What books or learning resources would you recommend and why?

Rivo

7014
I've been using Game maker for a while now, and although I have been constantly testing my knowledge and aspiring to learn more. I can't quite make that transition from intermediate to advanced programming. Basically, i'm okay but i'm not going to be making any of the big games I desire to make anytime soon, (or anything that i'm going to be happy with) without having a better knowledge of the topics I've yet to learn, and the math that comes with it. imo

I released a topic very similar to this a while back on the old forums when I had only a basic understanding of gamemaker here http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=678888 and I am happy to say that i've learned a lot more since then and am more confident in game maker than I was.

I understand people learn differently, and my preferred way of learning so far, although annoying, is through trial and error, and through visual learning. I also like reading books.

Q:So, out of curiosity, and eagerness to learn as much as I can. What books and/or ANY resources do people like to use to learn more intermediate-advanced programming (or any at all) and why would you recommend it?

Any input from anyone is appreciated.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
The Apprentice and Companion were great books, if a bit outdated. They don't just hit on coding but also a bunch on graphics, game design, etc. If you're willing to skip the parts including legacy-only functions, a great read.

Also, read the manuuaaalll~ (I'm sorry for stealing your line, you-know-who-you-are).
The way I learnt to code was actually just by reading through the manual from start to finish a couple of times. It's like reading through a dictionary; perhaps not the greatest writing but great content.
 

Rivo

7014
Well I was also trying to get people to share any other resources they had learnt from, and not just limit it to books e.g. websites, videos. Also, reasons why they did this, and ways of learning like the guy above said. A way he learn't was from reading the manual.
 
A

Andy

Guest
Well I was also trying to get people to share any other resources they had learnt from, and not just limit it to books e.g. websites, videos. Also, reasons why they did this, and ways of learning like the guy above said. A way he learn't was from reading the manual.
I think what I learned most from was studying examples that other people created. The GMC forums also have been very important to me. I use the manual a lot now, but I completely ignored it when I first started using GM (no idea why I guess I was just dumb :p).
 
N

NPT

Guest
Well I was also trying to get people to share any other resources they had learnt from, and not just limit it to books e.g. websites, videos. Also, reasons why they did this, and ways of learning like the guy above said. A way he learn't was from reading the manual.
Pay no attention to her.

A topic asking about learning resources (which do not have to be books) does not belong in a topic solely about books.

Shaun Spalding has an excellent GameMaker channel with a lot of great tutorials.

https://www.youtube.com/user/999Greyfox
 
D

devbyskc

Guest
I've been using GameMaker for about 2 years now, though its been only part-time. When I first started learning GameMaker the Learn section had some fine tutorials you could download including pdf. They gave me a good start. I'm old school and learn best when I have written text to follow as well as example files to analyze. However now I notice everything in the Learn section is video with reference to Shaun's channel on YouTube. I tried to follow one of the videos and it was a waste of time. I live and work overseas and Internet connections are not always reliable. Thus a 5 minute video turns into a 20 minute mess due to buffering, unintelligible audio, and jumpy video. I've given up on the videos. I have found several good books published by Packt that have served me well (and they include downloadable example files). I would like to suggest to YoYo Games they go back to providing customers a choice to use video or downloadable pdf files and samples. That's my 2-cents.
 
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