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How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

gamemakerblog.com

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Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#41

Post by krapp »

cygwin98 wrote: post #35
j_s wrote: post #3

So many cross-platform game building tools available these days... hard to know which one would be worth learning! Personally I see Unity as having the most possibilities; I guess I'll add GameMaker to the list of things to check out. One general thought I have is how hard it would be to use these for business apps... particularly the reporting/dashboard style where there isn't as much need for standard CRUD input co…

Html5 sounds a perfect fit for the use cases you talked about.

cough Construct2 cough

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#42

Post by krapp »

X4 wrote: post #11

I would suggest using Maratis instead, because GameMaker is inferior and Maratis can be coded using Lua instead of that the GameMaker language + you can combine efforts with Blender etc. Follow the discussion if interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6096808

"because GameMaker is inferior" isn't really a valid argument for anything.

I personally don't like a lot of the syntax in GML but I find GameMaker a perfectly fine tool for making 2d games.

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#43

Post by krapp »

amarsahinovic wrote: post #15
X4 wrote: post #11

I would suggest using Maratis instead, because GameMaker is inferior and Maratis can be coded using Lua instead of that the GameMaker language + you can combine efforts with Blender etc. Follow the discussion if interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6096808

GameMaker is focued on 2D games[0], where Maratis is focused on 3D games (from what I can see). It would be better to compare Maratis to Unity3D. [0] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/177983/

You can make 3d games in GameMaker as well though i've always though it was really probably not the best use of it. I haven't seen any 3d GM games which blew me away in any case ... and i've never made any.

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#44

Post by Nekorosu »

derefr wrote: post #25
Nekorosu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Spelunky was made with GameMaker. It was extremely enjoyable to play which led to the development of the XBox version. It contradicts your statement "it's unfortunate that the process doesn't result in games that are particularly enjoyable to play.", doesn't it? Also I'm sure the dev tools don't play such a big part in the gameplay's quality of the result as you think.

Game Maker is scriptable in a Turing-complete language, so of course you can make anything in it--it's just a matter of blind determination. VBA is also Turing-complete, which means you can write your game in Powerpoint. (It's a lot like Flash, in fact.) But I don't see many people doing that, and for good reason. :) But I think another, more devious way to phrase "it's unfortunate that the process doesn't result in…

I can see your point but I can also see a clash with reality because a lot of successful mobile games are built with lua-based game engines. Maybe the clash is due to the fact bad code has nothing to do with the quality of the gameplay and rather simple game with a top-notch gameplay can be build with duct tape and bubble gum.

From my experience the tools which enable makers to create better gameplay are the tools which enable a very fast iterative development process (think live assets reloading, parameters tweaking without recompilation and ultimately code hotswapping).

Talking about strong typing it does help if you need to scale your simple game into something more complex. It also helps a lot if you are going to build something complex right from the start.

I think this link is absolutely relevant to both of our points: http://elm-lang.org/blog/Interactive-Programming.elm

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#45

Post by powertower »

colkassad wrote: post #33
mratzloff wrote: post #26

So if I can sum up: the author made some games with Game Maker, made a small profit, then started primarily making libraries for Game Maker. Now he buys GameMakerBlog.com and posts an article about how much money you can make with Game Maker and you should really use it.

So in effect, a standard HN submission.

Almost, but no cake. It lacked the details of how the NSA was ruining his life.

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#46

Post by derefr »

Nekorosu wrote: post #44
derefr wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game Maker is scriptable in a Turing-complete language, so of course you can make anything in it--it's just a matter of blind determination. VBA is also Turing-complete, which means you can write your game in Powerpoint. (It's a lot like Flash, in fact.) But I don't see many people doing that, and for good reason. :) But I think another, more devious way to phrase "it's unfortunate that the process doesn't result in…

I can see your point but I can also see a clash with reality because a lot of successful mobile games are built with lua-based game engines. Maybe the clash is due to the fact bad code has nothing to do with the quality of the gameplay and rather simple game with a top-notch gameplay can be build with duct tape and bubble gum. From my experience the tools which enable makers to create better gameplay are the tools wh…

Note that I didn't say anything about the programming quality of the resultant games. Gameplay is a matter of design quality. We can build tools that help us make better games, but they have nothing to do with programming tools (tools that help us make games, better.)

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#47

Post by astrodust »

amarsahinovic wrote: post #18
astrodust wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he's doing this well with GameMaker, a tool like Unity would open up even more possibilities. It's like someone saying they're successful as a landscaper with merely a shovel. Invest in a backhoe and you'll get a lot more done.

As with everything else in life, it depends. If you want to build 3D games, then by all means, use Unity (or equivalent). But if you want to build 2D games, I think that GameMaker does a good job (I know you can do 2D games with Unity, but still).

Unity offers a full C# or JavaScript(-esque) development environment, far more flexible than GameMaker. It also supports 2D or 3D depending on your preference, even allowing you to switch between them if you want. Keep in mind a lot of "2D" games are really just 3D ones with no depth because OpenGL and Direct3D are the only way to do real-time graphics.

Unity "free" is superior to GameMaker in virtually every regard, and the Unity Pro version, which costs three times as much, is a significantly more capable platform.

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#48

Post by TrueValhalla »

lifeformed wrote: post #27
phoyce wrote: post #12

Interesting that people are trying to dissuade the OP from using GameMaker. From reading his post it appears he is doing very well for himself and most importantly he is happy. I don't see much incentive for him to learn a completely new tool at this point. Nice post OP. Keep up the good work.

GameMaker has gotten a LOT better in the last few years. It was pretty stagnant for a while, but now it's multiplatform and has got lots of great features for 2D work. I think people still associate GM with amateur games, but the lines are blurring now.

GameMaker Studio Master Collection now costs a tidy sum of $799.99, compared to $25 for GameMaker 7 a few years ago. Definitely a shift towards a more professionally orientated market.

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#49

Post by TrueValhalla »

ukdm wrote: post #8
speeder wrote: post #5

I suggest people make a living with OTHER tools than GameMaker. GameMaker although was a good tool, has a horrible company handling it, they put some terrible DRM there (there are lots of horror stories on internet if you look around), their support suck, and they are outright hostile to people dare to try to contract them directly to complain about something. Also I learned this the hard way (I was warned, but decid…

I don't believe that to be the case, at least not any more. The lead devs are quite active on Twitter, they have a bug reporting system all users can take advantage of, the documentations is growing, and the DRM you speak of is no longer in place and they admitted it was a bad decision (after the skulls incident). It's becoming a very solid toolset that can produce games for most platforms and does not require a plug…

Heh, we actually broke the 'skull & crossbones' DRM story on Game Maker Blog, and it was picked up by a variety of major sites (ie. Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/drm-error-causes-probl...)

Re: How I Make A Living Using GameMaker

#50

Post by kbenson »

saejox wrote: post #34
speeder wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beside the skull incident the guy in the other reply mentioned, we had for example: DRM from Game Maker 6 and 7, made the software refuse to launch entirely sometimes, it was specially worse when other products with the same DRM were installed (interestingly, the other products worked fine... I believe GM implementation of the DRM that was particularly broken). Also the forums frequently had people complaining of the…

Sound's terrible. Also, the blog's author sounds just like "I'm earning $10000 a month, click here to learn about it" ads. I suspect he is in collusion with yoyo games.

I suspect if there is a relationship, it's not very nefarious. More of a "Hey, you like us and have some popular games using us. We'll give you X dollars to write more of the same posts you already are." type of thing. I don't see anything particularly wrong with that (the best promoter is someone who believes in your product), but when more control over content is asserted, that's when it becomes fuzzy...
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