Table of Contents
What is game maker and how does it work
Game Maker is a software designed for creating games. It consists of two parts: the game engine and the drag-and-drop programming interface. You can use Game Maker to develop your own games and then publish the game on Windows or Mac OS X, without any knowledge of programming languages. Game Maker uses a drag-and-drop programming interface. Drag-and-drop programming is used to control actions performed by the game engine and to create sophisticated interactions between the user’s input and the game’s visual elements. Game Maker provides an intuitive interface that you can use to get started right away. Game Maker is a software package that can be used to create computer games, including 2D and 3D action games. It supports both 2D sprite-based graphics and 3d components. You can use it to create video games for Windows and Mac OS X.
The Game Maker program includes a simple built-in programming language known as Game Maker Language (GML). This language is used to command the game engine via drag-and-drop interactions. This article teaches you how to create games using the Game Maker program and GML. The game we will be making will be a game that puts your reflexes to the test.
What is construct 2 and how does it work
Construct 2 is a software created by the Russian company “Construct company”, which belongs to the “Construct group”. Construct 2 is primarily a game engine. It allows you to create your own games and publish your projects on platforms like Windows and Mac OS X. You can use it to develop games for different platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, iOS), as well as for browsers and web applications. Construct 2 uses a drag-and-drop interface that many people find easier than using traditional programming languages such as C++ or C#. As you will see later in this article, some of the features in Construct 2 are based on technology that was popularized specifically for the purposes of game development. A list of some of the Construct 2 features is presented here:
* Game development with a dedicated editor. You can create a game without writing any code. The whole visual design of the game is built visually and everything else is done automatically by the software. There are no programming skills required at all, however you can still modify or customise the behaviour of games through scripting if you want to.
* Drag-and-drop user interface. All elements in a game are created almost directly on the canvas. This is a very popular concept for building interfaces and used in many applications, from web development to video editing software.
* Built-in physics engine. You can create games with realistic physics effects just by clicking a few buttons. The physics engine is fully customisable and you can fine tune its behaviour to your exact needs.
How do the two programs compare
Game Maker and Construct 2 are distinct software packages used for different purposes. However, they do have some similarities. Both programs have a similar drag-and-drop programming interface. Construct 2 is a static game engine, while Game Maker is a dynamically generated dynamic game engine. The two programs have many features in common, such as the ability to create games in Flash format, which can be played directly on an HTML5 compatible web browser (by going to the website where the game was hosted). The two programs also share common used programming languages such as Lua or Python. Although the two packages have many similarities, they still have their own strengths and weaknesses. Here are a comparison of features for both Game Maker and Construct 2:
Game Maker Construct 2
Programming language: ActionScript 3, Lua, Python, C/C++ PHP, HTML5/WebGL (rendered in HTML5)
Built-in physics engine: Box2D (built-in) None [no built-in physics]
Engine hardware support: None Hardware acceleration (DirectX 9 or later only; OpenGL 2.1 or later) [OpenGL 3.0 or later]
Startup time: ~10 minutes ~1 minute for built-in engines and ~4 minutes for external engines [faster on Windows]
Supported games: Flash (web browser based) Flash (web browser based)
Supported hardware: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, iOS and Android [not Flash] Windows, Mac OS X and iOS only, Android coming soon (but not currently available) [Flash support is planned. A preview is planned for the end of 2014]
***If you want to read more, you can check out buildbox’s review of both products:http://www.buildbox.com/game-engines-choose/
Which program is better for making games
Since both programs are used for game development, then one might ask: which is better? I will try to answer this question by answering the following question: which is better for making games? For example, if you want to make a first person shooter: which game engine would you choose? A few names that I can think of are Construct 2 and Game Maker. If we are talking about a more complex game, then there may be more options to go with. Another thing is that you should not choose the game engine because it is better known or more popular. You might want to go with something like Stencyl, which is a flash game development platform where you can make games in a matter of hours, if you know what you are doing.
Which program is easier to use
When we compare the two programs, Construct 2 seems to be easier to use. It is much simpler. Game Maker uses a dynamic programming language with a hard-to-understand syntax, which is called GML (Game Maker Language). The learning curve for GML is quite steep, especially if you are not much of a programmer or if you have never programmed before (which applies to most people). However, Construct 2 is based on a programming language called JavaScript. For example, you can use the following line of code in Construct 2 to make the player go up and down in the y-axis:
Player.y += .1;
Conversely, to achieve the same result in GML, you have to write this line of code, taking into account that you need to include the header file and then declare a variable for player, which is “player”.
//declaring player variable
_player = new Object;
_player.y = _game.newValue(0);
* * *
Construct 2 Program:020_game.html (excerpt)
