53 replies to this topic

[coollog]

I don't make games, and never will. Video Games waste more time than any other activity to date.

I do use GM for quickly transforming data quickly, for example, for applying custom programmed filters to an image or data. I also use it for simulators, such as my Evolution Simulator.

My future (and present) is as an Entrepreneur, Innovator, Web Developer, Scientist, Applies Scientist and Consultant. Never again will I waste a moment making a video game.

lol dan u probably shouldn't troll now that there's a minus button for reputation

[Funk E. Gamez]

Much like the topic creator, I'm 19 and I discovered Game Maker about 7 years ago. My passion is in acting, and as such I don't believe I'll make a career out of game creating. However, I have picked up a lot of programming experience, and I currently have a job as a programmer at my college. Game Maker has played a valuable part in getting me where I am today, and I continue to use it as a hobby. It's probably more like my "back up plan"; If acting doesn't work out for me, I have game programming to fall back on. My biggest issue is a lack of motivation to finish things, but I assume that would change if I really needed some income. lol

[masterox7737]

As a living. As soon as I get recognized better, I will branch out and start making commercial games and go from there.
Roboland is basically a test of all my GM skills, so hopefully it's the thing i'll get remembered for.

[michael pw]

I Always want to be a Game developer, been using GM for about 5 years now and it is one fantastic piece of software, i've started expanding my skills to other languages, but all the game logic i've learnt is applicable. At the moment im part of a small team of programmers and i've got a nice small company going, however i really need an artist and a dedicated musician and sfx guy to really get it going as all the pieces are there, however there's not enough professionality in some regions !

I Never really want to be just a programmer as that looks boring, i really love the whole interactive side of Game Dev and planning things out and making your ideas and concepts come to life, personally, id rather drop school now and no full time indie (only 16 ): ) and really try and push my company forward before i miss my opportunity. I think whats happening atm is the best time to be an indie dev as its really just been born with MC leading people's desire to play indie games, the problem is that, Indie might end up becomming like mainstream, where all people seem to care about is graphics, once that happens, it will no longer be the Indie we know as today, rather just smaller companies, plowing resources into smaller games.
I Would hate to see this happen as i feel that the whole spirit and spark of indie is the millions of risks taken and the unique concepts involved, i think its something fantastic and i hope that people don't spend too much time complaining about graphics with Indie games as some people need to realise, games can be fun without relly awesome graphics (more applies to the younger generation who haven't experienced consoles below PS3 and XBox360 and have no idea what it was like to have worse graphics) In all respects, mainstream games used to be awesome, well they still are but not as much.

Either way, i would hate to see the market become over saturated as that happened with youtube, if it gets to the stage where its impossible to get in then that could be bad.

[David Batty]

I have been teaching computers (everything from build a computer residential courses through to programming, dreamweaver, MS Office and about 20 other subjects) part time (and sometimes full time) for the same college since 1991. In recent years the colleges are more interested in figures and claiming certificates than about learning. Many of the good interesting courses have gone, being replaced by entry level computer skills using MS Office.

I handed my notice in earlier this week and now plan to concentrate more on Gamemaker. This will include teaching Gamemaker in Schools as well as development work here in the Office. I have had Gamemaker since its early days and progressed through 8.1 to HTML5 to Studio and now (after purchasing the iOS module) have all the studio modules.

What I like about Gamemaker (and part of the reason for investing so much time in it) is that its an exciting ride, new products, modules, features and announcements are happening at a constant rate. YoYo Games are not letting grass grow under their feet. It reminds me of the constant pace of new things being announced in the 80's when computing was far more exciting than todays less interesting stuff like a new version of Windows will come out, or Apple claiming another idea as theirs.

I am also planning a curriculum to teach GCSE Computing skills to teachers to bring them up to speed, Scratch, Python and Gamemaker are all part of that training. I will be teaching Scratch because it already has quite a following in schools, Python for real world command line type coding (and because its now standard on the Raspberry Pi) and Gamemaker as a natural progression route for Scratch users who have grown up and want to move to something more professional or for those who don't use Scratch and who are looking for guidance as to a good product to introduce in schools. Starting kids on Gamemaker means they have a good progression route from learning using the free product through to developing for mobile and then multiplayer when its released in V 1.4.

[SariusGames]

I have been teaching computers (everything from build a computer residential courses through to programming, dreamweaver, MS Office and about 20 other subjects) part time (and sometimes full time) for the same college since 1991. In recent years the colleges are more interested in figures and claiming certificates than about learning. Many of the good interesting courses have gone, being replaced by entry level computer skills using MS Office.

Man, from a student's point of view, I kinda feel the same way about what you just mentioned in the first part of your post.

I'm not badmouthing any teachers out there, because I know how hard teaching a room full of different minds can be... but still--I feel it can be greatly improved. Right now, it feels like we're ripping through the course work way too fast. Like they're trying to rush the teaching process instead of actually taking the time to make sure we actually understand the concepts taught.

Might you have any recommendations on some good computer and math books out there for people who are seriously considering going down the self-teaching / self-education route instead of re-enrolling? I'm not a big fan of the college math books we have to purchase for our classes--they don't present all of the steps in an understandable way, and often leave us hanging without the necessary answers out there.

I am currently making use of KhanAcademy and Wolfram Alpha as two mainstay resources in which to both learn and check my answers.

Thanks in advance and good luck to you in your GameMaker teaching career.

[David Batty]

Might you have any recommendations on some good computer and math books out there for people who are seriously considering going down the self-teaching / self-education route instead of re-enrolling? I'm not a big fan of the college math books we have to purchase for our classes--they don't present all of the steps in an understandable way, and often leave us hanging without the necessary answers out there.

I think that going down the self education route is probably one of the best decisions you could make if you have the determination to learn (which you obviously have by your comments), this can be supported by short courses.

I think its probably better than staying on after compulsory education and being part of the college money making scheme.

If you want to understand why you don't like the current education system then this eleven minute talk by Sir Ken Robinson about Changing Education Paradigms might be interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U


I would suggest you find a mentor, someone to bounce off, someone you know, who is as motivated as yourself, who can call round and who can work with you or just talk to you about your progress, direction etc.

There are plenty of free courses available to supplement your home learning/discovery.

You already mentioned KhanAcademy which is a great resource, but there are some more involved courses that will also be time well spent:

The Coursera courses are free and are run by organisations such as Princeton University, University Of Pennsylvania, Stanford University.
https://www.coursera.org/courses

If you are looking for specific maths courses then here they are.
https://www.coursera.org/category/math

Another great resource for courses that might interest you is Udacity
http://www.udacity.com/


I have several books on the subject of self learning/development ( I have around 3000 textbooks !) if you still have time spare after signing on to one or two of the above courses and want a few suggestions for reading material.

I hope this helps and is useful to others on here too.

[SariusGames]

I think that going down the self education route is probably one of the best decisions you could make if you have the determination to learn (which you obviously have by your comments), this can be supported by short courses.

I think its probably better than staying on after compulsory education and being part of the college money making scheme.

If you want to understand why you don't like the current education system then this eleven minute talk by Sir Ken Robinson about Changing Education Paradigms might be interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U


I would suggest you find a mentor, someone to bounce off, someone you know, who is as motivated as yourself, who can call round and who can work with you or just talk to you about your progress, direction etc.

There are plenty of free courses available to supplement your home learning/discovery.

You already mentioned KhanAcademy which is a great resource, but there are some more involved courses that will also be time well spent:

The Coursera courses are free and are run by organisations such as Princeton University, University Of Pennsylvania, Stanford University.
https://www.coursera.org/courses

If you are looking for specific maths courses then here they are.
https://www.coursera.org/category/math

Another great resource for courses that might interest you is Udacity
http://www.udacity.com/


I have several books on the subject of self learning/development ( I have around 3000 textbooks !) if you still have time spare after signing on to one or two of the above courses and want a few suggestions for reading material.

I hope this helps and is useful to others on here too.

Hi David,
Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing these awesome resources with all of us here. Sir Ken Robinson's speech was really well-presented in my opinion.

I think now the most important step for me is going to be to finish up the last semester as strongly as possible, but then prepare to branch off into the next step in self-education--thank you for the inspiration, resources, and encouragement. I'm sure these links will help others also.

[Tarik]

Just to add on the note of self-education: Khanacademy and Academic Earth are great. KA runs an introductionary programming course now, too. Besides that, it's mostly math, which is an excellent foundation to computing, programming and logic.

[TheJob]

I plan to be a game developer for the remainder of my teen years, and when I go to college. After that, I will go into something more advanced, but still having to do with programming.

Cool, cool, but what's more advanced than game developing? Pathfinding, collision detecting, 3d and all that is probably more advanced than anything you could make that's not a game (unless it's a space simulation for NASA of course...)

Game development includes... pathfinding, collision detection, 3d... It goes along the same principles as if it were done fore real life applications.... Space simulation for NASA... in my opinion would be far easier than designing a game... I mean afterall you already have set rules to follow whilst game design may require you to come up with a whole set of rules for your game world.... In my opinion game design requires a lot of work.

[Tarik]

I plan to be a game developer for the remainder of my teen years, and when I go to college. After that, I will go into something more advanced, but still having to do with programming.

Cool, cool, but what's more advanced than game developing? Pathfinding, collision detecting, 3d and all that is probably more advanced than anything you could make that's not a game (unless it's a space simulation for NASA of course...)

Game development includes... pathfinding, collision detection, 3d... It goes along the same principles as if it were done fore real life applications.... Space simulation for NASA... in my opinion would be far easier than designing a game... I mean afterall you already have set rules to follow whilst game design may require you to come up with a whole set of rules for your game world.... In my opinion game design requires a lot of work.

Indeed, it's not like space simulation is rocket science, like gamedesign is!

[slojanko]

Humanity will always need programmers, so the job of it is well paid. And yea I'm gonna study programming probably.

[Tarik]

Humanity will always need programmers, so the job of it is well paid. And yea I'm gonna study programming probably.

That statement makes no sense whatsoever.

I'm not saying the job won't be well-paid in the future, nor that programmers won't be needed in the future, but the one does not follow from the other. That's like saying humanity will always need horses, until cars came around. The world will always need to type, so I'll become a typewriter manufacturer, until computers came around. The fact that something is needed now, won't necessitate its need in the future. And the fact that there is a demand, doesn't mean it'll stay well-paid. That's like saying everyone needs food, it pays well, let's become a farmer. A hundred years ago, over half the US population worked in agriculture, now it's about 2%. The balance of supply and demand dictates pay, not whether humanity will need programmers. Humanity needs oxygen, but building oxygen producing machines is stupid, because they're abundant.

More importantly, your choice of job shouldn't follow from the degree to which it is well paid. Virtually all jobs are well-paid in the developed world. Virtually everyone has a more luxurious lifestyle than emperors with more wealth, bananas in winter and summer, central heating, top-notch healthcare, translatlantic transportation in mere hours etc. 10-20% income differences shouldn't decide the path and main occupancy of your one and only life.

Not only are you getting your reasoning wrong, that type of reasoning shouldn't be used in the first place, in my opinion.

[3dman101]

I have used GM since 7th grade and have made plenty of small games (albeit nothing too impressive).

Now that I'm in college as a CS major, I will continue to make games with GM in my spare time and perhaps get some of them published.

My dream job is to become an Indie Game developer. What's better than being your own boss? GM can be used professionally, but not many pros do because of it's clunky interface (waaaaaaay too much clicking).

Personally, I plan to continue making games in GM so I can improve my ability to design good games while studying in my college courses will improve my programming abilities.