GM2 Learning

Official up-to-date tutorials if you are absolute beginner.
Official documentation, which can be found here (while coding, you can middle-mouse click on any function in GMS and it will automatically open the manual)
And finally, learn by doing lots of small projects: Pong, Asteroid, Breakout, Moon Patrol. Then move on to slightly bigger/complex one like maybe Bomberman or SMB, etc.
Soon enough you'll get the hang of it without even realizing it. Then you'll be able to come up with your own stuff and be self-sufficient.
You'll get more knowledge per time spent if you complete lots of small simple things than if you try to tackle big stuff right away.
 

SVertayo

Member
Official up-to-date tutorials if you are absolute beginner.
Official documentation, which can be found here (while coding, you can middle-mouse click on any function in GMS and it will automatically open the manual)
And finally, learn by doing lots of small projects: Pong, Asteroid, Breakout, Moon Patrol. Then move on to slightly bigger/complex one like maybe Bomberman or SMB, etc.
Soon enough you'll get the hang of it without even realizing it. Then you'll be able to come up with your own stuff and be self-sufficient.
You'll get more knowledge per time spent if you complete lots of small simple things than if you try to tackle big stuff right away.
So in order to simplify this watch small tutorials that are up to date 2021-2022 than check out official documentation make a small project and rinse and repeat. Correct?
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
So in order to simplify this watch small tutorials that are up to date 2021-2022 than check out official documentation make a small project and rinse and repeat. Correct?
To simplify this further, for beginners I recommend only 2 tutorial sources that are updated for 2021-2022:
I strongly discourage looking up random tutorials on YouTube for beginners. At least half of all YouTube content on GM is currently outdated, and given the questions I get from rookies following them, most of them are of dubious educational value. You need your basics in place and develop a sense of professional judgement before they could be useful, but then you would already be independent and have little use for them.

The official Manual is something that you should have ready at all times while watching any tutorial. Whenever you see an unfamiliar built-in function, variable, or keyword, pause the video and look up what it means in the Manual's A-Z tab. Then once you find the entry in the Manual, compare its functionality to what you see in the tutorial, and think about how it is being applied.
 

WoNkY

Member
What is the most effective way of learning GM2?
What I do is consult the manual ALOT, it's great and make demos. Lots of demos.

- need a homing missile?

Don't try to work it all out inside your game make a new project, make some objects up with simple block sprites and work it out there.

- don't understand DSlists?

Look at the manual. Make a new project demo and get one working.

Also I only cut and paste simple manual code mainly. I make demos for the simplest things but they work and I understand them.

It also gives you a library of your own code that can go into your game or be modified easily.

Hope that helps.
 

samspade

Member
What is the most effective way of learning GM2?
I'm working on a video to address this exact question. Of course, I'm very slow so it'll probably be months before it's done :)

In general, I'd say you can start anywhere, but you really want to focus on learning three things.
  1. How GameMaker itself works, what building blocks are available to you and how does GameMaker use them to make a game? This is probably the easiest thing to do. The main assets I would focus on are Rooms, Objects, Sprites, Audio, Fonts, Sequences, and Scripts. Many of these take almost no effort to understand. You can read about them in the manual, or watch some short tutorials on them from the official GameMaker Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhIbBGhnxj5JYTwgHb67QXxRruMBGaLSo. The first few videos in this series also do a good job covering the basics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUEcBPiXnlBwCuwpDCFsUbHAiP4xpVHIY.
  2. The basics of how Code works. I have a whole series on this. Probably even more in-depth than needed, but if you like watching videos and have the time, I recommend it (the quality gets better as you go). They can also be used as references when you come across new topics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwgH1hDD0q1Eq2xXKhkiJmtt7ml599CSt. The last few videos in the series by Matharoo also does a good job of covering the very, very basic of coding.
  3. Learn how to combine the first two, GameMaker Assets and Code together to form small game components and then learn how to combine those components in to bigger components and so on until you have your game. This is the trickiest one of course and takes the most time. You can look for specific tutorials but of course you probably won't always be able to find one. Another option is to go through one of the "Let's make a game" series. I think the official YoYo tutorials are the best if you are just starting out, because they are correct for the newest version. I also think that Shaun Spalding's and Friendly Cosmonaut's tutorials are excellent, but both are mostly pre 2.3 which means there are a number of important things that are wrong and they don't use a lot of the newer features that make your life easier. So I wouldn't go through them first, but if after finishing some of the YoYo ones you want more, they are excellent options. As you go through any of these "let's make a game" style tutorials, pay very close attention to how they use GameMaker Assets and Code to build the components of the game.
To sum it up, if you are just starting and completely new to GameMaker you want to learn the specific GameMaker Tools, the very basics of codings, and most importantly how to combine these two things into game components. And, as others have said, I'd also recommend sticking as much as possible to tutorials in the last year or so at least until you feel understand the basics of how GameMaker currently works.
 
So in order to simplify this watch small tutorials that are up to date 2021-2022 than check out official documentation make a small project and rinse and repeat. Correct?
Yes. In all rigor, it's not the 'year' per-se that you have to look for, it's the engine version.
We had big changes in the GML language in version 2.3, and since then some pre-2.3 syntax and data structures, like ds_lists, are pretty much obsolete. Scripts assets have been completely revamped...
In a word: In your mind, you have to tell yourself all pre 2.3 tutorials are irrelevant, until you have a litle more knowledge of how things really work. Only then should you try to pick the older stuff and try to port it to the new version.
 
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