I belive i would like to try making games but my laptop isint that powerful. Its a thinkpad from like 10 years ago, i upgraded it to a 250gb ssd, and 16gb of low voltage ddr3, i also put linux on it to screeze out as much as possible. So i need something that will run but im struggling on choosing expecially sense i want to start for free. I want to start with something dead simple and work my way up.

What would you suggest and why so?

  • Asetru ( Asetru@feddit.org ) 
    8·
    10 months ago

    That’s hard to say without knowing your background. If you know your way around a programming language already, simply using a library or framework for that particular language might be the easiest solution for you. If you have no background in programming, simpler tools might work better, such as fusion 2.5 or other purely visual programming apps. If you have a decent understanding about algorithms without a preference for a specific language, dedicated engines such as Godot might work best.

  • ludrol ( ludrol@programming.dev ) 
    4·
    10 months ago

    Godot. You could try to see if Godot 3 will work better than Godot 4.

    Godot 3 is a bit older but still is getting fixes and some new features. (long term support driven by community)

  • KuraiWolfGaming ( KuraiWolfGaming@pawb.social ) 
    2·
    9 months ago

    Like many others, I’d recommend godot. While it is potentially complex. It is only as complex as you make it, based on what kind of projects you are making.

    GDScript is actually pretty easy to learn and is very python-like. And in case that doesn’t work out for you, there are many community made extensions that add other languages to godot. It is also really lightweight. Capable of running on even low end laptops. If you don’t need all the bells and whistles of modern rendering, you can set it to “Compatibility” renderer mode. That runs on OpenGL instead of Vulkan and doesn’t require RenderingDevice support.

  • brian ( brian@programming.dev ) 
    1·
    10 months ago

    since you haven’t said anything about type of game, if you want to start at the dead simple side and visual novels sound interesting maybe look at Ren’py?

    visual novels have less going on than a big 3d game, so if you want an easy start from 0 it should be as close as you can get. python is straightforward if you don’t have programming experience, but otherwise is really commonly used so gives a nice basis for whatever else you want to do.

    ren’py also has gotten plenty of commercial use if you wanted to go further in that direction. most big name vn games use it.

  • soulsource ( soulsource@discuss.tchncs.de ) English
    1·
    10 months ago

    Just to toss this in: If all you need is to draw stuff to the screen, play audio, and handle input, you might have a good experience with using SDL or raylib. Those are “just” libraries and not fully featured engines, so they don’t come with advanced features like asset management or a ready-to-use level-editor.

    I am not saying that those are a better option than a fully featured engine, just that, depending on what you are trying to achieve, they might be.