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Author Topic: So I want to make a fan game :/...  (Read 2875 times)

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Hoffy

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So I want to make a fan game :/...
« on: October 21, 2007, 05:05:34 am »
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Yeah, so, I've been really wanting to make my own fan game lately. I don't know if I want it to be a Zelda fan game or an independent, original game, but that's irrelevant, I just want to make one. The problem: I don't know how to code well... or at all. And I'd rather not "hire a coder" because if it's anything I learnt from when I was making TLoZFGC, you gotta have the skills to do basically everything yourself.

So my question is, for those of you who learnt GML, what did you actually do to learn it well?
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Hoffy.
Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2007, 05:16:07 am »
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Practice, if you want to be good at something that is what you need to do, read the manual, get some examples and try it, the same goes for spriting, designing, drawing, etc.. You should ask King Mob, he is the all around guy. .
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Hoffy

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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2007, 05:29:55 am »
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Well that's the problem. I know that I need to practice, I just don't know where to start. That's why I'm asking how people how they learnt it well :P.
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Hoffy.
Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2007, 05:40:44 am »
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I learned from the GM help file pretty much :/ With no programming experience prior to either (I don't think rm2k counts at all as programming). Other than that, download examples and tutorials from the GM site as well as the forums. If you get completely stumped, post your problem here or at the GM forums.

I picked up on it pretty fast, and even after a couple of years I'm always learning new things and making my code more effecient, but I still say the best place to get started is GM Help file.
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Giverny

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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2007, 08:37:01 am »
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I found a basic tutorial on the internetz, and then I downloaded Zelda Engine 2 from Kousou Games. I studied it, added, subtracted, multiplyed and now I know (most) GML.
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2007, 11:48:11 am »
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I just read up the whole tutorial before starting programming (okay, some more advanced parts I think I didn't read at first, such as online multiplayer and 3D) then made one or two minigames. But in fact GML is my second language >.> VB was my first language. With VB things were completely different. I didn't have a tutorial (I only got a simple explanation of the basics of the language from a friend), so I had to figure out most of the properties and functions... I spent about 1 year doing every sort of minigame that came to my mind (in the end they were... more than 40 in total), in order to test my abilities, and only when "my creativity for minigames faded away" I started developing RPGs... But I've concluded very few "big" games, they were only 1 action-RPG and 2 strategy games... Most of the RPGs were stopped in the very beginning because I always find something wrong/boring in the story and start a new one.
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2007, 04:01:23 pm »
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Well I learned GM with GM5 (and still use GM5) so I'm not sure if there's any tutorials anymore... but I learned drag and drop from them (mostly the maze tutorial).  Then I learned the code for each of the drag and drop commands (I used a program called Action Decoder but everything is in the manual anyway) and I just used the manual to look up anything that was more specific.  Code is alot easier to use if you already know some C / C++ / Java because alot of the syntax is the same... you need to know how to use loops, if statements, arrays, etc.  Also you should look at a few examples to see different ways of doing things and choose whichever way works best.
With me my first game wasn't that good (and I never finished) but I learned alot from making it and I could probably go back and remake it sometime if I wanted to.  If you do any big project then you'll probably learn while making it... but stuff you do in the beginning might need to be redone if you figure out a better way later (which you probably will... I'm currently working on a Pokémon-style RPG and the battle engine itself has been entirely redone at least 2 or 3 times)
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2007, 04:09:59 pm »
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I looked at the code from other games, and made slight modifications here and there. For example, say the script calls for red text (c_red). I would change it to blue text by replacing c_red with c_blue. Simple modifications such as this will slowly evolve until you're quite proficient in GML.

At least, that's how I did it.
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2007, 05:31:09 pm »
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making a 100% original fan game may be kinda tough :P

but i started from doing whatever simple crap with the drop and drag crap in GM, but then i found dayjo, who started to teach me how to code crap and went through making some simple ocarina playing engine with me rofl

but really, all i've done is checked out many examples from the gmc often, tried editing them to do stuff how you want to do it etc

and then just thinking up your own ideas for really simple small engines and going for it. using code from other examples you have/can find to help out etc and just building up your knowledge from experiencing many different things many times

but follow existing game examples and trying to change them and using code from them to make your own whatever really helps imo

stuff like memorising commands and functions and whatever is 110% useless though
as in GM there's a library of those at the bottom of code, that matches what you're typing, so say you want something to do with a sprite, type in "sprite" and you'll get all commands and functions starting with sprite so you can just browse through, see whats good and then search for that specific one in the help. also of course you can generally search in the help and look through things that look like they're on the right track and find whatever. GM's help is really handy and i do exactly what i just said all the time because i forget many commands/functions/whatever :P

but all in all, just getting experience of how stuff works and building up via examples is probably the best way imo
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2007, 06:03:03 pm »
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How I'm currently trying to learn 2D in OpenGL:
1) Get the most basic understanding of whatever it is (GML for you, OpenGL) and the commands
2) Find an open source version of doing so, for my purposes I chose YAGL, a C++ graphics library.
3) Read the code and figure out what roughly does what
4) Look up any commands you don't understand
5) Try to replicate some of the effects yourself in your own code
6) Try to find ways of improving the code
7) Repeat stages 2-6

This works for me, so maybe it'll work for you and GML.
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2007, 06:09:18 pm »
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Quote from: TheDarkJay on October 21, 2007, 06:03:03 pm
How I'm currently trying to learn 2D in OpenGL:
1) Get the most basic understanding of whatever it is (GML for you, OpenGL) and the commands
2) Find an open source version of doing so, for my purposes I chose YAGL, a C++ graphics library.
3) Read the code and figure out what roughly does what
4) Look up any commands you don't understand
5) Try to replicate some of the effects yourself in your own code
6) Try to find ways of improving the code
7) Repeat stages 2-6
Number 2 is impossible for GM, since it's copyrighted...
And numbers 3-5 are simpler in GM since it's much easier, cleaner and simpler than OpenGL <_<
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2007, 06:41:41 pm »
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but, those steps are after you know how to program and can impliment such things well >_<
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2007, 07:00:07 pm »
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Quote from: sjegtp on October 21, 2007, 06:09:18 pm
Quote from: TheDarkJay on October 21, 2007, 06:03:03 pm
How I'm currently trying to learn 2D in OpenGL:
1) Get the most basic understanding of whatever it is (GML for you, OpenGL) and the commands
2) Find an open source version of doing so, for my purposes I chose YAGL, a C++ graphics library.
3) Read the code and figure out what roughly does what
4) Look up any commands you don't understand
5) Try to replicate some of the effects yourself in your own code
6) Try to find ways of improving the code
7) Repeat stages 2-6
Number 2 is impossible for GM, since it's copyrighted...
And numbers 3-5 are simpler in GM since it's much easier, cleaner and simpler than OpenGL <_<

By open source I meant the .GMD(?) file.

And by Basic understanding I meant (for GML) the basic IF that kind of thing, by Basic OpenGL I mean like the basic things you can put into glBegin( ) :p
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #13 on: October 21, 2007, 07:23:35 pm »
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Quote from: TheDarkJay on October 21, 2007, 07:00:07 pm
By open source I meant the .GMD(?) file.
Sorry, I understood something else. :P
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Giverny

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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2007, 06:00:17 am »
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Quote from: hawthorneluke on October 21, 2007, 05:31:09 pm
making a 100% original fan game may be kinda tough :P

but i started from doing whatever simple crap with the drop and drag crap in GM, but then i found dayjo, who started to teach me how to code crap and went through making some simple ocarina playing engine with me rofl

but really, all i've done is checked out many examples from the gmc often, tried editing them to do stuff how you want to do it etc

and then just thinking up your own ideas for really simple small engines and going for it. using code from other examples you have/can find to help out etc and just building up your knowledge from experiencing many different things many times

but follow existing game examples and trying to change them and using code from them to make your own whatever really helps imo

stuff like memorising commands and functions and whatever is 110% useless though
as in GM there's a library of those at the bottom of code, that matches what you're typing, so say you want something to do with a sprite, type in "sprite" and you'll get all commands and functions starting with sprite so you can just browse through, see whats good and then search for that specific one in the help. also of course you can generally search in the help and look through things that look like they're on the right track and find whatever. GM's help is really handy and i do exactly what i just said all the time because i forget many commands/functions/whatever :P

but all in all, just getting experience of how stuff works and building up via examples is probably the best way imo

You made a good point. How can a fangame be 100% original?
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Kharas
Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #15 on: October 24, 2007, 12:29:55 am »
I would recommend C++, but since you have now prior experience in programming I suppose you can always learn GML.

If you were to go with C++, just start out with simple things like

Code: [Select]
#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    cout << "Enter Text Here" << endl;
    cout << 2+2 << endl;
    system("PAUSE");
    return 0;
}When you execute it would turn out like:

Code: [Select]
Enter Text Here
4
Press any key to continue . . .Then you can press Enter or whatever and it will end the code. Just start fooling around with stuff like that if you wanted to start C++.

For GML the easiest thing to start with would be co-ordinates using xy

Code: [Select]
x+=1;
y+=1;This is pretty self-explanatory. Just shows that it's one pixel y and one pixel x. I'm not that experienced in GML so I would probably start rambling here. I hope that was of some use...

Good luck on your fan game if you decide to make one!
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Hoffy

Hero of Fire
Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2007, 10:05:07 am »
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Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone :)! I guess maybe when I'm bored on a rainy day I'll pull out the GM help files and start flicking through them... I can sort of read basic code, it's just sort of knowing what the best way to type it (or how to type it all) that gets me. Plus I just need to learn useful commands etc.

I'll probably need to download GM7 too.
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Hoffy.
Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2007, 01:12:34 pm »
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Quote from: hawthorneluke on October 21, 2007, 05:31:09 pm
stuff like memorising commands and functions and whatever is 110% useless though
as in GM there's a library of those at the bottom of code, that matches what you're typing, so say you want something to do with a sprite, type in "sprite" and you'll get all commands and functions starting with sprite so you can just browse through
Except anything before GM5.3 doesn't have that.  Not that anyone new to GM would be using a version that old

Quote from: Hoffy on October 25, 2007, 10:05:07 am
it's just sort of knowing what the best way to type it (or how to type it all)
You mean this
Code: [Select]
if(a==b){
    instance_destroy();
}vs.
Code: [Select]
if(a=b)
    instance_destroy()vs.
Code: [Select]
if(a==b)
{
self.instance_destroy();
}vs.
Code: [Select]
if(a==b){ instance_destroy(); }vs.
Code: [Select]
if a=b with (self) instance_destroy? (not sure if that last one would work though)
In GML it doesn't really matter how you do it.  GM lets you use = as the assignment operator (setting a variable to something) or the equals comparison operator (checking to see if a variable is equal to some value, written in C / C++ / Java as ==)
GM also let's you leave out semi-colons after commands as long as they are on separate lines (I wouldn't recommend it though), and you can also leave out parentheses sometimes.  Indenting doesn't matter either, it's just so it's easier to read.  Just do it whatever way you like best (although certain ways are obviously easier to read than others, like my first example compared to the last example... and if your way is really hard to read then it would be harder for someone to help you if you have a problem)
« Last Edit: October 25, 2007, 01:19:36 pm by dannyjenn »
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Re: So I want to make a fan game :/...
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2007, 01:27:17 pm »
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Quote from: Hoffy on October 25, 2007, 10:05:07 am
Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone :)! I guess maybe when I'm bored on a rainy day I'll pull out the GM help files and start flicking through them... I can sort of read basic code, it's just sort of knowing what the best way to type it (or how to type it all) that gets me. Plus I just need to learn useful commands etc.

I'll probably need to download GM7 too.
Make sure you do go by examples though.
Looking over existing, working code to see how it all is and trying to edit it is far better than starting out with nothing and thinking wtf do i do? O_o
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