GameMaker Just bought Creator License

OnLashoc

Member
Just wanted to say for anyone on the fence, I've been learning Unity for about 6 months and decided to check out other engines, etc.

I downloaded the trial version (I've used a previously earlier version of GMS a year or two ago briefly) and messed around with it all weekend. I did the included tutorials and several others on youtube trying out different things you can do with this software.

I just made my first game. Yes very basic, but a hilarious thing of beauty! Decided to jump in and commit the $39. I know this probably didn't need a new thread, but I just wanted to share. I'm super excited for the possibilities are limitless!

Learning Unity via Udemy had become slow paced and a bit of a cluster it just wore me down. One weekend with GMS 2.0 trial and I am rejuvenated!

Onnie
 

OnLashoc

Member
Thanks! Do you have suggestion of youtubers to follow?

I want to learn more, but the problem Im having is a bunch had made videos with GSM 1.4 and some use drag n drop which kinda throws me off.
 
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Guest User

Guest
welcome to the GMC!

Shaun Spalding has some good videos for starter concepts and stuff. uheartbeast has a charming personality and covers RPG & some platformer concepts. and there's quite a few video tutorials in the Tutorials subforum here on the GMC that you can find channels to follow through as well.

E: the Making Games 101 is pretty good too
 
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muddman

Guest
Thanks! Do you have suggestion of youtubers to follow?
As a developer in my day job, i've found a lot of the tutorials to be super boring since I've already got the basics of loops, statements, etc down.

I've found FriendlyCosmonaut and Gloomy Toad Studios to be pretty good at explaining gamemaker concepts without all the 'this is an if statement' stuff.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
oh no, are you calling daddy to come give me a spanking for saying the H word? i won't do it again, duble pwomise. )'=
I am not going to spank you for recommending HeartBeast, but I am going to reprimand you for recommending his RPG tutorial.

One novice that doesn't know when to turn on the physics system and when to leave it off is one too many.
 
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Guest User

Guest
I am not going to spank you for recommending HeartBeast, but I am going to reprimand you for recommending his RPG tutorial.

One novice that doesn't know when to turn on the physics system and when to leave it off is one too many.
following the tutorial to a T will leave you with a 💩💩💩💩ed game, like any "lets make _____ in gamemaker !! " type tutorial and perhaps just following tutorials exclusively in general.

certain videos in the series cover useful RPG-centric topics (special moves, stats, object interaction, doors, etc.) that other big names do not readily cover. and the mini-challenges he offers help cultivate a sense of independence most novices lack when they first start.

if OP wants to succeed they're going to have to become uncomfortable just copying code and following instructions in the first place, or they'll never make a game worth playing...if they finish a game at all.
when it comes to tutorials of any kind, you take the concepts you need and adapt them. and heartbeast's RPG videos do indeed have some things that can be taken and adapted, whether i like the rest of it or not.

-

if janked tutorials must be blacklisted you'll certainly find no protest from me. but dogpiling in here to have forum users "reprimand" each other, silently liking posts (@Nocturne) instead of just making it a written rule, literally doing nothing useful whatsoever (@Ladi_Pix3l), and calling Frosty Cat to come lay down snide intellectualism instead of doing it yourself (@andev) is petty forum melodrama that does nothing to help provide consistency for these novices yall supposedly care so much about.

give me something to work with and i'll adapt, but atm there is literally nothing suggesting error or rule-breaking in recommending resources on the basis that anyone capable will sift through the dirt to find gold instead of just shoving the dirt in their mouth like a child.
 

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
following the tutorial to a T will leave you with a ****ed game, like any "lets make _____ in gamemaker !! " type tutorial and perhaps just following tutorials exclusively in general.

certain videos in the series cover useful RPG-centric topics (special moves, stats, object interaction, doors, etc.) that other big names do not readily cover. and the mini-challenges he offers help cultivate a sense of independence most novices lack when they first start.

if OP wants to succeed they're going to have to become uncomfortable just copying code and following instructions in the first place, or they'll never make a game worth playing...if they finish a game at all.
when it comes to tutorials of any kind, you take the concepts you need and adapt them. and heartbeast's RPG videos do indeed have some things that can be taken and adapted, whether i like the rest of it or not.

-

if janked tutorials must be blacklisted you'll certainly find no protest from me. but dogpiling in here to have forum users "reprimand" each other, silently liking posts (@Nocturne) instead of just making it a written rule, literally doing nothing useful whatsoever (@Ladi_Pix3l), and calling Frosty Cat to come lay down snide intellectualism instead of doing it yourself (@andev) is petty forum melodrama that does nothing to help provide consistency for these novices yall supposedly care so much about.

give me something to work with and i'll adapt, but atm there is literally nothing suggesting error or rule-breaking in recommending resources on the basis that anyone capable will sift through the dirt to find gold instead of just shoving the dirt in their mouth like a child.
Don't cry dude. We're clearly giving the advice not to watch someone who doesn't really teach you, but rather allow a copy and paste method instead. Not at all benefitting the viewer or future developer that wants to become something more. In fact it's the complete opposite. I'm sorry you got a little butt hurt. It's literally nothing personal but I guess it's how you take it. :p
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
@hipstercapitalist Bruh!!! What are you 10? You're better than this lol (at least I hope). It seems like the community here was just pointing out the style of Heartbeast tutorials and making a joke out it (I'll assume). Literally all in good fun. Everyone committing on this post have had their experience with his videos and agree that his method of "teaching" is not entirely helpful. OP has been through Unity and understands that copying and pasting ONLY isn't gonna get them anywhere.

BTW Welcome the community @OnLashoc, where your feelings don't matter. (totally kidding)
 
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Kobold

Guest
BTW Welcome the community @OnLashoc, where your feelings don't matter. (totally kidding)
...You can't be serious now!
There is nothing more satisfying than being an A-Hole to everyone...
You better rethink what you have written there, you!

haha... oh dear :)
 
G

Guest User

Guest
@hipstercapitalist Bruh!!! What are you 10? You're better than this lol (at least I hope). It seems like the community here was just pointing out the style of Heartbeast tutorials and making a joke out it (I'll assume). Literally all in good fun.
civility, i can appreciate that of the options i am provided to respond to thus far. i cannot regulate my textual "tone of voice" if you'll understand. lack of social skills, we can surmise. that i apologize for, its far from my purpose to attack others here.

i am attempting to be concise and thorough. its not really a matter of me taking it personally or throwing a b*tch fit, but trying to remedy what i see as an actual issue in remaining consistent with advice given and criticizing the current state of things. i just feel it could be better.

Everyone committing on this post have had their experience with his videos and agree that his method of "teaching" is not entirely helpful. OP has been through Unity and understands that copying and pasting ONLY isn't gonna get them anywhere.
this is part of my point. in this case, OP and others can get around the worthless drivel heartbeast and others peddle to find the stuff worth looking for, so there should be no harm in recommending these tutorials since they may still yet provide something useful in them.

i am not recommending because of his "teaching" methods, but of the content within (doors, object interactions, collisions, health, stamina, special moves, etc..) that can be used by someone able to ignore all the crap it's surrounded with and adapt it for their own purposes. i am requesting that if this is wrong, it be written somewhere instead of just relying on users to tell each other it is not.

do you understand my intent?

of course, you have proposed an interpretation i did not see. i have mistaken these corrections as an attempt to say "do not ever post about these videos on the forum" rather than, as you suggest, supplementary advice pointing out they are flawed.
so that's good, and resolves my issue actually. thanks. o:
 

OnLashoc

Member
Thanks for the help!

Already on my 3rd game! Yes not very big but different concepts, and even carried several from one to the other like Parallax backgrounds and a few others I cant remember off the top of my head. This is absolutely amazing what I can do already in literally 72 hours compared to 6 months in Unity. I've watched GMWolf, Heartbeast, and that Spauldin guy, so far very easy to follow and understand :)

Sorry to cause any drama.

Onnie
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Since I was tagged I'll just quickly quote this as my reply...

Bruh!!! What are you 10? You're better than this lol (at least I hope). It seems like the community here was just pointing out the style of Heartbeast tutorials and making a joke out it (I'll assume). Literally all in good fun.
I actually LIKE Heartbeast (although I completely understand why @FrostyCat doesn't) and was in no way silently endorsing any type of "blacklist" for tutorials. I was simply acknowledging a post that I thought was funny in the context of a bit of ribbing of Frosty's well-known opinions. :)

Sorry to cause any drama.
Lol! You didn't cause it! We have a fantastic and passionate community, and that means that sometimes tempers run high... we all love each other really. :p

Back on topic: @OnLashoc ,You might benefit from some of the YoYo Games tech blogs too as you get more advanced. Some of them cover more in-depth aspects of using GameMaker (like using surfaces, or shaders, or networking) and while they may not be the most beginner-friendly resource, they can make an interesting read and are good reference material for the future. Note that most of the older ones refer to GM:S 1.4, but all the contents/concepts are pretty much applicable to 2 as well.
 

OnLashoc

Member
Thank you thank you thank you!! ^^

I was looking for some stuff on networking for later use and found it on that page. I skimmed over that page once or twice and must not have been paying attention when I did.
 

OnLashoc

Member
Just an update, it's been almost 2 weeks later.

I've been using GMS 2.0 every day for 4-7 hours at a time (minus breaks) and I am completely impressed with this software!

I just went ahead and upgraded from the Creator license to the permanent Desktop version without hesitation.

Just an fyi for anyone still on the fence.

Onnie
 

OnLashoc

Member
I never used 1.4

I did download the demo version maybe 3 years ago or so and tinkered around for a few hours before deleting it.
 
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Outseidr

Guest
Studio 2 is great! Hope you love it like I do. Ive enjoyed gamemaker since mark overmars owned it :p. It used to be like 25$. Good times Great software.
 
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Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
It’s true game maker studio 2 is the tool for the job I just don’t understand it’s new language it translates old 1.4 functions into including its actions replaced with code like
Action009973124 = true
How do they expect us to understand that and what it means and what it is doing, seriously?
 
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AnomalousArcane

Guest
It’s true game maker studio 2 is the tool for the job I just don’t understand it’s new language it translates old 1.4 functions into including its actions replaced with code like
Action009973124 = true
How do they expect us to understand that and what it means and what it is doing, seriously?
Are you talking about conversion scripts after importing an old gms file?

@OnLashoc Welcome to the community! I've only just rejoined recently as well. I stopped working with GMS to learn Unity and C#. It was a bit rough, but I learned a lot. It's made a big difference since I've returned to GML with GMS:2.
 
Yes, the project conversion is kind-of iffy. Granted, it worked first try no changes. But the code readability takes a big dive and tearing out all the patchwork stuff that the conversion sticks in everywhere with a project even a few days old is a big mess.

Other than that though, now that I've grown more accustomed, I feel really comfortable with GMS2 and it's definitely a huge improvement. There's a lot of features I don't really use though (like the workspace, at all), but it doesn't really hinder me.
 
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Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Importing a old project, you see I thought it would be best if I had continued working on my rpg from 1.4 to 2.0 due to being able to create objects on layers and then change the layers which the objects were on whenever I needed to, but after importing it to game maker studio 2.0 it translated my drag and drop actions into code I simply cannot understand worst of all the action called Action009973124 was not documented on the functionality of the action and that function in game maker studio 2.0
 
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Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
I really don't understand why they changed GML so drastically in GMS2. For the most part, it was completely unnecessary. Adding new things - good. Changing existing features to be achieved differently - in most cases - bad.
 

OnLashoc

Member
1 Year Update, or just shy of...

So I've been using GMS 2.0 for almost a year and have started probably 20+ projects just to see how this or that would look and have done probably just as many tutorials making various types of games and specific objectives depending on the tutorial. Here are my pro's and con's of someone that doesn't think I've completely scratched the surface of what GMS 2 can do and have completely learned through tutorials, trial & error, and even coming on here reading various posts in the Programming / Help forums and asking questions.

Pro's
-Interface, GMS 2's interface is very easy to navigate and sort assets and views
-I really like the ease of the image animation capabilities
-GML, Drag & Drop helps too, but I find myself converting to GML on pretty much everything on my D&D project
-Compiling and reloading projects, the time it takes to compile, play, change something, compile, play, etc. is pretty fast and never have an issue with it
-The capabilities for 2D game making almost seems limitless! I feel like if I can envision it, I can make it in GMS 2.
-The HELP / Readme information by middle clicking on something is pretty awesome and very helpful!
-Regions & Bookmarks, I've recently started using these regularly, I wish I'd had known sooner! lol

Con's
-App crashes, GMS 2 will sometimes (pretty rare, but it does happen) freeze on opening a project or importing an image to a sprite. As rare as it is for me personally, it does happen and is very frustrating. I've found that clearing the temp folder / cache will cause GMS to open and import correctly going forward, but is a P-I-T-A. Save often!!
-Some functionality that's been removed compared to previous versions of GMS. I can't point to one directly right at this second, but I will circle back to this later.

I'm sure there are more con's that I'm drawing blanks on, but right now at almost a year later, I can confidently say this was one of the best purchases I've made in 2018 and probably in the past 5 years period. For a starting out game developer, this is a very nice program to start with to learn basic's and increase to intermediate coding and beyond!

Thank you for reading, and I hope anyone considering jumping into GMS gives this a chance as it is well worth the price!

Onnie
 
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blandanablandana

Guest
1 Year Update, or just shy of...

Thank you for reading, and I hope anyone considering jumping into GMS gives this a chance as it is well worth the price!

Onnie

I agree. I have tried unreal engine and a few other but this is by far the best engine I've found for making 2d games hands down. I got discouraged with unreal engine after I tried to make ai because of their collisions and how to program their movement, but it is far easier in this program. I've gotten further in this program in less than a week than I have with any other engine for making a 2d game just because of the amount of tutorials and ease of use. 100% agree worth the purchase once you hit the sprite limit if you just get a creator license.
 
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bumpercarstudios

Guest
I know folks who have had great experiences with Unity. However for 2D games we love Game Maker. While we see other developers using external programs for artwork, and general design before implementing in Game Maker, we've barely used anything outside of Game Maker to create our games.

The only exception being audio design, for which we go to Audacity and Reason.
 
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