Games resources for developers

One of the oldest and best-known online game jams, running since 2002. Each event has a solo Compo, where you make everything yourself in 48 hours and share the source, and a more relaxed Jam of 72 hours for teams. Participants rate each other on fun, innovation, theme, graphics and audio.

• Games

One of the largest online game jams in the world, run each year by Mark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit on itch.io. You make a game to a secret theme in about four days, alone or in a team, with any engine, then play and rate other entries. It is a great first jam.

• Career
• Games

An open marketplace for independent games where anyone can publish for free, as a download or a browser game, free or paid. It hosts most online game jams, including GMTK Game Jam and many others, and is the easiest place to release a first game and get real players.

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The free and open source 3D suite used for modelling, UV mapping, texturing, rigging, animation and rendering. For game developers it is the standard free tool for making low-poly models and props and exporting them to Unity, Godot or Unreal. What you create with it is entirely yours.

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A large collaborative library of sound effects and recordings released under Creative Commons licences. Game developers use it for footsteps, impacts, ambience and UI sounds. Each sound carries its own licence (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-NC), so check it before using a sound in a commercial game.

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Thousands of free 2D, 3D, UI and audio game assets in consistent styles, all released as public domain (CC0), so you can use them in commercial games without credit. Ideal for programmers who want their prototypes and jam games to look coherent without drawing everything.

• Games

Mark Brown's YouTube channel analysing game design: how great games teach players, level design, difficulty, game feel, accessibility and more, using clips from real games. It is the most accessible way to learn to think like a designer, and the channel also runs the huge annual GMTK Game Jam.

• Games

The official Unreal Engine 5 documentation: the editor, Blueprints, the gameplay framework, programming with C++, Enhanced Input, animation, UI, audio, performance and packaging for each platform. It is the reference to check when a tutorial is out of date for your engine version.

• Programming
• Games

Epic's official learning hub for Unreal Engine: free courses, tutorials and learning paths from Epic and the community. Start with "Your First Hour in Unreal Engine" and "Your First Game in Unreal Engine" for the editor and Blueprints, then move to C++ and specialised topics.

• Programming
• Games

The official Godot documentation: getting started, step-by-step introductions, manuals for 2D, 3D, physics, animation, UI, audio and exporting, and the full class reference. It is well written, free and open source, and it is where you check how any node or GDScript feature works.

• Programming
• Games

The official Godot tutorial that walks you through a complete small game, "Dodge the Creeps!", in seven short parts. You create scenes for the player and enemies, write GDScript (or C#), wire up signals, spawn enemies, build a heads-up display and add sound. It is the best first project in Godot.

• Programming
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Unity's official documentation: the Manual explains each editor feature and system, and the Scripting API lists every class and method with examples. Keep it open while you build: it is the first place to check how physics, input, animation, UI or builds actually work in your Unity version.

• Programming
• Backend
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Unity's official, free guided pathway for learning C# scripting in Unity. You build small playable prototypes while learning variables, physics, user interfaces, data persistence and object-oriented programming. It is the most direct route from knowing a little Unity to writing your own gameplay code.

• Programming
• Games

A quick-revision companion to the Game development roadmap in nine chapters: how games are made, programming for games, the engine in depth, game maths and feel, design basics, art and audio for programmers, performance and builds, shipping and publishing, and money and careers. It comes in Unity, Godot and Unreal Engine editions, with each concept explained in plain words, why it matters, its classic mistake and code where it helps. Skim a chapter before a jam or a new feature, or after each roadmap stage.

• Programming
• Games