Game Maker Vs TGB ?

#1 I've spent considerable time working with Game Maker over the past couple of years, and I must say that it's a pretty powerful package. It's easy to use and promotes a very smooth working environment. It is most definitely more versatile than making platformers - people in that community make them simply because it is simple to do so and many platformers there happen to be popular. However, as you've seen, Game Maker consumes an incredible amount of resources, so much that you have to struggle within limitations to churn out great-looking games. For professionals, it's mainly useful for prototyping a new design. Otherwise, it's a questionable choice for making a game for sale with it.

I'm recently changing to TGB since I've switched over to Mac workstations. :)

#2 I use both. I use Game Maker to prototype and try out ideas. I use TGB to build the final product.

#3 Thanks guys. This is what I thought but I wanted some opinions because I have never used Game Maker. TGB performs much better I think. I just wish we could see more official TGB tutorials. This product is great!

#4 Edel.. you and me both. Actually, that's one thing that makes GM such a nice product.. there is a really active community and tons of tutorials/docuemntation... one thing that TGB continues to sorely lack.

#5 I agree that the GM community does make things easier but GM is a very cheap/free product so they are bound to have a bigger community. The TGB price tag, whilst very reasonable, is a barrier for most of the people that use GM.

#6 Perhaps... but there are supposedly a strong indie community here too... and while they do help.. it takes a year and a day sometimes to get that help.. I have a post out there that hasn't been answered yet. When I ask a question at GM, it is usually responded to in about 30 minutes...

#7 All communities are different, Pesto126. And with the number of people who work with GM on common types of projects, it is a lot easier to come up with quick answer. the AGS community is also very quick. The Sauerbraten community is quick on a number of mod and editor related questions but often slow on code related questions. If you are attempting something that few people have done in an engine, then the response time is even slower. Eric Lengyl (sp?) at C4 and the Lawmaker guys at Darkroom studios are very quick with engine-related questions. Unfortunately, the forums are very slow other than the developers (at Darkroom, anyway; C4's are more active).

#8 Let's get this discussion going again, since Game Maker 8 release candidate is out let's take a look at what's currently better.

Torque is supported on Mac, Linux, and PC machines.
Game Maker is Windows, and soon Mac.

Torque is obviously a more powerful engine as you can change the source as which with game maker you can not. It's easier in Game Maker to make zelda like battle systems but with torque I dunno(still learning) it seems harder. There is an adventure pack which has the adventure/action based collisions but in some cases you just need to create your own engine. The starter does show how to use the engine nicely with that sort of engine but I like creating things on my own.

Game Maker supports all resolutions and window sizes, the smallest window in torque is 640X480 that is unless you make a script(if one exists I want it!)

The debate continues.

#9 What debate? :P Game Maker and TGB are on two different levels in my opinion. Game Maker is more for the younger crowd or those with next to no programming experience. TGB is without question a more powerful package and has more features, but in order to make games with TGB you WILL need to learn TorqueScript.. possibly even edit the engine source code depending on your needs.

If Game Maker had some sort of scripting and gave users access to the source code maybe I'd have considered it, but I really wanted those two things in the engine I chose.

#10 im waiting for T2D, im interested in directx support, because for the moment my target is only Windows, maybe ill buy it...

TGB is more powerful, for professionals, so is more difficult to learn...

#11 Will T2D be a free upgrade for current Torque Game Builder users or will I pay another fee?

#12 Upgrade Fee

#13 It won't be free...

#14 As noted by both Marc and Joe, the next upgrade for Torque 2D will be a paid upgrade.

#15 I for one love GameMaker. It is one heck of a good tool with extensions in use. What really would make things easier, for me at least, is if there where more behaviors around. I struggle to port my prototype over to TGB, and it allways seams that GM has more of what TGB lacks. Don't get me wrong here. TGB is a killer app that I don't regret a single moment I bought. It takes some time to get into the swing of things with it. How much will the upgrade cost?