Beyond GM

Posted by Eternal on Sept. 26, 2006, 6:19 p.m.

Hey everyone.

Here's what's going on:

I am sort of, well, <i>moving on</i> from Game Maker. Not entirely, but I am moving away from it.

I plan on doing SQUEO in GM, but nothing really after that. Of course, I'm not abandoning GM completely, or 64Digits, I'm just not going to do very much.

Here are my plans:

Learn XBasic. This'll be a challenge, because there doesn't seem to be very many places for me to learn. I figure that mastering it will take me about a year. Why? Well, I have been using GM for about a year and 2 months now. I have also gone 1 month without opening GM, probably 3 times. Now, I figure that XBasic will be slightly harder than GM. But, I went into GM with literally no coding experience. So, I figure it will even out. While I am learning XBasic, I will be working on Sqeuo, and I will be learning the basics of ASM and C++.

After I master XBasic, I plan to move deeper into C++ and ASM. I plan on studying the two deeply for a year or two. Then, comes my project. English.

Let me explain.

I am going to be writing the in-depth documents for my project for about a year or two. Then, I'm gonna get around to attempting to start it. I know, I know, I still haven't told you what it is. Here's what it's gonna be:

Okay, so, ever since we invented computers, people have had to learn languages that the computer speaks in order to program. Now, this isn't exactly fair, is it? So, I'm gonna try to teach computers English. Pretty much, it's syntax won't be too tight, because neither is English's. If you were to read out loud a piece of GML code, in English, that would be pretty much what I am talking about.

For example, it could go something like this:

Check if variable1 is true.

If it is, check if variable2 equals 1.

If it does, then write "Hello, World!" on the screen.

That's pretty much the concept. Well, sorta. You may say, "Why would someone want to do that?"

Well, this language is going to have 2 goals. The first one is to be easy, so that beginner's can learn it. Now, as for those types of functions, it will be somewhat limited.

But, as we all know, although different words can have the same meaning, they portrait different emotions. I am going to have English analyze these emotions, making it ideal for Chatbots and AI.

It will be written in C++, and hopefully, by then, I will have enough knowledge in ASM to have it compile .exe's and .dll's into machine code. Also, hopefully, it will have Windows and Linux versions.

So, what do you think?

So, yeah.

EDIT: Here's what has changed since I posted this blog:

I have been toying with PAWN, a command-line only scripting language for Windows and Linux. I don't see much of a purpose, but hey, it's one more thing to add to my resume.

I tried downloading IO, but I can't… it has a .tar file inside of a .gz file. Now, I downloaded WinZIP to open the .gz file, but I don't know what to do with the .tar file. Yeah, I know, I'm not very techinical. That's why I use GM. [:)]

I figured out the basics of how I am going to get a game working with XBasic. Trust me, doesn't sound very Basic compared to GM, XD!

I have been trying to decide which ASM compiler looks best to me.

–Eternal.

Comments

flashback 18 years, 2 months ago

Try ClanLib for C++ Game Development.

Extravisual 18 years, 2 months ago

I have yet to see any code from you. All I have seen is perticularly ambisios ideas. Remember when I tried teaching you some Python? You couldn't even figure out which file to download. But, Good luck anyway, "You're gonna need it."

Polystyrene Man 18 years, 2 months ago

That'd be the coolest language in the world. Good luck.

poultry 18 years, 2 months ago

Things you will learn to make in C++ in that few years: How to declare variables.

Eternal 18 years, 2 months ago

@Hali: It took me a while. I don't do good with non-organized sites. Also, I know you have yet to see me code. I don't really care, though. I know my way around GM, but I never get around to doing anything useful.

@Chiken: Fuck you. XD

aeron 18 years, 2 months ago

Why XBasic? Visual Basic is a better choice, but in my opinion you should just start off with C++ if you're gonna move on.

Also, trust me it's hard to move on from GM. I tried to (to learn VB) and you really can't help but come back to it. You may not use it as much for a while but sooner or later you will pick it back up and say "Why did I ever stop this?"

And that English language would be cool, but that's a LOT of work. Writing a language period is hard enough as it is! Good luck to you, though!

Eternal 18 years, 2 months ago

Visual Basic sucks. It is easy, I know a little bit of 6.0. Also, only the newer versions are supported, which are .NET. Also, one reason I am leaving GM is because there is too much interface. I chose XBasic because I plan on moving to Linux as well.

Also, I have been toying with a scripting language called PAWN, so far it's nice.

Amarin 18 years, 2 months ago

I'm trying to get Irrlicht working. But I made 31 errors with the Hello World tutorial in VB… And I can't fix any one of them… It sucks… Too bad there's no 3D Gamemaker (from the makers of DarkBasic) demo… It's about time computers learned English. Can someone teach me?

aeron 18 years, 2 months ago

well I'm glad your planning to move on to Linux!

I'm quite the Linux hobbyist!

But isn't Linux primarily C#? shouldn't you plan to learn that instead?

Eternal 18 years, 2 months ago

I am pretty sure that C Sharp is .NET though, isn't it?