The only thing I've ever been able to make a game with is GM. I've tried "No Programming" game makers, and they either make the same stupid game every time, or drive you crazy because nothing feels right. I wish GM could make something that everyone could play, not just the few people I know with macs. I think if the language was like GM, everyone would be able to use it to make cool games.Â
That's the idea!Â
So, Gan, I recently met friend of mine who is now in college and I knew him because he wanted to start a kind of game-dev club at school.. He's now got his own game company going and he had great advice, he really did.
Basically when you want to put a large project together usually it's best if one person puts together a more concrete idea on their own. Have an idea for a game? Write it down on paper! Experiment with different ideas, maybe even take it to the point where you can play it out on paper, and do all you can before going and recruiting a group of people. Otherwise there's not enough direction and people can't put their work together.
In this case I think we have enough to put up some ideas but we can't do the whole thing this way.
Besides, Gan - you're good at interfaces, remember making Titanium Forge? You did fine on your own, I was impressed. That was a cool project and i think if I'd been in this C class then I would have known enough to do something interesting with it, it had some good features. The interface worked because it was simple enough and I could find everything okay. I think what we need to do first is decide more exactly what functions your latest program is going to have and how the game making process will work, and THEN go into more detail on a fast shiny interface.
*proof reads short essay/wall of text a few times then hits submit*
I completely agree. Fantastic plan. I'm gonna write down all my ideas, make some flow charts, photoshop some screens and show you guys to get the idea across so we're all on the same page. Ah and yeah, gotta write everything in detail.
So anyways, sorry for double post, but I had some ideas already, you got me thinking.
Do you want to make it card-based or not? It could be really useful for games with separate stages.
Also, it better have a good way to deal with sprites.
And the syntax! It could be like GM or SC but now that I've looked at different languages having to type LET each time I change a variable drives me insane. XD But I think the capital letters for built-in functions can stay, it's easier to read for less experienced programmers.
I don't know about card based. Card based is a bit cookie cutter and it's probably not necessary. Though if you guys really want it... I suppose it could be done. Though I'm sure allowing people to learn how to program through a simple language in the format of more complex languages would be more beneficial.
I'll let you guys decide on it.
I was writing a long post, in which I was going to say basically what Connors just said. I saw his post when I clicked "Preview" to see what I had written. So I'm going to write something different now. Â
Gan, if you make it, I know it will be cool. But I'm not clear on what you're describing. Provide more information, and I'll give you my ideas.
Will do, continue reading to the bottom of this post and hopefully you'll have a crystal clear picture.
The only thing I've ever been able to make a game with is GM. I've tried "No Programming" game makers, and they either make the same stupid game every time, or drive you crazy because nothing feels right. I wish GM could make something that everyone could play, not just the few people I know with macs. I think if the language was like GM, everyone would be able to use it to make cool games.Â
Couldn't agree more!
Here we go:
My idea is for a game maker called the HTML5 GameMaker(or some sort of spiffy name). It's a Mac application that allows you to make HTML5 games. Games that run in the browser, very similar looking to flash games except they don't need plugins and don't take as much CPU.
How it works:
Open HTML5 Game Maker. A new game is automatically created for you(though from the menu up top you can choose to load a game). A window is before you. There are tab bars at the top. The tabs are: "Code" - Where you type your code, "Media" - Where you import pictures and music for your game, "Settings" - Where you set the settings for you game, like window size of the game, "Run" - Click this tab and it plays your game in the window and, "Export" - When clicked it opens a dialog asking you where to export the game, it compiles your game and exports the HTML files so you can upload them for people to play. So you can test it.
Now this window is resizable allowing for more flexibility if someone wants to code in a bigger window.
The "Code" tab:
When clicked shows a text field on the right and a bar on the left, above the bar is a combo box. You type in code on the right, and your methods are in the bar on the left and classes are in the combo box that you can select. You click the method or class and your code appears in the text field on the right that you can edit. There may be further options below the text field. Like buttons and such to make new methods and classes.
The "Media" tab:
Contains a list of all the media of the game, a preview of each and options to delete certain media and to add some media.
The "Settings" tab:
Just has some settings, like game width and height and other stuff when I think of them.
The "Run" tab:
When the run tab is clicked, it compiles your game into HTML5 and displays your game for you to play within the window.
The "Export" tab:
When clicked it displays a save dialog where you choose where to save your HTML5 game. It compiles and exports it so you can upload it and share with friends.
Here's a photoshop mockup:
How the compiler works:
Takes in this language similar to SC and GM. It interprets it and turns it into Javascript. No runtime compiler needed. It puts the Javascript in appropriate methods and bam. This means that there's no need for a super complex and possibly slow custom made compiler.
