There are a variety of game creating software out there, for all kinds of games and systems. Some are free, some have a price...
I'm curious as to what the people here think about using such software to create games, rather than hard coding with C++ or something.

Game Maker is a good example of what I mean.

I was mulling the same question for several months. I finally decided to drop C++ at least for a while and try Jamagic for my next project. That was about a month ago. So far I have no plans of going back to C++.

Check out www.clickteam.com.

Jack

I strongly recommend BlitzBASIC, specifically Blitz3D. I've tried several other game creation systems (although Jamagic is not one I've tried) and of them Blitz3D was best. To qualify the word "best," I found that it had excellent functions/features for all areas of game development (graphics, sound, input, netplay, etc,) rendered graphics very quickly and cleanly, and was extremely flexible (allowing me to develop any game I can design, as opposed to many other game creation systems which put many limitations on what kinds of games can be created.) Furthermore, although many programmers turn their noses up at the idea of coding in BASIC, I found the BlitzBASIC language (which by the way is considerably extended from BASIC in terms of data structures, syntax, etc.) to be very simple yet powerful to work with.

Note that Blitz3D includes the entire functionality of Blitz2D (the 2D games creation system) so with the former you can easily create 2D games while staying with the same development environment.

They both sound good, but I don't see anything about compatability for differant OS'... Not just the maker, but the games they make.

I second the recommendation for Blitz Basic. It's been a terrific tool to work with. Several authors on this board have games written and published with it (e.g. our own Wonderland, Retro64's Best Friends, RedClaw's Goobs,...).

The next version ("BlitzMax") is supposed to enable you to compile the game for different OSs, but it is not available yet.

I have the feeling once it comes out we'll suddenly see a ton of people expanding into Mac and Linux games. I know I'll give it a shot. :)

BASIC is an absolutely wonderful language to develop in. In these days of irritating curly brackets and object-oriented wank BASIC is a breath of fresh air for people who just want to make a program instead of prove some esoteric design's aesthetic beauty.

Says the Java developer*...

Cas :)

* for all its good points Java doesn't have half some stonkingly bad ones too. I wish there was a happy medium.

I've been using blitz also (well i have blitz3d but so far haven't gotten into any of the 3d stuff). It's very simple language, with alot of features.

and yes as is said, there's been alot of games made with blitz that actually make money. Most of the games sold by Idigicon are blitz.

and even Pharoah's Curse was made in blitz :-)

Keith

I use visual basic.

Go ahead and laugh.

Ok, now that your back on your chair, i'd like to point out that with the easy integration of DirectX in VB, i found that developpement time was split in half compared to C++.

Its also alot more easy to read, and more natural (for me) to use.

The only problems are... slow loops, slow memory access... well... I make small games, so i load everything before game starts, therefore memory access is not too much of a burden. As for slow loops, i optimise and optimise.

When my game is 99% done/debugged, i then add the special FXs, which are written in C++.

Basicly, VB helps me with faster developpement/debugging time, its not too slow for the program's core, and all the speed killer functions i make in C++.

The only sad thing about VB (6.0) is the poor implementation of classes and hierarchy. There are ways around it though, but its beyond the scope of this message.

I think i'm gonna check out that Blitz Basic you people are talking about.

Smurf

I've experimented Blitz Basic, Dark Basic (haven't tried DBPro yet) and 3D Game Studio. I'm currently using Dark Basic but I guess I'd third that recommendation for Blitz - or you can investigate DBPro.

They all have their strengths and weaknesses so your best bet would be to get demos of them all and try them out. There is some snobbery between communities but just realize that the game -player- doesn't care what the game was made in as long as it works and it's fun. My goal is to own a copy of them all so I can simply pick and choose which is best suited for the projects I'm working on - which provides the shortest distance between concept and finished product.

In my opinion I think licensed tools like these are the "wave of the future" for game development. They cut development time by at least 30% and simplify the process so you don't need a degree in computer science to realize your vision. Just as major companies will license the Quake engine to avoid having to code an engine from scratch, shareware developers can use Blitz, DBPro, 3D Game Studio, heck - even Klik and Play (which I think Hateful Chris was done in) and make something entertaining and of quality.

I don't know what you're all talking about, I love C++. :) Seriously, I don't know what I'd be doing right now without it. Such a powerful and elegant language, it has been around for so many years -- why? Because nobody has been able to make anything better. I'm not saying everyone has to use it but I personally love the language. And if you don't like it because you're bad at it, that's a bad reason not to like it. I wasn't born a C++ programmer, nobody was. It took me almost 5 years to get to where I am today and I've still got a loooong way to go before I even scratch the surface of its power. And FYI I started with QBasic, then Visual Basic, did some Pascal in High School, but once I got good at C++ I never turned back. Oh and I'm finishing up my BS in Computer Science this semester by the way. :)

Multimedia fusion and mophun are both nice platforms. Depending on what type of game you want to make.

Of course there's always some of the prefab cheaply priced engines like Torque.

I use ++ and I doubt I'll switch away, but I did really enjoy the time I spent playing with Blitz3d. It's a really nice tool and an excellent way for the less tech savvy to start in the game biz. I certainly considered using it for a small 3d game, and I may yet.

Thank you all for the comments, I'm always...
Well, usually at least, interested in peoples oppinions for such matters.

Originally posted by Dan MacDonald
Multimedia fusion and mophun are both nice platforms. Depending on what type of game you want to make.

Of course there's always some of the prefab cheaply priced engines like Torque.

Multimedia Fusion is indeed a very powerfull developmenttool. If you know also C, you can write your own custom objects and import it for use in MMF. MMF is very powerfull you can always find a solution for your design needs.

Blitz3D or Torque.

Hatefull Chris was done in MultiMediaFusion. Clickteam have so far produced several authoring tools since the 80's(?) (AMOS, K&P, TGF, C&C, MMF, MMF1.5 and Jamagic). You can download a 30 day demo of MMF 1.5 from Ct's website. http://www.clickteam.com

Oh and check out Eternal Daughter by Blackeye, the also used MMF for that. http://www.classicgaming.com/blackeyesoftware/
wait a bit for the annoying classicgaming page to load. or grab it here: http://dl.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?classicgaming/blackeyesoftware/ed.zip

Nobody has mentioned Director. :)