Beginner Resources

GameMaker
9th September 2016
GameMaker News
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Hello everybody!

With the ongoing success of the Humble GameMaker Bundle we're seeing a huge influx of new users, many of whom are opening the software for the very first time. So if that's you reading this, hello! I'm Shaun, your Community Manager. Great to have you on board.

GameMaker is a very powerful and flexible tool. As a result, depending on what you want to achieve you might want some direction to get you started. Fortunately there is a huge wealth of information and tutorials available. Here are some that we recommend:

VIDEO TUTORIALS

Many YouTubers (myself included!) run channels dedicated to GameMaker tutorial content. These range from beginner introductions to specific topics. Here is a choice selection of content great for beginners:

  • Your First Game - A series from myself on creating an asteroids clone using your first GML code. More tutorials from me can be found on my channel or on our Learn page.
  • Make a game with no experience - A lengthy and thorough tutorial from Tom Francis, creator of Gunpoint.
  • Make an RPG - An ongoing 32 part series on building a full top down RPG game from tutorial maker Heartbeast. For those wanting something a bit more complex, but still aimed at beginners.
  • Making Games 101 - A channel with lots of great tutorials for specific subjects.
  • Let's Learn GameMaker: Studio - For those wanting something more academic or systemic, this channel provides excellent content on fundamental concepts, coding and more.

BUILT IN TUTORIALS & DEMOS

GameMaker comes with a ton of tutorial and demo content available directly from the launcher covering a wide variety of topics. Just select the tutorials tab from the launcher as shown below:

Tutorials in the IDE

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

if you're stuck on something specific you might be able to get some help directly from our thriving community:

FURTHER RESOURCES

  • Pixel Prospector - An online hub for game development resources and guides. Also covers topics like distribution and marketing.
  • r/GameMaker's "GameMaker Handbook" - An enormous, more extensive version of this very list produced by the community. Covers art guides, audio development guides, developer resources and more.

There's so much more great content out there, but hopefully this short list offers you some places to start. Whatever your goals we hope you all have a great time with GameMaker: Studio and we look forward to seeing what you can build!

Best of luck!

Shaun Spalding, Community Manager


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