Dropping Game Maker, And searching for an alternative

Such as? The only ones I can really think of is using GOTO too much, or not commenting your programs ("it's English, everybody will understand it" logic). If you learn how to program efficiently in BASIC, it can be very useful.

If you want to take a step up, I recommend Blitz3D (though I'm probably biased here, since I use it and love it). It's a variant of the BASIC programming language suited for game development, and can develop 2D as well as 3D games, though if you want full functionality in a 2D game, you'll have to use 3D features; some things, such as 2D image alpha, aren't in the 2D command set (but can be done by using "2D in 3D" capabilities). It's very easy to use though, and powerful too; even though it's a bit outdated graphically, you can still make very pretty games with it.

Coding is text-based, though, so if you really need something visual like GM, you're out of luck.

This post has been edited by MrGuy on Jan 26 2009, 02:22 PM

Try Wer!

Try Python.

Such as the fact that you only have to use one = in if statements, you don't have to do:

you can just do:

Ugh. It took me 10 freaking minutes to figure out why my program was complaining about only having 1 = in my if statement.

BTW, I use SDL, C++, and Code::Blocks(on Linux). If you use .NET or DirectX(Game Maker, Blitz3D, etc.), it doesn't allow for easy porting to other platforms, as those are Windows-specific platforms.

Can you people read? Somebody told me to use Python, when I said I am totally well versed in python already.

Somebody else seems to think I use D&D, which I detest.

Go check out Construct, it seems pretty advanced to me and it uses python and C++.

So yeah, think I have my heart set on Construct.

Also Mecha I can use my copy of MS if I go offline.

no it requires login


And the old server isn't even up anymore

This post has been edited by MechaBowser on Jan 26 2009, 03:22 PM

you can just do:

Ugh. It took me 10 freaking minutes to figure out why my program was complaining about only having 1 = in my if statement.

BTW, I use SDL, C++, and Code::Blocks(on Linux). If you use .NET or DirectX(Game Maker, Blitz3D, etc.), it doesn't allow for easy porting to other platforms, as those are Windows-specific platforms.

Yeah, I guess that's another thing too; BASIC has incompatible syntax with other languages, and it's not portable. But most people play games on Windows, anyway, so I guess the portability isn't that big of an issue (you could always run the game on WINE or something).

I actually found it quite easy to make the transition from BASIC to Java, which uses a completely different syntax. The only problem I have is that I always forget to add the semicolons at the end of each line. D:


EDIT:

If you're talking about my post about how B3D isn't visual, I wasn't saying you use D&D. It's just that in GM, everything is integrated into one program; with B3D, you might have to use several different programs, one to make the models, one to edit the world map, one for lightmapping, etc., and then use all of that output in B3D's text-based interface.

This post has been edited by MrGuy on Jan 26 2009, 03:25 PM

Yeah but Blitz codes in BASIC doesn't it?

Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?

People have made great indie games (and a few licensed games) in B3D. (For example: TECNO)

I know, but WINE isn't perfect, and I have problems playing most games(because they're all GM games, MMF and TGF work fine). I personally would be much more happy if everything was cross-platform(but I know that's probably not going to happen soon.

Oh yeah, and in b4 "use Windows"

Since everyone is batting around languages, I am going to suggest that no one takes the advice of learning something like Basic or Visual Basic for the purpose of working up to a language like Java or C++. On the same token, don't learn C as a stepping stone to learning C++. While there may be less syntax, these languages are NOT necessarily easier to use, and they will teach you habits that you will later need to unlearn to properly take advantage of C++ or Java or some other higher-level language.

RII's statement rings true for when DeVry decided it was a good idea to teach VB.NET first and then transfer the students to C#


so many students got incredibly confused, half failed the class and a quarter left the entire school half-way through the course

stencyl will be easier than mechasource

Clickteam does not sanction any scripting language for MMF/2, although lua extensions have been contributed by a couple people.

Hmm. I learned some VB.NET before any other programming languages, but it was so long ago that I pretty much forgot most things about it. Also I was really lazy in the course (still not sure how I got an A from what I did, though I'm not complaining), so I didn't actually learn as much as I should have.

Not long ago I learned some Java, and now I'm learning C++, and I don't seem to be having any really significant trouble.

Can't say for sure if not remembering what I learned first had anything to do with my fairly easy comprehension of what I'm learning now, but who knows?

"sampling" probably won't have any lasting impact. And if you're learning one of "those" languages because you specifically want to use "those" languages (like with blitz or whatever), that's fine, but don't learn one of "those" languages for the purpose of "easing" your way into a "hard" language like C++ or Java (Java's not hard folks) or something else. What you learn to make the best of "those" languages will often conflict with the new best practices you're trying to learn to begin with and it's easier to learn from scratch (which you're essentially doing anyway) than to unlearn something you already learned well.

I do think it's good to learn multiple languages though, and getting good with multiple languages will make the language barrier much easier to straddle, but I'm just trying to make the point that learning language X for the purpose of learning language Y is a misguided effort.

Yeah it's almost like saying "Learning French will help me learn Japanese"

Going from Java to C++ is a much better transition than VB.NET to C++, or any such related language, so probably because of the reasons that you didn't learn much of VB.NET, plus that it was so long ago, combined with the fact that you went and learned Java before C++, probably helped you incredibly.

Learning Latin though helps you learn French.

C is probably a good start if you want to know how a programming language works in general and want to advance to C++ later.
I mean C helps you understand what C++ does, but not necessarily if you solely want to understand C++ as a language.

learning Latin also helps learn English, and quite possibly several other languages

I agree with this. I know it from experience.