I did 23hours learning with a tutor - C# and got bogged down with all the maths. apparently alot of it doesn't need to be known in order to make games.

so i gave up on C#. Flash is too expensive because adobe charge a ridiculous amount if you're not a student.

I hate html5 because CSS confuses me.

game maker seems restrictive. I don't know if unity is the best fit when I want to make graphically simple mostly 2D games.

My favourite genres to make are adventure, strategy, simulation, application-esque (games that look like office software)

I got top of my school 98% in high school end of year algebra exam, then never studied maths again.

I got my degree in writing feature film screenplays. Now I write novels and am a movie critic. And conceptual designer.

I want to make 2d games in my spare time. I've coded in Logic and BBC BASIC. I tried to learn Liberty BASIC but got stuck at arrays. and those graphics aren't all that appealing. not to mention the audio. Amiga/Archimedes are the kind of graphics I aspire to. Or sega master system if you prefer a console comparison.

My game design influences are Vector (OUYA), Earthworm Jim, Limbo, Streets of Rage, Discworld 2, Super Meat Boy, Fez, Kula World, The Sims, Close Combat and Syphon Filter. As well as Gynoug, Gain Ground, Populous, Hacker Evolution: Untold, Osmos, Jurassic Park and Robocop Vs Terminator.

and are there any good books on unity for absolute beginners? Is unity even a good choice if I want to specialise in 2d. and simple graphics.

Python seems like a mission.

What else is out there.

How much can you build in Game Maker?

For example if the following is my premise, can I make it in game maker? Or would I be better off with some other engine and/or language. I mean I could hire a tutor to teach me Game Maker and GML because I'm that stupid when it comes to maths.

Legacy of Justice – PC computer game

RPG with Digital Card Game elements

Written by MB

Outline

Hunting slug meat is illegal, when you get caught by the cops you change to Prison Mode.

When you get out of Prison Mode, you return to your Lab to see how your society has survived on your Lab resources while you were inside. Cops chase you in The Hunt Mode.

Player begins on the character creation page. Choose from a selection of ten unusual profiles. This will start you off, then you can customise your character from there. The game has five modes: Laboratory Mode, The Shop, The Hunt, The Bedroom, Prison Mode (which consists of two parts, the courtroom procedure where you find out how long you will be in prison, and then prison time where you try to survive and not go crazy. Both parts of Prison Mode take the form of a digital trading card game.

After character creation, the game begins in Laboratory Mode. Here you are presented with your lab, you need slug meat or slime. Slug meat and slime dissolves after one day, freezing or any other ways of preserving do not work. The only way to keep it is to turn it into fuel for your lab. Or sell it at the shop, where it goes on sale as food or fuel.Once consumed the ingestion slows the dissolving process so that you can digest it as food before it can dissolve. At the shop you can sell slime or snail meat, you can buy seeds to grow various useful plants or you can buy parts for your lab, or weapons for slug meat hunting. Or you can buy fuel, slug meat, slime, or even food made from slug meat/slime. (You can also grow edible plants in your lab.)

Player begins the game being initiated into the EcoNahn tribe – this tribe has a rule – members are not allowed to kill slugs. They can only stun the slug in order to collect slime. Killing slugs even by accident will get you kicked out of the tribe. Soldiers who are not a member of a tribe find many things more difficult – for example, you must rebuild your posse to protect you in prison. Also items in The Shop are more expensive as you don't intimidate the shopkeeper if it's just you.

Prison Mode

part one: The Courtroom Procedure

(digital card game)

the Tribes:

EcoNahn – ecology, to protect the world’s natural resources and only use

snail slime to survive.

AlkiHol – alchemy, to hunt and kill everything in your path and create the next

new fuel so that you don’t have to suffer the consequences of your actions,

when there are no snails left.

Algebraith – mathematics, to survive long enough to discover the method for

manipulating reality’s fabric and eternal life.

Storyline quotes on some cards:

Kendall Tankzos – 'God tells us not to kill each other, basic ecology tells us not to kill everything because we might need it. EcoNahn persuades us not to kill anything, except to preserve the vital needs of our existence and in that case, to act responsibly. There is no need to slay the meat slugs, we can sustain ourselves quite comfortably simply by collecting their slime.'

Merle Krunth - 'You're a fool, Kendall! There is only one way. And it is to exist

and use what we must. Science is the only non-variable. True science, the

works of AlkiHol. This is the way.'

Bishop of the Order of Algebraith, Bodurne Franklin - 'Old man, we'll never listen to one who still believes in

faeries. Your time is over!"

Playing Cards

Player is randomly assigned seven cards from two decks – 4 from prison and

3 from courtroom. At least 1 of these is a creature card. Player can attempt to

use two cards from this hand by placing the card/s in play, to use them he must spend a portion of the fuel in his lab, (shown as a note at the top right corner of the screen,) he must also meet the requirements of the card (XP, gang affiliation, street cred) and a dice roll under the value of the card decides whether the card is succesful.

Succesful cards have their effects initiated. After the two attempts, the hand is

discarded and the AI takes its turn. The player begins in the courtroom and

stays in the courtroom (only playing courtroom cards) until the sentence is

initiated by a card, then the mode is switched to Prison and only cards from

the Prison deck can be played. They stay in the Prison mode until the XP (in

years) reaches the Sentence, at which point the player returns to lab mode to provide for his neighbourhood. A player's neighbourhood can send care packages and do favours for the player while he is on the inside. A player without a neighbourhood misses out on this. A player without a tribe will find it difficult to join a gang, a solo soldier will find it difficult to survive in prison.

Example Hand

1) Image Rabid Zombie: Prison Deck, Undead Gang, Creature

Type, Value 3, XP 0, Street Cred 2, Effect Underling – every 4 years he

hits his controller

2) Image Stab Fresh Meat: Prison Deck, Undead Gang, Quick Type,

Value 2, XP 0, Street Cred 0, Effect +1 Street Cred

3) Image Initiation, Prison Deck, Undead Gang, Quick Type, Value 2, XP

0, Street Cred 1, Effect Success: +2 Street Cred and Gang = Undead,

Failure: -1 Street Cred

4) Image Wisdom of Years, Prison Deck, Undead Gang, Quick Type,

Value 3, XP 30, Street Cred 0, Effect +3 Street Cred

5) Image Nun’s Testimony, Courtroom Deck, Quick Type, Value 1,

XP 0, Street Cred 0, Effect +15 years to Sentence

8

6) Image DNA Evidence, Courtroom Deck, Quick Type, Value 1, XP 0,

Street Cred 0, Effect +8 years to Sentence

7) Image Community Service, Courtroom Deck, Quick Type, Value 2, XP

0, Street Cred 0, Effect +6 XP, Initiate Sentence

Prison Interface

The aim of the prison interface is to survive. In this part of the game the

player can either try to survive alone, or join a gang. If the player joins a

gang, this lasts for the length of the game; they cannot quit the gang or join

another gang. Once in a gang, the player may choose to recruit underlings

and/or attempt to hit the boss (a successful hit earns a promotion within the

gang to boss, but an unsuccessful hit earns an instant response of the boss

hitting the player using his best man - with a high chance of success. The

player only has one life, so it only takes one successful hit to die.) The player

can carry out hits by himself. He can earn Street Cred by playing minor cards

such as shiv a narc, gang body art or gang bang fresh meat. Street Cred can

be used to play hit cards with higher values (ie higher chance of success.) Or

the player can order an underling to carry out a hit. If the hit fails, only the

underling is at risk of a counterattack, except in the case of breaking a truce,

which can result in a gang war. If the boss dies not by the player’s hand, the

player may be promoted, but not straight to boss if there is someone else

above him in the hierarchy. Some hit cards require a certain amount of XP as well as Street Cred. When the player returns to the world, he remains a member of any gang

he has joined. He may have to convince someone in his neighbourhood to do a favour for his gang. If the mission was ordered by the boss it is mandatory. If not, failing to carry out

this mission can result in an in-house hit attempt on the player, unless the

boss objects.

Card Statistics

On each card are requirements. XP is checked against player XP to see if

they are allowed to play the card. XP is equal to how long the player has

been playing the game in game years. Street Cred is something earned in

Prison. Street Cred is checked against player Street Cred to see if they are

allowed to play the card. Value initiaties the dice roll to test for a successful

play. Courtroom cards have no Street Cred requirements, some have XP

requirements. All prison cards have fuel costs. If you cannot play a card in prison you will quickly die, as you and your posse are being attacked by your opponent's cards.

I hate html5 because CSS confuses me.

Perhaps have another look. HTML5 game development is all code such as Javascript or C++ (via Emscripten). There should be no CSS involved.

This is a very basic project written years ago in Javascript (before Emscripten was released to allow me to write in C++)
http://demos.4t2.co.uk/karsten/test3

Perhaps view the source and see that the code, once it hits Javascript contains no HTML.

Perhaps have another look. HTML5 game development is all code such as Javascript or C++ (via Emscripten). There should be no CSS involved.

This isn't true. You are refering to Canvas games. The games that the OP is talking about require a lot of text and UI so whilst he may use the canvas the majority of this type of game would be using DOM elements that would require CSS.

To the OP I think you are being a little defeatist. Making games isn't easy. If you give up on C# and you find CSS too confusing then you are left with things like Game Maker or Construct which you said you find too restrictive.

To be honest I'd recomend game maker and get to grips with drag and drop before moving on to GML (which is a fully featured language by the way).

As for what can be created with Game Maker. Well Michael Daily re-created the original GTA in Game Maker and Hotline Miami and Gunpoint were both created in Game Maker.

I wouldn't bother hiring a tutor. I think the best way of learning Game Maker is to just jump in there and get shit done. You already have a game design which is more than a lot of people start out with. Just start making your design and ask for help on the gamemaker forums when you get stuck. There are a couple of books on game maker that are also worth a read "Game makers apprentice" and a sequal which I can't remember the title of. One of these books shows you step by step how to reimplement the Amiga game zool without even using GML.

thanks that sounds like the right way to go. I'll hit game maker and schedule in some crunch time.

I'm not liking game maker so I'm going to switch to javascript and try to force myself to figure out css and css3 as I learn js and html5 (and canvas).

I like the demo that Karsten posted, I was thinking of graphically a bit bigger, but I like the style and approach. The background looks similar to what I would like. I'd be keen to make my characters more realistic. And heavy up the mechanics. But something like that would be a good place to start.

In response for Unity not being well suited for 2D graphics, take a look at this game that was made through unity. Many other 2D games have been easily used with it, and while I haven't personally explored it, I have heard good word for it.

bulbboygame.com

I have worked with GameMaker, and if you understand GML code, it can be a good tool. The best tool for game development in general is raw programming itself, though. I've started learning C++ which can be used with SFML to open up a world of possibilities for games. C++ is the language that most video games (old and new) use and is vitally important to know if you want to work for any major gaming industry. It's really flexible and cross-platform. It's difficult at first, but here's a list of tutorials and the official SFML documentation to help you out. (Note: SFML is basically the thing you need to be able to use graphics, sound and other forms of media with C++)

Important: It's really important for you to understand C++ BEFORE learning SFML as SFML is just an extension of C++. It might take a little time, but learning programming is never easy but it is completely worth it.

C++ Tutorials:

SFML Tutorials:

SFML Documentation: http://sfml-dev.org/tutorials/2.1/

(My recommended compiler for C++ is Visual Studio Express 2013.)

(Also, the current version you'll need for SFML is SFML 2.1. SFML 1.6 is no longer being updated and is outdated in many areas.)

Happy developing!

Generally speaking, you should never assume that you'll learn anything in just 23 hours of practice (let alone just theory). You may actually end up worse off, because your brain is going haywire from too much information. This is not because you're stupid or anything, it's because you're a human being. Nobody is ever capable of learning anything substantial in 23 hours time. Stuff takes time and you need to be able to accept the confusion. This is especially true when it comes to any sort of study material that involves millions of lines of textual knowledge in order to understand it fully. Also, you may want to consider who your tutor is. It's pretty self-evident that your tutor wasn't successful in tutoring you (or he/she may have been, if you spent more time).

If CSS confuses you, then get yourself un-confused. Spend more time doing it, take it step by step and make sure you understand one aspect of it before you start doing another. Never skip content, that's probably one of the major reasons why some people don't learn things - they get confused and then they skip whatever confuses them. There's no "easy way" to learn game design. It's a field of study like any other field of science (because success requires an understanding of other fields and disciplines, most notably psychology). You could also decide to scrap it entirely for something more interesting. But that should only come after extensive tries and demotivation. But don't stay in Limbo forever, either.

I'm not liking game maker so I'm going to switch to javascript and try to force myself to figure out css and css3 as I learn js and html5 (and canvas).

That's the spirit!

Also, you may want to be sure that you're not designing games for the wrong reasons.

The C# language is a good general purpose one and the productivity is excellent.

It is important to make a plan and stay with it.

Learning any language will take some months to broaden your understanding in it and begin making applications by memory.

Almost anything that you learn in a C# tutorial could potentially be used in some area of game development some day. A few things are very rare, but the important thing is that you improve in seeing the connections in coding.

Choose a plan of action and stay with it, completing stages and projects before moving to the next.

The C# language is a good general purpose one and the productivity is excellent.

It is important to make a plan and stay with it.

Learning any language will take some months to broaden your understanding in it and begin making applications by memory.

Almost anything that you learn in a C# tutorial could potentially be used in some area of game development some day. A few things are very rare, but the important thing is that you improve in seeing the connections in coding.

Choose a plan of action and stay with it, completing stages and projects before moving to the next.

Unity is overkill for most 2d applications; there's no reason you should need to use it.

Also, don't bother with C++ right now: it's too complicated for what you need, and won't help you here.

As mentioned by some others, HTML 5 is the appropriate tool for what you want to do.

You can mostly avoid CSS by working within canvas, although this will increase your workload on the GUI a little

Just start simple, learn how divs work, and style everything later.

CSS is extremely versatile. As long as the basic physical structure of all of your cards and buttons are there, have faith that you can style it in any way you like when your game is functional (and as slowly as you need to). Don't rush things, and don't expect to understand everything overnight: These things take a little time, you'll get there.