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[Moogie]

Interested in making your own games?

GameMaker Studio is a game-creation environment that takes a lot of the legwork out of programming games from scratch. Good for creating rapid prototypes or even fully developed games, and supports multiple platforms including mobile devices. It's most suited to 2D games, but 3D is possible as well. As one example, Spelunky was created using GameMaker.

YoYo Games are giving free Standard license keys to anybody who downloads and installs GameMaker Studio before December 3rd. You must install the program and allow it to fully update (using the "beta" channel, which is selected by default, so don't change it). Once updated, the program will restart and you'll be able to pick the middle option to register a new account. After submitting your email address, a key will shortly be sent to you (it may take up to 20 minutes, their servers are getting hammered at the moment) which you then enter into the program in order to register it from Free -> Standard edition.

The official site has a community area if you need help, but there's also this subReddit full of people willing to answer any questions, help you get started, provide tutorials/examples or just generally cheer you on.

Standard licenses usually cost $50, so if you think there's any possibility you might someday be interested in making games, then I urge you to take the opportunity to register while it's being offered on a silver platter!


P.S. Sorry if this sounds overly advertise-y! I almost never post in this forum section, so you may not recognise me, but I'm no escaped lunatic. And I don't work for these people. I just see a really cool offer that I think some people here may be interested in knowing about. Have fun!!

P.P.S. The site appears to be down or under heavy load at the time of posting. It should clear up soon unless something bad has happened... :S

[Killjoy]

Back in the early 2000s when I first started programming I used Game Maker. Man I regret that decision, a lot of bad habits and misunderstandings that had to be corrected because of it.

If all you want to do is make games, then by all means this is actually a pretty nifty tool.

If you are a beginner that plan to learn some programming on the side I would tell you to stay the hell away from this.

GML, the programming language of game maker, is the peak of insane language design. It is purely imperative, with a fucked up typing/scoping system which leads to some pretty bad programming habits if you learn it as a first language.

Go with Unity and pick one of the holy three Python/JS/CS.

[Moogie]

You may be correct, or not-- I have no idea how much the program has changed since 14 years ago. I would imagine there have been at least minor improvements, though, so some research into the current state of GML would not go amiss.

[inEQUALITY]

Back in the early 2000s when I first started programming I used Game Maker. Man I regret that decision, a lot of bad habits and misunderstandings that had to be corrected because of it.

If all you want to do is make games, then by all means this is actually a pretty nifty tool.

If you are a beginner that plan to learn some programming on the side I would tell you to stay the hell away from this.

GML, the programming language of game maker, is the peak of insane language design. It is purely imperative, with a fucked up typing/scoping system which leads to some pretty bad programming habits if you learn it as a first language.

Go with Unity and pick one of the holy three Python/JS/CS.

Eh, still worth it to grab it anyway to tinker with down the road simply because it's free and doesn't eat up all that much hdd space. I personally haven't messed with it since about 07 or 08, except now to check it out again, but I'm almost 100% sure it's changed a good bit since you tried it in the early 2000's. I can only think of one or two things a person might not understand after using gamemaker studio, but it's positive sides include the relative ease of making a finished product and its ability to export games to multiple formats like android, pc, whathaveyou (this is definitely a more recent feature, I'll admit).

I've never used Unity, I always assumed it just used C+ or its own proprietary language. You can use python with it, then? I may just have to give it a whirl, if that's the case... though at the moment, I'm working with libtcod, so I'll probably just stick to pure python for now.

[Shook]

GML, the programming language of game maker, is the peak of insane language design. It is purely imperative, with a fucked up typing/scoping system which leads to some pretty bad programming habits if you learn it as a first language.

I don't know if or how they've changed it since then, but nowadays it looks an awful lot like Java or Lua (which, mind you, i got introduced to before GML, so it was trivial to learn GML). With that said, i still don't consider myself an actual programmer, since it's more like inserting snippets of code into events that Game Maker can check for. I also don't know if Lua is a bad language to get started with. :U
Wouldn't mind getting into Unity though, it seems like it's a bit more powerful overall, what with the vastly superior 3D capability and also better optimization overall.

Anyways, i've already cashed in on this offer, which is rad. Converting from 8.1 to Studio seems to be an absolute nightmare though, so i'm saving it and/or Unity for future games.

[InsaneRationalist]

GML, the programming language of game maker, is the peak of insane language design. It is purely imperative, with a fucked up typing/scoping system which leads to some pretty bad programming habits if you learn it as a first language.

I don't know about habits (although I might have just had a easy time unlearning them), but I agree otherwise; GML is up with Java and COBOL on my list of horrible languages. If you're interested in making your own games, I'd recommend something like pygame instead. It's not as complete-and-total-moron-proof as GameMaker, but it is more portable and easier to segue into more advanced (or just less game-centric) programming. (I personally use C and Xlib, but that's because get off my lawn.)

[Moogie]

Apologies for the bump, but I've recently learned that you can upgrade a Standard license to Professional for free, as well. Even if you got the Standard for free.

Register for the Tizen module, which is currently on promotion so it doesn't cost a dime: http://www.yoyogames.com/developers/promotions/tizen-game-drive/apply

The key they email you will automatically upgrade you to Professional.

I have no idea how long this will last, so I'd jump on it ASAP even if you're unsure about GameMaker in general. It's not very often you get an opportunity to install a $100 product for free without being a hearty pirate.

[Sirus]

FUCK! It's December 3rd. Is this still going on? Is there any indication of how much longer it will last? I can't get on my computer for several hours yet ;_;

[Anvilfolk]

All you need to do is go to the website and register for it. Put in your e-mail. You'll get a license for the pro version, apparently.

This is crazy! Unfortunately, it turns out these guys don't really support mac that well (according to what a friend said), so it's likely that some friends and I will end up using Unity.

Still, I love how developers are doing these things more and more

[Sirus]

It looks like the Standard License thing has already expired; it costs 10bux to upgrade now. Damn.

[Anvilfolk]

Did you try just this one: http://www.yoyogames.com/developers/promotions/tizen-game-drive/apply ?

[Sirus]

Did you try just this one: http://www.yoyogames.com/developers/promotions/tizen-game-drive/apply ?

That's the one that upgrades to Professional, right? My impression is that you still need a Standard license to use it.

[Anvilfolk]

Not sure, but still probably worth a try in case another one of these free licenses comes along

[Moogie]

It's worth a shot, in any case. Get the key sent to a temporary email address if you're concerned you may get marketing emails (I used my main, and haven't received any unsocilited mail yet, but ymmv) and if it doesn't work, no biggie.

[Sirus]

Don't worry, I already picked up the Professional upgrade. Did that as soon as I could. I just hope the Standard deal holds out for a few more hours until I can get WiFi access on my laptop :/