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Taken from the reddit thread I posted earlier

A lot of you 2D indie gamedevs out there might've heard of CodeAndWeb, and their three products TexturePacker, SpriteIlluminator, and PhysicsEditor. These seem to be the ones that (I think) most indies use for spritesheet creation, sprite lighting, and collision box editing respectively.

However, the total license for these products is priced at Rs. 4706, which is way too expensive for the average Indian gamedev just starting out. I looked around for some alternatives, but found only either paid, crazy expensive ones, or Windows-exclusives; i.e:

  • Sprite Lamp : Windows-only, expensive
  • Quixel : Windows-only, crazy expensive, meant mainly for commercial purposes anyway
  • ShaderMap : Same as above
  • xNormal : Free, open source .......... Windows-only
  • Zwoptex : Crazy expensive
  • RUBE : Paid, not exactly expensive, but not ideal
  • ShoeBox : Good alternative to TexturePacker, however doesn't support .svg vector files, which for me is a major requirement
  • BoxCAD : Free, but on the web - nah

Most online tools are lackluster and inefficient, so preferably I would like a desktop app.

Can anyone recommend free alternative[s] (single software, or three, doesn't matter) to all of the CodeAndWeb stuff (or one of them, all contributions are appreciated!)

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Thanks to @Izzy; I'll write my requirements here:

For SpriteIlluminator alternative

  • Free
  • Create normal maps and adjust the direction of the light
  • Adjust the brightness of the light
  • Import in svg

For PhysicsEditor alternative

  • Free
  • Auto-detect the shape of the (svg) sprite
  • Edit the shape
  • Export to Unity

EDIT: Unity has its own built-in packer for sprites/textures. This means that I don't need an alternative for TexturePacker, but it still may be useful if anyone knows one!

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  • We will need much more information to give good recommendations here – asking for "a tool like X" is never giving enough details, even if linked. You should always list your requirements explicitly. Please see How to ask for an alternative to some software and the questions linked to it for details.
    – Izzy
    Commented Aug 8, 2015 at 12:21
  • Haven't tried it myself yet, but maybe kivy can do what you want?
    – holroy
    Commented Aug 8, 2015 at 23:26
  • @holroy I visited the link. To my understanding, it is a Python-based framework for making apps. Am I mistaken?
    – naiveai
    Commented Aug 9, 2015 at 7:01
  • Yes, it is the programming environment for developing games and apps. I misread your question, and failed to realise you are. looking for the graphic design part of game development.
    – holroy
    Commented Aug 9, 2015 at 12:07

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After a lot of searching, I found AwesomeBump. While at first look this seemed Windows & Linux only the Linux build instructions apply to OS X and at first glance with a few test images it seems to meet my needs for an alternative to SpriteLamp.

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