Suggestions for Learning GML to Develop Topdown Action Game

[dawson2223]

Hi all,

I'm developing a game by myself and have only been using GameMaker for about a month. I've been watching videos by Shaun Spalding to learn coding, do you experienced users have any suggestions on what I can do to get better with the software?

I'm developing a topdown action game, not sure if that helps with suggestions.

Thank you so much!

-Nick

 

[Yal]

Download free examples and change stuff in them to see what happens
Or, to be precise, find examples that are similar to what you have in mind, then tweak them until they go what you want. Learning how to change existing code to tweak behaviors is probably more important than learning how to do new stuff from scratch; you'll need to do it a lot to balance your games when playtesting them reveals something is broken or just not fun.

 

[Heat4Life]

Reading the Official Manual of GM:S is the best and the greatest way to be a master the GameMaker: Studio so you can create awesome Video Games!

 

[Colonjack]

Hello as fellow newb I found what helps me is working on something other that the game I actually want to make. Sounds stupid but trying to make a quick sort of trading game has increased my skills with data storage systems to places I never thought they would go, knocking out an asteroid clone has made my understanding of the physics engine much better.

The game I want to make is a top down action/shooter game, but doing all these side projects for the sake of learning first will hopefully lead to a better result.

 

[Genetix]

I agree with reading the manual. It can be tempting to use a lot of other peoples engines at first, but avoid it... Go ahead and create your own! Break down each mechanic that you want in your game into small steps, and figure out how to make each part work. If you get stuck, come here with a specific question or then look to existing engines/examples to see how they approach the problem.

There is no quick & easy solution however, stick with it and through time and experience you will become better and better, one day you may be able to build a working top down engine with movement, collision, ai, and more all from scratch, just typing it off the top of your head. Always glad to help with any specifics though!

 

[LordBingShipley]

Id suggest studying the manual before doing anything. Then build a few test games just to familiarize yourself with the software. Some crappy little games like a small Mario, PacMan, Snake, Galiga, Asteroids, ect to get some ides of how to work with different styles and do different things. Downloading examples and using snippets of exist projects wont hurt either. Though I consider straight copy-and-pasting to be bad practice. Taking examples and working them to fit your test projects, while also using the manual to play around with new ways to do some mechanics, is a good way to learn in my opinion.

 

[dawson2223]

Download free examples and change stuff in them to see what happens
Or, to be precise, find examples that are similar to what you have in mind, then tweak them until they go what you want. Learning how to change existing code to tweak behaviors is probably more important than learning how to do new stuff from scratch; you'll need to do it a lot to balance your games when playtesting them reveals something is broken or just not fun.

Where do I find the free examples??

 

[dawson2223]

I agree with reading the manual. It can be tempting to use a lot of other peoples engines at first, but avoid it... Go ahead and create your own! Break down each mechanic that you want in your game into small steps, and figure out how to make each part work. If you get stuck, come here with a specific question or then look to existing engines/examples to see how they approach the problem.

There is no quick & easy solution however, stick with it and through time and experience you will become better and better, one day you may be able to build a working top down engine with movement, collision, ai, and more all from scratch, just typing it off the top of your head. Always glad to help with any specifics though!

This was very helpful, thank you!

 

[Genetix]

Id suggest studying the manual before doing anything. Then build a few test games just to familiarize yourself with the software. Some crappy little games like a small Mario, PacMan, Snake, Galiga, Asteroids, ect to get some ides of how to work with different styles and do different things. Downloading examples and using snippets of exist projects wont hurt either. Though I consider straight copy-and-pasting to be bad practice. Taking examples and working them to fit your test projects, while also using the manual to play around with new ways to do some mechanics, is a good way to learn in my opinion.

Ouch - I wouldn't consider any of those games as 'crappy'.... smh

 

[Me Myself and I]

Where do I find the free examples??

You can try the marketplace for some freebies (sort price low-high):
https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/category/10/projects?sort=pricelh

or

https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/category/11/demos?sort=pricelh

 

[Alvare]

You can easily create your own style, even when you're borrowing/combining stuff created by others.
What I found easy for my first couple of 2D game projects were rendering out 3D models without shading and flat lighting, then using that to have them as pixel art characters.

 

[Yal]

Where do I find the free examples??

Google it?
https://www.google.se/search?q=game...efox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=ZI-7V6jyF8-FzAXEm4LYAw

If you're looking for specific things, try narrowing the search down. For instance, the first page of "game maker studio free dungeon crawler example" yields...

2. https://itch.io/games-like/50054/yals-basic-dungeon-crawler-engine

Actually, I expected to find more than two editable examples (the other hits on the first page are devlogs, which might also be interesting) but I guess dungeon crawling is so hard fewer people know about it. Ah well.

 

[LordBingShipley]

Ouch - I wouldn't consider any of those games as 'crappy'.... smh

I was not calling those games "Crappy", I was suggesting to make crappy remakes of those games to gain some feel for GameMaker