Links

Some links that you might find useful.

Digital Mars - The home of the D language spec and compiler.

The Game Creators - They don't actually create any games; they just sell tools to do so. They sell Dark Basic Classic, which is an OK but rather dated game creation language; and Dark Basic Professional, which is DBC with some feature enhancements but few improvements in terms of language features or a better-laid out engine. It also seems to be dead, as it hasn't had a really major update in more than two years. TGC also sells a bunch of programs made in their competitor's language, and some media packs and other programs, which aren't half bad.

Blitz Research, Inc. - I haven't a clue why this company is called "Blitz Research," as they don't do any research. They make the line of Blitz programming languages, including Blitz Plus, a 2D and Windows GUI-based language; Blitz3D, a somewhat dated but very capable, extensible, and well laid-out 3D game programming language; and BlitzMax, which is supposed to be more of a "general purpose" language and is cross-platform.

Milkshape - A small, general-purpose modeling program which has become almost ubiquitous in the game development community. It's known for its extensive list of importable and exportable formats. It's kind of lacking in terms of modeling tools, but you can make some decent stuff in it. Apparently, Milkshape 2 is going to be coming soon, but of course, it's been coming soon since, oh, 2002. It's not dead, though - there is a fairly recent update to Milkshape and an announcement that Mete (the programmer) will be working on MS2.

Wings3D - A wonderful, free modeling program based on Nendo. It's being worked on and updated all the time, and has surpassed Nendo in terms of features (well, at least since I last checked out Nendo). No animation support and limited texturing support, but has one of the most intuitive interfaces and the fastest workflow I've seen in any modeler.

Fruityloops - No, not the cereal. Fruityloops is a music creation program. It has blossomed into a very popular program with some very professional features. It's not that expensive (compared to some programs); you can get the FL Studio edition for only $150. Some of the plugins for it are a bit pricey, though (Sytrus costs more than FL Studio itself). But it's compatible with VSTi and DXi plugins, and there are a ton of free VST plugins on the internet.

Ultimate Unwrap 3D - A very nice 3D model texturing program. It supports many kinds of texture mapping, including texture unwrapping, which is a very powerful tool for texturing complex models (like characters). You can unwrap a model, save out the unwrapped "texture template," draw the texture on the template, and then load the texture and apply it to the model, and it'll be textured perfectly. It's a little pricey at $50, but it's worth it.