I'm putting together a game design competition for the IGDA, and I'm researching different applications for the development of said games.
What I need is information and links to free software packages for:
Art (2D, Sprite, 3D)
Sound (music and effects)
Code (frameworks, engines, etc)
This includes both content creation apps and content packs, primarily sound packs since the comp will likely require all original content bar sound.
Also, while I'm interested in apps with trial periods as well, I would prefer completely free ones, such as Maya PLE or the Popcap games framework. However this also brings up the issue of licensing agreements, and just how much companies will let you do with their free versions.
Still, I'm not asking for anyone to do that research for me, I'll look into that myself (unless you happen to know the details of hand, or where I can find them) but if people could just post up links to packages it would be much appreciated.
have you checked out http://www.devmaster.net/engines/ ?
you even get a 'Top 10 Open Source Engines' at the front page :)
I just [url="http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/kiwi-freebie-digitial-paint-tool-ta…"]read this at smh.com.au[/url]
[url="http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html"]Artrage 2[/url] is sorta like Painter, there's a free version, and it's made by Kiwi's.
It's been a while since I've looked, but I'm sure there are plenty of free 2D pixel paint programs on the PC similar to Deluxe Paint on the Amiga.
wonderland just had a post which looks like it [url="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Wonderland?m=758"]links to huge amounts of poublic domain music resources[/url] for machinama
There are some "free" music packs and loops from [url="http://www.incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/"]Incomptech website[/url] which I stumbled upon when looking at some other pages on their site.
For 3D - Maya PLE, GMax and XSI Lite each have no direct export capability at all (afaik) unless you use [url="http://ogle.eyebeamresearch.org/"]some dodgy hack[/url]. That basically leaves [url="http://blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html"]blender[/url] which is scary.
For 2D - [url="http://www.gimpshop.net/"]GIMPShop[/url] is a free similar-enough-to-photoshop tool that might be ok.