Hi, I'm new. Is GameMaker for me?

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DiscoSoup

Guest
So I'm pondering whether or not to pick up GameMaker in the Humble Bundle. Way back in the day I used to love to mess around with Klik & Play, plus a bunch of other WSIWYG game creators. I'd like to make turn-based RPGs, online card games and visual novels.

Considering what I want to do and my background with game creation (I'm not advanced but I understand the foundation of game design, having studied in school), would you recommend that I pick up GameMaker? I also used to program games for ooooolllldddd BASIC computers. Once spent a weekend programming Star Trek on a computer as a kid.

Is GameMaker simple to learn? Would you recommend it for making card games, board games, RPGs and visual novels? Thanks.
 

sylvain_l

Member
you are the only one who can answer that question^^

But if you have BASIC experience you should be good to code with GML once learned. (and if you only take the tier 1 at 1$ not like you are taking a risky giant investment to get it^^);

also you could go on youtube and watch a few vids to see how it "looks" to program in drag'n drop or in GML to get a glance at how you could feel about that.(be sure to watch vids using GMS1.4)

(of course GMS can be used to create card games, board games, RPGs and visual novels -look at games also available with the bundle to get limited variety of whats doable-; but it's up to you to know how much work you are going to put in your game. Other engines more specific to a genra could be better if you want more to design the game than dealing with the programming part - alternatively there are some prototype/engine on the marketplace; I can't garantee that you'll find one fitting your need nor about the price)
 
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DiscoSoup

Guest
Hmm, thanks. That is really helpful. I suspect that I would be able to learn this system. The only issue now is how much time does it take to become proficient? And I will look up other engines. That's a very good piece of advice.
 
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dannyjenn

Guest
The only issue now is how much time does it take to become proficient?
It varies from person to person, but I would say it may take you at a good several months before you're proficient. If you've never used GameMaker before, you'll first need to get a hang of its interface and the event-based system and all that. And if you've never programmed in a language like C, C++, Java, JavaScript, or anything with that sort of syntax, it could also take you some time to learn GML (however, GML is the easiest language around). But once you learn the language, you only become proficient with practice and lots of experimentation.

I will say, while you certainly can make a visual novel with GameMaker, I think GameMaker is a bit overkill for that.
RPGs are entirely doable, but they are difficult. It would be best not to jump right into an RPG until you know what you're doing.
Card games can also be difficult if you're new, since you're going to need to use data structures of some sort.
For your first project, I'd suggest going with either the board game or the visual novel. The visual novel should be easy enough. The board game should also be fairly straightforward once you understand how to set up a "state machine," though it could get to be pretty difficult depending upon the complexity of the rules or the AI.
 
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Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Game Maker is sort of a successor to Klik & Play, it's a bit harder to learn but a lot more powerful. I'd recommend trying to find the official tutorials and the source files that comes with that, then edit those and play around to see if you can get the effect you want, it's the best way to learn stuff IMO (learn by doing). And of course following the tutorials quickly gets you through the basics.

I'll also recommend checking out Fel666's youtube channel and Shaun Spalding's youtube channel, both have some good stuff.
 
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DiscoSoup

Guest
Thank you guys, all of you. My first game is probably going to be an app version of dice game (think Yahtzee with fighting and leveling up).
 
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DiscoSoup

Guest
Oh, hey and is it worth it, after I futz around some, to upgrade to Game Maker 2?
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
(think Yahtzee with fighting and leveling up)
You mean something like this? :p
(sorry, couldn't resist, being a fan of Yahtzee Croshaw and all that x3)

Oh, hey and is it worth it, after I futz around some, to upgrade to Game Maker 2?
Depends a lot on you, but I'd say yes. There's a discount for upgrading from GMS1 to GMS2, and GMS1's support is scheduled to end in about 13 months, meaning that in particular making apps with it will be harder since it won't get functionality updates. GMS2 has pretty robust backwards-compability functionality that lets you import GMS1 files without too much hassle, and allegedly its workflow is faster and easier to manage for new users... I can't really attest to that since I've got like 10 years experience with the OLD workflow and haven't gotten used to the GMS2 one yet :p
 

11clock

Member
As usual, I recommend starting with GameMaker, but after you make a few small projects with it, switch to another engine and continue from there.

GameMaker is great when it comes to prototyping and small projects, but try a large project in this engine and I guarantee that things will get...messy.

I have recently started to use GameMaker for trying new ideas quickly in a small game or prototype, and then continue the project in Unity if I like where it's going.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I've seen several cases of people going "I'm not gonna get this if it's made in Unity" in Steam discussions and such, so I'm not sure if going for that as your primary engine is the optimal long-term strategy... it's gotten a lot of bad publicity lately and doesn't seem interested in doing anything to improve its public image. Sure, you could always just not tell people what you've made your game in, but depending on your license it might not be possible (not quite sure how Unity licenses work).

 
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DiscoSoup

Guest
Well, thanks for the feedback, y'all. I think that I am going to use this for some projects. I went ahead and got the bundle because that's a steal. My project right now are pretty simple (I think). Searching the forums for advice on dice games led me to find that one of my G+ friends is on this site, and he offered to let me pick his brain for ideas. I'll let you know how progress goes. My first game is called Samurai Dice, and there's a possibility that it'll get picked up by a board game publisher. If I end up producing it myself then I plan to make an app version using GMS.
 

11clock

Member
I've seen several cases of people going "I'm not gonna get this if it's made in Unity" in Steam discussions and such, so I'm not sure if going for that as your primary engine is the optimal long-term strategy... it's gotten a lot of bad publicity lately and doesn't seem interested in doing anything to improve its public image. Sure, you could always just not tell people what you've made your game in, but depending on your license it might not be possible (not quite sure how Unity licenses work).

You're aware that GameMaker has had the same exact problem for years until Undertale, right?

The people who care about the engine that a game is made in is rather small, a vocal minority. If not, games like Enter the Gungeon, Hands of Fate, and so on wouldn't have been such massive hits.

And even then, there are other engines available such as UnrealEngine and App Game Kit if you worry so much about the publicity of your engine.

What I am trying to say is that GameMaker is a beginner's program that is not fit for large projects (yes I know big games have been made in it, but that doesn't mean it's practical). This is why I suggest starting in it, then look for another engine once you get enough experience, and keep using GameMaker for prototyping and jams.
 
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method72

Guest
If you have some prior experience in BASIC, a lot of the same rules still apply. Variables, Loops, If/conditional statements etc.
These are all elements of a programming foundation, GMS2 is no different, it utilizes all those same skills. For me personally, I have programmed games in C# (monogame) and Python (pygame). Some people may look at GMS2 as a toy, or as a beginners program, and once you get better you can move up to a 'real' language. But honestly GMS2 may me the right tool for the job, depending on what your trying to build.

It has come a long way, and I think it is now in a position, where it can do anything I would attempt to do in monogame or pygame. (I am talking strictly 2D), as I have no experience with the 3D feature set of GMS2) When it comes to making games, you need to recognize your target platform and your goals. With the YYC now integrated into the core platform, I think this may be the biggest jump forward, compared to previous versions of GMS2, I realize YYC was previously available, but it came at a steep cost.

I believe GMS2 can suit your need fine, for the types of games you want to build, no matter what language or engine you use, making games takes a lot of work. GMS2 just makes some of that work a lot easier, like the ease of importing assets sound/graphics etc, editing your level/layout using rooms. I have been a user of GameMaker since 2009 but up until this iteration I really have not felt confident in its abilities to perform.

I would recommend you give it a shot and dive in, you can start with basic drag and drop to get your feet wet, then move on from there.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
Also, getting the HB version of GMS1 will make you eligible for the discount on upgrading from GMS1 to GMS2, apparently.
yea, can confirm. any modules you get in the HB make you eligible for the 40% discount on their GMS2 counterparts.
 
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teamrocketboyz

Guest
Oh, hey and is it worth it, after I futz around some, to upgrade to Game Maker 2?
GMS2 if free for the trial version. you can do alot i nthe trial version you just have limits on max sprites and max objects etc. its 15 or 20 sprites max i think. i tinkered with the gms2 trial for a week and bought it outright straight after. i recommend the trial to get a taster for it as gms1.4 is different to gms2, alot of what you learn in gms1.4 is transferable to gms2 but not everything is, so in my mind your best off learning in gms2 to begin with.
 

Xer0botXer0

Senpai
It's complex enough to make the 2D games you'd like to create, and ..I don't know about simple, everything's difficult for me until I've learnt how to learn.. in other words with GML I started when I was 12 but just for the fun of it with the trial edition, then 4-5 years ago I decided I want to make an mmorpg yada yada, got game maker studio, and I've been trying to make my game ever since. I've read books, read pdfs, received tons of help on the old GMC forum, the reddit and now here. when you work with gms and spend time on the forum, you don't work on your games alone. The community is active, helpful and friendly.

If you want to see the scope of gml have a look at the documentation online or once you've purchased gms you'll have the offline documentation which you can browse through. I've got a lot of it down and yet even now I find myself having new things to learn, it's not just that.. you may know the ingredients but what makes a great cook is knowing how to prepare and combine the items together.

On the other hand I haven't used other languages for game dev, I've used c# in the past with microsoft XNA dev or something like that, but I didn't really have a clue about what was going on, also people don't use that anymore they'd rather use c# with unity. which is a monthly payment thing.. kind of dumb to use when you're just starting to learn. So I've been using GML and a month or two back I started learning Java to create a server for my GML game client, because of dedicated hosting reasons. And I believe that the gradient or leap towards Java isn't that great now. There's a lot of similarities.
 
In regards to the difficulty of learning: I made a half hour Zelda clone in 7th grade, a few months after I started learning. I'm fairly smart, but in 7th grade I had only programmed a little bit ever, and I didn't even know, like, algebra yet. That's a testament to how easy it is, especially if you're dedicated.

As for what you can do with it: well, I haven't reached a limit yet. My projects are starting to get fairly messy, but you can do some pretty awesome stuff with GML. You will want to learn proper coding skills eventually, not just rely on the helpful features of GM and at that point, you may find it easier to switch to another engine.

I honestly recommend GM as the best 2D IDE available, especially for beginners. If you want to do 3D, that is not GM's strongsuit. But the things it sounded like you wanted to make are all possible for sure.

As for GMS2: I refer to what @Yal said. Though I've only got 5-6 years instead of 10. :)
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
From what I've seen when looking back at my old projects, it seems like I've made games of the same size taking the same amount of dev time all this time... what has changed is that I've been able to do games with more advanced mechanics and overall can make games of a higher quality nowadays. Maybe I should try making one of those hacky things with programmer art and stock MIDI music just to see what I can do when I stop wasting time making sure everything meets my 2017 quality standards? x3
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
I have a degree in Computer Science and worked many years in enterprise software, and I still prefer GameMaker and its GML over really any other alternatives. For solo devship it's a wonderful tool

And you can't lost at the $15 pricetag. That's less than most games.
 
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