What is the best free game engine?

Godot is fully free and open source. Unity and Unreal have free tiers with terms that change, so read the current terms before you ship.

What is the best free pixel art tool?

LibreSprite and Piskel are free. Aseprite is paid and the most common choice. Our browser sprite editor covers quick sprites.

Only when it saves real time. Aseprite, REAPER and Spine are common paid picks. Check each site for the current price.

Tools grouped by what you need to do. We marked free, freemium and paid, and added our own free browser tools where they overlap.

Prices and terms change. Check each site for the current plan before you rely on it.

Godot EngineFree
Free and open source 2D and 3D engine. A strong first pick for small teams.
UnityFree tier
Popular engine for 2D, 3D and mobile. Check the current plan terms before you ship.
Unreal EngineFree tier
High-end 3D engine with Blueprints for visual scripting. Check the current royalty terms.
GameMakerFree tier
A 2D-focused engine known for fast prototyping.

BlenderFree
Free, open source 3D suite: modeling, rigging, animation and rendering.
BlockbenchFree
A free low poly and pixel-style modeler with animation tools.
MagicaVoxelFree
A free voxel editor and renderer.
CascadeurFree tier
Keyframe animation software with AI-assisted physics for poses.
MixamoFree
Free auto-rigging and a library of character animations (needs an Adobe account).

KritaFree
Free painting program for concept art, sprites and textures.
Try our free tool: Game Colour Palette Creator: Harmonies, Shades and Export
GIMPFree
Free image editor, a long-standing Photoshop alternative.
Try our free tool: Image Resizer for Game Textures: 64, 256, 512, 1K and 2K Presets
PhotopeaFree tier
A Photoshop-style image editor that runs in the browser.
Try our free tool: Image Resizer for Game Textures: 64, 256, 512, 1K and 2K Presets
AsepritePaid
The standard paid pixel art and animation editor.
Try our free tool: Free Online Pixel Art Sprite Editor (16×16 and 32×32)
LibreSpriteFree
A free, open source sprite editor in the spirit of Aseprite.
Try our free tool: Free Online Pixel Art Sprite Editor (16×16 and 32×32)
PiskelFree
A free online sprite editor.
Try our free tool: Free Online Pixel Art Sprite Editor (16×16 and 32×32)
LospecFree
A huge library of pixel art palettes and tutorials.
Try our free tool: Game Colour Palette Creator: Harmonies, Shades and Export

Material MakerFree
Free procedural material authoring, built on Godot.
Try our free tool: Normal Map Generator From Any Texture (Free, In Your Browser)
ArmorPaintFree tier
3D PBR texture painting, an alternative to Substance Painter.
Try our free tool: Normal Map Generator From Any Texture (Free, In Your Browser)
ambientCGFree
Free CC0 PBR materials and HDRIs.
Try our free tool: Seamless Texture Tiling Previewer
Poly HavenFree
Free CC0 models, textures and HDRIs.
Try our free tool: Seamless Texture Tiling Previewer

AudacityFree
Free, open source audio editor and recorder.
Try our free tool: Game Audio File Size Calculator (WAV vs Compressed)
jsfxrFree
A browser sound effect maker for 8-bit style sounds.
Try our free tool: Retro Sound Effect Generator (Coin, Jump, Laser, Explosion)
LMMSFree
Free music production software.
REAPERPaid
A full digital audio workstation with a low-cost licence.
FMODFree tier
Adaptive audio middleware used in many games. Check the indie licence terms.

TiledFree
A flexible, free tile map editor.
Try our free tool: Seamless Texture Tiling Previewer
LDtkFree
A modern 2D level editor from the director of Dead Cells.
Try our free tool: Seamless Texture Tiling Previewer
SpinePaid
2D skeletal animation for games.
Try our free tool: Sprite Sheet Animation Previewer: Slice and Play Frames Online

OpenGameArtFree
A community library of free art and audio. Licences vary per asset.
KenneyFree
A large set of free, CC0 game assets.
QuaterniusFree
Free low poly 3D models and packs.
FreesoundFree
A community database of sounds. Licences vary per sound.