Eng:Alternatives to Scratch

Alternatives to Scratch are other programs and languages used for similar purposes. Though Scratch can be an amazing resource for learning to code and expressing one's talents, if one is very serious, they may need to advance to other languages. Most of these alternatives are free like Scratch, but some of them cost money to use.

In software development there are two main fields:


 * Programming the code for the application
 * Modelling / Art the visual interface of an application

Just as Scratch can be used to make games, animations and more, there are also other programming languages that can be used to create them.

3D

 * BeetleBlocks: A GUI-based programming language, based off Scratch, which can be used for 3D modelling, unlike Alice.
 * Alice: Features 3D projects. Created by Carnegie Mellon.
 * Starlogo-TNG: Supports 3D models and terrain. Block-based, and meant for simulations and education purposes. Created by the MIT STEP group.

Text-Based Programming
Text-based programming is done through a programming language. Here are several:

Tutorials
To learn how to code in text-based programming languages, try:


 * Codecademy.com teaches the basics of coding in a fun and interactive way. It has interactive help guides and built-in code interpreters. It teaches a variety of common languages, from Javascript to Python.

Game Engines

 * GameMaker: GameMaker is quite similar to Scratch, except it also allows the option of typing commands and features commands geared more towards making games, whereas Scratch is more open. It is a good introduction to text-based programming and debugging. It is not free, but a free version is available with fewer features.
 * Unity3d: Unity3d is a program that is used for the making of 3D games. It supports coding in three languages: Javascript, C#, and Boo. It may also be confusing to a beginner due to all the new features in comparison to Scratch, but with time, this should wear away.
 * Godot: Godot is an open-source game engine. Godot uses its own programming language, GDScript.
 * The Source Engine is a Game Engine in which the MP version is free, it includes things like faceposing, volumetric lighting, an I/O system, and more things that can be used to create a mod/game. It does things like Fresnel water effects and dynamic rendering for you.

Other lists

 * List of Educational programming languages
 * Comprehensive list of programming languages

3D Animation

 * Blender
 * MikuMikuDance
 * Source Filmmaker

2D Animation

 * Adobe Animate
 * Flipnote Studio 3D (only compatible with Nintendo 3DS, availability can be varied, can be also used for 3D animation)
 * Opentoonz
 * Pencil2D
 * Synfig

Other lists

 * List of 3D animation software
 * List of 2D animation software