This is all i currently Use
Software and Websites
Da Vinci Resolve
For the simple reason that Adobe Premier Pro is expensive and my editing is nothing to write home about. If I add Adobe’s monthly payments, I quickly find myself on the streets.
I know there are other editors like Vegas, even some online, so you don’t even have to download it, but those are always limited in at least one thing which ruins the deal for me. Of course, when I started I used Windows Movie Maker, it never failed me.
So Da Vinci is free and has the basics I need, transitions, effects, export in 4K, multiple tracks, cutting, moving, etc.
Now my editor uses Adobe, but that’s because he already knows how to use it, and i don’t pay his suscription hehe.
GIMP and Inkscape
It seems that I am on a crusade against Adobe for charging a lot for their tools, which are cool I have to admit, but I am not going to use even half of the functions they have.
Gimp is Photoshop with less things, but free, Inkscape is Illustrator with less things, but Free.
In these years I have not done anything that Gimp cannot do and if I needed it I prefer to hire a Freelancer or even use my email to claim the free trial period (it was twice, don’t cancel me).
Of course, by combining Photoshop, Illustrator and Premier the price is becoming more reasonable, remember that what they charge you is the Creative Cloud, so if you are going to pay for the Creative Cloud, use the entire Creative Cloud.
Audacity
Since I don’t have a mixer, the audio I record comes out unmodified (raw) and my voice is garbage, it doesn’t sound anything like those of the people on podcasts, or movies, or even like those of other Youtubers.
Well, what they do is that they modify the audio, they remove the noise, they level the audio, they add bass, treble and many things to make it sound better. You can do all of this for free with Audacity.
Freelancer.com / Fiverr.com
When you start it is not a good idea to have employees, because you don’t even know what you are going to need to do, or if the person you hired is going to be able to do it well, no one really understands taxes and if you fail you have to fire them.
That’s why it’s better to start with freelancers, those on Fiverr are specialized, they tell you what they can do and how much they charge to do it.
In Freelancer you explain what they need to do and they offer themselves if they are interested in your offer.
So on Fiverr you can try, for example, 5 people who are dedicated to making logos and from there choose the one you like the most, while on freelancer you can hire a virtual assistant to do a specific routine for your company and you pay them for months or by results.
You can only use one page, but I have noticed that Freelancer is for more long-term projects, plus there are people from all over the world, not just from the United States or Europe like on Upwork, so they charge much less.
Also, since life in those countries is cheaper (it depends on each country and employee) if you pay them a little more than the average (which is still lower than the minimum in the United States) you can get the best freelancers quickly and you help.
Finally, it’s great as a job while you do something else to get extra money.
OBS
In those days of 2010 I used the famous HyperCam 2 and FRAPS. In the free version of HyperCam 2 the watermark was displayed in the bottom corner, in FRAPS the files weighed a world or used your entire processor, today we have OBS, which is also free, but it does not have the brand and Record in files that are not so large without the computer exploding.
You can also take screenshots very easily and modify a little bit the sound that you record (to avoid Audacity), and if you’re going for the streamer route, this is a must.
Brave Browser
If you are going to try to become famous or create many accounts, you must be prepared for the disadvantages that this can bring you, such as being doxed and hacked.
It is easy to get a person’s IP and information such as their email, places they frequent, etc.
You also don’t want Google to know everything about you, nor your ISP, so the best browser for that is Tor… but Tor is slow, so you can use Brave, which is like an improved Google Chrome ( because it was made in Chromium) and if you open a private window it opens the same way Tor would, so it’s the best in speed and security.
Delete your history, block ads (not all, don’t go overboard either), spammers , don’t eat all the cookies (not only block the most intrusive ones, it also blocks the pop-up that says “yes I accept cookies”) save your passwords , it has your VPN, it has the same extensions as Chrome and saves time, it’s free.
Bitwarden
Now, although you can save your passwords in Brave, I suggest using Bitwarden.
First because you can use it for free, on multiple devices and without having to manually synchronize it every time you change devices.
Browsers are not as secure for storing passwords as dedicated applications and dedicated applications get hacked from time to time.
I used to use Last Pass, it is the most famous, but first I got an email saying that I could only use it on the computer or on the cell phone (I had to pay to use them on both) and then I got another email telling me to change all my passwords because they had been leaked on the deep web…
Host Gator MX / WordPress / WooCommerce
This website is hosted on Host Gator, but the MX one, not the one in the United States, because the one in Mexico cost me much less.
Once you have hosting (a server where you can put your website) you can build your page with WordPress.
WordPress is Free, don’t let them fool you like me, wanting to make a page I went to wordpress.com where they offer hosting and wordpress (which is even more expensive than HostGator in the United States).
So in summary you create an account on Host Gator, install WordPress and make your website. In fact, right there at Host Gator they gave me a Domain (for a year), that’s where I bought this one (ludusmeta.com).
Then you add Woocomerce to the mix, and you can add a shop to your website for free.
No need to use Shopify.
Flowchart
If you want to make diagrams for anything and you are looking for a diagram creator, the first one that will come up is Lucidchart, but it is paid, as soon as you put in about 10 squares it asks you to put money into it and even if it loads quickly, and even if its squares have edges rounded and has a cell phone application does not beat its competitor.
Flowchart is free and I think they are built on the same foundation, because when I went from Lucidchart to Flowchart I selected all my diagrams, hit copy, went to Flowchart, hit paste and it worked. I didn’t even have to make them again.
Unity
All these tools and we haven’t started talking about video games yet, but it’s for a reason, many of the tools used to make YouTube videos can also be used to make video games.
You make images in GIMP, record audio with Audacity, hire people in Freelancer, organize your project in Google and put it all together in one place with Unity.
I know, Unreal is better, yes, whatever you say, but for what I do, Unity is better for me.
Zoho Mail
if you want a business mail like contact@ludusmeta.com instead of something casual like ludusmetacontact@gmail.com you can use Zoho, since they have a free plan to start, instead of having to pay the monthly suscription to Google GSuite / Workplace however is called.
Malwarebytes / Avast Antivirus
To protect myself from computer viruses I have Avast and Malwarebytes installed on my computer, in addition to that I have their extensions in my browser (Brave) for even more protection.
Also, I have the same thing on my cell phone, so the only way the viruses know how to get there is when I lend my cell phone to my cousins, even so, a test will fix it.
Language Tool – Grammar & Spell Checker
When I write scripts I write them in Spanish and check the spelling in Spanish, but when I translate them or when I am using anything that needs English (like freelancer or fiverr) all the other extensions like Grammarly (does not have Spanish) or Whitesmoke (costs money) they fall short.
Spelling has always been one of my worst subjects, because the truth is it doesn’t interest me, so this is one of my favorite extensions.
Hardware
Computer
It is a 17-inch ASUS laptop with HD (1080p) screen, it also has:
- Intel Core i7 7th Gen Processor
- Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti
- 8GB Ram
- 500GB SSD
It is a very good computer, it can run any game from the PS4/Xbox One generation but with the settings at minimum.
The computer is showing its age, it can’t run Windows 11, the original drive was HDD and I can’t make 4K videos or see all the colors with an HDR screen, but all those things are extra, I would recommend getting something a little better (as long as it can run PS5/Series X games ha, ha, ha).
Hyper X Quadcast Microphone
At first I got a headset thinking that the microphone was going to sound perfect, but no.
The only thing that the headset achieved was that I could hear perfectly the limitations of the microphone.
Then I looked and everyone says the best one ever is the Shure SM7B, but it’s expensive and requires a mixer plus a cable and stand.
That technology hadn’t advanced since then? Well yes.
Luckily, USB microphones do not need the cable or the mixer and this one even comes with a stand, plus it costs about 4 times less and sounds just a little worse than the Shure, EZ Buy.
Ergonomic mouse
If you are going to be using the computer all day like me, you must already have carpal tunnel, but it is not necessary, I bought myself an ergonomic or inclined mouse, see how everyone freaks out when they see it, they use it for 2 seconds and say “No, well, what is this!? Where are the buttons?”
The good thing is that the brand doesn’t matter much, I had an Adesso brand and it worked just as well, my hand no longer hurts and I haven’t noticed that I aim worse in games or that I get tired from being heavy, etc.
Logitech Mouse Pad
The Adesso mouse that I mentioned above ran out because I wore out the rubber on the bottom, that’s why I bought a Logitech Mouse Pad, plus I wanted to improve my aim and I convinced myself that it was my fault that I didn’t have a mousepad, so when I got it I got no excuse and realized that I was trash regardless.
Mouse pads should not be expensive, they are plastic with textures, do not let them get you excited with their artisanal processes, nor do you buy the ones that are so big that you can put the keyboard under them, it is not like you are moving the keyboard as if you moved the mouse.
Backup / Hard Drive Toshiba 4TB
I know that nowadays everyone wants SSDs, but they are expensive, below them are USB sticks that already go up to several Terabytes, but when they reach that level, they go up in price, so the solution if you only want to backup things like me with already made videos, music, photos, etc. It is an HDD hard drive, you plug this thing in and you can hear it start to spin, but it is much cheaper and has a lot of space.
HyperX Could II Headset
Nowadays all decent headphones can make all sounds, what differentiates them is their ability to reproduce the sound identical to the original, for that there are graphs called “Frequency Response Graph” in which this headset comes out very close to the original, It just sounds a little louder on low frequency sounds, but I’m a fan of bass boost, so no problem.
Conclusion
That’s practically all I use, my keyboard is a $200 MX ($10 USD) Dell, my cell phone is a Galaxy A5 (2017) that is going to explode any day now, I don’t have a monitor because my computer is a laptop, my chair ergonomic is not branded (I think I bought it at Sams for $150) and my Brother printer ($150) cannot print in color.
So don’t think that you need a huge initial investment to start making video games, as you can see, there are cheap (free in many cases) and expensive options for practically everything, you choose.