GML Tutorial?

[Nate_Benton]

Does anybody know of a good beginner Game Maker Language tutorial? I haven't programmed before, so if anybody knows of a tutorial that runs over everything I need to know, and is beginner friendly, can you please post it?
Thanks,
Nate.

 

[DizzyTechnology]

There is a bit of one within Game Maker. Go to Help > Contents > The Game Maker Language (GML) and start reading. You can also visit at any time.

 

[soten355]

Well, GML is kinda tricky if you're new to programming. I recommend doing all of the tutorials(except for the multiplayer one) on the official website. Article
Once you complete those you'll have an understanding of programming. They don't directly teach GML, but they give you the concepts of programming, so GML should be easier to understand.
What you basically need to know about GML is what each function does, how to use it, and how to combine them to make more efficient functions. What I did was just download a few examples and look at the GML. There's nothing wrong with that because they usually explain what each part of the GML does for the game.

 

[Cynical]

Well there IS an entire community dedicated to questions like this: http://forums.gamemaker.nl . In fact, there is a seperate section at the GMC for tutorials and such.

Also, I'm sure you've probably heard of Professor Overmars' new Game Maker book -- I'm not sure how much GML is covered (probably not much until the later chapters) but it might still be of use.

Another good tactic is to try downloading some of the editable games on gamemaker.nl -- of course don't copy their code but the reason they are there is for people to learn from them .

 

[soten355]

Exactly. That's what I did when I wanted to learn GML. Just look at the code, read the info the author left, and read tutorials. They are a life saver.

 

[noerrorsfound]

Don't waste time with Game Maker.

If you want to make games easily then try Python and PyGame. Python is easy to learn and quite fun to use.

 

[soten355]

But GM is far superior. Games can be made in it that can compete with today's top rankings games(2d that is, GM and python can not do next gen 3d efficiently). I recommend staying with GM.

 

[lambada]

I'd say C++ with DirectX integration functions. That would leave all the other suggestions in the dust.

 

[DizzyTechnology]

How many people here at x10Hosting have a background from Game Maker?!

 

[soten355]

I'd say C++ with DirectX integration functions. That would leave all the other suggestions in the dust.

True, but this user doesn't even know the concept of a programming language (hence his need for a GML tutorial). C++ would be to far of a leap for him. GML would give him a basic understanding of a programming language, and how to create functions, send data, etc. With that in hand, C++ should be easy to learn, but still hard to master.

 

[dpogary]

i have never even looked at GMl...i used rpg maker for a while

 

[noerrorsfound]

But GM is far superior. Games can be made in it that can compete with today's top rankings games(2d that is, GM and python can not do next gen 3d efficiently). I recommend staying with GM.

You can make good 2d games using Game Maker? I can say the same thing about Python. Python is free, but to unlock all features of Game Maker you have to pay $20. And is Game Maker cross platform? No, but Python is.

Python runs on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, OS/2, Amiga, Palm Handhelds, and Nokia mobile phones. Python has also been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines.

Let's talk about 3d games. Game Maker can be used to create 3d games, although its capabilities are quite limited so the graphics aren't that impressive. So what about creating 3d games in Python? There are Python bindings available for OGRE 3D.

PyOgre is a Python binding for OGRE, which means you can use all of OGRE's functionality using Python instead of C++.

To get a feeling of what OGRE 3D is capable of, check out OGRE 3D's Featured Projects gallery:
http://ogre3d.org/index.php?set_alb...=com_gallery&Itemid=55&include=view_album.php

And with PyOgre, you can use this engine with Python!

So try and explain why you think GM is "far superior". What advantages does GM have over Python? I'm talking about just the programming languages, GML and Python. It's obvious that Game Maker itself has some "newbie-friendly" features such as drag and drop (since it IS a game making program), although learning GML seems required to do more advanced stuff.

I'm also pretty sure that Python applications are significantly faster than Game Maker applications. But I don't think anyone's ever done any real speed tests between the two.

I'm also going to add that if you're wanting to get into the industry (as a game programmer), you'll need to know C or C++ (or both). So if that's your goal, you're going to need to learn one of those languages eventually.