Disclaimer: I made my research to post all of these softwares and tools. In fact I even contacted some of the creators of them. However, you should still read its licenses and be sure you are using them properly to prevent any future troubles. I’m not responsible of any problems with how you use any of these softwares.
As a new developer, there were many obstacles in my way to create a new an amazing game. One of that obstacles was the lack of money, so in this post I’ll be showing you some of the best softwares I’ve ever used in my developer career and I would’ve liked to know at the start of my journey.
I will try to keep this post updated, if you have any more suggestions please comment below. I do not own the rights or created any of this softwares.
Graphic Design and UI
Probably the first path most developers take is GFX, so here are some softwares that were extremely helpful to me:
Photopea is an extremely helpful software pretty similar to Photoshop and it is completely free. You can save and open your works on PSD (which is the format Photoshop uses). The only inconvenient I’ve found with this is that the bigger your project, the laggier it becomes.
Paint.net is another excellent software used by many clothing designers. In my opinion, it is overrated, but it is helpful for the majority of people.
Gimp is very helpful and easy-to-learn for new artists. Is like an upgraded version of MS Paint.
Inkscape is one of the best alternatives if you want to create vectors (wich are mathematically calculated). Pretty useful for UI designers and artists.
Gravit Designer is a free web alternative to Adobe Illustrator where you can design professional vectors without paying anything. Almost every single feature is free, but it has an optional monthly subscription if you want some more features
Figma is another excellent option for UI designers. It is free for beginners and offers a lot of options and tools to create amazing and beautiful looking UI for your games.
Krita is a free and open source tool created by artists. It is mainly used to draw, but it might be also helpful in other ways.
Vectr is a free graphics software used to create vector graphics easily and intuitively. It’s a simple yet powerful web and desktop cross-platform tool
Game UI Database is a website where you can find inspiration for your UI designs. You can filter by type, style and many other filters.
Pxlr X and Pxlr E are both made specifically for photo manipulation, but you can still do some pretty basic GFX with them.
Programming
For programmers there are a lot of useful softwares too:
Visual Studio Code is one lf the most used code editors (IDE) not only in Roblox, but everywhere. It will help you keep your code organized and speed up your workflow
Rojo is a tool designed to enable Roblox developers to use professional-grade software engineering tools. With Rojo, it’s possible to use industry-leading tools like Visual Studio Code and Git. Rojo is designed for power users who want to use the best tools available for building games, libraries, and plugins. Copied from Rojo’s GitHub page
Roblox API Explorer is an extension for VSC made by @evaera . Well, its name is pretty self-explaining but it is very useful.
Modelling, building, and terrain
Blender is the most known software for modelling in the market. Many professional studios use it. Helpful for renders and models.
Magica Voxel is also an excellent tool when creating voxels. Easy and with many options to create amazing 3D pixel art
cc0 textures is a website for PBR textures with a public license. There you can find a whole catalog to chose from and make your model look epic
Poly Pizza is an AMAZING website full of free models created by the youtuber Dook and many other people. It is fully inspired on the previous Google’s project, Poly, which was discontinued and no longer available.
Meshbox is an incredible plugin made by @tyridge77 that lets you import 3D terrain with stamper tools and a variety of settings. It is definitely a life-saver when creating detailed and complex terrain.
Music and SFX
Strofe is an amazing resource made specifically for Roblox developers to create amazing soundtracks almost instantly. They also have lots of songs on their gallery which you are completely free to use. To make your own song, you need to go to their website and make it, but you need to buy its rights using “Strofe coins”, which can be purchased or earned for free doing some extra steps.
BFXR is a software where you can find a whole library of sounds wich you can use or combine to create new ones. It is free and open source
Audacity, one of the best softwares for editing audio. It have a few tools that may be extremely helpful for you. Also free and open source
LMMS is free, open source and, with the appropriate hardware, you can create excellent and epic songs
zapsplat have thousands of free sound FX for your games! It is really helpful for all the walking/swimming/punching sounds.
Cakewalk by BandLab is another alternative to LMMS. It was a paid software but turned free a while ago. It has tons of features and is really an amazing tool, especially for big studios.
Bandlab for iOS and Android (by the same developers of the previous app) is also a great tool to create songs just with your phone, and it serves as a social web for musicians.
Forum resources and lessons
This is a list of helpful topics that may be useful for everyone and might be difficult to find.
URL shorthers:
[Unofficial] ShortBlox: URL shorters for social media
How to recover your corrupted unions:
How to recover invisible / corrupt unions
Hidden keybinds:
List of undocumented Roblox game client menus and their keybinds
Datastore tutorial (beginners):
Datastore Tutorial for Beginners
How to format your Forum posts:
https://devforum.roblox.com/t/developer-forum-formatting-guide/456083
A list of all the famous, original, and safe plugins:
BloxyLibrary - Collection of high-quality and safe development resources
How to setup Rojo with VSC:
Setting up VSCode with ROJO
Custom fonts for your games:
Custom Text Label Creator Plugin!
How to create skyboxes:
Creating new and fresh Skyboxes
Create a minimap for your game:
Minimap Render [RoRenderV3]
Minimap Render & Gui
For more just scroll the #resources category
Some other softwares on the comments that may not be open source or free
Other helpful tools for everyone
Olive is a free, open source video editor which even with it current Alpha phase, it is already an excellent tool. Pretty similar to Premiere.
DaVinci Resolve 17 is a completely free full-packed video editor and it is completely stable. It also has a Studio version which is paid, but it doesn’t offers any substantial improvements if you are just looking to edit a simple video.
Natron is a completely free and open source alternative to Adobe After Effects and it is actively being updated by its community. It has a lot of features and definitely works for those animations and renders!
Roblox DevHub Search is an extension for Google Chrome and Firefox created by @sleitnick which may make your life easier.
ShareX is a tool for your desktop that may make you want to uninstall Gyazo and many other similar apps lol. (Thanks to @Muoshoob for this recommendation). It is also free and open source.
OBS Studio may be also helpful for you if you have a Twitch channel or just want to record your screen for some reason. It is free and open source.
LibreOffice is a free and open source alternative for the Office Suite. Compatible with most files.
BTRoblox is another helpful extension that add a lot new functions to the website
FontSpace is a website with legitimate, and clearly licensed free fonts. You can use their font generator to create fonts that are easy to copy and paste into your website, social media profiles, and more.
Google Fonts is another amazing source of free fonts. As an extra point you can use them when designing a website since they are maintained by Google itself, meaning they are fully compatible with almost any browser.
Kenney is a guy who create amazing things and have a whole store of free assets. Go support him if you can. (Thanks to @boatbomber on Twitter for this recommendation)
Vanilla is an amazing set of icons made by @Elttob . It improves the Studio experience in a huge way.
I hope you find this useful.
