Attention all game maker users!

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Shiruba

Shiruba

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Well...I've searched through the MB, and I didn't find a game maker topic. If there IS a game maker topic, please do lock. Now, on to the main topic.

I've just recently stumbled upon a video game creator (yes, for all you who want to create games and don't know how) known as game maker. I'm new to game maker, and I'm looking for some tips other than "Practice" and "Try stuff". Also, this topic isn't really about helping me out with some quick tips, it's to discuss game maker. Feel free to show your work. Now,

Discuss[/i]
 
Is this the game maker program you are on about?

750px-Gm_interface.png
 
Isn't C++ the hardest programming language to learn?

My advise is if you wanna make basic programs use visual basic, that way you can get use to programming (Please note that visual basic programming language is different from the C++ programming language)
 
C++ is easier than C, and C# even easier than C++? I'm sorry but you barely know what you are talking about, it seems so because you use prebuilt classes, but trust me, it doesn't work out like that.
C is clearly the easiest because it doesn't force any paradigm on you [/rant]
Well, anyway, if you're a newbie, you had better try either C or Pascal, the latter if you don't feel like messing with pointers.
After learning most of C, then you can, if you want, move to C++.
C++ is basically built on top of C itself, and it keeps a great share of compatiblity with it, but some things are different or have to be specified (like casting).
I honestly prefer sticking to C and I only use C++ when I have to use a GUI library written in that language.
 
Silent_Snipe said:
Is this the game maker program you are on about?

750px-Gm_interface.png
Click to expand...
...Go and get Game Maker 7.0...
SparkTheHedgehog said:
I've just recently stumbled upon a video game creator (yes, for all you who want to create games and don't know how) known as game maker. I'm new to game maker, and I'm looking for some tips other than "Practice" and "Try stuff". Also, this topic isn't really about helping me out with some quick tips, it's to discuss game maker. Feel free to show your work. Now,

Discuss
Click to expand...
I'm aslo new at Game Maker...It's been a loooooong time since i used it.
 
Game Maker is an great game development tool for the Windows Platform in my opinion. It's not very portable, but it saves most people the time and effort of building their sound/graphics renderers, level builders...etc from scratch and allows you to focus on more important aspects of Game Development, like actually making the game fun to play. (In other words, it's great for beginners) You can actually reach very playable frame rates on older hardware if you're good at programming with it and using earlier versions of the program, like 5.3.
I just recently finished my own Sonic fan game with GM7, you can find the download link in my profile. I got stuck with Vista on my new computer because my previous PC literally died half way through development, so I couldn't finish it with GM6 like I wanted to. D:
Game Maker is no substitute for C++, however. You could never write a GM game to be anywhere near as efficient or as portable/flexible as a game written in C++, I don't plan on using GM7 forever.
Superusuario said:
...Go and get Game Maker 7.0...
Click to expand...
Don't get GM7 unless you are stuck with Vista and want to use GM's more advanced functions. GM7 is almost completely incapable of running on older or slower hardware and isn't it compatible with Win98 at all. Personally, I'd suggest using GM5.3 if you want to make 2D games with it, that way older PCs can play your games at exceptional speeds, if you do a good job at programming them and building levels. GM6.1 is also a good choice for more advanced things, like rotating sprites and D3D functions.
 
The ease of use from Game Maker comes at a great cost, namely flexibility. It would take much more code than is sanely possible to code some things that you'd need. I've sure run into my share of problems when I tried it.
I know a lot of coders who scoff at Game Maker and Multimedia Fusion, as they aren't professional tools by any means. If you really want to make games, you should learn an actual coding language like C, Assembly, or Python.
 
Flexibility actually isn't that big of a problem with Game Maker. If you want it to play OGG files, write your own .dll or download one available at the GMC Forums. If you hate Game Maker's level builder, you can write your own. I've also seen the more advanced users write their own graphics renderers, 3D terrain makers and CD Burning .dlls for it. I can keep going on, GM users always find ways of getting Game Maker to do what they want, even animated 3D Models.
The real problem with Game Maker isn't flexibility, but it's lack of portability, speed and limited D3D functions. When I was working on Sonic Advanced, I had to put up with HORRIBLE slow downs throughout the entire process of making it because of the huge levels alone. Speed was such a big issue and limited the size and length of my levels, I almost gave up on the game altogether over it. I eventually came up with a method of boosting the speed drastically and continued working on it.
One usually has to go much farther out of their way just to get decent speed out of larger games written in GM as opposed to a game written in C++. GM7 is even worse because of it's excessive system requirements. As soon as I can buy another machine to put XP onto, I'm going to right back to using GM6/5.3 without question, GM7 is far too bloated and slow for making even simple games.
Game Maker was originally designed the intentions of making it easier to develop 2D games on the Windows Platform. Earlier versions of GM like 5.3, can actually do a good job of it if you know what you're doing. Although it can do some 3D things, it's not GM's primary goal, and the help file says it itself you can never make your own Quake with it. Game Maker is far too primitive in the since you could never develop a serious game that could compete with the graphics/speed/portability of modern PC games. If you want to become a serious game developer, learn a popular programming language like C++.
 
Dr.Pepper said:
Flexibility actually isn't that big of a problem with Game Maker. If you want it to play OGG files, write your own .dll or download one available at the GMC Forums. If you hate Game Maker's level builder, you can write your own. I've also seen the more advanced users write their own graphics renderers, 3D terrain makers and CD Burning .dlls for it. I can keep going on, GM users always find ways of getting Game Maker to do what they want, even animated 3D Models.
The real problem with Game Maker isn't flexibility, but it's lack of portability, speed and limited D3D functions. When I was working on Sonic Advanced, I had to put up with HORRIBLE slow downs throughout the entire process of making it because of the huge levels alone. Speed was such a big issue and limited the size and length of my levels, I almost gave up on the game altogether over it. I eventually came up with a method of boosting the speed drastically and continued working on it.
One usually has to go much farther out of their way just to get decent speed out of larger games written in GM as opposed to a game written in C++. GM7 is even worse because of it's excessive system requirements. As soon as I can buy another machine to put XP onto, I'm going to right back to using GM6/5.3 without question, GM7 is far too bloated and slow for making even simple games.
Game Maker was originally designed the intentions of making it easier to develop 2D games on the Windows Platform. Earlier versions of GM like 5.3, can actually do a good job of it if you know what you're doing. Although it can do some 3D things, it's not GM's primary goal, and the help file says it itself you can never make your own Quake with it. Game Maker is far too primitive in the since you could never develop a serious game that could compete with the graphics/speed/portability of modern PC games. If you want to become a serious game developer, learn a popular programming language like C++.
Click to expand...
Wow. If you've played my game you probably noticed that the levels are small and cramped and are super easy to clear. I'm in the process of learning C++ (I think I knew one of the things). I've never tried game maker 5.3, but I'll try it out today! What I really want to do is make a 3D, unlike the examples. Any tips from anyone? *stares at Dr. Pepper*
 
You might want to use 5.3 for 2D games, so older computers with 2MB VESA video cards could still play the game, as 2MB cards can't handle the back-buffering and heavier reliance on hardware rendering that 6.0 or higher requires.
I actually got Damizean's 2D Sonic 360 example to work full speed using GM5.3 on a 223mhz PC with 32MBs of RAM, but it would run dirt slow if compiled with 5.0. (GM5.0 relies a lot more on software rendering than 5.3 does, thus, not as fast.)
If you want basic 3D functions or rotating graphics in 2D games, continue using 6.0 or 6.1.
I can't provide much more help with Game Maker's 3D functions than some of the tutorials at Yoyogames, as I'm still sorta new to it myself, despite messing around with it for most of Sonic Advanced's development. :P I've long since had D3D transformations and the z axis figured out, but I just recently got culling and aspect ratios under my belt, still haven't gotten D3D lighting to work correctly. (That's why the 3D Special-Stages in Sonic Advanced look so bright, since I had lighting disabled. :P)
You can find much more advanced tutorials/examples and tools to help you with D3D in the GMC Forums. You might have seen this before, but there are a lot of helpful 3D examples here.
 
Dr.Pepper said:
You might want to use 5.3 for 2D games, so older computers with 2MB VESA video cards could still play the game, as 2MB cards can't handle the back-buffering and heavier reliance on hardware rendering that 6.0 or higher requires.
I actually got Damizean's 2D Sonic 360 example to work full speed using GM5.3 on a 223mhz PC with 32MBs of RAM, but it would run dirt slow if compiled with 5.0. (GM5.0 relies a lot more on software rendering than 5.3 does, thus, not as fast.)
If you want basic 3D functions or rotating graphics in 2D games, continue using 6.0 or 6.1.
I can't provide much more help with Game Maker's 3D functions than some of the tutorials at Yoyogames, as I'm still sorta new to it myself, despite messing around with it for most of Sonic Advanced's development. :P I've long since had D3D transformations and the z axis figured out, but I just recently got culling and aspect ratios under my belt, still haven't gotten D3D lighting to work correctly. (That's why the 3D Special-Stages in Sonic Advanced look so bright, since I had lighting disabled. :P)
You can find much more advanced tutorials/examples and tools to help you with D3D in the GMC Forums. You might have seen this before, but there are a lot of helpful 3D examples here.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I hardly understood a word you said in that post but it sure sounded smart! *shot* Thanks again Dr. Pepper, I'm currently working on another game that's supposed to be 2D and 3D in certain parts of the game. And once again, another question, my friend downloaded my game on her laptop (It's vista) and she wasn't able to play it. Any problem?
 
I go through cycles of thinking that GM(Insert Number Here) is completely awful and not a real method for making anything, and thinking that it could actually be quite decent. The only major issue I had with it thus far was with large loading times when the project gets larger, because of Game Maker's insistance on loading all resources inside the .exe at startup.

As far as advice goes, I'd have to say that the sooner you start using GML, the better. You can do a fair amount of things with the drag and drop interface, but a lot of power comes from using GML. Look at some of the downloadable examples for ideas on how to do things, and implement them into your game, or just make a sort of testing ground of ideas in one project file, and have the actual game in another. That way you can't break anything in your real game if something goes wrong.
 
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