Suggestion Game Maker Can Be Even More!

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Heimerdinger

Guest
Hi, it's my first thread in the forum, let me tell you my suggestions and first expressions about Game Maker Studio. First of all, it's very good tool that allows you to make a game pretty fast, especially when you are using an internal programming language. In two days I managed to make a brick-breaker, I used tutorials at first but after 3 or 4 parts of YT videos I started to continue making it on my own, I created power-ups and flying enemies with ease, used someone's code to make bricks break apart procedurally (I needed to change it a little to fits my needs and remove texture paging bug in a free version when it can't be disabled). I've been also having good time creating content to it, graphics, mixing sound e.t.c.

But after about ~10 hours of having fun I started to notice that Game Maker is indeed a great tool, but lacks some basic features and can be so much more.

First of all- room editor. I was really surprised that it has undo level with a power of...1, no layers support, it's not able to rotate objects, there is no such an options like move to the center, move to the bottom e.t.c. It could be good if we can use some kind of brush as well, and also tile editor is very limited. This makes me think twice if I want to start bigger project with those limitations.

Another thing that is very limited- for a capabilities of GML- drag & drop events and "graphical programming". It looks like through those 6+ years nothing changed- lacks of actions (that can be done with coding though) and limited features, I'd like to see possibility to "turn off" part of the actions to disable them temporary, action blocks could be more readable, also grouping/commenting them would be nice. When choosing x and y position, room preview with coordinates picker would be useful, when addressing to other variables there could be a Content Assist that includes build-in and custom variables/functions, so I don't need to close the action window, open other's object actions and see how I named certain variable.

In script editor I missed color picker and more content assist/auto-completion pop ups. Coding is pretty good but not all of programmers would like that you can't write function inside script, also structure or objects could be very useful when making greater projects.

There are other little things like setting up starting animation speed, transition between room, missing grouping objects into assets e.t.c., but after all Game Maker Studio is powerful tool, making game with it is fun, I focused on disadvantages of Game Maker but don't get me wrong- it has many good sides, including mostly needed features like more stability over GM8 and Professional Edition features. Just wanted to say Game Maker: Studio is in a good way to win over their competitors, just need - in my opinion- a little more love to be something much more!
 
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zendraw

Guest
i havent seen a topic from some1 who is advanced in gml and overall working with GMS to complain about limitations. Maybe GMS wont meet your habbits but im sure he will meet your needs.
 
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Heimerdinger

Guest
Thanks for response guys! I'm pretty sure that scripting makes everything possible. I also realized moment ago that GMS have cool marketplace with extensions and stuff. I'm trying to say that interface could be much better, as we are in 2016, not 2008 year.
 

trg601

Member
I don't agree with you guys, as wonderful as I think Gamemaker is, there is always room for improvement.

I especially like the idea of disabling the D&D actions, it would just be easier then having to always go and place a 'Code Action' into each event.
 

Carnivius

Member
First of all- room editor. I was really surprised that it has undo level with a power of...1, no layers support, it's not able to rotate objects, there is no such an options like move to the center, move to the bottom e.t.c. It could be good if we can use some kind of brush as well, and also tile editor is very limited. This makes me think twice if I want to start bigger project with those limitations.
I highly recommend GMare It saved my Game Making life. :p
 
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Mann_mit_Hut

Guest
I moved to GM because i wanted a high level framework (coming from C++, pure android Java, libGDX, ...), otherwise you are always building a new engine - this is not the way to produce a running game as a single person with a full time job.

Everytime i created a game i had to make code my own particle engine for example. Or messing around with screensizes. Or coding controls. Or writing 200 extremly compicated lines of pure Java just to get a grey screen up on my phone. GM solves all that for me, thats worth the money.

I think this topic is valuable and so i will add my whishes:
1. Room transitions for example should be build-in
2. I whish to code my own Player.AddToInventory(Item) functions
3. The room-editor needs an overhaul, deleting with alt+d, always moving or adding stuff as a mistake...
4. I'd like a coding mode, where the D&Ds are replaced by the code-editor, where i can directly put code in. Because searching for the game_end() Action takes as long as writing the function down in that textbox
 
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Thunder Lion

Guest
is there a way to select multiple objects at once then copy them to paste them around the room?
 
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Aura

Guest
The option to disable D&D is a nice idea and has already been suggested multiple times before.

In the meanwhile, you can set Preferences >> Form >> Default Tab to select to 4 and save yourself from the trouble of manually searching the code action repeatedly.

And to put everything to a conclusion: YoYo are not accepting suggestions for GM:S, particularly its editors (image editor, script editor and room editor) at the moment, so you guys are better off using a third party IDE or room editor.
 

kraifpatrik

(edited)
GameMaker Dev.
i havent seen a topic from some1 who is advanced in gml and overall working with GMS to complain about limitations. Maybe GMS wont meet your habbits but im sure he will meet your needs.
There may not be any thread, but that does not mean that GM:S fits all needs of advanced users. I have been working in GM for 10+ years and I have to deal with it's limitiations every time, for example it's weak object orientation. Imagine you have a complex structure of inheritance and you need to have a script that should work differently for some objects from that inheritance structure. Since GM does not have methods, you have to make a completely new script. But since GM does not have anything like function overloading, you must name the script in some inconvenient way. And then, when you need to use the script, you have to look into your documentation to find out which one of the big bunch you created is the appropriate one. Do I make a topic about this? No. Because I know that this is not something taht could easily change, because it would probably break backwards compabillity. But wait! I've got an idea on how to solve this one, since we still have (crappy) macros and script_execute!

Another thing is how GM is sandboxed and you can't just change how anything works. You can't even use version of GLSL ES that you would like to. It is just locked to 2.0, because that's the version that surely runs on every target platform. But what if I don't care if my game runs on some hundred year old mobile phone? Talking about shaders, texture formats are another thing that come on my mind. All we have is RGBA8, but what about another formats? Floating point textures? And what about 3D textures? And mip levels? They are just not supported. So when I want to make a 3D rendering engine that should run at least on Windows, Linux and Mac OS with the same code, I have to stick to GLSL ES 2.0 and a crappy deferred lighting with 16bit depth buffer, compressed normals and no materials. This could possibly change, but is it on the roadmap?

And there surely is tons of other stuff that other users find as GM's limitations, depending on what type of games they are working on in it. I guess the only reason why no one complains about it is that we would come to a conclusion that we just need to swap from GM to something else.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
HI there! Everything that you've mentioned in the topic is a known concern and YoYo Games are well aware of the need to update the IDE. GMS is built off of GM8/8.1 and uses Delphi for the IDE, which means that changing anything is incredibly time consuming and almost guaranteed to break something else along the way. This is why the room editor has only had very minor improvements and why things like DnD haven't been expanded on. YoYo Games have stated, however, that when the next iteration of GM comes around, delphi will have been burned in the firey pits of hell and a shiny new IDE will be created that address every one of your issues (and more one would assume!). :)

So when I want to make a 3D rendering engine that should run at least on Windows, Linux and Mac OS with the same code, I have to stick to GLSL ES 2.0 and a crappy deferred lighting with 16bit depth buffer, compressed normals and no materials
I wouldn't place your hopes on this changing too much... The developers have made it clear time and again that GM is primarily a 2D engine, and that the 3D capabilities are simply there to enhance the 2D experience (think 2.5D games).
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Nocturne plays the "blame delphi" "ban TrueValhalla" card

It's super effective!
Fixed... ;)

Seriously though, I know that it may sound like an excuse, but for the IDE issues that the OP has brought up it's the absolute truth. The room editor and DnD editor in particular are a nightmare of legacy spaghetti code... future versions will address this I'm sure.
 

kraifpatrik

(edited)
GameMaker Dev.
I wouldn't place your hopes on this changing too much... The developers have made it clear time and again that GM is primarily a 2D engine, and that the 3D capabilities are simply there to enhance the 2D experience (think 2.5D games).
But shader version and texture formats does not have anything to do with GM being a 2D or a 3D engine. It just could be supported and what it would be used for would depend on the users.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
But shader version and texture formats does not have anything to do with GM being a 2D or a 3D engine. It just could be supported and what it would be used for would depend on the users.
In my opinion (and this is me not YYG talking), the number of users that would require this functionality for making 2D games is minimal and so I would imagine it's a very low priority thing for YYG. Why work hard to add in a load of features that only a few people want or know how to use? If you want 3D functionality then there are any number of dedicated 3D engines that do it better than GM could hope to... GM is, above all, a 2D engine (and very good at what it does too) and I'd prefer the devs make the IDE better (in particular the room editor and DnD as has been mentioned) than add in 3D functionality that I (and most other users?) don't want or need.
 
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zendraw

Guest
im all for making GM more approachable and up to date, but im even more for highly polished product, id prefer a perfected GMS with only D&D any day instead of a buggy all in one pile of software. limitations can atleast provoke unlimited creativity, while unlimited functionality can cause mostly problems. lets not forget the past and how limited they were back then and how that was not a problem for them to make great games that are played today also. after all were talking here about making games and not hacking in the white house, right?
 

Alvare

Member
If you check out the information on my profile page, you can check out all the stuff I managed to achieve in Gamemaker.
All in all, from years experience with this tool, I wouldn't recommend anyone to use it for 3D. It's just a way of exhausting your creativity.
No support from Gamemaker and a lot of third party software is needed in order get a 3D animated character into Gamemaker.
And even if you've achieved it, it'll take 20 seconds to load a few simple baked animations for 1 character. I must say in all honesty that all these issues have been the main reason I have abandoned all my previous larger projects.
 
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Heat4Life

Guest
I believe 3D on GameMaker is obviously Possible if the YoYo Games Staff dedicate themselves to work on a 3D Engine...
 

Alvare

Member
Not sure, I do like object-oriented. But let's be honest, preparation is huge for md2 for GmStudio, right? Not to mention that everytime you have to check something out, you have to compile it again.
In most game design software you just drag and drop it, and it'll immediately be an game-ready asset.

public, private classes are pretty easy. Like gml's code editor, in c# (monodevelop) it'll show all options in a slider bar.
For example, declaring something;

public int animation_frame=10;
private float opacity .5f;
public bool triggered=false;

Whether it's an integer, float or boolean, public will be made accessible from all other code, as long as it's being referred to correctly.
Private means the value can only be altered from the code itself, which can also be called from a public void, which again is accessible from another object.
 
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orange451

Guest
Another thing that is very limited- for a capabilities of GML- drag & drop events and "graphical programming"
I've been asking the YYG guys about this for quite a while now. They're not doing anything graphics related; It's a shame. Would make Game Maker a much better tool with no effort on their end.
 
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Andy

Guest
GMS1 needs a new IDE. But I think until GMS2, Parakeet is our best hope for a clean interface. I have a feeling GMS1 will never see a revamped IDE (although I would welcome one). :)
 
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ConsolCWBY

Guest
Strangely enough, I like GM:S. I think optimization on the middle and back end, however, is the key to many complaints people have about the system being slow or being "not right". Something people would never see - but would feel instead.
 
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