GameMaker is a good starting software.

Unity is also good for starting but more complex.

22 hours ago, Scouting Ninja said:

GameMaker is a good starting software.

Unity is also good for starting but more complex.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it! I actually worked with Unity while in College... honestly wasn't a fan of it. It's a good program, don't get me wrong, but like you said, it was complex.

From what I've seen though, GameMaker looks pretty promising. So I can basically get the license to use GameMaker for free, but will need to pay for a license if I want to publish my game on Steam or somewhere, right? Just want to make sure I understand.

28 minutes ago, BewitchingGames said:

So I can basically get the license to use GameMaker for free, but will need to pay for a license if I want to publish my game on Steam or somewhere, right? Just want to make sure I understand.

GameMaker has a trail version that is mostly aimed at teaching how to use game maker, it has a huge amount of limits: https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/230407528-GameMaker-Studio-2-Trial-Limitations

So no you can't publish without paying, you can't even work on your game without paying.

The prices are well balanced. You start with they trail, that you will probably use for 30-100 days, then move to the "Creator" license for $40 a year and then eventually you move to the Developer license for $100 and upwards. GameMaker is well worth the price and top quality games have been made with it: https://www.yoyogames.com/showcase

Gatod is a free engine, as in really free. It's complexity is between GameMaker and Unity. At the moment it isn't as powerful as Unity but it has a lot of supporters and should in time exceed Unity.

30 minutes ago, Scouting Ninja said:

GameMaker has a trail version that is mostly aimed at teaching how to use game maker, it has a huge amount of limits: https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/230407528-GameMaker-Studio-2-Trial-Limitations

So no you can't publish without paying, you can't even work on your game without paying.

The prices are well balanced. You start with they trail, that you will probably use for 30-100 days, then move to the "Creator" license for $40 a year and then eventually you move to the Developer license for $100 and upwards. GameMaker is well worth the price and top quality games have been made with it: https://www.yoyogames.com/showcase

 

Gatod is a free engine, as in really free. It's complexity is between GameMaker and Unity. At the moment it isn't as powerful as Unity but it has a lot of supporters and should in time exceed Unity.

I second this! GamerMaker is an amazing tool for what you're looking for.  

23 hours ago, Scouting Ninja said:

GameMaker has a trail version that is mostly aimed at teaching how to use game maker, it has a huge amount of limits: https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/230407528-GameMaker-Studio-2-Trial-Limitations

So no you can't publish without paying, you can't even work on your game without paying.

The prices are well balanced. You start with they trail, that you will probably use for 30-100 days, then move to the "Creator" license for $40 a year and then eventually you move to the Developer license for $100 and upwards. GameMaker is well worth the price and top quality games have been made with it: https://www.yoyogames.com/showcase

 

Gatod is a free engine, as in really free. It's complexity is between GameMaker and Unity. At the moment it isn't as powerful as Unity but it has a lot of supporters and should in time exceed Unity.

Oh wow, didn't realize just how much of a limitation you have by just getting the trial version... but, as you said, and from what I've seen, the prices are indeed pretty fair. $40 a year is a great deal, and $100 for a permanent license is just as good. I didn't realize so many great games came from GameMaker! I'm really going to have to give it a try here soon.

Huh, never heard of this one. But it doesn't look bad at all. Might have to keep an eye on this one.

You have to understand the trade offs.  @Scouting Ninja and myself have talked about this a few times on the forum in other threads. 

If you're into spending years learning to program and code your own game plus tools then that's an option. You'll spend a lot of time working on technical aspects before you can even create the game itself. If you go with a tool like GameMaker you can jump right into making your game, and even learn some GML along the way to add in more custom options apart from the drag and drop.

If I remember correctly, it took a few years before I could program a basic RPG with C++, and I've been at this for 18 years so I just use my own in house tools and engines for 2D. On the 3D side I prefer Unreal unless it's more simple and I "want" to invest the time into working with openGL. I would easily pay for a GameMaker license if I wasn't into programming engines and tools as well as making games.

At the end of the day we're here because we're interesting in making games, how you do it is up to you. If we reach the same end result, it doesn't matter what approach you take.

I want to point out that GameMaker's trail and prices are great deals, even with the limits they bring.

If you take the average game takes 3 years for production it means : $40 * 2 (first two years of development) then take advantage of the 30% discount and get GameMaker for $70.

That is a small cost of: $150 for a top quality 2D engine.

The only complaints I ever see about GameMaker's price is from people who dive in too deep to quick. They end up buying more than $800 of licenses, only to realize that it's going to take years to learn game development. 

My advice is , ease yourself in by using trails of engines and buy only when you find the one you like.

Other engines if you want to look around:

@Scouting Ninja

Wow, I see you used Irrlicht.  I messed with it back in the day before CopperCube ever came out.  It was really nice for the time.  But it had a strange limitation in that you couldn't use the normalmapping shaders with animated models because the animated model system didn't use a vertex format with tangents included....but for static models you were fine.  Those were the times though.

****************

I'm with the above people as far as software recommendation.  If you are just starting out(assuming you are willing to put in that small investment for at least the creator license first), I don't think there is any better software than Gamemaker at this time....for 2d games.  It has so many features that are dedicated to 2d that you don't find anywhere else.  And the scripting language GML does enough for you to script about anything, without the complication of C# and C++.  It is technically missing things though, like it is not an OOP language, you don't get classes(just one example), and some people would prefer something strongly typed(google or ask if you don't know what I mean).  But it provides tons of game specific things that you would have to code yourself(or find somewhere) in another language.

That being said, if you were to think that you might be interested in 3d in the not too distant future, your time might be better invested into learning Unity.  Gamemaker actually does 3d, but it does 3d worse than Unity does 2d.  It has shader access with some limitations(which are fine for 2d but get in the way of 3d).  So 3d work would be pretty painful.  Unity on the other hand makes 3d pretty easy...the catch is the complexity, though you would run into a fair bit of that if you did 3d in Gamemaker as well just from adding the 3rd dimension.

@Scouting Ninja, @Rutin, and @kburkhart84

I just wanna thank all three of you for the advice and information you've given me here. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to get much of any response. I'm thankful you guys took the time to give me the advice I was seeking.