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Game Maker’s
As you might remember, eariler in the year I posted about Game Maker 7, and why I didn’t like it. I copped some criticism for it, but most peoples counter arguments weren’t any good either.
- My first point is rather invalid, It was only because the registered features weren’t available, but it still would have been nice just to carry version 6’s registration onto version 7 (For the beta)
- The second point was concerning the amount of memory Game Maker uses. Reading through the comments now, no one has provided a valid reason as to why this should be so high. I got one or two responses telling me to get over it, but it is a valid point. Surely it wouldn’t be too hard to load the instances when the room/level loads rather than all at once. I also had a few replies saying that they have modern computers with 1gb of Ram plus. I shouldn’t need any more than 512mb of ram to play a game less than 100mb that I got off the internet.
- The next point was concerning the amount of space it uses. I now no why this is, but it would have been nice for Mark to explain it to us when it was first realised. Game Maker 6.1 and below compress the games, making the use of a DRM wrapper useless. Version 7 doesn’t compress the Games, which is why it has a larger file size and compresses well.
- Looking back at it now, my forth point was rather useless.
- I’ll come back to points 5 and six.
- I still can’t see the need for adverts in a program like Game Maker. If you downloaded the program, you had to get it from Yoyo Games, because its illegal to mirror it. If you got it from a disk, well then that’s still illegal.
- Most people seemed to aggree with me when I said that the icon’s were too small. One person tried to defend Mark by saying its due to program limitations, but surely it can’t be that hard to allow multiple sized icons. Its been done before and it’ll be done again.
- Point number 9 referred to alpha transparency and how you needed to include them via a script. Mark has said that this is because of the Graphics Editor, but I would be happy if the editor was just disabled for alpha transparent PNG’s.
- Mark added this feature before the final version, but people still thought it would be good to point it out after the new version was realised.
I think that some people were confused when it came to points five and six. The extension mechanism allows us to add “plugins” to Game Maker and allows the use of more functions above the ones provided by Game Maker. To me this means that Mark doesn’t wish to add any more features and is instead putting it upon us to create them. But in order for us to use our fellow peers add-ons, we first must pay Mark to be able to include them. To me, this seems very greedy and if Mark doesn’t wish to include any more features, he should publish the code and let us continue it. I was hit with comments (both here and at the forums) saying how an Open Source Game Maker would be too much work and nothing would ever get done. But just recently I was alerted to this.
Its called Stencyl and is an Open Source Game Maker based on Java. It will allow you to compile your games for Windows (meaning you can download it as x.exe) and as a Java file for Mac and Linux (Yes, its cross-platform) It might not be as powerful as Game Maker, but creating Mario type games is as easy as just Clicking and building your levels due to its kits. I’m not sure, but by the looks of things, kits are what contains your objects, sprites and sounds - All you need to do is design the levels. So if you wish to create puzzle, or unique style Games, Stencyl might now be for you, but if you’ve always wanted to make your own Game, and upload it via StencylWorks or Gamed, Stencyl will be for you.
20 Comments to “Game Maker’s”
Game Maker costs barely anything compared to other programs. If we follow you’re logic in the 2nd last paragraph it would seem Google are greedy by charging us to make 3d Objects.
Once again, Like it or leave.
I have left it, and think of it this way - Would you make plugins for Opera and pay Opera to use them?
About the size of the files in Game Maker 7.
Ok, the .exe is huge. But put it in a ZIP folder. You can get it to as small as if you compressed GM6.
I have left it, and think of it this way - Would you make plugins for Opera and pay Opera to use them?
Isn’t that the same as saying - Would you make things to use on the internet and pay a company to use the internet to use your programs? Its not logical - However, we could create our own program right? That way you can fix yourself the things you dont like. When you do make it - You can enlighten us and make us happy too ^^.
I might not be, but as the post suggests, Stencyl is
LostOverThere: Well SketchUp is actaully free.. kinda.
Why wont copy and paste work on this blog, btw?
>> Why wont copy and paste work on this blog, btw?
Worked for me just then
Garion, I thank you for the heads up on Stencyl. Just today looked Game Maker up again hoping to finally finish some projects I had going (example level-editors etc) when I found that Mark took it all to YoYo Games. Reading up on the change-up has been very interesting, but I must admit that I am rather turned off by the changes. G-Java is a possibility for future work, but I’d like to keep business outside of pleasure. Stencyl seems to be just what I am looking for, and I look forward to messing around with the setup.
Garion i do agree, game maker is shit. I would much rather learn how to code C++ in my free time (which I don’t have much of dueto school)
And don’t say i a hypocryt because i do use gamemaker and i do KNOW how t use it
Resonable Cost?!? BAH… For me to reigister game maker it’s like $40 i would bemuch better of with a 3D gaming engine. (but me mum won’t lemme buy it =( )
The 32 x 32 icon (Well i don’t use it i just make it green with a yellow lightning bolt so it looks crap any way)
again those people who say ooooo i can get a game demo from whereverfor like 800mb.
Why the game is like 800mb
1. It’s *!&#ing 3D.
2. It would have a far better gaming engine than game maker
3. Game maker’s *So called* 3D engine can’t even use models (and to use it you have to register it)
Why game maker is like 7mb
1.what was it 7mb? for a gray screen pft… wat a waste of space.
2.what would cause it to be so big not like it has state of the art scipts and AI
and that #$@! head that said:
ooo i have like 60, 000mb + (
To all commenters: You’re a fucking idiot if you think open sourcing something slows development down.
C’mon Chris, that’s hardly a fair thing to say. Although I agree Open Sourced development doesn’t slow things down, its hardly a reason to yell at someone for posting their opinions.
I read similar article also named Maker’s - Garion’s Blog, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
Hahaha Answer this, i’m talking to who made this website:
There’s game-maker beta testing of compressing the game maker files into c++. The cpu usage went from 60% to 0% and ram usage went from 512mb to 4mb or less for simple games. Currently there are a beta version of c++ compressing abilty.
Good luck!
Cheers
David
One day I bet game-maker will be in jobs. You can sell game maker files that you made and make money!!! Its a great Idea of the c++ compressing method. Good luck.
Hang on, I’m a little confused by your comment - you’re saying that Game Maker 8 (in c++) reduces memory and cpu usage?
If so, well it’s basically what everyone was saying - re-writing (or open sourcing) Game Maker would reduce the memory greatly… there’s no doubt about it.
And I don’t think that game maker will be the future, its too simple to use and contains to many limitations.
Two of the most distressing issues with Game maker have always been with the way that Game maker utilizes memory and loads and room transitions which are a bit messy. Both are a bit antiquated . If you are advicating Java,you may want to check out “Enigma” which is a Game Maker Clone originally designed with Mark Overmars approval then later retracted. It performs like Java…(Very slow and unpredicatable!) Java is Not a good language for games sorry…it’s easy to learn…but C++,Delphi and Visual Basic all outperform Java. The big Trash Bucket Vista is largely to account for the GM7 increased bulk.
I agree with Garion here, I highly doubt Game Maker will ever be big in the future. Like Garion said, its too simple and in reality aims at a very niche audience.
Looking back on this article you have many very valid points. You’re right, there’s no reason why Game Maker should use such a huge amount of memory for simple games like that. Also, you should be able to manually adjust when each object is loaded into the RAM, like you said, between transitions, etc.
You might also consider looking into Pencyl, its similar to GameMaker/GML.
Lost - I should inform you that Pencyl is the Sprite editor of Stencyl. I think what you meant was StencylWorks.
What!? Then what’s the GML style thing?
“One day I bet game-maker will be in jobs”
Ha…Ha ha ha ha ha.
GameMaker will NEVER be used professionally, its far too weak to be a 3D engine, its not open source to those who buy it, it has an extreme amount of limitations, and with XNA/Pro-SDKs/And Middleware taking indie and professional development by storm, GameMaker looks like a mere plaything only to be used for simple Proof of Concept.
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