I think I like this drag and drop approach that seems possible in Game Maker. That way I can continue to learn vanilla javascript and make apps/games with that, and then use Game Maker (or another drag and drop engine) to quickly make my ideas come to life. Then maybe in 6 months after my coding and developing skills become stronger, I can more seriously think about how to merge them. Are there any other drag and drop engines? Is the drag and drop approach really effective (I don't need total control yet, I just want to learn the skills of game development)?

Godot :https://godotengine.org/

Drag and drop is good for beginners because it allows focus on game design over game development. The downside is the huge restrictions from working with a limiting engine.

It's not a bad way to start so go for it.

On 2/19/2018 at 2:11 PM, Stebssbets said:

Is the drag and drop approach really effective (I don't need total control yet, I just want to learn the skills of game development)?

Blitz3d was fairly simple but not drag and drop. Some hard walls on scaling pretty soon too. On the approach... Depends totally on you and your goals. Learning design and the backend graphics programming at the same time is near impossible so pick one or the other and don't stop. Learning is a very personal thing so follow your own path.

There's also Construct 2 or 3, Stencyl, Unity with the Playmaker asset, and Unreal's Blueprints, amongst other options.

Thanks for the tips. I wound up sticking with pure vanilla javascript because it's what I'm familiar with, have a few good books to reference, and was able to gain some good traction with a private lesson through Wyzant. I am in the process of making my first education game template and just finished a bare bones app to help me learn Spanish. I think the advice of "just don't stop" holds a lot of weight. There's just so much to figure out you kind of just have to keep plugging away and if you come across things that compliment your approach, add them.

Meaning pure javascript and html canvas methods with no engine or framework.

Hi,

I would recommend AGK https://www.appgamekit.com/

You can get a visual design tool for designing your levels and code in BASIC. When ready to do so you can move away from the visual tools and try code a full game using their BASIC language. You can then move on to using AGK with C++ rather than using BASIC.