Going to check this out too. I have quite a few game development tools, there used to be alot of free stuff (and paid) but its getting less and less i think. There was a point about 5 years ago when it 'seemed' garge made games where going to be big, but now (good or bad) a 'small time' game is one for Xbox arcade or PS3 download.
Very few of those are done by 1 or 2 people (some still are!). GameMaker Is probebly the best one of the Free ones IMHO for do the most with the least knowledge.
You can make some pretty create things with it (the forums are full of impressive work, and alot of err, unimpressive stuff).:) I have programed as long as I can remeber, my first 'game' was a maze (dungeon) inspired by Ultima (alkbeth). It was basicly just 10 or so backgrounds (corridor, door, left turn, right turn, etc) mapped to a grid and in random spots monsters would be (this was really the hardest part so the monsters wouldnt be in walls).
The monsters where some of the worst block work ever. I hesitate to say this as I'm an ADULT now.
Water Supply Design Software more. Development software for creating video games, tools and apps. Technical support for the free Newgrounds edition of TGF2.
But at the time i was maybe 13ish. The first ones i created where Buttmen (yep, you read that right, butt's with leqs, I wont go into the attacks). After that it was S.U.U.C.K.
(Shoot Um Up Construction Kit) on the AMIGA (not really programing at all, just simple basic tools to make um). I long for a remake of that program (there are a few in half finished states out there, but none done (unless you want to pay for um). Then I bought AMOS, a simple game making basic programming language for the AMIGA. Many a project was built on that (sadly no finished ones).
I have used TORQUE (it was free at one time maybe still is, excellent tools) to make some simple racing style games. It is good to know all the computer related stuff i did in my youth was a good thing, i did some Programming as a job for a few years (not anymore, deadlines where brutal). Indeed, there are a ton of options out there. Here are the ones that I personally keep track of (and again, Batari Basic intrigues me a great deal for obvious reasons--I mean who among us wouldn't love to make an Atari 2600 game?): (the one we've been talking about) To me, the key to any of these languages since they're not 'real' languages like say, C (and don't have any of the bagge either), is for how many platforms your code can be compiled for. With that reasoning, something like GLBasic is rather appealing to me because it compiles to a wide range of platforms, seeming to give the most bang for the amount of effort you put into it.
Of course, GLBasic, like all of these languages, certainly has its performance/quality considerations and is not appropriate for all situations or necessarily all game types. Bill Loguidice wrote: (the one we've been talking about) I'm a registered Game Maker user (though it's still on my to-do list as far as using it goes.) I've also registered Blitz3D, BlitzMax and PureBASIC.
Of all of them, I like PureBASIC the best as it has all of the graphics (2D and 3D) libs, sound, and networking libs built in. It's cross platform (Amiga, PC, Mac and Linux). Buy it once and you get free upgrades for life.
And it's very actively developed. Plus, it's a real compiler and 99% of the time compiles smaller and faster files than C. I too have the registered version of BlitzBasic just prior to BlitzMax (and boxed at that).
I never did get around to doing much with it, sadly, though I had good intentions. I always liked that language because of all the languages I evaluated, that one could make true full speed games. I think I need to start with a click and place language first, though, and then move onto something with syntax due to time constraints stopping me from learning something that requires intense sessions. I also have the registered version of GameMaker, which is always an option, though I don't have the latest version they just came out with. All editorial content © 2003 - 2014 Armchair Arcade, Inc., an Armchair Creative Services, L.L.C., property. All rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. Rotis Semi Serif Ttf. All trademarks and copyrights are retained by their respective owners.
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