Software with 2D

Godot has a dedicated 2D renderer with pixel-snapping, nearest neighbour filtering and viewport scaling options that make low-resolution games straightforward.

LÖVE is a small, well documented Lua framework with nearest-neighbour filtering and canvases that make pixel-perfect rendering easy.

Novaboard runs in the browser and as a desktop app, with layers, animation and effects.

Petscii Cola is a free, basic PETSCII editor which can save raster images and Commodore 64-playable files, as well as convert raster images to PETSCII, multicolor or hires Commodore 64 images.

It also includes a choice of Commodore 64 palettes, and a gallery of PETSCII art.

GameMaker is a 2D-first engine with a built-in sprite editor and room editor, used by many of the best known pixel art games.

PuzzleScript is a browser engine where an entire puzzle game is a short text file: a legend of characters, a set of rewrite rules, and the levels drawn as ASCII. Games run and share as a single link, which has made it the usual home for small tile-based puzzle experiments.

Flipnote Studio 3D allows users to create short animated sketches known as Flipnotes. Flipnotes can be made up of hundreds of frames, and can be played back at a variety of speeds. The software offers users the option to create 3D Flipnotes by drawing different parts of the animation on up to three layers. The main tools include a pen, an eraser, and a paintbrush. New to Flipnote Studio 3D are tools that draw shapes, fill enclosed areas (paint bucket), and insert text. The application features a limited color palette, including black, white, red, blue, green, and yellow. This is a slight improvement upon Flipnote Studio, which did not include yellow and green as selectable colors, but were still possible using color mixing. The selection tool is used to copy and manipulate parts of a frame. Users can also use the 3DS system's camera and microphone to add audio and photos to their creations. These animations can be shared by exporting them as GIF or AVI files.

The program is now discontinued and can only be used on a 3DS that already have it installed or a modded 3DS.

Defold is a small, free 2D engine that builds unusually light games for desktop, web, mobile and consoles from one project. It is scripted in Lua, ships as a single editor with no licence tiers, and its tilemap and sprite handling suit pixel art directly.

GDevelop builds games out of events - conditions and actions picked from a list - rather than code, which makes it a common first engine. It handles tilemaps, 2D lighting, physics and multiplayer, exports to web, desktop and mobile, and the underlying engine is open source.

Phaser is the most used JavaScript framework for 2D games in the browser. It covers sprites, tilemaps, physics, input, audio and scene management, has a very large body of examples and tutorials behind it, and runs anywhere a browser does.

If you are tired of wrestling with clunky pipelines just to get that crisp, nostalgic retro look for your 3D assets, SH Pixelation Studio is built for you. Whether you are crafting indie low-poly retro games, stylized animations, or unique pixel art, this studio gives you complete control over downsampling, color palettes, and surface texturing without destroying your source geometry.

🔥 Key Features & Capabilities

Load Your Model: No complicated file routing or deep directory searches. Simply load your GLTF, GLB, OBJ, FBX or Image directly into the studio workspace and watch them load instantly.

Dual-Viewport Workspaces: Inspect your models from multiple angles simultaneously using independently orbitable viewports and side-by-side or stacked layouts.

Advanced Pixel & Dither Engine: Dial in your exact pixel size, choose from classic dithering matrices (Bayer, Floyd-Steinberg, Atkinson, and more), and posterize colors on the fly.

Submesh Targeting: Isolate specific submeshes and turn off the texture or the model part itself so you can pixelate even more accurately!

Over 500+ Grounded Color Palettes: Instantly remap your model's tonal clusters using hand-curated palette libraries ranging from retro hardware systems to cyberpunk neon and military camo.

Surface Paint Layers: Layer carbon fiber, honeycomb, scanlines, or custom stencils directly onto your surfaces with adjustable opacity and blend modes.

Looking to try before you buy?
Check out the official Demo version available on itch.io page! While advanced features like bulk batch processing and uncompressed high-res outputs are locked to the full version, the demo lets you test the core pixelation engine on your own 3D models and images. Perfect for indie developers searching for a fast, reliable tool to generate retro pixel art, low-poly textures, and PSX-style aesthetic assets for Unity, Unreal, Godot, or custom game engines.

Surface Paint Layer

Making it easier to add details without having to leave the software!

You can simply upload your own image or apply the presets press STAMP and you'll see in real time how pixelation affects your new effect.

UI Colors

Make it yours!

UI colors that you can change making it feel easier for you to pixelate in your own vibe, with your own color!

Colors come in 6 variations and they are muted/soft to not feel like they'll blind you or take your attention too much.

Tone Map

Less reasons to leave and more reasons to stay!

Tone map has presets that make your life easier, why worry about how your model looks like due to swatches that feel darker/lighter than others when you can just adjust the tone map yourself!

Isolate & Hide

Struggling to understand how your model looks like inside a different part of the mesh? Maybe your texture is too bright and you want to make it less of an issue and that's where Isolation or Hiding of the texture comes in handy.

Since it's an easy-to-use 3D Canvas, isolation comes in handy because you can zoom/rotate and look exactly where you want to without seeing parts of the mesh blocking you!

Isolate & Hide parts as you please, this option was made to simplify your life instead of asking yourself "How do I know how my UV texture looks inside?!"

Swatches Blend Mode

Swatch Palettes usually come in lots of variations, you have medieval, gothic, nostalgia, anime and many many maaaaany more but the issue is that... usually your texture looks amazing already, right? You made it so of course it looks amazing.

Therefore, the process of adding a new palette of colors ONTO your model should feel almost as if it's upgrading your model instead of changing it completely . . . WHICH Is why Swatch Blend Mode exists, to simplify your life and beautify your already pixel perfect model.

Batch Import & Export and UI Updates.

Batch import and export is here! Now you can work on 5-10-20-30-100??? models at the same time and export all of them with folders and sub-folders. Upgrading your workflow with easy access, batch upload, download and save states that allow you to take a pause and come back later to continue on your work.

Unity is a general-purpose game engine with a well-worn 2D pipeline: a sprite editor and atlas packer, a tilemap system with rule tiles, 2D lights and shadows, and a large asset store. It is heavier than the dedicated 2D engines, and in return it goes anywhere.