Resources | Game Dev Nexus

Name	Categories	Pricing	Tags	Description
Adobe Photoshop	Image Manipulation	Trial, Subscription	Raster	From photo editing and compositing to digital painting, animation, and graphic design — you can do it all in Photoshop.
Gimp	Image Manipulation	Free	Raster	GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program: The Free and Open Source Image Editor.
Affinity Photo	Image Manipulation	Trial, Paid	Raster	The only fully loaded photo editor integrated across Mac, Windows and iOS, Affinity Photo is the first choice of thousands of professionals around the world.
Photopea	Image Manipulation	Free, Subscription	Raster	Photopea Online Photo Editor lets you edit photos, apply effects, filters, add text, crop or resize pictures. Do Online Photo Editing in your browser for free!
Pixelmator Pro	Image Manipulation, Digital Painting, Graphic Art, UX/UI Design	Paid	Raster, Vector	Pixelmator Pro is a beautiful, easy-to-use, and very powerful image editor for the Mac. With it’s cutting edge technologies, Pixelmator Pro is the most modern way to create, edit, and enhance your images.
PaintShop Pro	Image Manipulation, Graphic Art	Trial, Paid	Raster	Unlock new creative options fast with PaintShop Pro 2022. AI-powered Portrait Mode, Background Replacement and Style Transfer simplify complex tasks. Plus, new editing tools and workspace enhancements streamline the photo editing process for photographers of any skill level.
Microsoft Paint	Image Editing	Free	Raster	Microsoft Paint is still in Windows. Search for it by typing paint in the taskbar.
paint dot net	Image Editing	Free	Raster	Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows.
Piscart Photo Editor	Image Editing	Free, Subscription	Raster	Create amazing edits with Picsart's photo editor. Add text, effects, stickers & most popular filters with our free online image editor! Start Editing Now!
Pixlr	Image Editing	Free, Trial, Subscription	Raster	Discover free and premium online photo editor and graphic design tools! Effects, filters, overlays, simple to expert tools.Open almost any image format like PSD (Photoshop), PXD, Jpeg, PNG (Transparent), webP, SVG and many more. You'll find a Pixlr image editor just for you!
Clip Studio Paint	Digital Painting, 2D Animation, Graphic Art	Trial, Paid	Raster, Vector	Graphics software and app designed for drawing and painting, available for Windows, macOS, iPad and iPhone.
Sketchbook	Digital Painting	Free, Paid	Raster	Use SketchBook software for digital painting, drawing, sketching, and illustrated art. SketchBook can also be used to render ideas and create illustrations.
Krita	Digital Painting	Free	Raster	Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.
MyPaint	Digital Painting	Free	Raster	MyPaint is an easy-to-use painting program which works well with Wacom graphics tablets and other similar devices. It comes with a large brush collection including charcoal and ink to emulate real media, but the highly configurable brush engine allows you to experiment with your own brushes and with not-quite-natural painting.
Corel Painter	Digital Painting	Trial, Paid	Raster	Experience the world's most realistic and professional digital art & painting software for Mac and Windows, featuring hundreds of realistic brushes, paint and tutorials
Procreate	Digital Painting	Paid	Raster	Procreate is the most powerful and intuitive digital illustration app available for iPad. It's packed with features artists love, and it's an iPad exclusive.
Fire Alpaca	Digital Painting	Free	Raster	FireAlpaca is the free Digital Painting Software that is available in 10 languages and compatible with both Mac and Windows.
Black Ink	Digital Painting	Trial, Paid	Raster	Black Ink is a digital painting software that uses your computer's rendering hardware to provide a perfectly responsive experience no matter your picture's size.
Paint Tool Sai	Digital Painting	Trial, Paid	Raster	PaintTool SAI is high quality and lightweight painting software, fully digitizer support, amazing anti-aliased paintings, provide easy and stable operation, this software make digital art more enjoyable and comfortable.
OpenToonz	Digital Painting, 2D Animation	Free	Raster	OpenToonz - Open-source Animation Production Software
Drawpile	Digital Painting	Free	Raster, Collaborate	Drawpile is a Free software collaborative drawing program that allows multiple users to sketch on the same canvas simultaneously.
Magma Studio	Digital Painting	Free, Subscription	Raster, Collaborate	Spark your creativity and improve your skills by painting with other artists on a shared canvas in real-time with Magma Studio. Hassle-free, no installation required.
Pencil 2D	2D Animation, Graphic Art	Free	Raster, Vector	Pencil2D is a simple 2D animation, drawing and painting application that lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation using both bitmap and vector graphics.
Synfig	2D Animation, Graphic Art	Free	Vector, Skeletal	Free and open-source animation software
Spine	2D Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster, Vector, Skeletal	Spine is 2D skeletal animation software for video games. Bring your Unity, C#, cocos2d-x, iOS, Android, C++, HTML5, JS and other games alive with 2D animation!
DragonBones	2D Animation	Free	Raster, Vector, Skeletal	DragonBones is a 2D game animation and righ media content creative platform for designer. It provides 2D animation solution and motion comic solution. It contains a integrated creative tool DragonBones Pro, Flash Pro plugin for animation export and lots of runtime libraries for game engines and platforms.
Live2D Cubism	2D Animation	Free, Paid	Raster, Vector, Skeletal	Live2D Cubism dynamically animates an illustration exactly as it is drawn, using just a single source illustration and not requiring individual frames to be drawn.
Real Illusion CrazyTalk Animator	2D Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster, Vector, Skeletal	Cartoon Animator is a 2D animation software designed with many intuitive animation tools that make this software a powerful companion in many fields.
Spriter	2D Animation, Pixel Animation	Paid	Raster, Vector, Skeletal	Spriter 2 is being built from the ground up to offer a new level of flexibility and ease of use for 2d game animation. It will be built around advanced image deforming, bone and curve manipulation, and lots of other completely new features to help game creators make the most impressive visuals as easily as possible.
Fusion Character Animator	2D Animation	Paid	Raster, Skeletal	A small tool to facilitate Sprites animation 2D characters for developers.
Unity Anima 2D	2D Animation	Free	Unity Plugin, Skeletal	Get the Unity Anima2D package from Unity Technologies and speed up your game development process. Find this & other Essentials options on the Unity Asset Store.
Coa Tools	2D Animation	Free	Blender Plugin, Skeletal	COA Tools is a 2D Animation Suite for blender. It offers a 2D cutout animation workflow similar to programs like spine or spriter. - ndee85/coa_tools
Toon Boom Harmony	2D Animation	Trial, Paid, Subscription	Raster, Vector	Harmony 20, the industry's leading 2D animation software, brings the latest in digital drawing sensitivity to its brushes — every marking, every style, every texture you want to create and leave for the audience is felt. Rulers, guides, colour control & features as well as innovative deformers enrich your animation, bringing reality and fantasy within millimeters of each other.
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro	Story Boarding	Trial, Paid, Subscription	Raster, Vector	Storyboard Pro 7 is an all-in-one storyboard solution that combines drawing, scripting, camera controls, animatic creation capabilities and sound.
Storyboarder	Story Boarding	Free	Raster	Storyboarder makes it easy to visualize a story as fast you can draw stick figures. Quickly draw to test if a story idea works. Create and show animatics to others. Express your story idea without mak
Laigter	Normal Map	Free	Raster	Simple normal map generator for 2D sprites!
Sprite DLight	Normal Map	Paid	Raster	Sprite DLight is a tool providing a new generation of voluminous one-click normal maps from 2D sprites like pixel art for dynamic lighting effects in games.
Sprite Lamp	Normal Map	Free, Paid	Raster	Sprite Lamp is a software tool to help game developers combine 2D art with dynamic lighting effects, through the creation of hand drawn normal maps.
Sprite Illuminator	Normal Map	Trial, Paid	Raster	SpriteIlluminator: Generate normal maps for your 2d game and web projects.
BriteSprite (Unity Plugin)	Normal Map	Paid	Raster	Get the BriteSprite: 2D Normalmapper package from 2D Assassins and speed up your game development process. Find this & other Tools options on the Unity Asset Store.
Marmoset Hexel Suite	Pixel Art, Graphic Art, Paint, Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster, Vector	Marmoset Hexels is a grid-based painting tool for creating complex pixel and vector designs with the stroke of a brush. Try the 14 day free trial today! Useful for isometric and hexagonal art.
Pro Motion NG	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation, Tiled Map	Free, Paid	Raster	Pro Motion is a pixel drawing and animation software designed similar to the famous Amiga Deluxe Paint (DPaint). Ideal for artists working on detailed and pixel precise graphics as required for mobile games and portable game consoles. It also suites well to create light weight graphics for web games.
Pyxel Edit	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free, Paid	Raster	Pyxel Edit pixel art and tile creation tool
GraFx2	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	GrafX2 is a bitmap paint program inspired by the Amiga programs Deluxe Paint and Brilliance. Specialized in 256-color drawing, it includes a very large number of tools and effects that make it particularly suitable for pixel art, game graphics, and generally any detailed graphics painted with a mouse.
Aseprite	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster	Animated sprite editor & pixel art tool
Aseprite Source	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	Source Code of Aesprite. If you compile the source code yourself, the application is free to use.
LibreSprite	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	LibreSprite is a free and open source program for creating and animating your sprites. LibreSprite originated as a fork of Aseprite.
Grahics Gale	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	Powerful tool for spriting and pixel art
piskel	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	Piskel, free online sprite editor. A simple web-based tool for Spriting and Pixel art. Create pixel art, game sprites and animated GIFs. Free and open-source.
PixelShop	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	PixelShop is a small but very powerful program for Windows and OSX to create pixel art.
GoyaPixel	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	A pixel-art editor built on ClojureScript and Om that runs on your browser.
Pixelorama	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Free	Raster	Your free and open source sprite editor
UPA Toolkit: Pixel Art Editor	Pixel Art	Free	Raster, Unity Plugin	Get the UPA Toolkit: Pixel Art Editor package from Brackeys and speed up your game development process. Find this & other Painting options on the Unity Asset Store.
Lospec Pixel Editor	Pixel Art	Free	Raster	The Lospec Pixel Editor is a free, easy to use tool for creating pixel art that you can use right in your browser.
Pikopixel	Pixel Art	Free	Raster	PikoPixel is a free, open-source Mac application for drawing & editing pixel-art images. Also runs on other Unix-like platforms (Linux, BSD), using the GNUstep framework.
Tilemancer	Tile Editor	Free	Raster	Procedural pixel-art tile creator
Adobe Illustrator	Graphic Art	Trial, Subscription	Vector	The industry-standard vector graphics software lets you create everything from web and mobile graphics to logos, icons, book illustrations, product packaging, and billboards.
Affinity Designer	Graphic Art	Trial, Paid	Raster, Vector	Available for Windows, Mac and iPad, Affinity Designer is an award-winning vector graphics software setting the new industry standard in the world of design.
Inkscape	Graphic Art	Free	Vector	Inkscape is professional quality vector graphics software which runs on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows desktop computers.
Corel Draw	Graphic Art	Trial, Subscription, Paid	Raster, Vector	Explore what’s possible in graphic design with CorelDRAW. Time saving collaboration, advanced illustration and powerful photo-editing tools deliver exceptional results and boost productivity. Enjoy a cross-platform experience on Windows, Mac, web, iPad, and other mobile devices.
Corel Vector	Graphic Art, UX/UI Design	Trial, Subscription	Vector	Design online with Corel Vector! Create stunning vector graphics with intuitive tools. Access your projects from anywhere, on any browser.
Vectr	Graphic Art, UX/UI Design	Free, Subscription	Vector	Free vector graphics editor. A simple yet powerful web and desktop cross-platform tool for everyone.
Lunacy	Graphic Art, UX/UI Design	Free	Vector	Lunacy is a native Windows app that opens, edits, and stores .sketch files. And it’s completely free.
Sketch	UX/UI Design	Free, Paid	Vector	Sketch is a design toolkit built to help you create your best work — from your earliest ideas, through to final artwork.
Adobe XD	UX/UI Design	Free, Subscription	Vector, Mockup, Share	Share your story with designs that look and feel like the real thing. Wireframe, animate, prototype, collaborate, and more — it’s all right here, all in one place.
Figma	UX/UI Design	Free, Subscription	Vector, Mockup	Build better products as a team. Design, prototype, and gather feedback all in one place with Figma.
Framer	UX/UI Design	Trial, Subscription	Vector, Mockup	It’s prototyping made simple—no code required, browser-based, and free for everyone. High-fidelity in half the time.
Justinmind Wireframing Tool	UX/UI Design	Trial, Subscription	Vector, Mockup	Best wireframing tool to design interactive wireframes and mockups for mobile and web apps, and it's 100% FREE forever. Unlimited mockups and users. Download now and start designing awesome user experiences!
Moqups	UX/UI Design	Trial, Subscription	Vector, Mockup, Collaborate, Share	Moqups is a streamlined and intuitive web app that helps you create and collaborate on wireframes, mockups, diagrams and prototypes — for any type of project.
Pencil Project	UX/UI Design	Free	Vector, Mockup	An open-source GUI prototyping tool that's available for ALL platforms.
icofx	Image Editing, Pixel Art	Trial, Paid	Raster, Icons	Icofx is a professional icon and cursor editor used to create icons with transparency for Windows and Macintosh
Texture Packer	Sprite Sheet	Free	Raster	TexturePacker creates sprite sheets for your game engine
Leshy Labs Sprite Sheet Animator	Sprite Sheet	Free	Raster	Leshy SpriteSheet Animator is an HTML5 tool for previewing and testing sprite sheet animations.
Magic Pixelator	Sprite Sheet	Paid	Raster, Unity Plugin	Get the Magic Pixelator package from GamesForTutti and speed up your game development process. Find this & other Sprite Management options on the Unity Asset Store.
Filter Forge	Image Manipulation	Trial, Paid	Raster, Photoshop Plugin	A standalone program and a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo that allows you to apply thousands of photo effects and generate seamless PBR textures for Unity3D, Unreal and other 3D engines.
FontSprite	Font Editor	Free	Raster	Simple fontsprite editing with lots of functions
FontForge	Font Editor	Free	Vector	FontForge is free and open-source outline font editor.
BitFontMaker	Font Editor	Free	Raster	BitFontMaker2™ is a fast and easy online bitmap font editor. You can edit and build a pixel-font on your web browser.
FontStruct	Font Editor	Free	Raster, Vector	FontStruct. Build, Share, Download Fonts.
NFG's Arcade Font Engine	Font Editor	Free	Raster	NFG loves fonts. It's a sad little addiction that brought him to this: a page that allows you to create your own images, with words of your choosing, using fonts unceremoniously ripped from beloved arcade games of yore.
Angel Code Bitmap Font Generator	Font Editor	Free	Raster	This program will allow you to generate bitmap fonts from TrueType fonts. The application generates both image files and character descriptions that can be read by a game for easy rendering of fonts.
High Logic FontCreator	Font Editor	Trial, Paid	Vector	FontCreator is the world's leading font editor built to help you create amazing new fonts and edit existing fonts.
71 Square Glyph Designer	Font Editor	Trial, Paid	Vector	Glyph Designer is a powerful bitmap font generator app for Mac. Create beautifully styled fonts to enhance your apps and games.
Cool Text Graphics Generator	Font Editor, Graphic Art	Free	Raster	Cool Text is a FREE graphics generator for web pages and anywhere else you need an impressive logo without a lot of design work.
ShoeBox	Pixel Art, Image Editing	Free	Raster	ShoeBox is a free Adobe Air based app for Windows and Mac OSX with game and ui related tools. Each tool uses a drag and drop - or clipbord interaction for a quick workflow.
RexPaint	Graphic Art, ASCII Art	Free	Vector	REXPaint, A powerful and user-friendly ASCII art editor by Grid Sage Games
Animation Paper	2D Animation	Free	Raster	World's best software for hand-drawn animation.
TupiTube	2D Animation	Free	Raster	TupiTube: Your first animation experience. Free TupiTube animation tools for children and teenagers. Download TupiTube tools. Join our social network for kids and teenagers! TupiTube Desk - TupiTube App
Pivot Animator	2D Animation	Free	Raster, Vector	Pivot makes it easy to create animations. Bring your figures to life by creating a sequence of animation frames.
Stykz	2D Animation	Free	Raster, Vector	The first multi-platform stick figure animation program.
Juice FX	Pixel Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster	Add animations to your images to make them juicy! Flash, Scale, Skew, Shake, Wobble, Jump, Wave even you can add an outline effect with any disered color.
Pixel FX Designer	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster	With Pixel FX Designer you can create awesome particle effects with the ability to giving them a pixelart feel by tweaking several options and render them to .png sprite sheets or .gifs .
VecMaker	Pixel Art	Trial, Paid	Raster, Vector	A new way for vector design! *Note: This tool is based on vectors, but the export format is .png / .jpg.
PixaTool	Pixel Art	Trial, Paid	Raster	8Bit / PixelArt converter for sprites & videos.
TexaTool	Pixel Art	Free	Raster	Procedural texture generator.
Fluid FX	Pixel Art, Pixel Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster	Fluid FX is a tool that relies on a fluid/pressure simulation to achieve different kind of animations like explosions, blood, smoke, dust, magic effects,etc..
Smear FX	Pixel Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster	Make your animations extra juicy by adding some smearing to them! Just a little touch of smear can add a lot of value to animations and makes them feel smoother.
Mini FX	Pixel Art	Free, Trial, Paid	Raster	Mini FX is a tiny and simplified version of PixaTool, where you can pixelate, modify hue/saturation/brightness or add dithering to an image. If you already have Pixel FX Designer, Juice FX or Smear FX you'll get a 100% discount when purchasing Mini FX.
Milton	Digital Painting	Free	Raster	Milton is a free and open-source infinite canvas paint program.
PixelOver	Pixel Art, 2D Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster	A software to convert images, gifs or 3D models in pixel art, animate in realtime with pixel perfect transformations, bones and key animation system. Available for Windows, macOS, Linux
Tahoma2D	2D Animation	Free	Raster	Tahoma2D is based on OpenToonz which itself is based on Toonz, developed by Digital Video in Italy. The mission of Tahoma2D is to be a powerful and user-friendly animation program for digital 2D artists and stop motion animators.
ImageMagick	Image Manipulation, CLI	Free	Raster	Use ImageMagick® to create, edit, compose, and convert digital images. Resize an image, crop it, change its shades and colors, add captions, and more.
Sprite Bump	Normal Map	Trial, Paid	Raster	Generating high-quality normal maps for your 2D Sprite Characters has never been easier! You provide the original image and Sprite Bump will handle the rest.
Creature Animation	2D Animation	Trial, Paid	Raster	Creature 2D Skeletal and Mesh Animation Tool
Adobe Fresco	Digital Painting	Free	Raster	Adobe Fresco is a powerful drawing app with the world’s largest digital brush collection. Try an exceptional digital painting and drawing experience for stylus and touch devices.

2D Art