So I'm pretty much a newbie in this, despite several attempts before. I'm still deciding where to get start with. I'm currently looking at either GameMaker or Unity3D. My dream goal is to make a character action game (DMC,Metal Gear Rising, Killer is Dead, etc). My main problem that made me failed on several attempts before is coding. I consider myself to have ZERO programming knowledge (no, I'm not trying to be humble, HONEST). Of course I realize the game I'll be able to make is no where the scale of the games I mentioned. So which game engine should I pursue and is there any recommendation of techniques I should be learning to code?

So you're saying I should just learn general programming? Because right now I'm thinking of devoting my free time(since I'm a student) to learn coding/scripting of a game engine.

So you're saying I should just learn general programming? Because right now I'm thinking of devoting my free time(since I'm a student) to learn coding/scripting of a game engine.

Using a engine like Unity for example does not mean that you shouldn't learn to program.

Granted, a lot of the low level stuff (game loop, rendering, audio, ...) is already being taken care of for you. But as soon as your game logic is faintly more elaborate, the behaviour scripts you have to write will quickly grow in complexity.

So yes, learning programming is certainly no waste of time.

Now, lets assume you are impatient, and you already made up your mind that you want to pursue using an engine, and you are not so much interested in the arcane arts of programming (like graphic programming or writing an engine), but you want to create stunning level designs and come up with a cool game.

There is no one stopping you from cutting the usual beginners games like pong and breakout short and dive into using the engine head first. Yes, you can and will pick up some programming knowledge along the way for certain (else there your game will not do much ).

Now, be aware that using an engine as a tool itself needs some additional learning. Altough popular engines like Unity try to make it easy for newcomers to get started both by making most things quite intuitive and by giving you a huge amount of tutorials, there is an awful lot you need to know about 3D Rendering, Audio tech, and the internals of game coding to really use the tool to its full extent.

That is why a lot of people will tell you to start small, and most of them will tell you to outside of an engine with simpler projects.

Be aware of 2 things:

1) without coding, you need a very good tool/engine to create even simple games, and you need to forget about anything more complex (apart from outright copying the game logic of an existing game, like what is done often with modding)

2) game development needs time and Skill... lots of both

2a) You will need a lot of time to learn the skills to successfully create anything complex. We are talking years here.

2b) If you start developing a game on your own, you need to cover a lot of quite different skills. Some things can be taken from the net for free, some can be bought. In the end, you will have to put everything together, so you WILL need basic knowledge in these topics: 2D Drawing and design, 3D Modelling, Programming, basic Audio knowledge, Game + Level design.

Now, your engine question:

As Postie already said, from a technical point of view the choice of the right game engine is not so important. Most of the big ones cover the same ground more or less, all of them have strong points and weaknesses... nothing you as a newcomer should really care about.

The Indie Engines are more different (because they tend to have a smaller group of devs they need to "pick theri battles" and tend to focus on doing a small amount of things well instead of everything just ok)... but again, you as a newcomer shouldn't be to worried about it.

What you should concentrate on is the following: Does this engine have a large community (so you can ask questions if you get stuck)? How many tutorials on using this engine are out there (for learning the basics, tutorials are really good)?

I can recommend Unity because it ticks both boxes. But I guess Unreal 4 is also good in both points.

In the end, there is no "Best engine"... it depends on how well you can utilize the engine. That is why you should stop worrying about picking the right engine now, find good tutorials / learning resources and jump in head first.

You can always switch to a different engine or language once you get more expierience and start disliking your choice. The basics you learn with Unity and C# for example you can transfer over to UE4 and C++ without problems. There will be differences and new things to learn, but you will pick this things up much quicker because you already know all the other stuff.

Okay say I want to go with GameMaker. I keep seeing people say that's where they got started. Should I just go on Youtube and find tutorial videos or that isn't enough for me to learn coding? Anyone got experience with GameMaker?

No expierience with GameMaker here, but why are you not just watching the tutorials and judge for yourself if these tutorials are helpful for you?

Certainly, following tutorials is how most people learned programming. Even at school, its what people usually do at some point. You might miss out on important basic concepts if you do the tutorials without the additional theoretical lecture, but good tutorials will also give you some of the theoretical background if this is possible within the limits of their timeframe.

When you try it and get stuck on a particular problem, THEN come back and ask questions.

why are you not just watching the tutorials and judge for yourself if these tutorials are helpful for you?

Well I said before, this isn't my first attempt. I'm not good at this topic and pretty much a slow learner. That, or I just keep finding bad tutorial videos. However, I'll try giving it another shot again.

If you want to make something like games you mention, you need to learn programing and you can't do it alone(at least not in reasonable time).
Game engine is nothing more than a tool and tool is good how good your skills are.

I would recommend starting from here, they have general programing course and Unity lessons.
After you finish some courses i think you will know in which direction to go.

why are you not just watching the tutorials and judge for yourself if these tutorials are helpful for you?

Well I said before, this isn't my first attempt. I'm not good at this topic and pretty much a slow learner. That, or I just keep finding bad tutorial videos. However, I'll try giving it another shot again.

Well, If you watched a tutorial and couldn't figure something out you should have learned from the tutorial, I would take that particular question to the forum. You certainly would get a quick response and you could keep asking questions until either you have understood the concepts or all people in the forum are fed up with your questions (I guess the first case would happen ).

Not trying to troll here or anything, it is just a trillion times harder for people to give you a helpful response when you ask them vague questions like "should I watch tutorials?" - yes of course... "will I learn something from it?" - If you learn something from it is up to you, but that would be the plan of a tutorial... "which engine to pick?" - Well, what do you need exactly?

As per the FAQ, try to find information on your own (like watching tutorials like you did), try to apply / Learn what you found, and when you get stuck, prepare your question (try to phrase it in a way that makes it easy to understand the question), then post it on the forum.

To come back to your situation:

Why exactly were the Gamemaker tutorials bad? Bad like in hard to understand the concepts? Bad like in too advanced for you to follow the topic? Bad as in a hard to understand the speaker? Bad examples chosen? ...

There are a ton of tutorials out there on most subjects... there are just as many bad ones as there are good ones. Chances are the tutorial was not bad, but it was just to advanced for you, so please specify more what the problem exactly is with the tutorials you already checked.

That will also help people that DO have Gamemaker expierience in chosing the right tutorial to recommend to you.