Game creation system

Short description: Special software used to make video games

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A game creation system (GCS) is a game engine that is targeted towards the consumer, for the purpose of creating a user-derived video game. It contains a set of specialized design tools to make a video game, and sometimes also a light scripting language.

Unlike developer-oriented game engines, game creation systems allow an easy entry point for novice or hobbyist game designers, with often little to no coding required for simple behaviors. Although initially stigmatized, all-in-one game creation systems have gained some legitimacy with the role of Unity, Pixel Game Maker MV, and GameMaker in the growth of the indie game development community.[1] Currently the Independent Games Festival recognizes games produced with similar platforms.

Early game creation systems such as Broderbund's The Arcade Machine (1982), Pinball Construction Set (1983), ASCII's War Game Construction Kit (1983),[2] Thunder Force Construction (1984),[3] Adventure Construction Set (1984), Garry Kitchen's GameMaker (1985), Wargame Construction Set (1986), Shoot-'Em-Up Construction Kit (1987), Mamirin / Dungeon Manjirou (1988), and Arcade Game Construction Kit (1988) appeared in the 1980s on home computers. 3D Construction Kit was released on the ZX Spectrum in 1991, and contained a full polygon-based world creation tool. Most of these early design frameworks are specific to one or another genre.

In the 1990s, game creation systems for the IBM PC expanded to the more general and the more specific. Whereas frameworks like RSD Game-Maker and Klik & Play attempted to accommodate any genre, communities grew around games like ZZT (later MegaZeux[4]) that permitted extensive user modification that they essentially became de facto game creation systems. Pie in the Sky Software created a full on 2.5D first-person shooter creator out of an engine they previously used internally, which sold in three total versions until 2003; 3D GameStudio and products by The Game Creators have targeted similar creators.

In the mid-2000s, with the growth of the World Wide Web and social networking, programs like BlitzBasic and Multimedia Fusion supports the rise of interest both in indie games and in canned game design software.[5] Whereas earlier game creation systems tend to be on the side of user friendly interfaces,[6] 21st-century systems often have extensive scripting languages that can account for higher-skilled users. Other general purpose game creation systems include Construct, Clickteam, Buildbox, Game Editor, GameSalad, GDevelop and Stencyl.

## Contents

* 1 Features
* 1.1 Tools
* 1.2 Scripting
* 2 Usage
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## Features

### Tools

Several game creation systems include some of the following tools:

* Integrated development environment: for managing projects and resources
* Command-line interface: for compiling and debugging games
* Sprite editor: for the editing of animated images commonly referred to as sprites
* Model editor: for 3D modeling purposes
* Map/Scene editor: generally used for object and tile placement

### Scripting

The rise of game creation systems also saw a need for free form scripting languages with general purpose use. Some packages, such as Conitec's Gamestudio, include a more comprehensive scripting language under the surface to allow users more leeway in defining their games' behavior.

## Usage

While most of the mainstream and popular game creation systems may be general-purpose, several exist solely for specific genres.[7]

* Adventure games: Adventure Master, World Builder, Adventure Game Studio, Twine, Wintermute Engine, SLUDGE[8]
* First-person shooters: 3D Game Creation System, FPS Creator, Silent Walk FPS Creator,[9] Raycasting Game Maker,[10] Easy FPS Editor[11]
* Fighting games: Fighter Maker, Mugen, IKEMEN Go[12]
* Role-playing games: RPG Maker, Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine, EasyRPG,[13] Solarus,[14] Sphere[15]
* Dungeon crawlers: Software:Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures, The Bard's Tale Construction Set
* Space combat game: Wing Commander Academy
* Visual novels: Ren'Py
* Massively multiplayer online games: Roblox, Core, Rec Room
* Platform games: LittleBigPlanet, Super Mario Maker, PlataGO!, Geometry Dash[16]
* General-purpose: Dreams, Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit, Game Builder Garage, Fancade

## See also

* Game engine
* Level editor

## References

1. ↑ insert credit, "From Shooter to Shooter: The Rise of cly5m"
2. ↑ "War Game Construction Kit". Oh!FM. http://retropc.net/fm-7/museum/softhouse/ascii/000701300.html.
3. ↑ "Thunder Force Construction". Oh!FM. http://retropc.net/fm-7/museum/softhouse/tecnosoft/330602301.html.
4. ↑ Wood, Evelyn (2016-10-06). "Succeeding MegaZeux". https://eev.ee/blog/2016/10/06/succeeding-megazeux/.
5. ↑ MBA-ESG, Team (2025-05-24). "The Rise of Indie Games: Opportunities for Game Designers" (in en). https://strate.in/the-rise-of-indie-games-opportunities-for-game-designers/.
6. ↑ Gamasutra, "The Making and Unmaking of a Game-Maker Maker"
7. ↑ "Ambrosine's Game Creation Resources & Classic Game Links". 1998–2022. https://www.ambrosine.com/resource.php.
8. ↑ Cheeseness (2015-07-09). "Cheese talks to himself (about the SLUDGE engine)". https://cheesetalks.net/sludge.php.
9. ↑ Marculescu, Ana (2015-01-03). "Silent Walk FPS Creator". https://www.softpedia.com/get/Authoring-tools/Authoring-Related/Silent-Walk-FPS-Creator.shtml.
10. ↑ "Raycasting Game Maker v5.31". https://themess.com/game-maker-creator-software/raycasting-game-maker-v5-31/.
11. ↑ Sprinceana, Tudor (2022-02-16). "Easy FPS Editor Lite". https://www.softpedia.com/get/Gaming-Related/EasyFPSEditorLite.shtml.
12. ↑ Blizen, Arthur (2023-01-20). "IKEMEN Go Rollback Open Alpha Launches Today". https://dashfight.com/news/ikemen-go-rollback-open-alpha-launches-today-2332.
13. ↑ Schaff, Tobias (July 2016). "EasyRPG - An RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 engine". ODROID Magazine. https://books.google.com/books?id=e-mqDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
14. ↑ Famularo, Jessica (2020-04-14). "Zelda's most dedicated fan game developers built an engine anyone can use". https://www.pcgamer.com/zeldas-most-dedicated-fan-game-developers-built-an-engine-anyone-can-use/.
15. ↑ "Sphere RPG Engine". http://www.navioo.com/javascript/Sphere_RPG_Engine_818.html.
16. ↑ "Geometry dash". https://geometrrydash.com/.

* v
* t
* e

Game engines (list)

* Source port
* First-person shooter engine
* list
* Game engine recreation
* list
* Game creation system
* List of visual novel engines

Free and
open-source|

| 2D|

* Adventure Game Studio
* Beats of Rage
* Cocos2d
* Corona
* Moai
* OHRRPGCE
* OpenFL
* ORX
* Pygame
* Ren'Py
* Stencyl
* Stratagus

|

2.5D|

* Build
* Doom ports
* ORX

3D|

* Away3D/AwayJS
* Cafu
* GamePlay
* GLScene
* Horde3D
* Irrlicht
* JMonkey
* OGRE
* Panda3D
* Platinum Arts Sandbox
* PlayCanvas
* Torque
* Xenko

Mix|

* Allegro
* Godot
* libGDX
* Lightweight Java Game Library
* Spring

Proprietary|

| 2D|

* Clickteam Fusion
* Construct
* Felgo (V-Play Engine)
* GameMaker Studio
* GameSalad
* RPG Maker
* UbiArt Framework
* Vicious
* Zillions of Games

|

3D|

* 4A
* Amazon Lumberyard
* AnvilNext
* Chrome
* Creation
* CryEngine
* Crystal Tools
* Decima
* Diesel
* Disrupt Engine
* Dunia Engine
* Ego
* Essence
* Fox
* Frostbite
* HeroEngine
* id Tech
* 5
* 6
* 7
* Ignite
* IW
* LithTech
* Luminous Studio
* MT Framework
* PhyreEngine
* REDengine
* RAGE
* Shark 3D
* ShiVa
* Snowdrop
* Source
* Unigine
* Unreal

Mix|

* Gamebryo
* Unity

Historical
(Free and
open-source)|

| 2D|

* Thousand Parsec
* Vassal
* Xconq

|

2.5D|

* Doom engine

3D|

* Blender Game
* Bork3D
* Crystal Space
* CyanWorlds.com Engine
* Delta3D
* Dim3
* Genesis3D
* id Tech
* Quake
* Quake II
* 3
* 4
* Open Wonderland
* Papervision3D
* PLIB

Mix|

* Wintermute Engine

Historical
(Proprietary)|

| 2D|

* Game-Maker
* GameMaker
* Garry Kitchen's GameMaker
* Genie
* MADE
* M.U.G.E.N
* SCUMM
* Southpaw
* Virtual Theatre

|

3D|

* Bitsquid
* C4
* Dark
* Enigma
* Flare3D
* GoldSrc
* Filmation
* Freescape
* INSANE
* Jade
* Jedi
* LyN
* Marmalade
* Panta Rhei
* Pie in the Sky
* Q
* Reality Lab
* RenderWare
* SAGE
* Silent Storm
* Sim RPG Maker
* Sith
* Titan
* Truevision3D
* Vision
* Visual3D
* Voxel Space
* XnGine
* Zero

Proprietary
middleware|

* Euphoria
* Gameware
* GameWorks
* Havok
* iMUSE
* Kynapse
* SpeedTree
* FaceGen

* v
* t
* e

Video game genres (List)

Action|

* Beat 'em up
* Hack and slash
* Fighting
* Maze
* Pac-Man clone
* Platform
* Shooter
* First-person
* MMOFPS
* Third-person
* Light gun
* Shoot 'em up
* Tactical
* Survival
* Battle royale

Action-adventure|

* Grand Theft Auto clone
* Immersive sim
* Metroidvania
* Stealth
* Survival horror
* Psychological horror

Adventure|

* Escape the room
* Interactive fiction
* Interactive movie
* Visual novel

Role-playing|

* Action role-playing
* Dungeon crawl
* MMORPG
* MUD
* Roguelike
* Tactical role-playing

Simulation|

* Construction and management
* Business
* City
* Government
* Life simulation
* Dating sim
* Digital pet
* God
* Social simulation
* Sports

Strategy|

* 4X
* Auto battler
* Multiplayer online battle arena
* Real-time strategy
* Time management
* MMORTS
* Real-time tactics
* Tower defense
* Turn-based strategy
* Turn-based tactics
* Artillery
* Wargame
* Grand strategy wargame

Vehicle simulation|

* Flight simulator
* Amateur
* Combat
* Space
* Racing
* Kart racing
* Sim racing
* Submarine simulator
* Train simulator
* Vehicular combat

Other genres|

* Breakout clone
* Deck-building
* Roguelike deck-building
* Digital collectible card game
* Eroge
* Exergame
* Incremental
* Music
* Rhythm
* Non-game
* Party
* Programming
* Puzzle
* Sokoban
* Tile-matching

Related concepts|

* AAA game
* Advertising
* Advergame
* Arcade game
* Art game
* Audio game
* Casual game
* Christian game
* Crossover game
* Cult game
* Educational game
* FMV
* Gamification
* Indie game
* Multiplayer video game
* Nonlinear gameplay
* Open world
* Nonviolent video game
* Online game
* Browser game
* Online gambling
* Social-network game
* Pervasive game
* Serious game
* Toys-to-life
* Twitch gameplay
* Video game clone

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