Tag: programming

Use GameMaker Studio 2 Trial at Home

You can live with the limitations!

The GameMaker Studio 2 Trial licence is designed to let you explore the IDE and learn how to use the product, permitting you to make small test projects and prototypes.

However it has certain limitations, the most important of which is that in this version of the product you can test game projects on your machine, but you cannot create final executable packages for any target platform.

You are also constrained as to how big your test projects can be, up to the following limits:

  • Objects – 15
  • Sprites – 20 (SWF and Spine sprites are not allowed in Trial)
  • Sounds – 10 (no audio buffers permitted)
  • Tilesets – 2
  • Scripts – 10
  • Paths – 5 (In-game path-creation functions are not allowed in Trial)
  • Timelines – 2 (In-game timeline-creation functions are not allowed in Trial)
  • Fonts – 5 (In-game font-creation functions are not allowed in Trial)
  • Rooms – 5 (In-game room-creation functions are not allowed in Trial)
  • Shaders – Not allowed in Trial
  • Included files – Not allowed in Trial
  • Extensions – Not allowed in Trial
  • Configurations – Not allowed in Trial

Accordingly, in-game functions that create or change available resources, e.g., sprite_add(), sound_add(), timeline_add() or sprite_create_from_surface(), are not available in the Trial.

Other than those resource limits, there are a few other elements missing from the IDE:

  • You cannot set the size of Texture Pages
  • You cannot create Texture Groups
  • You cannot create Audio Groups
  • You cannot import or use SWF or Spine format sprites
  • You cannot create Extensions
  • You cannot purchase or download assets from the Marketplace
  • You cannot sell or publish assets on the Marketplace
  • You cannot use the built-in Source Control
  • You cannot import any projects (GMS2 and GameMaker: Studio 1.4) other than our official demos and tutorials
  • You cannot change the Splash Screen shown at the start of your game
  • You cannot disable anonymous IDE analytics
  • You cannot opt-in to the Beta Channel to get IDE and runtime updates sooner

If you have further questions about these limitations or anything related to the GameMaker Studio 2 Trial Licence, please see the GameMaker Studio 2 FAQ.

What to cover in class: Apps or PWA?

I found this article describing a portion of one side of the argument, app or not, which may well suggest an answer the question of where to spend out time in CS here.  Read the full article and the comments on Medium.  The author is not without an unbiased view point, consider what this might mean in relationship to our last review of the NYTimes 7 Minute Workout PWA, or click the author’s examples

I recently wrote an article called “Native Apps are Doomed.” I was surprised at how many people were defending native apps. In all honesty, the user experience story for native apps has never been impressive. The numbers paint a bleak picture for native app success rates that teams need to be aware of when they make important decisions about how to build a new app.

Native apps face two gigantic hurdles trying to compete with Progressive Web Apps (PWAs):

  • Instead of writing 3 different apps, one for Android, one for iOS, and one for the web, PWA app makers only need to build one app that works for all 3.
  • App install friction is suffocating native apps.

App store friction is a major obstacle. It takes about 6 clicks to install a native app, and with each click, you lose about 20% of your users. Deciding to install an app is a lot harder than deciding to use a web app. You have to click install, wait for the app to download, worry about how much space it will take, and worry about the scary permissions it will require. Native apps lose a lot of their potential users before they even click install.

With a progressive web app, you visit a URL and immediately get to try the app. If you continue to use it, you get prompted to install it to your home screen with one click. From that point on, it behaves like a native app. It can work offline, take photos, use WebGL for 3D games, access the GPU for hardware accelerated processing, record audio, etc… The web platform has grown up. It’s time to take it seriously. See “10 Must See Web Apps & Games”for examples of what the web can do.

……

97 Things Every Programmer Should Know

Pearls of wisdom for programmers collected from leading practitioners.

This is a GitBook version of the ’97 Things Every Programmer Should Know’ project.

All content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 license. Print versions of the book are available on Amazon.com.

If you find any mistakes or have any suggestions, you can create issue or pull request to repository.

Infographic: Which Programming Language Should I Learn First?

The following was on Carl Cheo’s site and included here in the event it moves.  Please respect the author and look at the original site and all the material there.

Before choosing your first programming language, you should also check out this infographic on What Is Programming And What Do Programmers Do.

So you want to learn programming. Maybe you have asked your developer friends for recommendations and get different answers. They explained with terms that you don’t understand (what is object-oriented?!). To help you to pick your first programming language to learn, here is an easy-to-understand infographic that recommends the best option, depending on your purpose and interest. Details such as learning difficulty, popularity, and average salary for each computer programming language are provided too.

I have also compiled a list of best programming tools and resources for each programming language, to help you get started quickly.

Special thanks to Prithviraj Udaya for allowing me to use his awesome The Lord of the Rings analogy on Quora.

Note: A good programmer must know at least a few programming languages to learn different ways to approach problems. They continue to learn and grow as technology advances. This is just the beginning of your programming journey. Simply pick one and start coding now!

Most good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program.

– Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux)

 

which-programming-language-should-i-learn-first-infographic

Get the PDF version here.