Finding a good "Game maker"

[SmashChu]

My goal is to make a Smsh Bros games so I guess this is relevent.

I am trying to find a game making program. Big needs are....

-Can make 4 players
-Can be put onto the Wii (though Homebrew obviously)
-Has enough depth

That's the big things. Anyone know of it. (C++ and other things are a last resort though).

 

[dabridge]

There are a million reasons why you already started wrong, but take this as an advice: don't bother. Try to make a homebrew game for PC first, then try to move on to Wii homebrew. Look up Game Maker -- that's as easy as it's going to get, and even so you probably won't finish.

I'm not trying to sound negative or anything, I just know this stuff because I come from a game making community. I know how this is going to end.

 

[Overload]

You definitely have to start small. If you're going to start programming first you need to pick a language to use. Perhaps buy a book and watch/read some tutorials as well. Start off with simple programs and work your way up to making your first game. Don't expect your first game to be anything spectacular, but it's necessary to start somewhere. After that, keep making games and play around with different things. Make each game a little more complex than the next and increase your programming skill. If you have no experience in game development, don't expect to make a game similar to smash brothers until you work your way up there.

 

[FSLink]

Agreed with dabridge. Also, don't ever expect to make anything finished for your first 100 or so test stuff messing around. XD
IMO, learn a programming language like C++, and go from there. Don't take the easy way and use Game Maker/RPG Maker/whatever like I did, because you're not really learning as much as you should be if you're serious about this..though there's nothing wrong with using them to get introduced into the whole design aspect.

 

[Shadic]

If you have no expertise in programming a game from scratch, don't bother trying to game a game even halfway similar to Smash Bros. Pick up the basics, get some notches in your belt, and then try.

 

[Xane]

OMG, don't use any of those, learn coding.
But if you don't put enough effort into your projects they won't be any good.

 

[SmashChu]

There are a million reasons why you already started wrong, but take this as an advice: don't bother. Try to make a homebrew game for PC first, then try to move on to Wii homebrew. Look up Game Maker -- that's as easy as it's going to get, and even so you probably won't finish.

I'm not trying to sound negative or anything, I just know this stuff because I come from a game making community. I know how this is going to end.

Don't worry about negativity. All advice is good advice.

I had some ideas laid out in my head and I hoped to move from there. I wanted to design something on the PC, but hope I could transfer it to the Wii. I guess I'll play around with Game Maker a bit more and make a really small game.

You definitely have to start small. If you're going to start programming first you need to pick a language to use. Perhaps buy a book and watch/read some tutorials as well. Start off with simple programs and work your way up to making your first game. Don't expect your first game to be anything spectacular, but it's necessary to start somewhere. After that, keep making games and play around with different things. Make each game a little more complex than the next and increase your programming skill. If you have no experience in game development, don't expect to make a game similar to smash brothers until you work your way up there.

Thanks. My original idea was to learn programing, but I heard you could use a program like Gamer Maker. I'll try the process, but it will take more time then I originally expected which is fine.

I must ask then, where should I start in programming. I've heard of something called Pure Basic that my friends have played with. C++ is probably the best one I assume. Also, would it be fruitful to start with Gamer Maker coding (using the program's own coding language)?

 

[Overload]

I definitely recommend starting with a BASIC language. I will recommend BlitzBasic to you. It's what I've been using so far. I've made a game similar to Space Invaders, another simple game, and I have quite a few unfinished things. I bought a book called "Game Programming for Teens Second Edition" by Maneesh Sethi and it was easy to pick up and learn the language with it. I read about half of the book, and watched a 10 part youtube tutorial. I learned quite a bit from doing this, and would play around with code and learn things just by experimenting. BlitzBasic is a programming language geared towards game creation, so it'd be a good place to start until you move onto a more powerful language in my opinion. But yeah, BASIC in general is a good place to start, whether it be Pure Basic or Blitz Basic or any of the others out there.

I've played around with Game Maker but haven't actually looked at the GML. I guess it's not bad for getting an idea of how games work, but I don't really see it as a necessary step when learning to program, especially if you start off with BASIC.

 

[FrozenHobo]

everyone has already said it, but you really can't start with something big like this. i'm in my second year of software engineering and game design and its not something you're going to pick up in a couple of hours. even making a 2D game with sprites is hard as **** (i'm currently working in C#). trust me, just getting collision detection to work is enough to make you want to kill your family and burn your house down.

start with some small computer programs and then move up.

edit: and i agree with Overload. i started by learning BASIC and then applied it to TI BASIC on my calculator. by the end of my senior year i was being put in detention about 3 times a week for programing my calculator instead of listening to my teachers. even downloaded a blackjack program and printed the whole thing out so i could see just what was going on where. turns out BASIC is indeed, basic.

 

[PanzerOceania]

game maker is a good start, good luck figuring out anything more complicated on your first try

these things take time

for something else you could try XNA on Xbox live