Home

Awesome

Open source, experimental, and tiny tools roundup

This is a list of small, free, or experimental tools that might be useful in building your game / website / interactive project. Although I’ve included ‘standards’, this list has a focus on artful tools and toys that are as fun to use as they are functional.

The goal of this list is to enable making outside of closed production ecosystems or walled software gardens.

NEW -- I've built a web interface for sorting through the tools!

Visit at; tinytools.directory

All additions to the list should now go through the website, which takes submissions from this handy form. (I will still be updating the following markdown list with changes, but it may be behind the web interface.)

Table of Contents

<a name="Games-focused"></a>

Games-focused tools:

<a name="Game-Engines"></a>

Game Engines:

<a name="Tiny-weirdo-game-engines"></a>

Tiny/weirdo game engines:

Game engines that let you make a full game, but often within a particular style, ethos, framework, or with other limitations. Generally quick to pick up and work with, made for accessibility.

<a name="Indie-open-source-bigger-game-engines"></a>

Indie/open source bigger game engines:

Indie and open source game engines with more flexibility and power than the little engines above, and generally also another layer of complication. (Perhaps most useful if you are concerned about free but closed-source engines like Unity.)

<a name="Fantasy-consoles"></a>

Fantasy consoles:

A fantasy console is like a regular console (machine specs, dev tools, community), but without hardware. It is like an emulator for a machine that never existed. Generally, these are in the form of an application.

<a name="Game-Engine-extenders"></a>

Game Engine extenders:

<a name="Neat-Unity-extenders"></a>

Neat Unity extenders:

Tools or plug-ins that change the experience of using Unity.

<a name="Neat-Godot-extenders"></a>

Neat Godot Extenders:

Tools or plug-ins that change the experience of using Godot.

<a name="Maps-place-levels"></a>

Maps, place, & levels:

Tools for making maps & levels - some of them simply visual, others generate data.

<a name="Making-assets"></a>

Making “assets” - images, models, sound, video:

<a name="Graphics"></a>

Graphics:

Tools for making images.

<a name="Pixel-art"></a>

Pixel art:

<a name="ASCII-ANSI"></a>

ASCII/ANSI/etc:

<a name="Vector"></a>

Vector:

<a name="Generators"></a>

Generators:

<a name="Paint-programs"></a>

General/flexible paint programs:

<a name="Other-Graphics-tools"></a>

Other Graphics tools:

<a name="Animation-video"></a>

Animation & video:

Tools for creating moving images, either animated or videographic.

<a name="3d"></a>

3D:

Tools that help you deal with 3d models or 3d space.

<a name="Sound-music"></a>

Sound & music:

Tools for sound effects, music, and general audio.

<a name="Sound-effects-generators"></a>

Sound effects generators:

<a name="Sound-editors"></a>

Sound editors:

<a name="Music-composition"></a>

Music composition, instruments, effects:

<a name="Other-sound-tools"></a>

Other sound tools and resources :

<a name="Coding"></a>

Coding:

<a name="Coding-environments-frameworks-extensions"></a>

Coding environments, frameworks, & extensions:

Tools that provide a backend or new programming environment in which to make other work.

<a name="Machine-learning"></a>

Machine learning:

<a name="Live-Coding"></a>

Live Coding:

<a name="Text"></a>

Text:

<a name="Text-editors-writing-apps"></a>

Text editors & writing apps:

<a name="Experimental-text-tools"></a>

Experimental text tools and formats:

<a name="Text-manipulators"></a>

Text manipulators, converters, & other tools:

<a name="Fonts-font-resources"></a>

Fonts & font resources:

<a name="Productivity"></a>

‘Productivity’:

<a name="Web-print-design"></a>

Web & print design:

<a name="Making-websites"></a>

Making websites:

<a name="Misc-website-related-code"></a>

Misc kool website-related code:

<a name="Tools-about-websites"></a>

Tools that are about/with websites:

<a name="Colors"></a>

Colors:

Tools for picking, analyzing, or seeing colors.

<a name="Zines-books-prints"></a>

Zines, books, prints:

<a name="Dealing-with-files"></a>

Dealing with files:

<a name="Operating-systems-and-files"></a>

Tools that interface with operating systems & files:

<a name="Building-applications"></a>

Building applications & exes:

<a name="Converters-downloaders-reducers"></a>

Converters, downloaders, & reducers:

<a name="More-tools-lists"></a>

More tools lists & reading about tools: