27 replies to this topic

[LeoInks]

When people have years with GM some of them decide to move on to other programming language.

The reason?

The benefits... other languages have a lot of benefits that GM lacks, but of course GM has also its benefits.


The main reason of why people start with GM, with DnD and then move on with GML is because of how easy it is to learn GML

Once you got to a good level of understanding of the basics of programming you can go with other languages that will be potentially harder to understand.


To me GM taught me the basics of programming, what does X and Y do... then Z, how do variables work, how statements like if, not, else, and ( etc. ) work...


So the question is... after GM what programming language did you learned or are learning.


I moved to Actionscript

I know Actionscript 2.0, and im doing my best to learn Actionscript 3.0


Actionscript is very similar to GML.




But i know some of you would prefer Java, or C... so what are you learning now?

[DZiW]

I never learned GM in that sense--neither GML nor D'n'D because I already knew a couple of Basic dialects, VB/VBA, vbs/js, TurboPascal/Delphi, Cpp, and a little of SmallTalk, Forth, and asm...

So I just printed GM vars/procedures and used for my purpose, nothing else. Why learning?
I had intention to learn Ruby/Perl or Action script, but had no good motivation yet

[LeoInks]

I had intention to learn Ruby/Perl or Action script, but had no good motivation yet

Yeah , i know that feeling, but for me it is with java and C++, many times I´ve tried to learn them, i was like, today im going to start... and in 10 minutes i was again with GM xD.

But well, AS is quite easy to understand, or atleast the basics... then it gets tricky but if you know the basics you are good.

[lmbarns]

I can't bring myself to use flash. I know it's popular, and I'd love to learn how to make animated characters with the bone tool, rather than manually making each frame in photoshop.

I've spent a few months with javascript and html5 but it's not supported nearly as well as flash. But I like that it's open source and runs in the browser without need for any plugins. At the same time there have been some developments reinvigorating javascript such as google's v8 javascript engine which can run in IE with a plugin, it compiles javascript to machine code making it much quicker and more like java. At the same time node.js is a library built from V8, that allows you to use javascript on the server, it reminds me exactly of ruby on rails. The great thing about it on the server is it allows asynch communication and is callback driven.

Also if you know c++ you can make standalone javascript applications embedded with googles v8 engine, guaranteeing performance. You can do the same thing now with webkits but they're not as fast and are difficult to create.

Some of the javascript is based of ECMA 5, some off ECMA 3 standards, Actionscript is based of ECMA script as well, I imagine it's very similar...

Here's a tileEngine I'm using made from javascript loading 150k tiles (64x64px each) based off an array http://simplehotkey....Tiles/main.html you can load a map covering an area 32000x19200 pixels or even much bigger without performance loss if using chrome with javascript.

Biggest problem with html5 and javascript is it's slow on mobiles, but they can run it.

I spent 6 months using c# in another engine, but gave up when I got to multiplayer, it's really hard. My game was aim-to-hit 3d and a lot of fun, still thinking about it but been farting around with 2d in the browser lately: http://www.youtube.c...=6&feature=plcp

[YellowAfterlife]

Here's a tileEngine I'm using made from javascript loading 150k tiles (64x64px each) based off an array http://simplehotkey....Tiles/main.html you can load a map covering an area 32000x19200 pixels or even much bigger without performance loss if using chrome with javascript.

Biggest problem with html5 and javascript is it's slow on mobiles, but they can run it.

You may want to reconsider dynamically creating arrays all over the place in your engine - game currently leaks an average of 16KB per second. This is not a trouble in browsers with finely done garbage collection, but in ones like Firefox this would mean that game slowly increases RAM used by browser, with about 18 hours needed to boost ram usage by a gigabyte and cause problems for OS.
Also movement is laggy. View dragging is flawless though.

Personally, it took me about a year to learn AS3 to a decent level (at which I can write a miniature game engine with fixed framerate and double-buffered drawing without a reference in few hours), and few months to learn JS afterwards.
AS3 currently feels quite more solid than JS, with available standard interfaces allowing nice and optimized execution.
JS on other hand is less steady, but runs across many different platforms, and does not need a compiler, meaning that games and applications can be developed on any machine that has a text editor and a recent\semi-recent browser.

[Furritus]

Im on python. It's all part of my plan, ill learna good understanding of non-gm coding. Then ill go from python to C++ where i want to learn 3d and networking. Thats the main reason i moved on, crappy 3d

[lmbarns]

Here's a tileEngine

You may want to reconsider dynamically creating arrays all over the place in your engine - game currently leaks an average of 16KB per second. This is not a trouble in browsers with finely done garbage collection, but in ones like Firefox this would mean that game slowly increases RAM used by browser, with about 18 hours needed to boost ram usage by a gigabyte and cause problems for OS.
Also movement is laggy. View dragging is flawless though.

Yea firefox runs it the worst, and IE freezes the most when drawing new tiles despite showing a high fps. Another major problem is it's not generating arrays, but actually using 3 massive 150k entry arrays (just repeated the same small array over and over in both directions to make 1 giant one) which are several times bigger than the entire program.

The first array determines what tile is drawn, a second array determines what tiles to draw other objects on, and the 3rd array determines some basic physics for which tiles are passable. (but the physics code was from a tank game so it's all whack)

With small arrays it made sense as you could visually place objects by entering the tile # from the sprite sheet, and choose which tiles were passable separately from which were drawn.

For actual use I was thinking 300x200 tiles which performs a bit more consistently with a larger view port, and am looking at ways of generating the arrays for rogue-like levels. I made a small version with 50x50 which loaded really quickly on my phone but only at 5fps. Localstorage even works on my 3 year old android with another game.

For a different game I just used a single image and loaded everything over it, spawning things based on what zone the player was in. I was planning on combining the two once I get the generation figured out. Having a nice editor would be nice, I simply use sprite sheets for all animation, would be nice to use vectors, or auto animate between positions....I've got lots of 3d models so I've been trying to isolate sprite frames from models but it's so time consuming and not great quality.

Learning is fun though, and leads to more questions than answers, I can say that. I've got adobe cs4 installed I'll have to dedicate some time to some tutorials. My gf has a legal copy of cs5 I might check out.

Also taking java 1 and a database class this semester in school so I'm kinda all over the place.

[needsfoodbadly]

Well, I've been involved with programming since I was six years old on a Commodore 64. I just purchased GM:HTML5 last week.

I've looked at GM on and off throughout the years but never really took it seriously until I heard Spelunky was made with it.

For people who want to branch out from GM I would recommend Java, C++ and Unity 3D (you can get Unity Android & IOS basic free until April 8th btw, $800 value, permanent license)

A lot of rumbling in the dev world seems to be that Flash is on its way out the door and HTML5 is expected to take its place.

[daman123125]

I am currently learning C++ in a high school programming class, and it's nice to learn the basics of it. I don't plan to move on from GM though. I might make simple programs with other languages, but I simply wouldn't have time to go through all the things a traditional programmer would to make a fully fledged game.
Plus it's apparently easier to get into the indie market with GM.

[needsfoodbadly]

I am currently learning C++ in a high school programming class, and it's nice to learn the basics of it. I don't plan to move on from GM though. I might make simple programs with other languages, but I simply wouldn't have time to go through all the things a traditional programmer would to make a fully fledged game.
Plus it's apparently easier to get into the indie market with GM.

There is literally a limitless wealth of beginner's guides, primers, free books, open source/commented projects, step by step guides, tutorials, help forums, commercial books and more for most popular programming languages.

I'm a nomad myself. I don't have a preferred programming language and I'm accustomed to learning on the fly. I tend to use whatever I think is best suited to each project or whatever I feel like working with or trying out at the time.

So, don't be intimidated by C++. There's some great free guides, books and libraries for C++ game programming that will get you kick-started and excited about it.

You're probably doing some rote data input/output/manipulation stuff in class which can be kinda dry. When you sit down and start writing data arrays for say a monster's stats or something, then calling that information up, changing it, etc. it tends to start making more sense...at least for me anyway.

[Debels]

At The Moment I'm very happy with GM and i see its progress with the years.

Some time ago i was learning Flash, but then i noticed that Flash isn't the best programming language and that i didn't want to move to a programming language that is one of the less secure programming language (for me, im not telling flash sucks) and not all devices support it.

Now I want to learn Java and C# that look awesome, so i can make a server for WoD and use another program (wont say the name since i would break the rules) that is for 3D games, so when i finish learning them i would probably use GM for 2D and Isometric Games and the other program for 3D games till GM 3D is improved (since now it kinda sucks)

[11clock]

At the moment my plan is this:

-Finish my platform adventure game in Game Maker.
-Make a fast-paced platformer in Game Maker OR Make a very complex TBS to test my skills in Game Maker
-Move to another language OR Stick with Game Maker

The second step isn't something I'm thinking about very much right now. I'll worry about that after my platform adventure game is finished.

What I am concerned about is whether or not I should leave Game Maker. My friend told me that, even though Game Maker is useful in making games quick and easily, I should start leaning toward making games from an actual coding language (he doesn't count GML as a coding language), and eventually start making games from scratch. However, I love Game Maker and its usefulness. It's very flexible and allows me to make games quickly, and I'll have a very difficult time parting with it.

So should I use Game Maker's awesome flexibility and speed, or switch to something more professional? If I do the latter, what language should I move to?

Edited by 11clock, 15 March 2012 - 01:09 AM.

[Zesterer]

I'm starting to move more towards C#, but I will first finish Ninja Bob 3D (see signature). I'm more interested in research and experimental computing, so this looks like a perfect choice.

[kburkhart84]

At the moment my plan is this:

-Finish my platform adventure game in Game Maker.
-Make a fast-paced platformer in Game Maker OR Make a very complex TBS to test my skills in Game Maker
-Move to another language OR Stick with Game Maker

The second step isn't something I'm thinking about very much right now. I'll worry about that after my platform adventure game is finished.

What I am concerned about is whether or not I should leave Game Maker. My friend told me that, even though Game Maker is useful in making games quick and easily, I should start leaning toward making games from an actual coding language (he doesn't count GML as a coding language), and eventually start making games from scratch. However, I love Game Maker and its usefulness. It's very flexible and allows me to make games quickly, and I'll have a very difficult time parting with it.

So should I use Game Maker's awesome flexibility and speed, or switch to something more professional? If I do the latter, what language should I move to?

I wouldn't worry about your friends opinion here. If GM can do the job for the given project, than use it. If it doesn't have the capability, use whatever does. I wouldn't want to create a highly detailed 3d world in GM, because the likes of Unity or Shiva3d are better for that, or C++ with a 3d engine such as Ogre3d or the Irrlicht engine. If a given project is a 2d game, and 2d sprite based graphics are the plan, I would stick with GM, because it does so much for you as far as that type of project goes.

***

I myself was used to using C++ with the Irrlicht engine, but I started getting more interested in 2d games, and somehow found GM, and haven't touched any C++ code since(except to create a couple of extensions). That would be because I wanted to create games with minimal effort, instead of having to do everything in code for the most part.

[BattleRifle BR55]

For me it's kind of a different situation. I've always been interested in computers, but never with anything specific. I really sucked in high school in my programming classes. Those for-loops were so hard to understand.

But when I discovered Game Maker, it really helped my understanding and when I finally got into college for computer programming, it was really easy to get into and I was just flying through the courses. Now that I'm done with that, my hype for it is over and I still don't know what I want to do with my life. I most likely may end up working at Oracle, Microsoft, or with my uncle (his connections can get me anywhere)

In relation to Game Maker, it's all a matter of when I finish my FPS. It's really the only reason I even use Game Maker, or hell, stay as active on these forums as I am. I will continue to work with Game Maker until Let Live is released and after that, I won't care for it anymore because all I've really wanted for the past 9 years of my life is to be able to create the FPS I've always dreamed of.

In short, I won't move on from Game Maker when I'm fully comfortable in other languages and am working in a career that requires them, just when I complete my game.

[varuks]

I'm currently learning c++. I don't really know if it's the best of choices but seeing as it is the most popular...

[Overloaded]

I will stay in Game Maker, but maybe I will learn C++ too.

[daman123125]

For me it's kind of a different situation. I've always been interested in computers, but never with anything specific. I really sucked in high school in my programming classes. Those for-loops were so hard to understand.

But when I discovered Game Maker, it really helped my understanding and when I finally got into college for computer programming, it was really easy to get into and I was just flying through the courses. Now that I'm done with that, my hype for it is over and I still don't know what I want to do with my life. I most likely may end up working at Oracle, Microsoft, or with my uncle (his connections can get me anywhere)

Very true so far in my case. Especially them for-loops, I'm glad I learned them in GM before my high school programming class, as they were introduced awkwardly. I figured taking a programming class would be challenge because it was C++, but GML really helped me fly through the basics so far. That said, I still have no idea how one could make a game with Visual Studio(there's no objects or rooms or GUI stuff that is game-related ), so that's probably another reason why I won't move from GM soon.

[faissialoo]

i can already code in batch and a bit of vbs and js. I consider myself nearly done with gml so i will move onto c++ ( it's really simillar to gml!)

Edited by faissialoo, 29 March 2012 - 07:25 AM.

[ash47]

Try game modding, that's loads of fun too