< Back to the full list of 2D engines and editors
|
|
Editing |
Debugging |
Download the minigame source
Summary
GameMaker (for Windows) likely ranks as one of the most commonly recommended 2D game creation tools. Like Game Editor, GameMaker offers both point-and-click programming as well as textual scripting, but GameMaker has a prettier interface. For example GameMaker shows a folder view of assets, objects, maps, and scripts, while Game Editor hides these various items in nested dialog windows. Also like Game Editor, GameMaker uses a custom scripting language that feels limited compared to real
languages.
Pluses
- Popular
- The
with
statement is cool.
- Runs the minigame quickly with relatively low CPU use. The GameMaker: Studio version is even better because it uses a hash table to avoid the inefficient linear array search.
- The room
views
might have more features compared to Game Editor's views.
- Scripts are embedded in the project file, but support for external editors is OK.
- GameMaker Language (GML) a bit more pleasant than Game Editor's custom language.
- Built-in map editor, code editor, and sprite editor. The sprite editor is pretty nice. Having all the tools in one package might be convenient in some cases, even if the tools aren't as powerful as specialized external programs.
Minuses
- Quirky, custom language GML:
- Function arguments are only accessible by pre-assigned, sequential names like
argument0.
Data types
like hash tables are only available in the Pro version.
- 2D arrays use the syntax [i, j] for indexing.
- No array literals
- The behavior of Undo is confusing because only certain sub-windows allow undo.
- Since rooms and views aren't objects, scripting them requires adding extra empty objects to the map.
- There's no way to select multiple items at once in the resources folder hierarchy.
- Scripting with the GUI icons often still requires GML to do interesting things. Removing GUI scripting entirely would simplify the interface.
Hints
- show_debug_message() is one easy way to do printf() debugging.
- The documentation in Help > Contents (F1) is the best reference for the scripting language. Some information is also on the YoYo Games wiki, but it's incomplete and difficult to navigate.
Links
- < Back to the full list of 2D engines and editors
Updates
29 Jun 2013 |
Added summary from full list |
04 Apr 2013 |
Moved out from the full list onto this separate page |
09 Dec 2012 |
Posted |