I've since upgraded to GM2, and am working on a more robust game, and find the whole process very enjoyable. IT had a lot of polish and GM made it relatively easy to build, and launch on the Android Play Store. Using GM1.4, I successfully created a simple "balloon pop" app for android, so my daughter could play. Even if you have no desire to program, you can use GameMaker's built in drag-drop code features, that let you make simple interactions between objects. Although it's GameMaker own language, GML, it shares a lot of similarities with other more universal coding languages, and is a good introduction to programming. There have been some super successful GM games released, so don't let it's limitations deter you.įor an absolute beginner, this is a great tool to learn game design and coding language. I got into GameMaker as a hobby, and find it very enjoyable, perhaps one day I'll upgrade to Unity or Unreal Engine, but for just learning and building for your own enjoyment, it's a great little software. Overall this is a great engine and should be considered by any beginner or indie developer. Also, as strong as the visual node-based script system is, there are times where it cant do everything - no necessarily a con given how powerful and amazing this system is, but it is worth mentioning. Sure, some of the 3D gaming features aren't as robust as other engines, but everything you need is here. Fortunately, as expected, you can program within GMS as well, so the option is there if you need to go beyond what is offered with their visual node system. Their visual scripting system couldn't be any easier and will allow you to piece together a game with little (or no) programming at all - a really awesome feature for those who are intimidated with learning a programming language. In addition, as a beginner developer, you really cant beat the tools set offered in Game Maker Studio. Hands down, Game Maker Studio is one of the top development packages for making 2D games, and pretty good one for 3D games as well. GML's syntax is also often too loose, which can be helpful for beginners, but often encourages bad code-writing practices for those who have yet to use any other languages. GameMaker: Studio isn't really equipped for 3D software development, unlike some of its contemporaries, even with the latest releases of Studio 2. I've also always been a big fan of GameMaker's general layout and interface, and think its structured in such a way that lends itself very well to being a teaching tool. It allows you to be as hands on or hands off as you'd like with some of the lower-level operations of the game, and while you'll never have as much control as an original engine built from scratch, being able to manage things like instance ordering is much-appreciated and well ahead of some other game development alternatives. With GameMaker: Studio, it's relatively painless to get a simple idea to the basic prototype phase. Having started with pre-studio versions as far back as 2004, GameMaker provided me a tool set to not only learn and iterate on basic design principles, but learn rudimentary programming and come to grips with the fundamentals of developing video game software. GameMaker is the reason I've even been able to work as a game designer in the first place. For me, paying to try it is not worth it. So this engine is great for small teams but you absolutely require to have some experienced members on the team that helps you to get the best out of it. Some more advanced stuff have to be learned by try and error or watching lots of videos until you find one that's actually using the same version you're using. I found a lot of deprectaed methods in the official documentation. Another decisive element is that documentation was not up to date. The ULTIMATE package provides a 12 months licence for all console platforms including ps4 and xbox. If you want to give your prototype a decent try you'll have to pay for a permanent licence (only for desktop, web and mobile). The FREE trial version allows you only to create 10 objects which is a painful joke. The engine will run in Nintendo Switch very soon!! If you go for the 2nd option, you don't need an external application to edit your code: all happens in the same engine interface! The basic tutorials are all you need to understand most of the general things you'll be using, and it's been used for so many small indie devs that most of the questions you have are already answered out there. You have the option of use nodes for the code or coding it by hand. One of the most beautiful engines for small studios. It helped me save money because the license is so much cheaper than paying a % of the total revenue as other engines require.
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