A List of Tools I Use

I’ve been asked by students about the tools I use to make my games, and I figure it’s a reasonable thing to put together a short list. I’m doing this to make sure that you’re not left convinced that the problem you’re facing is a tool limitation, the idea that you need some sort of special tool to achieve things.

Here’s a quick list of the programs I use to make the games I make.

  • Cards, Boards and Token Images: GIMP
  • PDF Creation for Cards: Scribus
  • Documentation, Rulebook Creation: Microsoft Word – I use an older version which can save PDFs; you can almost certainly get the same effect from something like Libre. You can even use Google Drive for most of this (though not all of it).
  • PDF Reader/Convertor: Foxit Reader
  • Stitching PDFs together: Online service PDFMerge

Also, don’t let anyone give you shiz about what you choose to use. The main problem with the tools you use is whether or not they can be shared with other developers. Tools are tools, and if you’re comfortable or skilled with a particular tool, then you can refine that. You may eventually run into the barriers of what your tool can let you do, but that’s for you to hit, not for other people to shame you into.