Trying to switch from Gamemaker to other for 2d games only
Author
Hi! My name is Anton. I am not a programer but I like to make games and even small "applications" with Gamemaker. My job is stenographer, was an artist somekind :D Coding seamed impossible for me but my desire to make 2d isometric strategies (RTS) are so big that I spent 5 years learning gamemaker which was not easy. I am far away from mathematic. During the time I invented and collected almost everything or everything that I need to make RTS and now I am remaking my old project to become faster and better in any other aspects. Here some screens from the old version: http://mc.pleistorm.com/html/screens.html
The problem that occured is that the old Gamemaker (GM) version 6.1 can not run in Vista (I am using XP still), there is v. 7, basically it is 6.2, which can but it's licence is new type and is crashing and have to wait 10 or more days, even weeks for new licence. And it can crash again immediately. You see it is impossible to work with this. Nobody knows when will be released the new version and what licence will have it. So this problem is serious for me, especially if I decide to make commersial games.
I decide to learn other application and tried some but red some complaints from some users they are slow too. GM's game are slow too if they are big, but I found some solutions. Program languages like C++, C#, VBasic, etc will bring more power and security. But being absolute noob at that I can not decide. Some programmers (not gameprogrammers) adviced me to use C# as it is very powerfull and easy to learn, some others - Visual Basic.
I am interesting only in 2d isometric and arcade games, not 3d. Which will be the easiest solution with enough power? Probably I will not switch immediately but bit by bit...
Like others, I would suggest C# because of the XNA platform you can develop games on. Visual Basic is a great starter language, but the graphics API's you'll code to develop your graphics with will become very difficult to implement (there are versions of XNA in VB but it isn't official yet).
You mention creating commercial games, I would definitely steer away from GameMaker for any commercial games (unless you are Indie targeting an Indie audience). XNA has loads of tutorials out there and if you have a problem they've got a great, helpful development community. XNA also has starter kits so if you want an RPG, you can start an RPG Starter Kit project and you already have a working RPG, you just need to modify it as you see fit. Unfortunately I don't think there is a strategy starter kit yet but the developers are always asking the community what new kits they should make.
If you purchase a premium XNA account (XNA is free unless you get the premium account) you get access to Torque X which is an even easier engine to build games with.
Good Luck!
You mention creating commercial games, I would definitely steer away from GameMaker for any commercial games (unless you are Indie targeting an Indie audience). XNA has loads of tutorials out there and if you have a problem they've got a great, helpful development community. XNA also has starter kits so if you want an RPG, you can start an RPG Starter Kit project and you already have a working RPG, you just need to modify it as you see fit. Unfortunately I don't think there is a strategy starter kit yet but the developers are always asking the community what new kits they should make.
If you purchase a premium XNA account (XNA is free unless you get the premium account) you get access to Torque X which is an even easier engine to build games with.
Good Luck!
Author
About Torque 2d - I am trying it right these days but I am afraid from failing into something_like_gamemaker again.
Author
I never tried it seriously, but Reiner Prokein (if I wrote it right) said a lot of times that games made with it eats a lot of resources...?
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