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Anyone willing to teach a complete n00b in 1.4.?

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CanOPringles

Guest
I happen to be inspired by Dr.m64's work on AM2R, and while i have tried my hand in coding in GM about a year ago, i followed an outdated tutorial, (HeartBeasts tutorial) ran into in error, didn't get a response from anyone in the comments, and lost interest for a while.

Well, i want to learn again and i figured a person who i can talk to who knows how to code in 1.4 might be how i learn.
 

pixeltroid

Member
I happen to be inspired by Dr.m64's work on AM2R, and while i have tried my hand in coding in GM about a year ago, i followed an outdated tutorial, (HeartBeasts tutorial) ran into in error, didn't get a response from anyone in the comments, and lost interest for a while.

Well, i want to learn again and i figured a person who i can talk to who knows how to code in 1.4 might be how i learn.
Was it heartbeast's "risk of flame" tutorial? :)
Thats the one that got me started with basic things like movement, shooting and enemies.

I'm not sure if you will find someone to teach you one on one consistently, but you WILL get a lot of help on this forum. If you want to learn Gamemaker, just code along to a tutorial and once your thing works, look at the code you have and see how its structured, and how changing values will affect your game. You're bound to "discover" things by yourself, and apply it to other things.

But learn the basics because those things are recurring things throughout Gamemaker programming. If you want to learn, the best thing to do is keep working on something!!

Welcome to the GMC!
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
Was it heartbeast's "risk of flame" tutorial? :)
Thats the one that got me started with basic things like movement, shooting and enemies.

I'm not sure if you will find someone to teach you one on one, but if you want to learn Gamemaker, just code along to a tutorial and once your thing works, look at the code you have and see how its structured, and how changing values will affect your game. You're bound to "discover" things by yourself, and apply it to other things.

But learn the basics because those things are recurring things throughout Gamemaker programming. If you want to learn, the best thing to do is keep working on something!!

Welcome to the GMC!
it was his how to make an RPG tutorial, i got to like part five i think. and thanks, i'll get back to learning the basics, but i certainly would love pointers from the community as i am definitely not the the brightest person in the world lol.
 

pixeltroid

Member
it was his how to make an RPG tutorial, i got to like part five i think. and thanks, i'll get back to learning the basics, but i certainly would love pointers from the community .
You can learn the basics by first having a basic working skeleton of a game, even if its just one empty room with a player who can move around. You don't need to be an expert coder just to get that much done. Just code along to some tutorial.

Once you have your skeleton game, you can always learn more by asking around here -- "how do I add a healthbar" or "how do I change the sprite" etc. Every game is a sum of hundreds of such small features.

edit: let me add. The best way to learn guitar is by having a guitar to practice on. The best way to learn drawing is to have a sketch book. And so the best way to learn Gamemaker is to have a very small project that you can use as a sandbox! :)
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
You can learn the basics by first having a basic working skeleton of a game, even if its just one empty room with a player who can move around. You don't need to be an expert coder just to get that much done. Just code along to some tutorial.

Once you have your skeleton game, you can always learn more by asking around here -- "how do I add a healthbar" or "how do I change the sprite" etc. Every game is a sum of hundreds of such small features.

edit: let me add. The best way to learn guitar is by having a guitar to practice on. The best way to learn drawing is to have a sketch book. And so the best way to learn Gamemaker is to have a very small project that you can use as a sandbox! :)
I gotcha. essentially just start coding and ask around what this and that means. i've always wanted to make a metroidvania, so this should be fun!
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
it was his how to make an RPG tutorial, i got to like part five i think. and thanks, i'll get back to learning the basics, but i certainly would love pointers from the community as i am definitely not the the brightest person in the world lol.
Stop right there. If HeartBeast's RPG tutorial was what you gave up on, good, give up on it for real and learn somewhere else.

The big problem with HeartBeast's RPG tutorial is that it teaches completely inappropriate habits in terms of movement handling. It has the physics system on for what is essentially jump-based movement (i.e. by setting position every step), which is a huge no-no because it violates the "push-and-pull" assumption of the Box2D physics system. It introduces all sorts of unexpected complexities and behaviours that need to be undone and unlearned in the long run. Other tutorials that do the same with the physics system off have no such problems. There is no other GM tutorial on this planet that annoys me as a Q&A responder and that I despise like that one.

If you do want to get back into the subject, start with another instructor such as this tutorial from FriendlyCosmonaut. She cuts far less corners than Spalding and HeartBeast, and I have not seen the kind of "Q&A backscatter" with her material that HeartBeast's RPG tutorial or Spalding's platformer tutorial have caused.

I gotcha. essentially just start coding and ask around what this and that means. i've always wanted to make a metroidvania, so this should be fun!
While you are at it, set your dream game aside and don't aim for it explicitly. Instead pick up reusable techniques from smaller tutorials and side projects, and progressively try to draw the connections yourself. If you want to make a Metroidvania game, I urge you never to type in "how to make a Metroidvania" in YouTube. If you do, you will end up copying something that you have no idea how to adapt, and you will just give up again. You need to learn basic movement, timing, variable handling, execution flows, events and resource management before it's feasible.

In programming, activity-specific training is almost always inferior to generalist training in the long run. I've seen this play out on the GMC for over a decade, and the losers are always the people who come apart when there isn't a tailor-made tutorial for what they want.
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
Thanks! i'll be sure to watch her videos, and i didn't realize that HeartBeasts tutorials were bad or set bad habits.
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
upon watching the video, she is coding in studio 2 whilst i only have 1.4, i guess in terms of coding there is no difference between the 2 versions?
 

Toque

Member
A mentor isn’t a bad way to go.
upon watching the video, she is coding in studio 2 whilst i only have 1.4, i guess in terms of coding there is no difference between the 2 versions?

I did those tutorials. They are good. Yes you will have to rewatch a few times. Pretty simple code. I assume basic code it’s the same but 2.0 has layers and is different. I don’t think there was layers in 1.4?? Someone else will have to comment there.
 
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TsukaYuriko

☄️
Forum Staff
Moderator
I'd like to mention that GM:S 1 is way past sunset. You will not be able to purchase additional export modules to your existing license and any bugs that may arise will likely not be fixed as it will receive no further updates.

If you're going to get back into making games, now would be a good time to make the jump to GMS 2 - Creator licenses are very affordable and should provide you with everything you need to learn, and if you'd like to try out the new environment first, the entirely free Trial license is barely limited in terms of features and you can evaluate it for 30 days.

GML and programming practices in general are not the same across 1 and 2, so code made for 1 is not at all guaranteed to be compatible with 2, and vice-versa. No new educational material is being produced for 1, and the user base has largely shifted over to 2, so if you'd like to stay on top of things, 2 is the way to go.

Obligatory advertisement aside ( :p ), you are encouraged to post any programming-related or technical questions in the Programming and Tech Support forums on the GMC, respectively. GMS 2 comes with its very own tutorials, which are aimed at beginners and accessible right from within the IDE's start page. This would be a good place to start.
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
GM2 has some new functions that are not available in GM 1.4
thats what i thought.

I did those tutorials. They are good. Yes you will have to rewatch a few times. Pretty simple code. I assume it’s the same except for layers. I don’t think there was layers in 1.4?? Someone else will have to comment there.
pretty sure you can't use a GMS 2 tutorial for GMS.

d like to mention that GM:S 1 is way past sunset. You will not be able to purchase additional export modules to your existing license and any bugs that may arise will likely not be fixed as it will receive no further updates.

If you're going to get back into making games, now would be a good time to make the jump to GMS 2 - Creator licenses are very affordable and should provide you with everything you need to learn, and if you'd like to try out the new environment first, the entirely free Trial license is barely limited in terms of features and you can evaluate it for 30 days.
The reason i got the OG GMS was to see if i even like coding, before i go and buy anything. though i'll certainly think about getting the demo for GMS 2 as i'm having problems running GMS. for some godforsaken reason it won't download an "update" it needs and trying to skip this and going straight to GMS itself produces an error prompt saying it doesn't have the necessary tools. though it still runs.
 

rIKmAN

Member
for some godforsaken reason it won't download an "update" it needs and trying to skip this and going straight to GMS itself produces an error prompt saying it doesn't have the necessary tools. though it still runs.
GMS 1.4 has no further updates, you are using an older version than the final release which is 1.4.9999.

Uninstall whatever version you are using and install 1.4.9999 from the Release Notes Page.

Also a 12mth Creators Licence is $39 (usually around $30 when a sale is on) and will give you a year of full access and allow IDE use on and export to either Windows or Mac (not both) to be able to take your time and see if coding is for you without breaking the bank.
 

Joe Ellis

Member
You can message\pm me with anything you're wondering about, I'm still using 1.4 at the moment, mainly cus the new release of 2 is gonna practically be version 3 anyway, so there's not much point till then, and 1.4 has most of the same stuff in version 2 code wise
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
GMS 1.4 has no further updates, you are using an older version than the final release which is 1.4.9999.

Uninstall whatever version you are using and install 1.4.9999 from the Release Notes Page.
i was using 1.4.9999, and it still wanted to update. i did have 1773 installed but i uninstalled that, idk why 9999 isn't working. i'm going to see if 1804 works, which idk if it will.

Also a 12mth Creators Licence is $39 (usually around $30 when a sale is on) and will give you a year of full access and allow IDE use on and export to either Windows or Mac (not both) to be able to take your time and see if coding is for you without breaking the bank.
i have been considering it, since it is only 40 bucks.


You can message\pm me with anything you're wondering about, I'm still using 1.4 at the moment, mainly cus the new release of 2 is gonna practically be version 3 anyway, so there's not much point till then, and 1.4 has most of the same stuff in version 2 code wise
hey thanks, but until i get GMS itself working i can't really do anything rn.
 

Joe Ellis

Member
Well if you bought it a while ago, it should still show up as a download on the website
 
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rIKmAN

Member
i was using 1.4.9999, and it still wanted to update.
I have 1.4.9999 installed here for legacy support on an extension and it does not ask for an update.
There are no updates from 1.4.9999, that's the final version and it's been it's sunsetted.

What version is it saying it wants to update to?
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
I have 1.4.9999 installed here for legacy support on an extension and it does not ask for an update.
There are no updates from 1.4.9999, that's the final version and it's been it's sunsetted.

What version is it saying it wants to update to?
weirdly enough, it wants to update to 9999. i've searched my computer for the 1773 version and couldn't find it, i properly uninstalled 9999 to switch to 1804, and if 1804 works i'll uninstall that and switch back to 9999. and if 9999 don't work, i'll just use 1804.
 

rIKmAN

Member
weirdly enough, it wants to update to 9999. i've searched my computer for the 1773 version and couldn't find it, i properly uninstalled 9999 to switch to 1804, and if 1804 works i'll uninstall that and switch back to 9999. and if 9999 don't work, i'll just use 1804.
Is the version of 9999 you have installed from the Release Notes page I linked to above or the one from your account page when logged on the YYG website?

What is the exact filename of the installer you are using?
There were 2 releases of 9999.

Edit:
I just uninstalled 1.4.9999 from my machine and installed the version from the Release Notes page to test that it was working.

It installed fine, then I clicked to start GMS and it popped up a window that had "Updating" as the title but below it was "extracting files" with a progress bar. It did that twice, then opened the start page ready for me to load a project.

it didn't appear to download anything, unless I missed it - in which case whatever it was downloaded correctly.
I had to wait maybe 30secs while it did all that before it was ready for me to select a project to load.
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
Is the version of 9999 you have installed from the Release Notes page I linked to above or the one from your account page when logged on the YYG website?
yes, but curiously the URL is slightly different, the one you linked is "www.yoyogames.com" where as mine is "store.yoyogames.com"

What is the exact filename of the installer you are using?
There were 2 releases of 9999.
GMStudio-Installer-1.4.9999.exe
 

rIKmAN

Member
yes, but curiously the URL is slightly different, the one you linked is "www.yoyogames.com" where as mine is "store.yoyogames.com"
I linked you to the Release Notes page, the actual file you can download from there by clicking the version number is from store.yoyogames.com.
GMStudio-Installer-1.4.9999.exe
Yeah that's the version I've just installed and described above, downloaded from the Release Notes page.
Direct link: http://store.yoyogames.com/downloads/gm-studio/GMStudio-Installer-1.4.9999.exe

What actually happens when you go through the install and the "unpacking" progress bar appears?
 
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CanOPringles

Guest
What actually happens when you go through the install and the "unpacking" progress bar appears?
1804 seems stable so i'm not going to mess with it for now. go no error messages when i load up GMS so i think its good. i'm too scared to retry .9999 again lol.
 

DTW

Member
I happen to be inspired by Dr.m64's work on AM2R, and while i have tried my hand in coding in GM about a year ago, i followed an outdated tutorial, (HeartBeasts tutorial) ran into in error, didn't get a response from anyone in the comments, and lost interest for a while.

Well, i want to learn again and i figured a person who i can talk to who knows how to code in 1.4 might be how i learn.
I know this is a very old post, but just wondering if you're still interested in GM 1.4.
 
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