Best Game Development Software for Freelancers

The leading platform for creating interactive, real-time content. Build 2D, 3D and VR games and apps at speed. From artist tools to live-ops, everything you need to bring your vision to life today. The complete solutions for professionals to create and operate. Create and operate amazing applications and immersive experiences with a complete solution for professionals across industries. Change up your splash screen. Or completely remove it. Gain greater insight into what’s happening in your game with real-time data on crashes, exceptions and user feedback. Minimize downtime with access to expert technical support when you encounter issues. Available as a separate purchase through a Unity sales representative. Unity Gaming Services: backend and LiveOps services trusted by world-class studios to support multiplayer and live games at any scale, with any engine or tech stack.

The world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool. With Unreal Engine, you can bring amazing real-time experiences to life using the world’s most advanced real-time 3D creation tool. From first projects to the most demanding challenges, our free and accessible resources and inspirational community empower everyone to realize their ambitions. With over 160 hours of free online learning content, an extensive library of webinars, and options for instructor-led training, we have a way to learn that's right for you. Unreal creators are the true power behind Unreal Engine. Be part of a community that builds cutting-edge experiences, and supports each other along the way. Explore comprehensive reference documentation, instructional guides, community-based support, and options for dedicated professional support.

Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline. Cycles is Blender’s built-in powerful unbiased path-tracer engine that offers stunning ultra-realistic rendering. Blender’s comprehensive array of modeling tools make creating, transforming and editing your models a breeze. VFX professionals say: “Probably the best tracker in the market”. Blender includes production ready camera and object tracking. Allowing you to import raw footage, track the footage, mask areas and see the camera movements live in your 3D scene. Eliminating the need to switch between programs. Thanks to the high quality rigging and animation tools, Blender is being used for numerous short films, advertisements, TV series and feature films now.

Microsoft Visual Studio is the industry-leading integrated development environment (IDE) for building modern applications across desktop, mobile, cloud, and web. It empowers developers to write, refactor, debug, test, and deploy software faster with intelligent assistance powered by GitHub Copilot and AI-driven workflows. With Agent Mode, developers can automate repetitive coding tasks, optimize performance, and receive contextual help directly in the IDE. The suite includes Visual Studio 2022, the comprehensive IDE for .NET and C++ development on Windows, and Visual Studio Code, the lightweight, cross-platform editor supporting JavaScript, Python, and dozens of other languages. Visual Studio integrates seamlessly with Azure, GitHub, and CI/CD pipelines, enabling teams to collaborate and ship code efficiently. Trusted by millions worldwide, Visual Studio provides the tools and intelligence developers need to build reliable, scalable, and secure applications from concept to release.

Live stream and record your content with ease & share it to streaming services like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Mixer, etc. Start your broadcast today. XSplit is a live streaming and recording software designed for gaming, presentations and live events. This AI-powered software allows game developers to start live streaming of their games in pristine quality. The software also has a multilingual support team to assist you 24/7. Currently there are four members in the XSplit family: XSplit Broadcaster XSplit Gamecaster XSplit VCam XSplit Express Video Editor

Open 3D Engine (O3DE) is a modular, open source, cross-platform 3D engine built to power anything from AAA games to cinema-quality 3D worlds to high-fidelity simulations. No fees or commercial obligations. Apache 2.0-licensed. Managed by The Linux Foundation. O3DE's modular architecture is built for customization from day one. Each component—known as a Gem—can be adopted separately, giving you access to the specific functionality needed for your application. Add new editing tools, features, and development workflows to your projects. Choose from a variety of community-maintained Gems to extend and enhance the engine's capabilities in anything from AI and robotics to push notifications and VR. With our engine's SDK capabilities, you can use O3DE as a foundation for any type of 3D project you can imagine.

With Buildbox, creating games is simple. There is no programming needed. Choose from various templates, Smart Assets™, or Brainboxes™ to get started. Then preview your game in real-time. You can even make your own game from scratch. The only limit is your imagination. Buildbox 3 is our most advanced game creation software! With it, you can create both 3D and 2D games using no-code Smart Assets™ and Brainboxes™ or advanced low-code options. Buildbox Classic is our traditional drag and drop game maker. With it you can make a game without coding, and rapidly build and prototype 2D games only using templates. At Buildbox, we believe that creating games is for everyone. With our powerful software, we're breaking down the barriers of game development for creators like you. We believe that anyone should get the opportunity to bring their ideas to life. The only skill you need is imagination. And we're just getting started!

C++Builder is a fast, integrated design and development suite for modern apps. Are you ready to design the best UIs of your life? Our award winning VCL framework for Windows and FireMonkey (FMX) visual framework for cross-platform UIs provide you with the foundation for intuitive, beautiful user interfaces that wow on every platform: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Design your master UI layout once, then easily customize platform- and device-specific views without duplication of design effort. Drag-and-drop visual and non-visual components from the palette using our visual designer. Visually connect user interface elements to data sources using the LiveBindings Designer. Real-time design validation using Live On-Device Preview to broadcast the active form to multiple devices simultaneously. Add responsive design with resolution-aware components for desktop, tablets, and smartphones. Real, platform-specific native controls for an improved user experience.

What makes GDevelop unique and so easy to use is the event system. Events are a powerful way to express the logic of your game, without having to learn a programming language. Unleash your creativity with GDevelop and create all kinds of games: platformers, shoot’em up, strategy, 8-bit, hyper-casual games... the sky is the limit. Express your ideas, big and small: you can prototype new features on your games in minutes, and refine them without limits. Making games has never been so easy and fast, with the visual editors provided by GDevelop. Use ready made objects from the asset store or create your own from scratch. Choose sprites, particle emitters, texts, videos and many others to build the scenes of your game. Add effects to the layers and objects of your scene. These effects allow to quickly changes the atmosphere and rendering of your game in one click.

devtodev is an ultimate product analytics platform for data-driven teams to get valuable insights and influence user decisions. With devtodev you can convert users into paying users, improve in-app economics, predict churn, revenue and customer lifetime value, as well as analyze and influence user behavior.

Assembla is the most secure software development platform in the world. Get started in less than a minute, on-prem or in the cloud. Assembla SECUREGIT provides a fully supported and economical solution, on the infrastructure of your choice. Meet compliance requirements with the confidence that your data is protected. Assembla is your trusted partner on your journey to “what’s next.” Developers are not security engineers – they build code. And their code is typically 90% open source. Securing all that open source codes requires automation. Assembla SecureGit scans for secret key credentials and vulnerable component dependencies automatically, as developers commit code. Our operational playbook includes a bottom-up evaluation of the risks to security, risk mitigation techniques, and ongoing areas of investment to further reduce risks. Assembla is fully committed to GDPR with data centers in the EU.

P4 (formerly Helix Core) is an enterprise-grade version control system designed to manage the complexities of modern software development. It allows teams to store, track, and manage all digital assets—ranging from source code to 3D models—with unprecedented scalability. P4 is ideal for large, distributed teams working on large-scale projects, offering powerful collaboration tools, seamless integrations, and advanced branching capabilities. With strong support for both centralized and distributed workflows, P4 enhances productivity and efficiency, making it a top choice for software, game, and hardware development teams.

Chetu is a US-based software development company that provides startups, SMBs, and Fortune 5000 companies worldwide with custom technology solutions. With an unparalleled software delivery model suited to the needs of the client, Chetu's one-stop-shop model spans the entire software technology spectrum. Headquartered in Sunrise, Florida, Chetu has sixteen locations throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with over 2,200 software experts worldwide. Chetu is a true and seamless backend technology partner, helping your business accelerate the development of desktop, mobile & web-based apps with on-demand developers that focus on moving your business forward. Most software companies insist on owning their own source codes to prevent their clients from seeking out other vendors or tools. Under our agreement, you are the sole proprietor of the source code and intellectual property.

Amazon GameLift is a dedicated game server hosting solution that deploys, operates, and scales cloud servers for multiplayer games. Whether you’re looking for a fully managed solution, or just the feature you need, GameLift leverages the power of AWS to deliver the best latency possible, low player wait times, and maximum cost savings. Amazon GameLift leverages the AWS global infrastructure for managing game servers. Match players into game sessions and autoscale that start one, hundreds, or even thousands of instances simultaneously, without thinking about scaling with fluctuating player demand. Game services provide basic multiplayer game support, like matchmaking, session directory, player data, and player analytics. With AWS, you can use services like AWS Lambda that provide serverless, scalable, and flexible computing, or features in services like Amazon GameLift FlexMatch, for matchmaking.

Emmy and Academy Award-winning modeling and animation suite used to create trees and plants for films and television. The industry standard for 3D vegetation modeling in games. Tools include the SpeedTree Modeler, Compiler, and full source SDK. Subscription pipelines for the most popular and cutting-edge game engines. SpeedTree for Games is an Award-winning 3D Procedural vegetation middleware product with fine-tuned art controls. Includes Modeler, Compiler, Tree Library and full-source SDK. Increased performance throughout, including faster instance paging, constant buffer updates, and shader optimizations. SpeedTree Cinema is the award-winning 3D-modeling suite that allows you to model, texture, and animate, both stylized and photoreal vegetation for VFX, arch/viz, or matte paintings. Model and shape any type of vegetation using a combination of procedural and fine-tuned art controls.

Torque 3D is the best full source, open source solution available. It is also our flagship engine built on the core strengths of our Front Line Award-winning Torque Game Engine Advanced. Torque 3D has been re-architected for maximum flexibility and performance across a wide-range of hardware. Torque 3D comes equipped with a full suite of tools to allow your team to excel and produce high-quality games and simulations. Torque 3D supports Windows and Browser-based web deployment out of the box.

Character Creator (CC) is a full character creation solution for designers to easily generate, import and customize stylized or realistic character assets for use with iClone, Maya, Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, or any other 3D tools. CC connects industry-leading pipelines with one system for 3D character generation, animation rigging, asset management, look-dev rendering, and interactive design. Whether humans, creatures or props, creativity is no longer limited by the existing CC character base. Any rigged biped models can be imported, characterized, and facial rigged in Character Creator. New features now make any character compatible with thousands of motion assets, ready for natural lip-sync, motion capture, and animation controls in iClone. CC characters can also be optimized for low-poly, high-performance crowd simulation, AR, VR, and Metaverse.

3DCrafter is a real-time 3D modeling and animation tool that incorporates an intuitive drag-and-drop approach to 3D modeling. Complex models can be constructed from simple 3D primitives, or created using 3DCrafter’s Shape Building Tools. Modeling tools are provided to deform, sculpt, and paint 3D shapes. Creating an animated scene is as simple as positioning the shapes within your scene for each point in time in your animation. 3DCrafter will ensure that the resulting animation runs smoothly. Your animation can be stepped through a frame at a time, viewed in real-time, or recorded to a Video (AVI) file so that you can distribute your creation. Tool roll-up groups allow you to customize the 3DCrafter interface so that only those items you use most frequently are visible. And if you need access to a less frequently used feature, the tool roll-up is always one click away. The standard version of 3DCrafter is a fully functional product provided as freeware.

Create Your Own Games & Learn Computational Thinking. No-code: powerful visual programming. Share with your friends or submit games to the app stores! GameSalad turns gamers into game creators! With GameSalad, creators and learners ages 12 and beyond build the own mobile and web video games with a no-code visual programming system. Launched in 2010, GameSalad has been used by over one million aspiring game developers and has powered over 75 games that reached the top 100 in the App Store, including multiple #1 games. GameSalad for Education is in classrooms all over the world helping teachers build computer science and game design programs that build student confidence and mastery. Learn coding basics, build video games, meet other creators. All Camps include a 1-Year Home Education License. GameSalad Game Creation Camps are instructor guided virtual tech camps that will help your young learner become a game developer!