Game Maker

[Nebro-Gubular SpisBoy]

I just accidentally found a website about game maker, it looks pretty cool.
Is it really easy making games with this program? (I've seen that some of you have done so) and about how much time would it take to make a decent game, assuming that I have absolutely NO experience in programming or game development?

[death]

It is harder than the dr.l editor

but easier than programing

[pizza]

It would be good to have SOME programming knowledge.

[AtkinsSJ]

If you mean the gamemaker.nl one (There's more than one program called 'Game Maker'), I started with no previous knowledge. It's pretty easy to use, and there's lots of helpful tutorials on the site.

[regeneratorizer]

i have the full version, i like the "path" button(where u make things walk in a particular "invisible" path

[Devon Rose]

Game Maker is a wise investment, why not buy a 20$ game designing program rather than a 60$ game?

But Game Maker can only do so much things without basic programming knowledge.
(personally I think people should learn how to do graphics then programming, what's a game without good graphics?)

[pizza]

Game Maker is good tool but you can't do everything with it (like 60$ games).
:(
(And you can always see if a game is made with Game Maker)

[Mr.Onion]

No you can't. Could you really tell that Gravity Wars was built with Game Maker?

[pizza]

Do you mean the Black Hole Wars?

[Nebro-Gubular SpisBoy]

Does whatever you can get for free work well?

[AtkinsSJ]

(And you can always see if a game is made with Game Maker)
If you register, it gets rid of the logo, and you can change the icon and loading bar, or even get rid of it. It's been proven that the loading bar actually makes the game take longer to load! :shock:
It's a good place to start, but I'm thinking of learning some C++ now; GM is no good w2ith huge numbers of things happening at once, and stuff.

[Nebro-Gubular SpisBoy]

GM is no good w2ith huge numbers of things happening at once, and stuff.
What do you mean?
That it's too complex? That it takes too much time if you're doing too many other things? Or that it doesn't work well for making complex games?

[Mr.Onion]

Or that it doesn't work well for making complex games?
Probably that.

[Hammered]

It's a good place to start, but I'm thinking of learning some C++ now; GM is no good w2ith huge numbers of things happening at once, and stuff.
If you would like to start learning some real programming languages, check out the new Experess packages from Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx
You can get free compilers for Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, Visual J#, and Visual SQL Server. There is also a nice Visual Web Developer. Or you can just download the entire package and get all of the languages. This is a great opportunity for everyone to get into a compiler for an unprecedented price. (Free! :shock: From Microsoft!)

[Mr.Onion]

Free! From Microsoft!

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Got any tutorials on Delphi, Hammered?

[pizza]

But it's beta version and...

[regeneratorizer]

with the full version you can set paths for monsters!

[Hammered]

But it's beta version and...
Wrong. There was a beta verison of the full Software Development Kit available quite a while back, but this is not the same thing. In fact, I was at Microsoft's release conference in Orlando yesterday, where I received a free full version of the whole thing since I was a beta tester for the full version.

This is a special version of the compilers that doesn't have a lot of the heavyduty enterprise stuff which is not needed for game development anyway. Since this light verion of the software has never been available before, they are offering it for free for a year (still almost 11 months to go). After the year is up, it will be a legitimate product for sale, priced around $50. They specifically say that there is sufficient power in the kit to develop a Direct-X game, so for anyone who wants more power than they can ever get out of Game Developer, you will never be able to get a better deal than this for this set of compilers. You have nothing to lose but the download time.

[Dave Hettel]

Wow, I've been using Dev-C++, which happens to be a fine product, but this stuff looks amazing.

I'm downloading the Web Developer version as I speak, and then will be download the C++ version.

[Hammered]

You might want to check this out for game programming hints: http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/gamedevelopment/

[AtkinsSJ]

(Free! :shock: From Microsoft!)
Alas, I have Windows 98, and it needs 2000 or above. :(
GM is no good w2ith huge numbers of things happening at once, and stuff.
What do you mean?
What I meant is that it gets very slow with large numbers of objects. So, for instance, RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games would be impossible if they were to have large-scale battles, and a group of programmers using it to create a Simcity-alike game are having to change to C++ because it was so slow with all the calculations.
GM is mainly for arcade and platform games.

[Nebro-Gubular SpisBoy]

Ah. I see.

[Devon Rose]

I have a slight objection against that... I'm making my RPG game with 32x32 tiles and about 3000 x 3000 for the map size. And it runs perfectly fast! It'll go slow for some people because
1: Old operating system such as windows 98/95
2: Old computers
3: Viruses, or didn't defrag or scan disk for a few years.

[Nebro-Gubular SpisBoy]

Allright, well I've tried it out and decided that it's not my cup of proverbial tea. But thanks for the help anyway.

(Well, I've tried music production, filming, and game development unsuccessfully- back to the ol' novel I guess... :roll: )