Editor-based game dev: Game Maker, Construct 2, etc.

[Jackolantern]

For years I never really considered any of the supposed "programming-free" game developer tools like Construct 2, Game Maker Studio or Stencyl, and figured they were just there to make simple "Click the Clown" type games for devs who don't know how to program. This was largely based on checking-out a trial of Game Maker some years back and seeing it was pretty much exactly that.

However, as I was looking for tools for cross-platform mobile game development, I kept seeing them mentioned over and over again and decided to check out their website. I have to say these tools have come a long, long way. Some of the games made with them are quite impressive, and even have been fairly popular on Android and iOS. Some of their features are quite powerful-sounding, such as with Game Maker Studio (GMS), with push-button deployment for a variety of mobile OSes, built-in physics, etc.

I guess what I am worried about is getting stuck where I need more programming control. GMS seems to have good support for their own scripting language, but I don't quite see that in Construct 2 (all I can find in their documentation is scripting "plugins", which doesn't sound like it is a major feature of the platform), and I am not sure what Stencyl offers. GMS is definitely the most expensive of the bunch, clocking-in at $500 if you want to be able to export to all platforms.

Obviously I could just program everything from scratch, but if these really do deliver on what they promise, it may vastly speed-up development and allow dead-simple cross-platform deployment.

Has anyone here used any of these modern editor-based game development packages? What did you think compared to coding everything from scratch? Did it offer good programming control if the user knows how to program? Were you able to make anything with it?

[Callan S.]

I've used game maker a fair bit for a number of years - certainly it's starting tutorial is click the clown. But you switch to its advanced mode and the scripting boxes show up in the drag and drop menu.

Have you seen Spelunky? That started out as a game maker game (and may still be in it's new X-box format, IDK)

It allows for very fine manipulation, IMO. But at the same time you can leave stuff to the editor to handle. To me game maker seems more like a focused programming language than an editor.

Just try the free version? You can do coding in that. Just switch it to advanced mode (in the main file menu, IIRC)

It's a shame Mike Overmars didn't sell more copies when he owned it (okay, I didn't buy it when he owned it either - my bad!). He made an amazing program, really.

[vitinho444]

I've used Game Maker, when it was Game Maker 6 and 7.

Used it to start a little top down shooter series called Shoot2Survive. I remember that i made the graphics in the GM's Paint application and they looked terrible
Although i never scripted in it.. You have a drop down list with lots of input and actions so there's no need to script for simple games like top-down shooters or anything like that.

I think, imo, that today i would prefer doing it from scratch in allegro than using GM. It's more prestigious, and you learn more.

Didn't checked up on the others though.

@Callan
I saw that Spelunky and jesus Random Generated levels are the future.. I need to learn how to make those

[Jackolantern]

Thanks for the replies!

As far as coding it from scratch, the problem there is I am after cross-platform mobile support, of which it seems Game Maker Studio (supposedly completely different from Game Maker) excels at. I am also not sure if there is any real "prestige" to coding from scratch, as most players don't understand or care about how the game was made.

And yeah, I saw that Spelunky was originally made in Game Maker Although it was probably ported to Xbox Live Arcade, it is still impressive that a number of GM games have gone on to bigger and better things.

[vitinho444]

Thanks for the replies!

As far as coding it from scratch, the problem there is I am after cross-platform mobile support, of which it seems Game Maker Studio (supposedly completely different from Game Maker) excels at. I am also not sure if there is any real "prestige" to coding from scratch, as most players don't understand or care about how the game was made.

And yeah, I saw that Spelunky was originally made in Game Maker Although it was probably ported to Xbox Live Arcade, it is still impressive that a number of GM games have gone on to bigger and better things.

Well for the first reason, true
The prestige... its true too.. but the important is how you feel But you're right. My example was like, a 3D Fps in Unity. Now imagine the same game made from scratch.. What's more prestigious for the people that understand? The second one. Look at Amnesia. I hate terror games, but i love that engine so well made, good physics, good lighting, sounds.. jesus.

When i used GM there was one 3d game that was like GTA. Nowadays i imagine the coding behind that...

[Jackolantern]

Very cool! And I hear you. I guess I am just looking for something to help me finish projects, regardless of what it is.

I think you may like to see this. It was intended to be a sampling of various indie-friendly game engines while getting short, structured interviews with the indie devs behind one of each tool's most popular games.

What struck me was that even for smaller engines that most of us don't really think about and in some cases some even don't view as "real game development" (Adventure Game Studio, RPG Maker XP), there are successful indie devs who are even making decent money on their creations with it. Gamer Maker has Spelunky, one of the most popular games on Xbox Live Arcade. RPG Maker XP has To The Moon, which won massive praise and even many publications' "...of the Year" awards (including GameSpot's "Story of the Year" award, where it was competing with non-indie games such as Catherine, Xenoblade and Portal 2) and was accepted to Steam.

A good game is a good game, no matter what it was made with, I guess. Looking through that list has really made me open my eyes with what is possible, regardless of tools or engine used, even though we have known that for a while now. It turns out that the article linked in that post was actually written by the author of Spelunky. Interesting coincidence

[vitinho444]

Wow nice topic there I've read the game maker and unity part and i liked it.

Yeah it doesn't matter much but it helps.. I think that most of the players looking at the RPG Maker XP graphics and Allegro i would go Allegro.

Yes very nice coincidence That topic already helped me figure some things out.

[Jackolantern]

True, but the idea that there are "RPG Maker XP" graphics is really kind of a failure of their community. Very few projects over there invest the time and/or money in custom artwork, and instead work with what comes with the engine, creating an "RPG Maker" look. But just like all games engines, it is simply displaying sprites, so you could have any 2D look you wanted to have. For example, To The Moon, to my knowledge, uses no stock art or music at all. I was actually familiar with the game and had seen it on GameSpot and IGN before I even knew it was made with RPG Maker

[vitinho444]

Yeah but when i think of RPG Maker I think that battle system 4v4 and that tile based sprites that are already in the engine and that pokemon-like interaction with NPC's etc etc, because it's what most users use since they are starting game dev.