I haven't used Gamemaker in about 3 years now. If I manage to re-install it,  (and will have the time and willpower to do so), I'll give it a shot. (I'll PM you or post here.)

But my suggestion to you is: Get Gamemaker and try to do it yourself. You'll have full control over the final product. And Gamemaker is one of the easier to learn engines, nothing like Ruby. 

Edited by greenraven - 03 December 2008 at 6:35am

It depends on the type of game you want in the end really.

Gamemaker, allows you to make platformers easily. But requires a bit of fiddling with all the functions.

RPG Maker 2000/2003, is mostly for straight up RPGs.

RPG Maker XP, however allows you to make both. You only need to know the Ruby Script System. If you do get RMXP, I suggest you look up Behemoth's Metroid Platformer script. Good stuff.

What kind of game are you trying to make?

What? O_O

What does being good at programming have to do with how fast it loads? o_O

I'll try to find some easy tutorials for you. I just need to find my old links. (Haven't made any games in a little while.)

edit:

Ok, I've found you one site with both tutorials and example games. Link.

I'll keep searching. But it seems all the game making sites I once been on are either 404 or about to be 404.

Yeah, but blitzmax costs you moneh.

Just as clickteam, and a lot of other better game creation things.

And yeah, C, but it takes so long before you CAN make a game, and before you MADE a game.

Oh and greenraven, you will know why good programming will reduce the loading time when you are a good programmer :)


As we speak, I am thinking of seriously trying to make a flash game btw..

I am not a good programmer myself, but yeah, someone has to do it..

There are like alot of levels of programming


OMG LOLZ CHK MMY NW GM GME

Hey I can create simple games with game maker, check it out :)

I know some other programming languages, but since gamemaker already did a lot of the programming for me, ill keep using it

Hmm, maybe I can combine different languages to get a faster result

Hey, programming in blitzmax and clickteam works too!

Wow I can use this allegro libary and make something even better

+

++

Etc etc etc.


Yes, gamemaker is an useful program that can be used in a very, very very advanced way. I do know people who tried to get the most out of it (that was going way further than game creation)

But.. At a certain level, it costs less effort or time to get a better product in another language. Game maker does offer you the possibility to create great things, but there are just better tools for that as well!

Also, as p_o says, it does not give you more easy access to knowledge you will need for other things.

Still I would personally recommend using it, because its experience gaining speed is very motivating to keep on programming, while other languages are not.

Most people who do know how to use the tools, use other, better tools.
Accept it

Oh. Well why didn't you just say so in the first place. 

edit:

How good are you with Ruby? Just wondering.


Edited by greenraven - 06 December 2008 at 1:34pm

Ruby is pretty much the only non-game maker related game creation method that I know of.

But I still have my fingers crossed for Minerva. Although... I'm starting to think it's never going to come.

Same way you would with C++, or Visual Basic. Also, Ruby is built into RPG Maker XP. It allows you to tweak and fiddle with game codes and turn basic turn based RPGs into sidescrolling platformers.

It depends what kind of a game you want to make, I think. It's been proven time and again that Gamemaker does have the capability to make solid games. It certainly does have frustrating drawbacks (Fallout 3 runs at full speed, but many gamemaker games run at 12fps or less) but I still believe that noone yet has reached gamemaker's full potential.

Especially considering that many awesome games (most SNES games, I'd imagine) could theoretically be reproduced point-for-point in Gamemaker... though they'd probably run slower than expected.

I also believe that if you're planning to singlehandedly make a game better than what gamemaker can handle, you're aiming too high. In a way, gamemaker is a great place to start in terms of game design simply because restrictions prevent you from making an epic game.

Personally, I started with C at around 12-14, then learned that C++ is better than C, but got too frustrated with the simple change in functions and tried to jump too far ahead without basic knowledge (I tried to make a windowed program, basically by copy-pasting premade code and having nooo idea what it all meant, haha) and when that horrendously failed and proved insanely complex, I went over to Gamemaker and plugged around with that a bit. Eventually got so frustrated with not being able to do what I wanted to that I just gave up and stuck with the artist bit.

I love the problem-solving aspect of coding, though. Some day I'll go back and learn C++ from the top again.

lol I like this topic.  My two-cents, if someone is gonna use Gamemaker then don't stop them.  They are either good enough to muddle through gamemaker's obstacles or don't know what they are doing.  Either way, Gamemaker is the best thing for them.  Gamemaker does make it easier for new programmers to get a handle on the methods used in game programming, but in the end you're running around blind to the functions you would need if you ever made the leep to a serious language, as mentioned by P_O.


Agreed.

My thoughts on a language that is easy to pick up on would be VB.Net.  I, personally, learned to program through VB 6.0 when I was younger, it has some simple syntax.  Given, I never used VB to program games, I always found it to be too simple for a game programming language.  Eventually I found C# which resembles Java's syntax in that it is beautifully simplistic and clean, not to mention you can use C# to make games for the Xbox 360 Community Arcade :P.

Off-topic convo. ending. lol

I don't think that P_O means to dissuade those people using Game Maker to stop using it. I believe he and I are trying to bring up the point that the best route, if you wish to become a professional game developer, is not found in Game Maker, sure you can find some value in Game Maker. Heck, I know a lot of Game Design classes that start out with teaching Game Maker in order to get some essential game development ideas down by utilizing the building speed Game Maker comes with, without having to learn a whole programming language and how to implement all the methods and functions that Game Maker makes available.

@Skooba-dude: If you get all your graphics together and still need someone to make a simple platformer to display your sprites I'll see what I can do for you.