09-04-2015, 11:35 AM
Yes, yoyo SUCKS...
Did you happen to hear about their failed DRM?
Despite the fails, they wish to continue with it...
Or at least, that's the last i read...
And THAT impacts pretty much, everyone (except the pirates)
Only reason I still have my copies of game maker is to test very basic concepts, or to mess around with tiles and sprites... I've given-up ENTIRELY on getting anything useful out of it. As I get better at my preferred tools, and hone any REAL programming skills, i undoubtedly will throw it in the rejects pile, except for maybe, opening a gmk project file, should one come across.
Anyways, some advice I'd like to give:
study others' code if the program is open-source, or if you can de-compile something even slightly read-able out of it. Some of the tools I've requested, or things I've been developing on and off were based on code obtained from google searches and/or decompiling a binary file. One of the more useful things resulting from my de-compiling of a game was a flash program my friend wrote that can convert the map files in Spongebob Invasion of the Lava King from their base64-encoded undecipherable gibberish, to their true, XML format.
Another piece of advice, just take the plunge. This does come with risks, but...just try something. For example, I wanted a library to read/write MS INI files (which I firmly believe are not totally obsolete) . I literally used some of my pre-existing knowledge of javascript, and a quick lookup on the INI format. I still plan to revise it, but: https://github.com/Brian151/INI.js
Pure Javascript, 100% from scratch
I got this whole thing put-together in a few days, iirc, despite some persistent and confusing errors.
However, it took me weeks due to schedule delays, in actual time, to have it "Ready" enough for submission... It was originally coded on JSFiddle. Anyways, i don't advise it for a MASSIVE project, but it does sometimes help to just try something. Even a fail will usually teach you something valuable. A more recent experiment taught me HTML5 Canvas is somewhat nitpicky about pattern/texture fills. I had to work-around this by creating a new texture every time I render a texture, because as it turns out, any fill pattern saved as an object attribute, or within one = NOPE!
Also, C++ ... Just because it's the "industry standard" doesn't mean you SHOULD use it... I had my friend make me a very simple program to generate encryption tables for me... he used C++ , and we soon both regretted it. He had to re-compile that thing several times. I can't remember if he even just gave-up and did it in VB. Now, why would this happen? compatibility... All the computers at my house are Windows XP or older.... As it turns-out, C++ kinda hates that... There's a lot of stuff one must do to compile to specific platforms, OS, and OS versions, even... The earlier post about its challenge is no joke!
That's all I have to say, good luck, and the game sounds cool, definitely going to check it out!
Also, do you have all the resources saved as their own files?
You could always try re-making the game from scratch if game maker dissatisfies you.
But obviously, you need the asset files to do that.
Did you happen to hear about their failed DRM?
Despite the fails, they wish to continue with it...
Or at least, that's the last i read...
And THAT impacts pretty much, everyone (except the pirates)
Only reason I still have my copies of game maker is to test very basic concepts, or to mess around with tiles and sprites... I've given-up ENTIRELY on getting anything useful out of it. As I get better at my preferred tools, and hone any REAL programming skills, i undoubtedly will throw it in the rejects pile, except for maybe, opening a gmk project file, should one come across.
Anyways, some advice I'd like to give:
study others' code if the program is open-source, or if you can de-compile something even slightly read-able out of it. Some of the tools I've requested, or things I've been developing on and off were based on code obtained from google searches and/or decompiling a binary file. One of the more useful things resulting from my de-compiling of a game was a flash program my friend wrote that can convert the map files in Spongebob Invasion of the Lava King from their base64-encoded undecipherable gibberish, to their true, XML format.
Another piece of advice, just take the plunge. This does come with risks, but...just try something. For example, I wanted a library to read/write MS INI files (which I firmly believe are not totally obsolete) . I literally used some of my pre-existing knowledge of javascript, and a quick lookup on the INI format. I still plan to revise it, but: https://github.com/Brian151/INI.js
Pure Javascript, 100% from scratch
I got this whole thing put-together in a few days, iirc, despite some persistent and confusing errors.
However, it took me weeks due to schedule delays, in actual time, to have it "Ready" enough for submission... It was originally coded on JSFiddle. Anyways, i don't advise it for a MASSIVE project, but it does sometimes help to just try something. Even a fail will usually teach you something valuable. A more recent experiment taught me HTML5 Canvas is somewhat nitpicky about pattern/texture fills. I had to work-around this by creating a new texture every time I render a texture, because as it turns out, any fill pattern saved as an object attribute, or within one = NOPE!
Also, C++ ... Just because it's the "industry standard" doesn't mean you SHOULD use it... I had my friend make me a very simple program to generate encryption tables for me... he used C++ , and we soon both regretted it. He had to re-compile that thing several times. I can't remember if he even just gave-up and did it in VB. Now, why would this happen? compatibility... All the computers at my house are Windows XP or older.... As it turns-out, C++ kinda hates that... There's a lot of stuff one must do to compile to specific platforms, OS, and OS versions, even... The earlier post about its challenge is no joke!
That's all I have to say, good luck, and the game sounds cool, definitely going to check it out!
Also, do you have all the resources saved as their own files?
You could always try re-making the game from scratch if game maker dissatisfies you.
But obviously, you need the asset files to do that.