Hi all, I made a comment on a popular post here by @eager-fox. And I'm not sure who reads the comments here so because I spent a long time on it (yes, I'm that vain), I thought I'd repost it here.

For a game jam that's all about free software and requires compo participants to submit source code, I see a lot of posts here providing lists of "free" development tools that are not actually free.

I'd like to point out many of these are not free, that is, they don't respect your freedom. Most of them actually have free alternatives! I split [the post's list] up into two lists and put my recommended alternatives for the proprietary ones.

Free (great!) software:

• Blender - (This program is incredible!)
• Godot - (I'm really excited to use this more, it has a ton of features)
• Krita - (Better than photoshop for painting. Incredible brush engine.)
• Audacity - (Really easy to use!)
• Bosca Coil - (Never used it myself, looks neat though)
• Tiled - (Makes me want to use tilemaps for all my games)
• Monogame - (Never used it myself, but FEZ was made with it)
• PyGame - (I made my first real game with this! Weak; see @cmlsc's comment)

[I'd like to add these to the list, all of which I can attest to]

• Phaser - (HTML5, supports mobile - so simple I learned it during LD once)
• Flashpunk / Flixel - (Flash is dead, long live flash)
  • Haxepunk / Haxeflixel - (Thanks @jacic!)
• OGRE - (C++ 3d game engine, choosing which version is tough)
• Vim - (A text editor - I can't use anything else anymore :wq)
• GNU/Linux - (If you can, don't forget to choose a free OS, and build for Linux too!)
• GIMP / Inkscape - (GIMP for bitmaps, Inkscape for vector graphics)
• cocos2d - (Thanks @naca! A 2d game engine)
• piskel - (Thanks @naca! For pixel art)
• git - (If you're not using version control, you're gonna have a bad time - thanks @naca)
• LMMS - (A quite complete DAW, thanks @huvaakoodia)

Proprietary (non-free) software alternatives:

• Visual Studio
  • I recommend: Code::Blocks if you want an IDE, I prefer Unix-like as an IDE
• Adobe Fuse
  • I recommend: MakeHuman (I <3 this tool!)
• Daz3d
• Sketchup
  • I recommend: Blender
• Paint.net (although its license is quite permissive)
  • I recommend: Krita / Gimp
• Tilemancer - They don't make their license clear / source accessible AFAIK, so proprietary
  • I recommend: Tiled (Also a great tool!)
• LabChirp - They don't make their license clear / source accessible AFAIK, so proprietary
  • I recommend: bfxr. If that's tired, record your own with Audacity!
• Unreal Engine - Also note this engine costs royalties
  • I recommend: Godot or OGRE if you don't need GUI.
• Cryengine
  • I recommend: Godot or OGRE if you don't need GUI.
• Unity Free Edition
  • I recommend: Godot. Godot seeks to mirror Unity in most ways.
• Gamemaker
  • I recommend: Just using a 2d engine like SFML or cocos2d. TBH I never liked GM

SptyTile - I couldn't actually find this one so IDK. Never used it myself either