Creativita

I have a laptop with 4 GB's

I would advise actually familiarising yourself with GameMaker and it's associated editors and functions before doing anything as complex as what you want to create, especially an game for IOS. Also, the development of games for IOS requires GameMaker: Studio, the IOS export, a Mac and developer certificates.

Reflecting on today's events. I went to the beach. It takes 4 hours to get there, and almost 5 to get back, and we spent three hours there. I haven't been to a beach in almost a year, and it was refreshing and fun.

I ended up drawing memes and random comments into the sand, walking around, sleeping, and checking out cute girls through sunglasses(They can't tell where you'r looking if they can't see your eyes!). Pretty great day.

The only downsides are that I got sand everywhere, and I forgot to add sunscreen to the back of my legs, so they're burning with sunburn right now. Ah well. Day seized.

I feel sorry for you. I live less than half an hour from the beach.

I'm just programming using Visual Studio at the moment. And writing some marketing plans for my team.

No one, possibly exluding small businesses, will accept individuals for professional positions if they have simply taught themselves. A degree is a representation of your knowledge and may demonstrate thay you have recieved a "solid" education.

I, knowing unsustainable a career in indie game development can be, have not not chosen become a game designer, programmer or otherwise. But using GameMaker has inspired me to form a game development team and develop application for IOS devices.

Many of the great minds of computing have dropped out of University to get a 'solid' education, a university is a business, its job is to make money for its shareholders, it does this by taking money from people who want to learn, in return it gives them a piece of paper. This does not equate to a solid education, its only after leaving university that people see how its done in the real world, with problems thrown at you without a predefined solution and with a stupidly short deadline (like Yesterday).

If a business only accepts someone with a degree then that is laziness or short-sightedness on the part of the company, some of the best minds in computing have never been to university (or dropped out to create a Facebook or something similar).

I have never heard of larger businesses, companies or corporations accepting applicants if they do not have some form of eduction in university or TAFE, unless these applicants are seeking work experience. No, these forms of education do not offer experience, but such qualifications increase your likelihood of being actually employed.

Mark Zuckerberg was studying physcology, not computer sciences or a similar area, when he dropped out. The success of Facebook was not influenced by his programming knowledge, but his knowledge of physcology, knowledge he gained through university. Also, the vast majority of computer geniuses attended university. We only know of those who have become hugely successful.

I think the skills you learn on a degree could be learnt from books in a much shorter timescale and at massively reduced cost. If you can really do the job then you will have some demo games or hopefully some games on sale and published somewhere. Having a degree is just an academic piece of paper to say that you jumped through the hoops that the university set and you were above the bar needed to pass that qualification (wherever they set it that year).  I think that Universities are businesses first and teaching establishments second. The focus is on gaining lots of money and grants (and opening up new buildings, taking over cities and opening up overseas) with the method for that money collection being based around making courses that appeal to a wide range of people.

If you are a motivated learner then there is nothing you can learn at university that you can't learn from books and peer support (eg. programmers forums). You just need to know what you need to learn, get the books and get on with coding and learning the stuff you need(not necessarily the stuff you want to learn).

You can fill in any gaps in  your knowledge with short courses or by chatting on forums.

I have been teaching in higher education for 21 years and I know how paperwork, stats, goals, league tables etc. drives education, its rare to hear "how can we improve what the students are learning/gaining from the course" 99% of the time its about productivity, bums on seats, attendance, attainment figures, pass rates, making sure students who probably won't gain the full qualification don't affect the stats.

In perfect education the learners needs would be the main focus but our current system has deviated far from that norm. Universities in England have the students in for 8 to 15 hours a week so they can have another two to four students in that seat for the rest of the week (earning more money per seat).  

If you can create some great game demos and show them to companies that appreciate someone with demonstratable skills then you could be heading for a job without the costs and time spent on a degree.

If you work out how much money you could make from making moderately reasonable games and selling them on the mobile marketplaces (buy gamemaker studio + Android and IOS) then you might not want an employer, there is a lot of money to be made from selling low priced (pocket money priced) games in good numbers if  you can employ a graphic artist or whoever you need to compliment your skills.

No one, possibly exluding small businesses, will accept individuals for professional positions if they have simply taught themselves. A degree is a representation of your knowledge and may demonstrate thay you have recieved a "solid" education.

I, knowing unsustainable a career in indie game development can be, have not not chosen become a game designer, programmer or otherwise. But using GameMaker has inspired me to form a game development team and develop application for IOS devices.