

        Game creation tools

        January 24,2014

Game creation tools

January 24,2014 No Comments
Tweet

Here are a list of tools available to create games. I highlight the free, easy to use tools first as my hope is that kids, teens, adults and parents will want to start making games and sharing their experiences. It’s easier than you think!

Beginner

These are tools that are built to be used by beginners of all ages. These tools are especially great to get kids interested in making games and also help to teach logic and problem solving — skills for life! Most importantly, all these tools are free to use and the games created are free to distribute with no copyright (as long as you don’t use copyrighted material in the creation of the game).

Scratch

scratch_mit_lab

Scratch is a simple snap and click way for individuals to design games.

(From their website) Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.

As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

Twine

twine

Twine allows for the creation of text based stories similar to choose your own adventure stories.

No programming is needed as it is a graphical interface that joins different ideas together. Creating a story is thus just as simple as linking ideas. The way the ideas are joined are similar to a mindmap.

Ren’Py

renpyRen’Py is similar to twine in that it primarily creates text based stories that are supplemented with visuals and sounds. In this way, it is more of a novel creation engine. The stores you can create are similar to the “Ace Attorney” Series.

Although not as simple as twine as it is not a graphical, but rather coding based, it is a simple language. Moreover, the programming language is based in python which means that it can be very powerful.

Hopscotch

hopscotch

Hopscotch is an Ipad programming language that allows kids to create simple games. Similar to Scratch, it uses simple rules that kids can place together to animate and control numerous avatars on screen.The neat thing is that it uses a touch interface, making it simple to use and play.

Kodu

kodu

Kodu is created by Microsoft and is an interesting example as it allows you to create games on the XBox.

(from their website) Kodu lets kids create games on the PC and XBox via a simple visual programming language. Kodu can be used to teach creativity, problem solving, storytelling, as well as programming. Anyone can use Kodu to make a game, young children as well as adults with no design or programming skills.

Game Maker

gamemaker

Game Maker is one of the first game making tools that allowed individuals to create their own games. It straddles the easy-to-moderate range of tools. Since it came out, it has been bought out by YoYo Games and apparently is not the same game maker it used to be.

If you would like to try this out, older versions are apparently the best as they allow you to distribute your games without a watermark. You can download the version here through Anna Anthropy’s website.

Moderately difficult

Although these tools are more powerful, they are more difficult to use. Most of these have free versions, but you need to purchase yearly subscriptions to create games that do not have a watermark. If you are getting started in creating video games, however, I suggest trying out the tools above first to get an idea of game creation.

Stencyl

stencyl

Paying homage to Scratch by MIT, Stencyl is a drag and drop tool that allows you to create some powerful games. It also allows you to supplement the point-and-click method of game creation with C+ code.

The new version will allow you to publish games across all the major operating systems.

Game Salad

gamesalad

Game Salad uses a graphical interface. Objects have attributes that allow you to specify how they react during game play. Like Stencyl, it allows you to publish the games to numerous different platforms.

Construct 2

construct2

Like both Stencyl and Game Salad, Construct 2 is very powerful, but is not something that you would use to create games just for fun in your spare time as there is a learning curve.

 

gaming Learning making

Related posts

Videogames should be a teacher's best friend0

Videogames should be a teacher’s best friend

Are you ready for the zombie apocalypse? Time to find out0

Are you ready for the zombie apocalypse? Time to find out

Michael

I'm an evolutionary biologist interested in understanding why we're so drawn to video games and why we gain so much enjoyment from them.

Latest Posts

  • Video games make you less sexist? It’s not quite that simple

    Video games make you less sexist? It’s not quite that simple

  • Gender segregation in e-sports is indefensible – and yet …

    Gender segregation in e-sports is indefensible – and yet …

  • Virtual rape in Grand Theft Auto 5: learning the limits of the game

    Virtual rape in Grand Theft Auto 5: learning the limits of the game

  • Gamer disclaimer: virtual worlds can be as fulfilling as real life

    Gamer disclaimer: virtual worlds can be as fulfilling as real life

  • Videogames should be a teacher’s best friend

    Videogames should be a teacher’s best friend

Explore popular content

Cuddlefish4

Cuddlefish!

April 24,2013

Here is a wonderful little game that allows you to take up the story of being a male cuttlefish exploring the ocean in search of a female to mate with. It’s a fun little story that mixes human emotions with the biology of cuttlefish, ...

femaleheroes4

Why boys need female heroes too

September 9,2013

I love skylanders. And given that it’s more than a 1.5 billion dollar enterprise, it seems that I’m not the only one. Now, I don’t love Skylanders like I do games like Deadspace, Borderlands and Mass Effect, I love it for completely different reasons. I ...

grow_up3

Why I want to play video games when I grow up

March 7,2012

Just like rock music in the 1950s, Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, and death metal in the 1990s, videogaming has been demonised by parent groups. For decades, gamers were portrayed as obese social outcasts that spent hours in a dark basement hunched ...

miyc3

How I’m trying to make learning fun

August 6,2013

**Update** If you’re interested in out how the class went, clickhere. If you’d like the manual, click here. As an undergrad, I detested labs. They were boring. Demonstrated by teaching assistants with a superior knowledge of the information I was meant to glean, somehow titrating ...

envirobear2

Enviro-Bear!

May 17,2013

You are a bear, winter is coming, so drive around and eat fish and berries to prepare to hibernate! Alright, this may be far fetched as a science based game, but the execution is just amazing! As the say in the video: “The best ...

theEvolvedGamer
© 2014 theEvolvedGamer. All rights reserved.

Tags

Augmented reality Benefits Cheating Disney Dyslexia Education Engineering Evolution exergaming Free Games gaming Gaming online GTA5 Heroes Kids Lab Learning making Maths mobile phones Nature News obesity Programming Racism Rape Reading research Science Sexism Social Spider Teaching texting Video Games violence Wasting time Zombies