If I wanted to make a top down action rpg also with sidescrolling platforming and other genres where would I start?

[landale]

I'm really new to all of this, I want to start really small and simple with basic tutorials. I know gamemaker studio has some super simple tutorials with like making simple games. Would that be a good place to start? I figured I should ask. I don't have much experience with gamemaker or programming so I figured before I jump into tutorials maybe there are some specifics I should get to know.

I should mention I'm working on my motivation and drive with this so I want to get into this slowly and see how it goes.

 

[kburkhart84]

Yes, some small tutorials are exactly where you should start...that's what they are for.

 

[Yal]

Finishing things are a great motivator, so intentionally making small projects (to maximize your chances of completing them) sounds like a good plan.

I'd say it's better to make small unrelated prototypes first, then work on a large project, than to try to make a large project from the start. If something goes wrong in a small side project, you can just throw it away with not much lost, and if something goes right you can just copypaste the code and use in your REAL project! And Game Maker traditionally is really hard to use in larger projects, since it's easy to do things in non-scalable ways (hardcoded data, copypasting objects instead of parenting/reusable patterns, etc) so it's easy to make a project so large and messy it's impossible to keep working on it. (I've done that multiple times so I'm speaking from experience here)

Once you've made a top-down zelda clone and a platformer game, it shouldn't be too hard to copypaste over the objects you need to a new third combination game, and ignoring the ones you don't need (or that you know you can do better now with your newfound knowledge).