I oddly first heard of game maker be simply googling "game creation program." And I picked it because I was a noob and liked the D&D. I see a lot of users in the community who have been in GML (as in game-maker-land) for years, and I was curious to know how all you got started with it.

Friend told me. At the time I was using Klik'n Play, which sucks compared to Gamemaker.

~DD

I fell, hit my head on a rock, and while I was in a coma some guy whispered "USE GM, ITS SUCKS BUT IM EVIL" in my ear. I woke up from my coma, all I could think about was GM. I know it sucks, but I just cant leave.

I hate that guy. I can't remember clearly.. But I'm sure he whispered that his GMC user name was "Yourself" in my ear a view times. Whoever he is, he's one evil dude.

I googled 'Game Maker', tried FPS Maker, found it to be too limited, then I tried Game Maker. I heard that it was not only able to make 3D games, but is able to import custom models and such, so I bought it.

Who told you that bag of lies? Someone with no arms is "able" to brush their teeth, just as game maker is "able" to make 3d games. I don't recommend it.

I lol'd.

'Bag of lies' in terms of what?

In terms of people telling other people GM can "not only do 3d, but can do other cool stuff". Take one look at the manual and you get warning telling you the program sucks at 3d. Which is does.

It's not a bag of lies, I rushed there.. It's a bag of exaggerations.

Man, it was a long story...

It all started when I was 9 in 2006 when my friend Peter told me about this great web hosting place called Webs(I thought it was great until I turned 10, now it sucks -.-). I made my own website, and I looked at the comments in the guestbook. There was this guy called gamersandpics, and I went to his website. I looked in the forums, and there was this topic called "Make your own games!" I looked in there and it said, "Make your own games at YoYoGames.com!" I was like, "Yeah right." I went there anyways. I clicked a link that said "Make", and it said, "Make your own games with GameMaker, and you'll be an expert at making games in no time!" I was like huh? I downloaded GameMaker, and it showed folders that said, "Sprites, Sounds, Backgrounds, Paths, Scripts, Objects, and Rooms." I had no idea how to use GameMaker at that time. I made some random sprites, and in 30 minutes, I finally found out they were the images of Objects. Finally in an hour, I figured out how to make something move left and right . It was really fun to use GameMaker, so I went back to YoYoGames, and joined the GMC(GameMaker Community) to get more help. In about 2 years, I got to be an expert at GML(GameMaker Language), and started making great games, but I don't publish much.

If my friend Peter didn't exist, I wouldn't be here!

Whatever was said, it doesn't matter. I'm pushing GM's 3D capabilities as far as it can go, and it is able to do a hell of a lot in comparison to what many people think about it.

I know, BattleRifle.. I'm not exactly some "3d noob". Gm just isn't good at 3d, and for someone to pull you in with that bait is ludicrous.

Pull me in? All I did was explore some forum (maybe this one) and heard that it supports custom models, and I tried it out. Stop making a big deal over nothing; and I never suggested that you don't know anything either.

A REALLY long time ago, I looked up Game Making programs. At one point in time I had tried another program from a Nintendo Power magazine called Digipen, and it required an Internet connection to even start up and it had a monthly subscription. I could not figure out how to use it, so I dumped it. Later on, I looked up more game making programs, and found Game Maker. At one point in time, I thought it was garbage after using it for maybe an hour. I came back to it later and started figuring out how things worked in certain examples and then that's how I got obsessed with it. This is around the 2002-2003 era, back when we had GM 5.0. GM 4.3 was the "garbage" program I originally used. I was around even during the EZBoard time, and I remember the off-topic forum that used to be there. It was taken down because there was too much spam in it floating around, and then we moved here to Invision Power Boards.

Man, have I been here a long time...

Okay, guys stop flamming and follow daman123125's and Spikehead777's examples. They used this topic right. Anyway, when I first started I didn't understand what anything meant and I was out to make the coolest A-Team game ever and I didn't even get past creating a room. Finally, I got to reverse engineering all the tutorial games and whoohoo, that's the story of how I learned all I knew previous to joining the community. (Which sure isn't too long ago...)

Wasn't there a 'How did you find GM' topic before?

Anyway, I don't remember how I found it >_< .

Okay. long story but here it comes. I even seperated it up into segments.


Part 1: The findng
When I was about 8 I too googled "Game maker" or "game creation program" or something along the lines of that. The first result was game maker and I downloaded it, within about half an hour I was d'n'd ing premade graphics like the pros of all game creation. Or so I thought. Being the curious person that I am I googled "game maker games" and I think I got to a website gamemakergames.com or something, and came accross little 'ol jumper 2. Joined the support forum and blah blah blah, that really has nothing to do with GM.

Part 2: The interlude
Over the next few years I was not using game maker that much, but we did use it a bit in school, and unlike most people just changing the sprites to something really odd, I could actually alter the game a little. Thats pretty much what happened for three years.

Part 3: The realization
On the fourth year we were asked to find some sort of ongoing project that would go on for the rest of the year. We had a week to find out what we had to do within a week. I didn't find it out though. I did download eddy's platform engine during the week, When it was my turn to say what it was we had to do I subconciously blurted out "game making!" which started this whole mess. I got some research done. Figured out GML and here I am a year later about to sell my game to some people at school.

What a great story.

I played someones game on a distant website and he was using GM Lite so that's how I found it.

It started when my friend ask me to be a map/lvl designer,
well i say yeah even though i don't know anything about game making.
the good news is we have so much fun and the bad news is we didn't finish a single game.

and after some years of playing PS2, PSP and online games, I get tired
and tried to make games again(but alone).

i found GM when it was GM4...long time ago now...lol...it made no sence to me...then in year 12 i needed extra credit in Computing and ****...so i asked my teacher how i could get extra credit...he said i could try making a program...i thort...lol...and didnt think much of it...when i got home i decided to look for something i could make a program from...i found Dev C+...it made less sence to me then GM4...so i looked up Game Maker...it came up with alot of things and YYG was the first so i clicked it...There was GM6...i downloaded...everything seemed to make so much more sence and now im half pro

BTW...i still failed stupid computing class

Duh!

Have you people really never seen this topic?

Not I, for one. But I'm a recent addition to the community.

GM doesn't suck. It's great in many ways, not so much in others - but it doesn't suck.

I first found GM at version 4.x. I had been using rpgmaker2000 or whatever it's called and had found it quite useless. Along comes GM and its ( now previous ) forums. There was a game that I really liked that someone had made, and so I started "remaking" the game. I wanted to be able to a similar game. It was tedious and hard work. Somewhere while testing and trying out different methods, functions and command I met, for lack of a better word, epiphany. I understood what the key in creating programs and games was - It wasn't magical or supernatural, instead logical and straightforward.

Mind, game making isn't about 3d and yet GM is capable of creating very fun 3d games, something Mark almost swore he'd never include in GM. You're not going to create DOOM 3 with GM. It's not supposed to either. Games of such magnitude require teams of programmers and verious artist and often take years to make.

I don't know what your issue with GM is exactly but if you hate it so much, leave. Don't think you can find a better solution to making simple games as fast as you can with GM, though. These simple games that you could do with another programming language consume a lot more time and are more often than not not better than the ones made with GM.

Okay, there may be another topic, but I'd like to reply to this "active" topic.

Well, when I found Game Maker it was the version of 6. It's long time ago. First I was looking for a "game maker" or something like that (google). The first "great" thing I found was Game-Editor (game-editor.com). I have seen the screenshots of a jump'n run and I was impressed. But I didn't just find out how to get it on the site (I wasn't that good in English, I'm German). I found a site where I can buy it but I didn't want that (my father didn't allow me). I have also been to the trial version download site, but that was strange to be. I didn't really know what that means: "Windows and Linux". When clicking on a download link an archive was downloaded and I didn't know what to do with the many files.
Later I found Game Maker on gamemaker.nl. I found out how to download it, install it and I started learning making games with Game Maker.

Lies? In 2006 yoyogames didn't exist. It was still gamemaker.nl. Mark didn't even announce that he was joining with Yoyo games until 2007. Also, in 2006 it was freewebs, not webs.

And thanks for reminding me what GMC and GML meant, cleared up a lot of confusion.

well... where i live there is this thing called Saturday academy and i saw they had a class called "Gamer Maker Level 1" and thats how i started... the teacher of the class has an account on here, but he's nvr active.

No one has posted in that thread since August. It's dead.

A few years ago (2002, I think?) I had an unusual fixation: Zelda fan games. I don't know why, and I probably never will. Anyway, after playing these games, I really wanted to make my own, so I hopped on AOL and went to gamemaker.com. To my surprise, I found nothing, so I went to Google and searched for "game maker." I'm pretty sure you can imagine what happened next.

Nowadays, I really don't care about making games anymore. Instead, I care more about reviewing them. I'll still open up GM to dabble around, but that's the extent of it.

a couple of years ago(2 or 3) my freind showed me GM and we made some DnD games. then i decided (with myother freind) to make a game company (pixelpig) and then i lernt GML from the manual

I think I found GM around.... 2003? I think it was version 4 and it was in the process of being upgraded to 5. If I'm not wrong, my case was the usual - Googling "Game maker" in hopes of making video games as a hobby. Around that time, I just floated around playing games and downloading tutorials from gamemakergames.com. I drifted here a while back in late 2005, but didn't join until October 2006.

I first found GM when I was about 9. I made maze games for fun, I could animated sprites, make paths and all that. I threw it away for a year, then my friend finds it and shows it to me. I'm like, I know this. I then learnt timelines (LOL big deal.). Oddly, that was the spark, and it lit the fuse. I began programming (still in D&D) games with nearly 500 D&D icons per event, then I got tired.

A few years later, I open it up, serious this time, and I just read the manual. Then I really discovered its power. And I also joined the community at that time.

Hmm, i like this topic =D.

Ok, it all started when i was like "I want to make games!" now, that isn't something that every normal 11 year old kid thinks about 24/7, but i did.
I think i searched for months when i finally came across this site with "Easy game development programs" and gm was on the list! Wow, i was a total noob forever, now im pretty good. Its been about 2 1/2 years, and i love it! I don't think any program this cheap and this easy could compare. Yes it has its down falls, but for a 14 year old, it rocks! I get to impress a lot of people, it also led me on my path to webdesign which im using everyday.

Thanks to gm, my life has been guided in the path i am now starting to take in school and at home.

Thanks gm!

Umm... GM is free.

Unless you register it of course.

I think that's what he means. Gm simply isn't practical unless you register it.

I don't really like Gm, just cause it doesn't get updated enough. They should make it support plug-ins, so Delphi (cite needed) programmers here can extend it any time they want without suffering the over-head of dll's and such. Better yet, just make it open source. It just needs more updates.

GameMaker isn't slow. You havn't seen what terrain it is capable of when you switch the simple primitive list command into a primitive strip. *cough* 20,000 polygon speed improvment *cough*

It's simply the people who use it.

But GM was also meant to be free, I mean not every person has to get Pro to make decent games. The reason I got GM was because it was free if you didn't register. If it wasn't free, I wouldn't be here and I would become the dumb person I was before. Also, I wouldn't have stood out in school much if it weren't for GM.
It isn't simply useless in Lite, but it is limited.

I wish image_angle would be in Lite, though. It makes things so much easier.

I started in GM at after getting so mad at visual C++ cause I couldn't draw stupid graphics!!!!!! Any way after I was done with visual C++ I got that Game Makers Apprentice book as a gift and I started out in GML cause I thought it was easy compared to C++

Visual C++ sux

Hmmm....

It all started when I went to this little one-week-summer-camp-type-dealio. I was using Dark Basic at the time, which was created specifically for 3D games, and is completely code-based. It was my first time to even look at any programming language, so I was really confused, and, at first, I was merrily making simple text-based games and playing around with primitive drawing...
But there were two people at that camp whome I overheard talking about their game that they made. I expected them to have been doing it for years, since I was having loads of trouble just in a few weeks time with Dark Basic. But they told me of a really easy game-making program that they had only been using for a few months or so; namely, Game Maker. I listened to them speak of sprites, a word which had not yet wormed its way into my vocabulary. On the final day of the camp, I finally decided to ask where I could download such a magical tool, and they told me:
www.gamemaker.nl
And the more I think about it, the more time seems to go by that the official Game Maker website is www.yoyogames.com, rather than the previous www.gamemaker.nl.
Anywho, I got Game Maker 6.1 (I think) the summer before Game Maker 7.0 and Yoyogames came into existance. I joined the GMC sometime after, I think some time around Christmas, 2006 (it'll say on my profile). Unfortunately, though, because I had asked and discovered the website on the final day of the camp, I could not discuss it further with my new Game Making friends. I have lost all contact with them. If only I knew their usernames on the GMC....
Actually, a couple months ago, I went to the Solo & Ensemble for band. I learned that, at the same time as my own school, my old friends' school would be attending as well. I learned that one of them is a trumpet in their band. I also learned, to my dismay, that he was absent from the event. I still have yet to get in contact with him. If only I had his Email address...oh, well.
But here I am, three years later come this summer, an advanced user of GML. I often forget what I did with my life before I knew about Game Maker....
Come to think of it, I never would have even heard of Game Maker if I had chosen the more religious path and gone to a Church Camp at my local church, which happened to be scheduled the same week as that summer camp. How odd....

Oh, and Tepi, that topic isn't shown in the forum anymore. You can still access it, of course, but it's been clipped off of the forum's visible list of topics.

I only have Lite. Sure, you can do more with the registed version, but you can still do a LOT with the unregisted. Just writing it off as 'not practical' is ridiculous.

*cough cough*
If your interested in what I managed to scrap out in 3 months with Lite.. *points to Agent Waste in signature*

But in saying that, I'm definitely looking forward to the day I register.

Edit: The Story continues. I joined the GMC after 'discovering' it, about six months ago. I had already had GM for over 2 years, but had absolutely no clue how to code (just drag&drop). The GMC has totally changed that for me, with it's huge amount of resources.

Does that matter?

If one wishes to reply, he'll go for it. If the topic is old, the topic is old. There's no point in recreating the topics just whenever they get "outdated".

This is also my story... we must be clones. You know, except with some minor date changes.

yea thats the only problem with GM being as popular as it is...the same topics get posted by the new people, and the elders get annoyed lol, but thats the circle of life , and just shows how similar we all really are all though, I wouldn't quite call you an elder yet...you are above the "new member" status.

edit:

Well, since A: I made a post in this topic, and B: I didn't make a post in the other, and C: this topic exists, is not closed, and has posts that people read...I think I will go ahead and tell my story

OK...so there was some random kid in my class way back in 8th grade that said that he made games with something called GameMaker, and since I was already very curious from birth how to make video games and was what I've always wanted to do (and still do 20 years later), that I decided hey that sounds cool I'm gonna check that out. Before you know it I was making stuff :], At the time I didn't have internet, and so when I went to my aunts house I checked it out, but no way to transfer the GM installer to my computer, so I only got to use it when I went to my aunts house. I remember being on GM for hours an hours while at my aunts house to the point I basically wasn't even visiting her anymore when I went over there lol, that was year 2002. Actually I remember right before I found out about GameMaker I thought that all those weird symbols you get when you drag a program into notepad was exactly how programmers programmed and was so amazed at how they could know/remember what all those symbols meant lol.

In 2003, I got internet, and joined the GMC a few months later. I tried to get some of my friends to try it out, but they quickly got bored with it/couldn't figure anything out with it, but I still loved it. Then I started really trying to make stuff. My first complete program was a "Desktop Buddy" which was a clock/calender/CD player/desktop shortcuts thing with "customizable skins" which were the backgrounds that came with GM lmao. Looking back now I realize that I learned alot about programming with that stupid/ugly program I made, and I was proud of it. It was basically my first program using GML also, I never really used D&D that much at all except when I was trying to figure out the In's and Out's of GM its self (such as what a sprite was, what an object was, how things worked, etc)

After desktop buddy, I never finished much of anything, I was always just tinkering around with GM. I am always interested in math things, so I would try to replicate what I learned in school into GM. The best thing I made next were different scripts which include a bunch of matrices scripts (completely useless, but work lol, and I have since then made better matrices scripts for my current project).

After that I actually stopped using GM entirely for about 2 years because I thought I was a crazy nerd and wanted to be cool. Then once I realized I am not a nerd, but a crazy geek, then I started using GM again and realize how much I truly enjoy programming, then I learned how much software engineers make and decided that I wanted to be one lol. While in highschool in sophmore year I made my biggest project completely solo, the graphing calculator, and many many people including teachers, peers, and other adults were amazed with it. However, I didn't like it. There was so many more features that it needed such as ability to use the mouse to highlight text and the such, what I needed to do was create an entirely custom word processor.

A few people contacted me about the graphic calculator and after some discussion I decided that I would completely redo my graphic calculator from the ground up and implement all the features I couldn't do before. That was 5 months ago. Now the calculator is almost everything I could have asked for and has so much more potential. It has everything from scroll bars to juxtaposition and using symbols instead of scripts (using ^ instead of power() ) and much much more (and even more things to come). I don't want to give everything away before the alpha comes out, but I am truly starting to love programming. I even took software engineering as my degree program at ITT, and currently have a 4.0

and thats my story =]

I googled "game maker" a little before 6.1's release. I was interested in making my own games after recently getting a GBA, and I thought there might be a program on the net to get me started. I wasn't expecting it to be called "Game Maker" though .

I started off with Drag and Drop, using the tutorials and slowly building up into my own games. I gradually started using GML as by that time I had seen a few examples on the GMC, and I could see that you could do a lot more with code. Around that time I started web design with HTML & CSS so I could understand it reasonably well. I wanted to rip off a commercial game but soon realised I wouldn't get anywhere near, so I made simple puzzle/platform games, noticed YoYo Games' existence a couple of months after it began and joined then started Ideaz. Then I got Pro and my games gradually got better. Now I have a good understanding of GML, HTML, CSS and a little bit of PHP and while I can see that C++ etc. is better for making programs and Flash is better for games, I don't think I'll ever ditch Game Maker completely.

Having an interest to make games, googling "Game Maker" or "Game Making", having Game Maker presented as one of the top hits is virtually everyone's story. That's why this and every topic like this is silly. That's also why the name "Game Maker" was an excellent choice to use.

OK, I was CLUELESS at computers, I think when i was 10, and I wanted to create games. SO I Googled "How to make Video Games" and in about page 3, I found GameMaker.nl(Wow, Remember that site WAY back in the day?) . So I Downloaded it! At first I was like "OMG THIS PROGRAM IS EVIL!", Because I didn't know how to place objects in a room (I WAS A TOTAL NOOB!!!) And After a months or so, I figured it out, and after reading a guide on GML, and Practicing it for 2 years, I Am now VERY experienced and can do 3D programming.(and im 13)

OH, also, Because of GM, I am now VERY smart computerwise, and built my own game system, and computer, and am 13!)

lol

hm. I found game maker back in version 5. I think my mom suggested it to me as something to do over the summer.

The amount of kids in school who are into making games (easily) is ridiculous. I'd say at least half my class back in grade 7/8 was crazy about it. I guess it's the new "being an astronaut" thing.

A year ago, when my laptop worked. I was bored and I also wanted to be a V.G. designer (for commercial game, I mean.). So to get a head start, I thought, I went and searched yahoo for hours looking for game making programs and then I found Game Maker. I downloaded it and started messing around and tried to make an expiremental game called "Catch the Cats." You started off with a set amount of points and you have to catch these two cats before they hit some furniture. When they did, you lost points. I failed and stated looking for good city building games. My laptop broke somewhere during the summer and in the fall, my desktop fell too, leaving my sister's laptop. During December, I fixed the desktop and was thinking of everything my desktop had. In January, I remember using Game Maker and decided to come back to it. But beforehand I found GraphicsGale and started making some stuff. I bought both GG and GM the same day! d()b

A magazine that used to circulate the continent called Total Gamer had the install for GM on one of the discs that came with it. I installed it to my computer. Made a few edited games, then was hooked.

I was using Torque (Demo). Then go to RPG Maker, then go to Adventure Maker. And i don't like it. And then, i give up using this lousy game maker (First Thinking. Now i'm thinking game maker is great.) and making some games.

Bag of lies as in its "completely true" just like game maker is "able" to make 3D games.

As for me, I bought a magazine about how you could make your own games, and because my main 2 best subjects are software and science (science is trial and error half the time as well), and tested out game maker.

Uggg. . . It was June 24 and school had only let out a week ago. I was a pokedork and wanted to make my own so bad, so i googled "make your own pokemon game," and Game Maker 7 came up. Eversince then I spend like 1 hour a day working on POKEMON GRAY.

thats really wierd, im the only person in my class who knows GML at all... and one of ~4 ppl who know what gamer maker is!