Blender, the jack-of-all-trades 3D modeling software, has exploded in popularity for game development since the UI overhaul in 2019. The software’s main selling point is the free, open-source license, so anyone’s able to pick it up and start creating. Blender hasn’t reached the quality level of tools like Maya yet, but it’s been slowly improving its modeling, sculpting, animation, and rendering over nearly 30 years. The following games show that the gap is shrinking as more developers pledge their support to open-source software. Read on to see how devs in the indie scene use Blender and where it fits with other tools in their pipeline.
1. Subnautica 2
Subnautica 2 is an upcoming open-world survival game developed by the aptly named Unknown Worlds. The sequel to the original of the same name, players crash onto an unknown water-covered planet and must explore, gather resources, and expand their base of operations to survive. Players come to Subnautica to see strange aquatic animals and explore gorgeous underwater environments. The threatening sea creatures, which are now created in Blender, drive the sense of wonder and dread that’s a hallmark of the game’s moment to moment gameplay.
Unknown Worlds investigated using Blender in the first Subnautica but only fully integrated it in their modeling, texturing, and animation workflows in Subnautica 2. The Subnautica devs mentioned how exciting it is for users to have access to the same tools they used and to learn with the same workflows they did. Using Blender for professional work required getting add-ons to improve the hard-surface modeling workflow and texturing, so Blender’s customizability played a huge role in its utility for the project. To investigate their process for yourself, user UWE_uly on Reddit is a Subnautica dev who’s discussed the Blender workflow publicly, and Unknown Worlds is still uploading new devlogs at the time of writing.
Subnautica 2’s development team exported assets from Blender into Unreal Engine 5 for animation, VFX, and materials, and they used Zbrush for sculpting. All assets end up in Unreal engine, so it was more efficient to finalize the visuals with materials in-engine rather than convert from Blender. The devs also finished the animations in Unreal, combining Unreal’s physics with animation to create effects like the Collector Leviathan pictured just above, whose tentacles swing as the creature moves. Blender does have a built-in sculpting tool, but the brushes require extensive customization to bring it close to other sculpting programs. The Subnautica 2 team closed the gap in Blender’s sculpting with Zbrush, a paid tool that’s the industry standard for 3D sculpting.
2. A Short Hike
A Short Hike is a micro indie game about a bird who goes on vacation but spends most of it climbing a mountain in search of cell service. The game started as a side project by solo dev Adam Robinson-Yu, who quit his job to work on his passion project, a paper RPG. He took a break from the RPG to create A Short Hike, which by chance turned into his first commercial project. The success of the game lies in its simple visuals, short completion time, and high visibility on Twitter during development. The first two advantages are partially due to Blender’s role in the process.
Robinson-Yu has discussed parts of his workflow in talks at the GDC. He stated that he picked a pixelated, low-poly aesthetic because he wasn’t very good at art, and Blender gave him the modeling tools he needed to create low-poly models for free. He painted the models by creating a color atlas, which is a set of color squares. In 3D modeling, the process of mapping a 3D model to a 2D image is called UV unwrapping, which gives the model the appearance of wood, cloth, or any other material. Instead of going through a complex unwrapping process, Robinson-Yu cut seams around areas he wanted to paint a certain color and dragged them onto that color square in the 2D image. The mapping from UV to 3D object is visible below.
Robinson-Yu used Unity, Trello, and Yarn in his project alongside Blender, for those looking to re-create his workflow. Unity’s terrain editor let him build the environment in-engine, since the process was tedious for him within Blender. He also built other custom plugins in the engine for editing rivers to take some of the workload away from 3D modeling. The other plugins he used in Unity are InControl for character input and GB camera for the pixelized look.
Trello and Yarn were optional tools but helpful to mention for those looking to integrate Blender in a larger workflow. He used Trello to organize the planned features for the game and keep the scope small. The scrum board format shows what stage every asset in the project is at and helps make sure development is on track. YarnSpinner, like Blender, is a free and open-source tool for designing dialogue for games. The tool lets the user export the results to Unity too, so the software is easy to integrate with other programs in a workflow.
3. Blind Descent
Blind Descent is a recently announced survival game whose Steam page went up in October 2025. Blind Descent is the first game developed by Pokuch, a new Turkish studio. Its unique twist is that it takes place in the Martian underground, in a large cave where a secret jungle-like environment is flourishing. Burrowing into the Martian surface, the player’s probe encounters issues when it doesn’t expect to hit the underground ecosystem that’s been hidden under the surface. The player must adapt and survive in this new environment, gathering resources to build up their shelter and maintain their home. Players will have the ability to meet up with other “survivors” and play co-op in the final version.
The core team started with using Blender for all the 3D models and animations for the first 4 years of development, according to artist Habil Karacelep. At the current stage, artists use the tools they’re most familiar with, but very many of the creatures and environment art you see in the game was created with Blender. The game is still in its early stages, so the workflow isn’t completely clear, but they use Unreal Engine and animate some of the assets in-engine.
4. ARC Raiders
ARC Raiders is a popular extraction shooter created by Embark Studios. The studio was founded in 2018 by ex-DICE employees and is committed to using open-source software as much as possible. The studio has incorporated Blender into their workflow and made all their add-ons and custom plugins available at embark.dev. The gameplay is highly lauded for the fact it adds a bigger emphasis on co-op than other extraction shooters. Players face huge, deadly machines that are impossible to take out alone, and tension comes from the fact the player doesn’t know whether they’re able to trust the other players.
Embark has discussed their attitudes toward Blender on Medium, where they praise it for its customizability. They use the software for 3D modeling and environments, after which assets are exported to Unreal. The main con of switching to a Blender-only workflow is that many 3D artists joining the team needed time to adjust, but Embark says the process got smoother as they went. The advantages were not only the add-ons but Blender’s render engine Eevee, which is designed for real-time rendering and lets users get a detailed preview of how the model will look in the final game.
Embark used Unreal Engine and ElevenLabs’ Speech Synthesis program alongside Blender. Unreal is an industry standard but also open source, so it fits Embark’s mission to use open source software. The most controversial of their tools is AI text-to-speech for voiceover, Speech Synthesis, which fits their use of new, openly available tools, but is criticized for the fact they are replacing the jobs of talented voice actors. The quality is also perceived to be lower, especially since AI has yet to reach the level of artistry and control of a human being.
5. Yo, Frankie!
Yo, Frankie! is a game made by Apricot and the Blender Foundation with the purpose of improving the Blender Game Engine’s workflow and real-time rendering. The game is a simple platformer where players navigate a handful of levels as a flying squirrel—more of a test than a full product. The player jumps over hazards and has the ability to attack, pick up, and throw enemies. Yo, Frankie! requires the Blender game engine to run, so it isn’t a convenient game to launch today.
Yo, Frankie! is difficult to play today because Blender Game Engine isn’t available for users in current versions of Blender. NaN, the company that used to sell Blender, added the game engine in 2000 and it became available when Blender went open-source in 2002. The Blender Game Engine fell behind the rest of the industry in the 2010s with the advent of Unity and Unreal, and Blender’s engine was removed in version 2.8 in 2019.
The Blender Foundation used GIMP with Blender to create visual assets. GIMP is still available today and is a free, open-source alternative to Photoshop. GIMP lacks crucial features for artists like CYMK color, but it’s a solid alternative for basic image editing.
6. Sintel: The Game
Sintel: The Game was a fan-made game version of the Blender open movie, Sintel. Blender Open Movies release every few years to show off Blender’s newest features in a stress test. Sintel was released in 2010, following the story of an adventurer who befriends a young dragon. The developers created an alpha version in 2011 for the Blender Summer Games Contest, but the game unfortunately remains in an unfinished state to this day.
Sintel: The Game is only a demo, so there’s little to say about the gameplay or workflow. It takes a third-person perspective, and each level has a different mechanic: fighting bugs, completing a crane minigame, or using torches to melt ice. The developers used Python scripts for custom AI and game logic much as its predecessor, Yo, Frankie! did.
7. Valheim
Valheim is a survival game and the first game from the indie studio Iron Gate, which was founded in 2018. Valheim entered early access three years later in February 2021, and had already reached 10 million sales by its second year. The survival mechanics are appealing to modern audiences because they take a different approach than most survival games. Getting hungry doesn’t result in death, for example, but eating does result in gameplay bonuses. The game remains in early access, but many praise the huge scope and refined mechanics as is.
Grimmcore, one of the founders of Iron Gate, said that the team uses Krita, Blender, and Unity for Valheim. He’s released early-development footage on the YouTube channel under his name, Richard Svensson. The footage doesn’t reveal the process, but answers in the comments, posts on forums, and behind-the-scenes footage on Iron Gate’s YouTube channel reveal pieces of the workflow. They create 3D models in Blender and export to Unity. 2D art is created in Krita, which like GIMP, is an alternative to Photoshop used for illustration and image editing.
Do AAA game companies use Blender?
AAA game companies like Epic Games use Blender, although premium tools like Maya are still common in the industry. Epic Games and Ubisoft are the two developers whose contributions to Blender have generated the most news, as Epic announced a $1.2 million grant to the Blender Foundation in 2019 and Ubisoft’s Animation Studio (for creating movies and shows) pledged to switch entirely to Blender for digital content creation. The fact that Maya has been well-established for decades and is well-integrated into company workflows means that it’s still popular, and it
Blender is increasingly common. Getting an idea of exactly how many artists use Blender in the games industry is a challenge, as some studios let artists use their preferred 3D software. The asset library Poliigon surveyed over 3,000 artists, and the vast majority used Blender more than any other software. Only about 27% of all respondents were game artists, but it’s clear Blender is becoming popular in all industries for 3D art.
