What do you think about a program similar to Game Maker?

[AndrewAPrice]

I'm starting a project that's similar to Game Maker. It's called Visual Game Developer and so far I've written a sprite editor.

Right now it's targeting Windows, but later I'm going to target Linux and mobile platforms.

I'm wondering what opinions everyone has with a project like this. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to include in the project, or how to make it stand out?

[Solar]

It's called Visual Game Developer...

...which will get you into trouble with Microsoft if you should ever achieve major success...

I didn't vote. The idea is good, of course - just like the idea to write a better OS, or finding a cure for cancer...

[AndrewAPrice]

It's called Visual Game Developer...

...which will get you into trouble with Microsoft if you should ever achieve major success...

I didn't vote. The idea is good, of course - just like the idea to write a better OS, or find a cure for cancer...

I was going to rename it to Visual Game Studio (even worse for MS), but I already designed the splash screen by then.

[Cheery]

The idea is great, but think it further. Unless you happen to be a total language evangelist, you prefer tools, very incredible, powerful and neat tools. Take emacs for example.

What difference some gamestudio and excellent programming environment would have? They are almost analogous!

So, why wouldn't you just do a great programming environment instead of wanking out with games only? If your game development environment is good enough, it'll go for 'real' programmers too.

[Combuster]

Note: I'm following a course game design which is lectured by the same person who created gamemaker, and hence i have to use it for several assignments

Right now it's targeting Windows, but later I'm going to target Linux and mobile platforms.

The idea is very nice. Almost all GCSs i know are either for DOS or for windows. (there is dosbox for the first tho...)

So, why wouldn't you just do a great programming environment instead of wanking out with games only? If your game development environment is good enough, it'll go for 'real' programmers too.

Agreed. I prefer a good environment with the ability to do all the things i want, rather than using a poorly usable interface. I doubt i'd use gamemaker even though it has more than i've written myself, since you can't make it do anything without loading directx and showing a splash screen.
In fact i think merging something like unrealed with visual basic would result in the best game develpment suite in existance.

In fact, i still prefer Visual Basic 5/6 for writing games for having everything i need (the only reason i try not to use it is that it doesnt do portable code)

Anyway, some things that GM (and several other GCSs) lack:
- The ability to set properties of an instance during design. i.e. i cant have one object and attach a specific spritesheet to it. If i want that, i need to create a new object for each spritesheet i want to use.
- A proper debugger
- The ablitiy to keep data separate from code, as well as some CVS/SVN compatibility: GM stores EVERYTHING in one big file.

[Alboin]

From my experience with game maker, I have come to think that by the time you have played around with a complex all in one game development suit, you could have just as well developed a better made game with normal C++, Lua, and SDL. (Although, this is from someone who has never completed making a game in his life ) Albeit I suppose general tools (eg: sprite editor, animation editor, map editor, etc.) would be useful throughout any method of game development.

[JackScott]

I've used both game makers and game programming languages, and I must say I prefer the latter. With game makers, it is incredibly hard not to end up with games that all look the same, because nobody likes doing the scripting, and just play with the defaults a little. As soon as you get into scripting, you may as well be using a programming language.

In addition, the programming language is useful for things other than games. I use BlitzBasic all the time for whipping up small utility apps, much like others would use Perl. It's also great for prototyping.

[AndrewAPrice]

Even with 5:2 votes against so far, I'm still going to work on it. Right now I have written Sprite Editor, Background Editor, and Object Editor, and the saving and loading of projects.

[Brendan]

Hi,

I'd probably start with Ogre3D, GCC/Mingw and Code::Blocks, and then add another library for making the interface to Ogre easier (e.g. generic functions like "loadScene(fileName)", etc), then full sound, keyboard, mouse and joystick support (either from SDL or elsewhere). Then I'd extend Code::Blocks with inbuilt tools (bitmap editors, 3D modelling tools, scene creators, etc).

Lastly, I'd add some generic templates (a 2D platform game template, a 3D FPS template, etc) that people can change and extend (rather than writing from scratch).

If done right, everything would be cross-platform from the start, and you'd be able to provide platform specific downloads (so that users can just download a single package/installer that installs everything needed).


Cheers,

Brendan

[jhawthorn]

My suggestion would be to allow editing of maps and sprites while the game is being played/tested. Also, personally I would recommend making the game wrap around python/pygame (allows me to write games in ~20 mins) with simply a more visual interface to editing classes.

[AndrewAPrice]

I've finished the Sprite Editor, Background Editor, and Level Editor (changing background options and adding/moving/removing objects).

The Object editor is functional except you can't add events yet, and without events you can't really do much (no event for OnKeyDown, OnMouseClick, etc).

All I have to do now is:
- Add events to the object editor
- Fix saving/loading of projects
- Get my compiler working (I've been doing basic testing now)
- Build a few example games
- Fix any bugs (IIRC I fixed most I've seen as they've appeared - I've been writing very defensively)

Then I'll have Version 1!

For future versions I'll include:
- a script editor (most likely LUA-based)
- a sound editor

Then I'll have Version 1.01

[Steve the Pirate]

At first I thought it would be a bad idea, but on second thought, it could be pretty good if done properly. It would be cool if it could compile executables of games for both supported platforms, so you could make a cool game, and compile Linux and Windows versions from the same program.

-Stephen