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FullHitPoints — Don't Blame the Tool
#gamemaker #logic #logicfail #walfas #walfasstationwagon
Published: 2015-10-18 01:44:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 1346; Favourites: 23; Downloads: 3
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Description
Game making tools such as Unity and Game Maker Studio tend to come under a lot of fire for the slew of unprofessional garbage that gets made using them. Honestly, none of these criticisms make any sense when you think about it. In the right hands, these programs can create fantastic pieces of computational art. However, the skill needed to make those great games has to come from somewhere, and unfortunately, making bad games is the only way to build that skill. It is literally no different than any other art or skill that needs to be trained over time through practice.Prop credits
Hands by Ceej39
Soft shadow by Rumiflan
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Comments: 26
90% of everything is crap. The only reason why there's so many more shit games in Game Maker Studio than more advanced programs is because GMS has so many more games in general.
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Some fine examples of games made with GameMaker Studio:
* Stealth Bastard
* Hotline Miami (version 1)
* 10 Second Ninja
* Savant: Accent
* Downwell
* Death's Gambit
Some fine examples of games made with Unity:
* Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!
* Yooka-Laylee
* Gone Home
* Rust
* BroForce
* Jazzpunk
* Ori and the Blind Forest
* Cuphead
* Shadowrun and it's expansion packs.
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One of my all time favorite game is made with Unity. Kerbal Space Program.
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Some other games made with GMS include Yahtzee's games (Poacher, The Consuming Shadow), and Undertale.
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People have been known to create terrible games without the help of easy-to-use-tools; many of them are supposedly professionals.
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Dwarven Vow #55(From tales of symphonia):" A bad workman blames his tools. "
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You're right, don't blame the tool, blame the person who used the tool for their means.
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Heck, some minimalistic horror games tend to be the scariest. *coughCalmTimeIbandCloseYourEyescough*
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Today's lesson: don't blame the tool, blame the fool!
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Game maker was how i got into programming(gmaker.exe is where my username originates), I really like how easy it is to use all of it functionality and it's object oriented, but it lacks features supported by more advanced programming languages which led me to try other things.
Game maker is definitely great at just putting ideas together without needing to learn or set up a complicated engine, but has enough robust functionality to allow you to use or even make your own engine.
but with it's ease of use, comes with a low "minimum effort required" upon the designer to produce something that will show up on screen.
which while good, also means less (or flat out un)dedicated designers can upload low quality projects online.
which can reflect badly on the tools.(this applies to a lot of "easy to use" tools of any art)but as you said we all have to make our initial projects figuring out how scripting effects the visual space and move on from there, and rarely is anyone's first projects be all that inspiring,pleasant to look at or in working order.
easy to use is not a bad thing at all, but it does seem to generate some bad rep from the less experienced users at times.
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Well, with Studio, functionality and features has certainly gotten better over the years, but it still takes quite a lot of work to get something that looks professional. My personal assessment is that it's 85% perfectly functional out of the box, as there's quite a lot still missing or is simply outmoded through the use of extensions. Music looping is quite an egregious example, as the default looping is hideously inaccurate, and results in the song audibly skipping at it resets. It basically requires anyone seeking to use this software to look up extensions that patch up the missing features.
But my purpose with this comic wasn't to say Game Maker was a good or bad program. Rather, it's a rebuttal to the statement that, because a lot of bad games get produced with the software, that means that the software itself is bad. Not true! A lot of professional games have been made with the software and are being sold as we speak. Despite that, because of the low barrier of entry to the software, people are simply dismissing it as an "amateur's toy," and that no right-minded individual with an ounce of talent would dare use the software, lest it somehow sap their ability to make a quality product. I want to get the point out there that, like all tools, Game Maker is only as good as the person using it.
So, in essence, this basically a rant against idiots who think they somehow know better than the person with actual experience using said software. Just because anyone can use a certain tool, doesn't make that tool bad. Should we stop using pencils because of a lot of people are unskilled at drawing? Should we stop using keyboards because a lot of so-called "writers" upload poorly-written fanfics onto the internet? No, of course not. That would be ridiculous. Equally as ridiculous as the suggestion that no one should use a certain program just because a lot of people make terrible products using it.
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Yeah I agree, part of why i why I brought it up is I've seen the contrary mentioned a few times.
People may just want to be able to say they've made something without having to learn or practice it, which just reflects badly on everyone.
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This is how the stereotypes work.
People often see those free and easy-to-use program as bad program when they only notice how bad those works was made using the program, but in fact, they overlook those skillful and high-quality works.
"Just because anyone can use a certain tool, doesn't make that tool bad. Should we stop using pencils because of a lot of people are unskilled at drawing? Should we stop using keyboards because a lot of so-called 'writers' upload poorly-written fanfics onto the internet? No, of course not."
This is indeed true. A skillful people can access any tool even the simplest one to produce good works. Yes, tools can be blamed, but the most important is on how the users use it. Speaking about pencils, while it is a tool for all the beginners to draw terribly bad drawing, it's also a tool for those professional sketch art artist to draw portrait, landscape drawing and more fantastic works.
I hope those people can see that fact. After all, they should learn to observe things from different perspective.
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The only thing i chastise game maker is for the fact it's a payed program and makes you jump through hoops to do ANYTHING. At least unity is free to do stuff with lol
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UE4 is also free, but it's a LOT more daunting to use and requires a MUCH more powerful PC to make stuff on (I'm talking GTX 780 and up level hardware).
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I've used UE1, is that any different?
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If you know C++, it shouldn't be, but UE4 uses this really cool system known as "Blueprint" which lets you take pre-set blocks of code and attach them through virtual wires. No coding required.
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Reminds me of Jim Sterling's videos on the Unity engine and how it both makes good games and are subjected to a trend he called "asset flipping"
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Any tool can be good as long as it's in the right hands.
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I never actually heard of Game Maker after I heard that was used to make Undertale
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=koi0A5…
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GAme MAker is for beginner game designers you can find it on steam.
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The availability of Game Maker does diminish it's power in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing with the software.
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