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What do you mean that Game Maker is not programming? It may not be as respectable as something like Java or Python or C, but it's most certainly a programming e
by Figs 16y ago
What do you mean that Game Maker is not programming? It may not be as respectable as something like Java or Python or C, but it's most certainly a programming environment. You can learn about file I/O, event driven systems, data structures (particularly linked lists and trees, using instance ids in place of pointers/references) after you learn the screwy, almost typeless pseudo-C/Pascal mishmash scripting language that's built in. You can also learn a lot about the complexity of programming when you have to debug your code to figure out why things aren't doing what you wanted them to (whether that's because of a typo, unintended effects of the interaction of multiple complex behaviors you wrote, or simply a misunderstanding of language). Not to mention the issues of project management and good design (or lack thereof...)! While it may seem crude, please don't belittle it by saying that it's not "programming".
- elliottcarlson 16y agoI should have watched how I phrased things; I think it's a great stepping stone in to full programming; what she currently is doing is almost 100% drag and drop and because of that, what my niece specifically is doing, isn't necessarily programming, but giving her a great resource to understand programming, and indeed making programs. I wouldn't consider her specific actions programming in a general sense, but am ecstatic that Game Maker exists to get her started gradually from the current steps and also in to more advanced steps from one single system. So Game Maker is programming and I should have been careful in how I phrased it because I did not want to make Game Maker seem anything less than it is (I am buying her the new Game Makers Companion and a license if she continues with it because I would love to encourage programming in her)