[SDL] ANN : Game Maker 7.x for MacOS X enters private beta...

[Mason Wheeler]

>----- Original Message ----
>From: René Dudfield <renesd at gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [SDL] ANN : Game Maker 7.x for MacOS X enters private beta...

>agreed!   people should learn    assembly  &&  C  &&  python(or other
>modern scripting languages)   &&  (GLSL,HLSL)   &&  level editors  &&
>sound programs   &&   graphics programs  &&  etc...  for creating
>games.
>
>More people complete games with easier tools though.  I've seen heaps
>of people start with C++ and never get past creating an engine, but
>I've seen heaps of people start with simpler things and complete basic
>games.

Exactly.  Basic games can be done on basic tools, as long as you stay within
the nice little basic box they define for you.  But to write a serious game, you
need to build your own box, and that means writing your own engine.  And
trying to take any shortcuts when doing that is asking for trouble when
something gets broken.

I've spent the last year and a half working on a project similar to Game Maker.
I built an engine that worked great, right up until I added one feature too many,
using threading techniques I didn't understand well enough.  It b0rked the
entire engine and left it unusable.  Now I'm rebuilding it from the ground up with
a more stable framework and taking the time to understand all my components.

To accomplish all that, it took Delphi (native-code language), Asphyre (Delphi
multimedia framework, similar to the SDL video system), SDL_Mixer
(Asphyre's sound-handling sucks), RemObjects PascalScript (scripting
language), a good strong dose of Photoshop, and a handful of optimizations
in inline assembly.  And I'm currently working on building the level editor and
moving everything over from Asphyre to a pure SDL framework, and I'm
planning on implementing some of the trickier visual effects in GLSL.  Your
list of what it really takes is quite accurate.