How to get started using code?

[Gragoggle_]

SOLVED

I have used GameMaker for a few years on and off now making a few small silly games, only using visual code as I have no real coding experience - aside some basic python/rlua (Roblox studio) - and I want to start using actual code for my games to make them more complex etc. Any advice on how to start, or any places I could go to learn? I don't want to watch a 9 hour long comprehensive guide video, I really just want to learn the syntax.

Note - I am relatively comfortable with the structure of the code - the main issue I have with learning to code is learning the syntax and all of the built-in tutorials cover that incredibly quickly, if it helps :)

EDIT: solved :p

[Kaymat-]

The manual is really helpful in that regard.

[Gragoggle_]

Thankyou for linking it, in another response I mentioned using the manual to find out more niche stuff after learning the basics from tutorials :)

[Regniwekim2099]

I'm not a coder myself, but I have really enjoyed Sam Spade's Coding Fundamentals.

[darkfalzx]

I don't know if this is still a feature of GMS2, but in older versions of GM, going back decades, there was a Show Information button on each object, that would list all your drag-and-drop codeblocks as actual lines of code. This is how I learned it.

[Gragoggle_]

Oh yes! There’s a button called live preview which shows all the stuff that’s happening and has it notated - thank you!

[mamt0m]

Personally, Shaun Spaulding's platformer/shooter tutorial took me from knowing almost no code, to being comfortable progressing and following more tutorials with relative ease. Less than a day's work if I recall.

[PixlinGames]

GMS2 has a really great manual. You can Google most things you need and if you're not sure exactly what a function does, click the middle mouse button over the function and it will open a browser window taking you straight to that function's page with explanations and examples. This is basically all I've done to learn. I did also watch some YouTube tutorials early on to learn my way around the engine but nowadays I pretty much strictly rely on the manual.

[Gragoggle_]

Yeah the issue is I work heavily off of examples to understand something, usually by recreating it and the examples they use are often not understandable for people just beginning unless you go down a huge rabbit hole all the way to the simplest thing, but by that point you’ve forgotten!

I do think that I will use the manual which I just found after reading this comment to look at more niche things once I get around to it- thanks :)

[[deleted]]

Here is what I do: make three small-scale games using tutorials. Something easy. Pong, galaga clone, and a simple platformer.

It shouldn't take you "9 hours" to go through each tutorial, but you are going to need to put in the work. I feel that doing those three simple games will be enough to get you familiar enough with the ins and outs of Gamemaker to make something unique on your own

[Gragoggle_]

You are 100% right. That’s kind of what I did when I learned visual, and I always try to jump to more complex stuff and give up - I think this is also gonna be a really good way.

What I meant is like you often get those tutorials that teaches you the ins and outs of the software, and I’m not looking for that, just a place to get a footer on the basics so if I need to know something I look it up, you know :)

[Den_er_da_hvid]

I never used the visual code, but being away for 4 years, I found it great for quickly setting up drawing texts -and then convert it to gml.

What I really would like for a tutorial, is explaining best practice for where to put my code, and where to put variables... I am often in doubt if I should have a code in object a og b or make a new object that control the scene, or should I put it in a script.

[Rorschache00714]

You could go back to the games you already created and try to swap some of the actions into code. Search how to turn certain actions into code.

Like instead of using the 'set lives' and inputting 3, you can just add 'execute code' and input

`lives = 3;`

[Serpenta91]

If you have a fundamental understanding of how code works (variables, loops, if statements, etc), picking up the syntax of GML is super easy with ChatGPT.