Game Design Megathread

[Thorax]

Cool cool cool. Thanks so much. I guess I'll learn GameMaker for now and start getting some stuff out.

[Ad Bot]

[Kingdaro]

A word of advice: anyone who says any sort of development platform is a joke is a loving moron. There are millions available, none are better than others, and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Using C++ and an engine/library (e.g. OpenGL, SDL) can produce fast, efficient results, but it's relatively difficult to learn and use. A program like Scratch, however, is very easy to use and is good for learning programming concepts, but has super bad performance, portability, and is bad for anything productive in general.

To answer your question, yes, GM would be a good option for your purposes, but it's also good to look around and see what fits you best as a developer and designer. On the other hand, if you like what you're working with and it works fine for you, there's no reason to switch, especially if someone else and their "master race framework" tells you to do so.

[Bushido]

IM HAVING FUN AND YOU CANT STOP ME

whoop gonna keep this around

[Zanaran2]

i failed hardcore at making a mouse exploring game and now im procrastinating it like forget

[LoserHero]

If what you desire is game design then do not bother reinventing the wheel. Use a game engine, much of the work is already done for you and they are incredibly versatile and some even free so you may as well take full advantage of that. If you are passionate about programming as well as game design then by all means go the longer router but you won't see the fruits of your labor for quite a while.

Think of scale as building in blockland. You envision a grand medieval town and so you need to prepare. Start with some buildings, some stables, a cool evented gizmo thats fun to interact with. As you see, you build one thing after another and worry not about how big this will turn out. Sometimes there are instances where you discover that the idea is too big and you alone cannot do it justice and so you shelve it. This is fine, it happens to all of us.

I'm going to go against my method and say prototype your game idea first before developing the art assets. Once you know what you want and you have a few fun levels, you can add the art and polish you'd like. Artists of course rather do their art first and make it work as the game development process is going on. Doesn't really matter which comes first.

Lastly, good luck.

[PurpleMetro]

I'm going to go against my method and say prototype your game idea first before developing the art assets. Once you know what you want and you have a few fun levels, you can add the art and polish you'd like. Artists of course rather do their art first and make it work as the game development process is going on. Doesn't really matter which comes first.

Guess I'm the typical artist :P

I bought GM a long time ago, but not that long, when it was at Version 8. Used it for quite a while, stopped using it for quite a while, and now when I want to get back into it, Game Maker Studio won't let me use my old key, nor will the old Game Maker 8 which they still have on their site.

"This looks like a Purchase Reference, please contact Softwrap Support" or something like that

And you won't believe how many times i've contacted GM and Softwrap about this but they kept relaying me to the opposite vendors :(

[Thorax]

Thank you, this is kind of the conclusion I came to. I think C++ would be better for me in the long run, but I'm afraid I'm going to burn out learning it. I'd like to get my feet wet with GameMaker and then, when I have more experience under my belt and better focus, jump into learning C++.

[Bushido]

I am having fun I don't even care how stupid this concept has become.



For those who care to see the silliness but also with sound (and me talking), I'll include another video link.
It's not done uploading yet, but it's 4AM and I should be sleeping so just watch it once it's finished.

wait. i just saw the end of this video

is this some sort of challenge are you challenging me right now

[.:FancyPants:.]

is this some sort of challenge are you challenging me right now

obviously not he already won

unless one of you guys make a gun that shoots guns that explode into guns that shoot people, i'm not seeing a contest.

[Daedalus]

forget it I'm getting back into game programming
are there are any fast game libraries/engines for Java? or should I sit down and really take a look at C++ or C#? Which engines have effective porting to mobile platforms?

[BluetoothBoy]

forget it I'm getting back into game programming
are there are any fast game libraries/engines for Java? or should I sit down and really take a look at C++ or C#? Which engines have effective porting to mobile platforms?

Unity works well for mobile and desktop dev in 2D and 3D.

[jamesster]

I see a lot of talk here about creating games here (in the senses of programming, art, etc), but not as much on designing them. So I've got a question or two to ask to anyone here who feels like answering: What sort of game genres do you prefer, and how much freedom do you prefer in said genres (on a scale of "completely open world sandboxy stuff" to "a completely linear string of challenges"), and why?

[Kingdaro]

I see a lot of talk here about creating games here (in the senses of programming, art, etc), but not as much actually designing them. So I've got a question or two to ask to anyone here who feels like answering: What sort of game genres do you prefer, and how much freedom do you prefer in said genres (on a scale of "completely open world sandboxy stuff" to "a completely linear string of challenges")?

I like action / arcade games (Super Crate Box, Frantic 1/2, Race the Sun), platformer RPGs, (Super Paper Mario, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Cave Story), rhythm games (Stepmania, osu!), and some CCG/TTGs, (Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone) if they count. I personally feel as though these kinds of games sort of hold the spirit of what a video game truly should be.

In terms of freedom, I usually find myself bored with open world, sandbox-type games, just because I'm not that much of a creative person, and I just prefer a linear set of challenges to complete.

[Daedalus]

Unity works well for mobile and desktop dev in 2D and 3D.

Unity's functional for 2D stuff? Interesting - I've never looked into its 2D capabilities.

[BluetoothBoy]

Unity's functional for 2D stuff? Interesting - I've never looked into its 2D capabilities.

Just recently they added official 2D support. However, it could still be used for 2D before.