How long did it take you to become good at GML and Game Maker 2?

[DankMemes]

Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you guys to build full-fledged games without guides.

 

[Kepons]

I've been using GameMaker for about 6 years and still haven't made a "full-fledged" game. I don't mean to discourage you, though. If you're determined and keen to learn, it's entirely possible to make a game in a much, much shorter period of time.

 

[DankMemes]

I've been using GameMaker for about 6 years and still haven't made a "full-fledged" game. I don't mean to discourage you, though. If you're determined and keen to learn, it's entirely possible to make a game in a much, much shorter period of time.

Why is that though?
Do you not have any time tto dedicate to it?
Lack of understandung of coding concepts?
Laziniess ?

 

[Roa]

Ive been doing this for something like 14-15 years now. Idk, I've lost track. Not made much of anything playable either. But it only took me about 2-3 years to completely master GML after I caught onto some more basic programing principles.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

It took me like three days, lol. GML is super simple. I still look things up on an "as needed" basis, but I had no problem basically jumping into making my game right off the bat.

 

[Rob]

Was about 33 seconds for me, give or take.

 

[Kepons]

Why is that though?
Do you not have any time tto dedicate to it?
Lack of understandung of coding concepts?
Laziniess ?

Laziness, definitely. Also it's very easy to get stuck in a never ending loop of abandoning projects and making new ones because my code pretty much always becomes a jumbled mess after a certain time and I lack the motivation to continue.

 

[Bearman_18]

@Kepons, I know what you mean. I'm very much the same way with many project types. Interestingly, game development is actually helping me break the cycle. But all that means is like three completed projects out of forty. Lol

 

[Frolacosta]

Depends on your definition of good.

Took me about 6 months with no programming/IT experience to understand enough to make most things without having to look it up. There's so many useful tutorials and forum posts available, you should be able to look up pretty much anything you need to learn about.

 

[sitebender]

After 2 years of using GMS I rarely found a new challenge. Maybe once a week or once a month I find a challenge. After the first day of GMS I had something playable.

There are different definitions for full-fledged games. Are we talking Atari 2600 ish games or Zelda 2 style of scope? It's like building a shack or a mansion.

Making something without a guide? Maybe a year in I knew everything off the top of my head, but I never really tried to make a full fledged game from scratch. I just kept pushing forward with a single game.

I think after 20 months I made a game without a guide in 40 hours (using art and music assets). A year ago, there was a simple game on Steam that I was able to clone in 6 or so hours, art included. No guides, I just knew what I was doing. Oh yeah and I made a basic Breakout clone in a single hour.

I did a lot of game jams before I could step back and say wow... I have too many completed games. I don't even bother releasing them. I just add them to the pile.

 

[K12gamer]

I won't consider myself "Good" at GameMaker until I sell 100,000+ copies of one of my games.

Currently at 15 copies sold after 2+ years...