shaunjs
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[Important] ARPG series and GameMaker Studio 2.3
🕑 Added 2020-08-18 15:42:32 +0000 UTCHello everyone! version 2.3 has arrived and with it, lots of cool new features! This has been a bit of a looming elephant in the room for me for some time, and I have been putting off thinking about how I wanted to deal with it, hoping somehow it would end up waiting for next year. But it's here now.
Luckily the code for the ARPG series that we have written to date seems unaffected at first glance. It imports correctly from 2.2 and runs as expected. The final version (that the demo is based on, and that $20 supporters have the code for) does not work. At least the main menus do not. I have only really glanced at it briefly so I don't know if there's a super quick fix there or what, but I'm thinking about the future of this series.
As it stands it's still able to be followed despite a little bit of confusion likely over scripts & functions. A new script will look like this:
This boilerplate function text is very helpful, but is still likely to confuse people watching my videos who see me type into a blank script. I do bring this up early and often in the video so hopefully I've caught that one ahead of time for enough people.
However, the big problem for me going forwards is that 2.3 has new ways of doing things that I'd really like to encourage people to do. Creating functions outside of solitary script resources, organizing things in the new asset browser, making use of structs, etc. Realistically, changing paradigms heavily in this tutorial is not a good option, but neither is simply pushing on with all of the same methodology.
So I'm considering "ending" the series earlier than I had originally planned, and diving into 2.3 relevant content. I would want to wrap up the enemy stuff we're currently doing and not just end mid-way through a major feature. With thoughts to add the main remaining features (simple "quests", saving + loading, title screen) a bit later while we focus on bringing out some more varied tutorials on new features.
Adding all of the special items (hookshot, bow, bombs), money and the shop, etc, feels like it's going to be a huge waste at this point in time. It's very important to keep my work up to date and relevant. Persisting with this series in its current style and setup for months is likely to be a poor use of time for both me and for you all watching the series, when we could be developing new and important skills that will take us much further as developers.
Ultimately you fund this work, so I want to know your perspective. You've been funding this series and my work this whole time and I massively appreciate the trust you've had in me thus far. I believe it would be the right decision to bring this series to a close as quickly as we can for now, with the door open to return to it in the future and append missing concepts as bonus episodes.
It is not just the release of 2.3 that is making me feel this way about the series, in general I think although lots of valuable stuff has been taught here, long-form series like this are generally not the most productive form of tutorial making. I had no beginner entry point for the latest version of GameMaker for *over a year* because I was focused on trying to deliver this series. It's important I think for me to be making lots of varied content for everybody, than just delivering a single highly detailed series for the dedicated few.
So this is where I'm at. I started this post as a poll but there were too many different opinions I could imagine people having. What do you think?
- Do you agree with me that this is the right move?
- How important is it to you that the ARPG sees "true completion" at some point?
- What would you consider a sensible stopping point for the series?
- Are you ok with me focusing on new things, with the door open to return to add on to this series in the future?
- Do you have little opinion and are happy to just see new work from me regardless?
Comments
I've just begain re-learning (again!!) GameMaker and noted lots changes to 2.3... its crazy cool but I'm lost. It's music to my ears if you are willing to start a new game tutorial project based on 2.3 and its features! One thing I've noted that no one has really touched on with Game Maker / GML are various genres of games. Lots of platformer tutoruals, side scrolling rougue like, rpg etc..... To have a 2.3 project tutorial on perhaps a Top Down Shooter (ala Super Smash TV classic?!?!) with 2 players, a click n play adventure akin to classic lucasrts games... or even more awesom (if Game Maker 2.3 can handle it) a GTA 2D (ala original first one) type game tutorial.. man just writing about it makes me excited!
Personally, I am of the mind that you are the creator and we are the consumers. If you hate the series and there is little more to instruct with it - cut away and move onto something more fun. I have already learned a tremendous amount and frankly, most videos are easily consumable as chunks instead of long drawn out episodic series. Most of us, I would imagine, aren't wanting to make YOUR game - we are looking for advice/help/instruction on making OUR game. I'm excited to see you cover 2.3 relevant content. The stupid Room inheritance changes alone caused me to have to pause your video and research. I've never made the Script01.gml - I come from other programming languages (C#/Python) so I just naturally grouped the functions into a global functions anyhow. Slight tweaks happen, and you kick starting a new series that you are excited in will make us excited.
