Development Getting started with making games.

[gingotdrip]

Hey everybody! I am very new to these forums and I have recently gotten interested in coding. My one question is: How do you think I should get started with coding and creating my own games? Thank you to everyone that replies!

MOD EDIT: Colour formatting removed. Please do not uses excessive colour in your text, it makes it very hard to read for everyone else (as per the forum rules).

 

[Roldy]

Get the GMS2 (trial version is perfect) and follow a few tutorials: https://www.yoyogames.com/en/tutorials

Regardless of DnD or GML the tutorials will give you some insight.

Look at the manual: https://manual.yoyogames.com/#t=Content.htm

After you have a few basics:

• Create an object
• Give it a sprite
• Make an instance of the object in a room
• Run the game and be able to move the instance around on screen
  • Do simple controls via the keyboard (WASD, arrow keys)
  • understand events
• Display text on screen
• Be able to detect when one thing touches or is close to another
  • respond to that collision
  • make on instance effect a different instance

Then you can just use your imagination and see if you can make a game with those basics. Keep it simple, keep it small.

 

[samspade]

I think a lot of this depends on what your goals are (working on a game, learning to program, just having fun, etc). While a little outdated, I still stand by the resources I put together here, the biggest change is that I would choose a different first game tutorial - right now I think the best one is the official one as it is the only complete tutorial meant for beginners done entirely in 2.3.

 

[Rob]

Hey everybody! I am very new to these forums and I have recently gotten interested in coding. My one question is: How do you think I should get started with coding and creating my own games? Thank you to everyone that replies!

MOD EDIT: Colour formatting removed. Please do not uses excessive colour in your text, it makes it very hard to read for everyone else (as per the forum rules).

Follow a short tutorial, whether in video or blog format - whatever you prefer.
Once you've finished, copy it and try and make additions/changes to it. I made changes during the tutorials I watched but that can mess you up (break your game) and cost you time, but it can also give you experience with debugging so there are pros/cons either way.

When trying to write your own code, make comments first, for what should happen, and then, once you think you have the logic down, find the code you need to make it work. Being able to think about what NEEDS to happen based on what you WANT to happen is as important as knowing GML.

EG you want to make a player character move around:

//Check for horizontal input, calculate pixels_to_move_per_step
//Check for vertical input, calculate pixels_to_move_per_step
//Update the player's x with horizontal mmovement value
//Update the player's y with vertical movement

Now you've added some objects that you want to stop the player colliding with, so some updates are in order

//Check for horizontal input, calculate pixels_to_move_per_step
//Check for vertical input, calculate pixels_to_move_per_step
//Check for collision horizontally. If there is a collision, move as close to the object as possible and set horizontal speed to 0
//Check for collision vertically. If there is a collision, move as close to the object as possible and set vertical speed to 0
//Update the player's x with horizontal mmovement value (it will be set to 0 if there was a collision)
//Update the player's y with vertical movement (it will be set to 0 if there was a vertical collision)

You have to get used to the syntax used in GML, but I'm told that being able to organise your thoughts into usable comments and then converting that into code is helpful n many languages.