Software Review: Game Maker

Game Maker could be seen as a relevant response to one of the most asked video game related questions you'll find online. I'm not talking about that "Who would win in a fight: Mario's mustache, or those boulders posing as Lara Crofts chest?" mess. I'm referring to that "How to make video games?" query everyone seems to wonder about. Game Maker is a suitable answer for that question

I'll go ahead and state what should be painfully obvious right away: You'll need some programing experience and knowledge when it comes to creating your own game. Game Maker makes things easier, but there's still just no way around this. You can't find an easy button in life, and creating software of any kind is no different.

Game maker comes in two flavors. Game Maker Lite is free to download, but has limited options. You can't make three dimensional games, or use special effects without downloading third party add-ons. Game Maker Lite is ideal for those who want to get their feet wet and play around with a game development system.

Game Maker Pro is what you want to use if you are serious about game creation. After upgrading, Game Maker logo won't appear upon start up of your game, you have the ability to use sound effects like echo and chorus, edit your game while it's running instead of having to shut it down first, create 3d content and sell you're creations. Pro costs $20.

Is it worth the twenty bucks to use the full version of Game Maker? It depends on how familiar you are with Game Maker lite first. While using it's drag and drop elements to create what could have been the wackiest Pong clone ever made, I found Game Maker's user interface to be straight forward at times, yet over whelming if you haven't glanced at the the guide first.

Speaking of guides, it's a wonderful resource that everyone who's interested in Game Maker should check out. The community is unforgiving to those who don't use the Game Maker Apprentice guide. Any questions you have as a newbie are probably answered in said guide.

Check it out, I just saved you from a possible flame war. That's my one good deed for the year!

Game Maker's community is full of creative and clever developers. I'd go as far as to say it's exactly what what the Mugen community used to be like, I mean, before people started stealing code, before newbies were blasted for asking any questions what so ever(even legit ones), and before Elecbyte entered the witness protection program, and left their loyal fans hanging like a sleeping possum on a windy day.

Is Game Maker the end all beat all program when it comes to making video games? Nope. There are a plethora of programing languages out there. Each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. Scripting commands with Game Maker Language (GML) will give you more options than the drag and drop method, but GML is said to execute commands slower than C ++.

If you want to try game development, download Game Maker Lite from YoYo Games. When you become comfortable with Game Maker program, and feel confident enough to shell out the twenty bones needed to use all it's features, Upgrade to Pro.

Yoyo Games(developer of Game Maker)