Hey guys,
I am new to this forum and wanted to get involved. Some backstory on myself I am currently a Senior in College Majoring in Computer Information Systems - Computer Programming. I will be graduating this year, I’m decent at programming but when it comes to games I can’t seem to get out of the tutorial phase. Every time I do something I have to look it up, is that normal? I’ve only been using Game Maker for about a week now but I’ve been attempting to make games for a while now, mostly on unity but never finished anything of my own. I was a Scripting Intern/QA/Engineering on Wasteland 2 the video game on steam which was cool and a great experience. Although I had so much support if I had a question I could walk to someone’s desk and say hey I'm stuck I've tried this that and so on, please help lol. Some topics are just super confusing especially if you are dealing with some interesting player movement. How do you get yourself to understand the complexities, how did you tackle it?
What was your learning experience like learning GML? Were you watching tutorials the whole time? What were you doing to make sure you're actually learning what you're watching and so on? What was your first released Game Maker game and how long did it take for you to feel confident in using GML to write your own systems and not look at tutorials all the time? Also do you recommend any books etc., right now I'm doing a Udemy platformer tutorial from Uhearbeast, I believe that’s his name. I feel like I am not a programmer when I watch tutorials I feel like I’m just idk not a programmer and it doesn't feel good! I have tons of ideas, but they are either too large or I do not posses the skills YET. And I get very bored quickly just watching tutorials rather then working on something of my own. But you cant just start building complex games if you havent even released for-example a snake game. That does not make much sense but the ramp up to a game like your guys' games will be stale.
How many games did you build until crashlands. Did you always know you guys wanted to build crashlands and just built other games to ramp up until you thought you were ready or how did that process work?
My plan so far is to just get something out there and published and get some kind of feedback. I gathered a team of students in my program, there is about 5 of us. Out of the 5 there are 2 programmers, myself and my buddy and I am the project lead. The other 3 are art and design. Since Halloween is around the corner we decided we wanted to make a Scary Action Intense Platformer . A platformer seemed like a good first team project. I really enjoy your guys' work because its so outrageous like throwing animals at enemies lol. Got any ideas to set us in a good direction as far as concept? Release would be October 30. As Halloween is the 31st.
Last thing, I was listening to one of your podcasts and said you guys were having some server trouble with crashlands I believe. Are you using Gamemakers networking system or did you build your own standalone?