Anyone can create a game design. I've got notebooks and folders filled with them, and even though only 10 percent of them are worth giving a once over, what holds people back? A large amount of laziness is the typical problem, and I'm no stranger to it, but knowing how to create the game is a huge roadblock in the first place. Unfortunately, programming can be pretty daunting to beginners.
Fortunately, there exist a multitude of simplistic game makers with fairly little restriction that provide an excellent framework to start with.
This is where I come in. I originally started using RPG Maker when I was younger, but when I found out I could program action combat and other unique systems with it, I lost interest in the RPG elements. This ended up being extremely frustrating, as trying to do anything complex found me tearing out my hair at the engine's event based programming and the clunky interface. No one to blame but myself for expecting an RPG Maker to do everything. I later found Game Maker, and instantly enjoyed the easy and very flexible tools. Not wanting to do anything simple, I found myself frustrated with my own inexperience, and while I knew the basic processes behind programming a game, I didn't know a programming language itself. Game Maker has a easy to read and learn language called GML (Game Maker Language), and I immediately knew I could use it to start out.
After embarrassingly taking 5 hours to learn the most basic commands and form just to get my little rectangle shaped character to move left and right, I realized that while I could read tutorials all day to expand my knowledge of GML, I still was struggling to think like a programmer. After about 2 weeks of work, I had a small character running about and swinging a sword, and decided I wanted to do something and have some fun. I was going to start a blog, and journal the thought process of programming a game. A lot of tutorials teach what to type, and I hope to teach what to think.
Thus starts my descent into the world of video game programming, and perhaps a small trip into loonyville. I thank anyone who reads this and adds their two cents, and hope you gain some knowledge from my crash course experiment.
Next post, we talk basics.
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