Game Maker vs. Clickteam products, Which one is better in your opinion?

I like this statement, although I'd say poorly animated graphics is not the programs fault.The low framerate issue is either the computer lacks the power, or the games framerate is chosen to be low as for most people don't design their games at 60+ frames(which is smooth)as for most run at 30 fps.In most games made with gamemaker every object is rendered include stuff out of your visible screen(view).There is a way to stop this and i have a idea but simply never tried it.Games with a Large databases can consume alot of memory and when it is preloaded(Loaded into memory before or during the startup of the game which can prevent a delay in room transitions or when a new sprite is displayed or a new sound is played)the memory consumption can be 2x and more.One thing is if a game console renders 30,000,000 triangles at 30 fps with no textures no shaders but a standard amount of lighting.The game uses alot of lighting,large textures(1024x1024,24bpp and larger)and with trilinear and bilinear texture at 640x480 with Full Scene AntiAliasing and the game uses around 14,975,000 triangles with no LOD and the game is high on particle effects.Can it render 60fps no slowdown?Can it even render 60fps?

Hmm... I've been used to The Games Factory for quite a while now, so I'm gonna have to say Clickteam products.

Very easy to develop games for. The only enemies for me are finding TIME to create those games... AND -- the BLASTED EVENTS LIST!!! *steams*

Yep -- if I don't know the Events List procedure for that enviromnet, game development for that environment goes nowhere.

By the way, if you look at my previous posts you will see that I have not stated my own opinion, which is why I am now.

I prefer GM, because I never really end up with any problems and can program basically anything I want to program. I just don't manage to create the games for the same reason most people don't. The motivation deal.

I don't think people should be instantly prejudiced against a game because of the program. I've heard people talk bad about games JUST because of the program it is created in.

Agreed on that front. And may I add this -- regardless of which development application one person uses, you STILL have to know the "code" in terms of the game creation itself. Honestly, the real test comes in how you put in the code (for Clickteam products, it's via the Events List and for Game Maker, I think it's the respected events editor there and/or the advanced GML).

What are you talking about? I don't think the program people are using make the game look bad, I think people making lousy games with the program is making THAT look bad. It's so hard to find a good Game Maker game.

I have never used a Clickteam product, but from what I hear it doesn't sound very tasty to me. You need to get a crapload of extensions to create a semi-decent game and so on.

But that's only based of what I've HEARD. The games I've PLAYED made with MMF2 speak for themselves I think. They are not worse than GM games and good GM games are not worse than MMF2 games, so you can't really say that one is better or more powerful than the other, as each has its advantages and disadvantages.
(One of GM's disadvantages being the enourmous lag because of it's interpretation in Delphi and that it seems to be easier to make crappy games with it. Can't talk about MMF's problems, because I don't use it...)

It depends on how you use each of them and on your own preference. You should only ask yourself the question which program is better, because IMO there's no objective answer on this one. (at least no one that disqualifies the other product from being used.)

I for my part prefer GM because I'm used to it and I like GML a lot.

Oh, I'm not talking about you. But there are many other people who will, when commenting badly on a game, immediately mention Game Maker as part of the cons, though nobody actually lists it.

About most Game Maker games being bad, I would refer to Black Squirrel's post, mentioning why this happens. I personally believe magic can be made with any program, such as Super Mario Stardust or even what I've done with some inferior programs that worked out really well.



P.S. Just try playing, say, SMB DDX/AME and then playing Toad Strikes Back. Different, yes, but they both share the aspect of being incredible in technical terms, despite the different programs.

This post has been edited by True Mario on Jul 6 2008, 10:42 AM

I prefer Game Maker

MMF games tend to run a lot smoother than GM games. I've tried a bit of Click Team stuff, and I think that extensions are easier to use in Click Team products than in Game Maker.

However, I like Game Maker's interface a lot better; easier to navigate in my opinion. I also like Game Maker's sprite editor more, though it's still not enough to replace external editors.

It's a good point though, too many GM games run slower than they really should be.

And if it can be fixed why aren't people fixing it? And even more interestingly why isn't it fixed by default? The one thing I don't like about GameMaker is the fact you need a reasonably high spec computer to run anything properly no matter how optimized your code is or whatever. And also how 30FPS is a default framerate.

MMF2 loads things pretty much straight away even on old computers. That's why I like it better.

1: First of all, I think we all hate Clickteam/Game Maker warz.

2: I have to say (or type) that I choose Multimedia Fusion 2. It is simple and got it's limits, but on the other side, Game Maker hasn't got any limits! But is hard to make working engines and, especially, games. For me.

GM is programmed in Delphi and the GML is interpreted, not compiled.
Delphi is rather slow anyway, and so GM is also slow.
This and GM runs a ****load of stuff in the background, even if you don't need that at all, like built-in variables, collisions, etc.
So it basically does everything you need and everything it thinks that you might need and this slows stuff down.

GM has limits, on of them being the speed. You could theoretically do everything with it you could do in a real language, but due to it being interpreted, you'll always hit a speed limit unless you have a computer of the NASA.

well, no object is really the same unless you give it the same sprite, and same actions. but if your saying like in mmf you choose if the object is "active" or a "backdrop" you cant really do that. you have to make it do that.
in some cases gm is more work. but it can also create extremely good games

I only have one thing to say..
very well put guinea...

Does MMF have an option for animated backgrounds, or do you need to have a rapid background changes like in Game Maker? Because if it does, that's another thing it has over GM.

This post has been edited by Pucifur on Jul 6 2008, 12:44 PM

not directly but animated active objects or the background images extension would work provided they aren't HUEG or they'll lag

EDIT: i guess if someone's really feeling hot, they could set up a tile-based background with text blitter and replace only the pieces that need changed... sounds like absolute fun

This post has been edited by Xgoff on Jul 6 2008, 01:15 PM

Neither, because they don't work on Linux and are commercial and closed-source

I've used GM a lot, and a only a little bit of TGF. The latter sucked by the way.

Well, I can't say.

I have used only Game Maker (I have used many versions), and I still think 4.3 is the best one so far. But, many things can be done better with QBASIC or other program languages, than with Game Maker. When I finish make ForthBASIC then it will hopefully be better than QBASIC for many things

This post has been edited by zzo38 on Jul 6 2008, 02:22 PM

Here's the secret to MMF2- it isn't very limited at all if you actually learn how to use it and have some experience with it. Just because it's easier to get into than GM doesn't mean there isn't a learning curve.

This post has been edited by strong414bad on Jul 6 2008, 03:32 PM

There doesn't need to be rapid background changes.You can use objects sprites or etc. to act as a background cause in gm you can change an objects appearence.Also the specs to run gamemaker isn't high but simply isn't friendly with old or certain computers.It actually depends on the game.In my experiments my computer can run around 100 objects with data in them including 2 backgrounds at an inconsistent 70fps without technology of today(2007-08).