How you started with GML?

[poliver]

Basically yeah. I've only been using gmaker for a couple of weeks now and what i've done is trying to create bones for my game. I've been looking up GML as i go and try to implement something new. What happens is the more I learn the more I want to go back and change things i've done before cause theres always appears to be a better way... I've never read through the manual, would that be a better option before even starting to tackle the problems?

Its funny how I tried GM 10 years ago and avoided GML like a plague now dont even touch Dnd. Also GM lacked cross-platform support then, so I tried to learn java instead and got bored very quickly as I couldn't see practicality of it at an absolute beginner level. Theres plenty of resources on GML now and With GML its so much more fun to learn, lol.

 

[The-any-Key]

After I started with gm. It only took about two weeks until i realised that gml is the thing to aim on. Drag and drop had too many limits and it was hard to create complex systems.

But i never go back in code. If I figure out a better way to do something I save that for the next game. Else you will end up in an infinite loop.

 

[matharoo]

My first code was...

image_speed = 0.5

I was like whoa I can code now

 

[jb skaggs]

I needed to shuffle a deck of cards.

 

[mochipon]

In school I learned some basic concepts of programming and we made a couple of simple applications, like a calculator. The problem is that with applications, the existence of a better alternative often makes all lesser versions obsolete. But to create something that caters to specific needs and doesn't already exist, you either need a very good idea or a lot more experience.
With games on the other hand, there is still some merit to playing the n-th platformer, even if it's not as good as some of the ones that came before it.

I've done some tutorials on different languages that deal with defining functions, classes, objects and so on. But it's always hard to do something fun with that. Like how would I draw a sprite to the screen? My tutorials never covered that, and in real programming it's probably very difficult to even get something to appear on screen and move and so on.
Luckily for people like me, Game Maker covers all this and still lets us apply the basic ideas that make up programming to have a lot of freedom.

Also, if you do tutorials on things like C++ and they introduce classes and objects, it's at first difficult to grasp when you have no idea how or what you would use those things for. But now that I've used some game maker, I often find parallels and that helps me understand real programming better as well.
For example in Game Maker we simply say x and the game knows we're talking about a position along the x-axis in the current room. In real programming we'd first have to set all this up which, thanks to my experience with Game Maker in the past month I now have at least a slight idea about how it might work.
Basically, programming would be like first having to climb a steep hill before you can ski down, whereas Game Maker puts us on top of the hill first.

Sorry, I got a little bit carried away, but I really like Game Maker right now.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

I think reading through the manual is definitely a good idea. At least the GML section. It'll take you a few hours, but then at least you'll know all the tools you have available to you.

 

[jackquake]

Shaun Spalding on YouTube taught me in the very beginning. I've probably went through most all of his tutorials. I picked up several tidbits, little tricks, etc. in his code that I still use today. Then, I started watching HeartBeast videos on YouTube, which were again very informative. Lastly, I've went through Pixelated Pope's videos, who really does some slick stuff.

I'm still far from being one of the masters of GM, but have come to love and appreciate GameMaker in all of its power, flexibility, and ease of use.

Like others have said, it's GML for me, not D&D. Once you get the hang of it, you can do some really neat stuff.

My nickle...

 

[Cloaked Games]

My middle school had a video game programming class with GM8.1 Lite. I wasn't in the class, but in 7th grade I wanted to see what it was like so I opened GM and programmed Pong according to the built in tutorial. 2 days later I started making a full scale Zelda clone. I was insane... but I learned a lot!

Basically, programming would be like first having to climb a steep hill before you can ski down, whereas Game Maker puts us on top of the hill first.

Yes. Some of my friends prefer programming directly in C or Java. They say it's better that way. But I'm like: "Have you made an actual video game yet?" They're response varies from: "No, that's too hard." to "Well... I made the structure for it. But I'm still working out the bugs." In the long run, I'll need to learn formal programming skills, but I'm going to college for that!

 

[Ninja Dodo]

It was on my first project. I started with Drag & Drop but when I got to things like enemy AI there were things I couldn't work out how to do without script so I started using that. I still use DnD occasionally though when I just want to set a single variable or something.

 

[FormalCloud]

First thing I did was make an Asteroids game so I could learn basics. I had done some research before hand so I knew GML Scripting was for me and not drag and drop.

As a hobbydev it's been hard to find long amounts of time I can dedicate to learning GML so it's always smaller projects that can be done in those short windows. GML is fantastic for fast prototyping and then refactoring later in that regard.