Topic: A castlevania inspired game that takes place in modern times.

[Inccubus]

Indeed! Your best bet right now will be to do the tutorials. They will teach you the basics in a relatively short time. You'll never get anywhere if you take a defeatist attitude about it. Don't let a lack of experience drag you down. Take me for example, I have no talent for music... at all, but I bore down and studied how FamiTracker works and now I can at least put together a simple tune so I can at least create a basis for someone else to work off of. It just takes a little determination.

[Mikepjr]

It's really not that simple.
But i rather not keep going on about it.
For instance.. where you had issues with doing music, and it was hard and took you a bit to get into it.. i got into it easy.
For some people graphics are a bitch to do, for me it's a breeze.
For some they have no issues with math and coding and so forth.. and they won't go crazy trying to read and learn things.
For me.. it's just really not that easy..
If i can't focus enough to keep going and mess with this stuff.. how can you expect me to sit through and bother with reading a bunch of tutorials and books and so forth?
Ya know.. i don't have a drivers licence, and i'm 33 now, i been trying to study the texas state drivers handbook, and i have been reading it slowly for 2 weeks.. i'm still in chapter one, and i just have hell pushing myself to sit and read much at all... and it's... god.
Why am i even bothering?
I could explain myself until i'm blue in the face.. and people still won't realize how difficult and almost impossible it is for me.
I got better things to do than struggle with this crap.
I got graphics work that needs done, and not just for this game.. i'm working on some resource packs for RPG Maker VX Ace i been taking a break from, i just thought i would give this a shot as something else to do for now, as a nice diversion and go back to my other things later, but i had no idea how difficult it would be.
So for now i'm backing away from this, for my sanity's sake.

Also, people keep going on about how looking at things already made is a bad idea when it comes to learning.
Ever thought maybe for some people it's a better method?
Maybe some people learn more from things already made, rather than sitting and reading books and tutorials until i'm ready to fall out my chair.

That's how i learn to script in RMVXACE anyhow, i looked at work already done, scripts that were already done(for those not in the know, a script is basically the same as a page of coding meant to do things, not sure why they call it scripts in the RPG Maker series.. but they do), and it's taught me a lot.

[darkmanx_429]

You just can't expect to create a game after one or two days of installing a new software. Making a (decent) game is not an easy task. It requires sacrifice, patience, willingness and time, of course. Want to make a game? Be prepared to fail (A LOT).

People could disagree, but being new to GameMaker, trying to adapt/modify an engine to 'learn' is one of the worst things you can do. I know my words may sound discouraging. What I'm trying to say is that feeling disappointed is normal, but if you want to succeed, you must try again and again.

Game Maker Studio comes with a nice selection of Tutorials. That's really a good point to start because you don't even need to waste time searching the web for tutorials. If you follow all the beginner and intermediate tutorials, you will have a good understanding of how GM works.

I know that I mentioned smoething like this earlier...

This..all this..

[X]

Ya know.. i don't have a drivers licence, and i'm 33 now, i been trying to study the texas state drivers handbook, and i have been reading it slowly for 2 weeks.. i'm still in chapter one, and i just have hell pushing myself to sit and read much at all... and it's... god.

I don't have a license either and I'm also 33. But it was a life's choice not to drive. Trust me you might want to forget about getting one. With the way fuel prices are it'll be too much expenses to pay for gas, maintain a car or truck and pay for a ridiculous amount of insurance. You'll save more money in the long run by not getting a vehicle and not only will it keep just one more car off the roads but also more exhaust out of our atmosphere. And you can avoid things like jail time if you are driving and cause an accident or you don't have the money to pay for the other guy's Insurance. Beside the big oil and gas companies don't deserve to have your money and they shouldn't be getting any of it from anyone else either.

Anyways as for the rest of your last post I'm very much like you. I just don't have the patients and drive to sit through a book when I just want to cut to the chase and get my ideas out for everyone else to see. People can say to you (or me) over and over again about persevering and eventually 'getting it', but not everyone is like that. And that's something they need to get through their heads in order to understand your position on the matter. It is unfortunate that because of our mental limitations our ideas may never come to fruition. They can be written down and talked about, but that's as far as some of us will ever get. And it's truly a sad thing when you find yourself wondering "Why the f@#k do I even have these ideas if I can't even follow them through completely!? I should be able to do it all or I should not have these ideas at all!"-Pretty much me in a nutshell.

[Mikepjr]

I know it's way off topic at this point, but because of where i have to live, i have to get my DL anyhow.
Gotta be able to drive, i'm too far in the sticks to not drive.

And yeah that's pretty much what i'm dealing with, big ideas i can't fallow through with.
But i'm going to keep working on graphics and so forth, maybe someone will come on along, see the effort i'm already putting into it, and basically go "wow, i would love to help".

Biggest issue at the moment, is reading all these tutorials and not even getting some things, some things just keep going right over my head.
That's how i was in school, in fact the only subject i was good with was reading and science and art when i was in school, science a lot of things you could just try out and it helped you learn.
I'm the same way now, i learn by doing, not by reading.. which is why i learn more from what people have done and being able to look at it, VS reading things until i'm blue in the face.


I'm rying to design graphics based around the areas you will be visiting.

Like for instance, at one point you have to go into a haunted nightclub, i'm trying to take a theme from CV and make it sound like techno or dance music for that area.

You're also going to go into a factory outside the city, planning to use the Iron Blue Intention for that area, since you're going to deal with haunted machines and dead factory workers.

Planning also for a chapel that you stop in thinking it's a safe haven like most of the chapels and churches in the city, only to find out everyone is dead and they end up coming at you anyhow.

Going to have you visit a city park at night as well.

Got all kinds of ideas for some areas you would not get to visit otherwise if my game was based on any other time period.
There's more you can do with a modern era, that you can't with the same motif CV fan games keep going with.

Which is why Castlevania bloodlines is my favorite, you never would get to go through the leaning tower of pizza if they stuck with dracula's castle.

[X]

Like for instance, at one point you have to go into a haunted nightclub, i'm trying to take a theme from CV and make it sound like techno or dance music for that area.

Then I've got the perfect tune for your haunted nightclub. It's a hyped-up version of 'vampirekiller' made for the game Contra: The Hard Corps;

Prime VGM 105 - Contra: Hard Corps - Simon 1994RD (Extended)

[Mikepjr]

I was thinking more along the lines of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlj7RoxSEpQ
Or maybe this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a79XfwThXb0
This could work to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a90uRh7Z8Io
This one sounds good as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ygUKZSVWUA

Ultimately, i will probably remix something on my own though, which is what i have done so far.

[Inccubus]

Just to chime in on the off topic for a moment. I didn't get my license for the first time until I was 28 or so. Just last year I got it back after 3 years without one. While it's true that gas and insurance are expensive, they aren't required to get a license. You don't even have to have a car. My point being that it's good to have one for emergencies.

As for learning basic programming you don't have to read whole books. Plus you're already learning the concepts of programming by using the drag and drop system. When you jump to coding you're just typing out the commands instead of using icons. If you want I can recommend a series of YouTube videos that does a pretty good job of explaining verbally and visually both the drag 'n' drop and basic programming.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJSAP33GfbllLilH-TjzD8d7pH3up_hfg

And if you have any questions you can always ask at the Game Maker Community forums or PM me.

[Mikepjr]

I pretty much gave up on this for now.
No matter how many tutorials i read, and no matter how hard i try and get into it.. i just can't comprehend game maker at all.
Plus it all just feels way to overwhelming.
I went back to work on my RPG i been working on.. RPG Maker and it's scripting system is less of a pain in the butt than all this other stuff.
Plus considering just using IGM, something the creators of RPG Maker co released with another company a ways back, been using it and it just feels way easier to get into, and comprehend for me.

[Inccubus]

Funny enough I had problems with the RPG Maker scripting language.

[Mikepjr]

It's weird.. but i GET RGSS3, but i DON'T get GML.
Part of the reason though, is RPG Maker VX Ace pretty much has a lot of scripting already done.. you got something to really REALLY learn from, and adjust and learn to comprehend.
GML i just can't wrap my head around it.. and part of the issues i have is the editor it's self, Game maker is just.. set up kind of oddly, but i blame that on the fact that it's set up to be very open ended, which is why it just ends up feeling way to friggen complicated for me.
IGM(Indie Game maker) tends to really work well, it's set up for specific styles of games.. so it's easier to work with i find.
Sadly it's not working right with windows xp 64 bit.. and in fact it only really wants to work in 32 bit windows, it's weird.
All i managed to get done with graphics and some music sadly.

[Inccubus]

Well, you have to consider that at this point GameMaker has evolved into a professional SDK with the focus now being improving tools for developers that pretty much don't use the drag and drop system at all.

If you ever want to give it another go, I'd be happy to explain all the basics to you. I've tutored others before.

EDIT: I just installed RPG Maker VX ACE. So I see it uses Ruby Script as it's scripting language. If you can figure that out, then GML shouldn't be a problem at all since they use all the same basic concepts albeit with some things being called by different names. And actually in many ways it should be far easier to learn than Ruby script because a lot of the object-oriented stuff is done for you.