Gamemaker Fundamentals: Learn Gml Programming to Start Making Amazing Games

The book is as close to textbook-like as I could find so far. I appreciate the structure of the book and I can say I have learned a decent amount of info through reading it and applying in gamemaker. I usually skip the advanced assignments because they are either out of scope for the chapter, or seem to take more effort than it's worth to complete. The basic assignments have been enough for me to get familiar with the software. There are a lot of typos in this book, which is unfortunate (I attached pictures of 3 examples from one chapter alone). The typos don't really impact the quality of the information in the book, but I did find myself re-reading parts to understand what was meant. I really appreciate having free assets to work with in the book, but unfortunately some things are out of date and can't be used in the current version of gamemaker at the time of writing this (i e. the assignment solution projects are .yyz files when gamemaker expects .yyp). Overall I was still able to get value out of the book, I just think it needs updating and proper proofreading for a new edition.

First I will address the very few things I didn't enjoy about the book: there are a few grammar mistakes, a couple run on sentences and a few graphical / formatting issues with the layout of some chapters which made this book feel a bit rushed. Also the lack of comments in the companion code for checking assignments was a bit of a bummer.On to the things I liked and why it got 4 stars 🌟: I did enjoy the approach and how the author addressed the fundamentals of GameMaker which "parts" are most commonly used. The practice code / follow along code, the useful functions.. and most importantly the end of chapter assignments and how they were split into basic and advanced.I am half way through the book and I must say I have learned a good deal.I plan on going through this book cover to cover a few times then I am to challenge myself with his other book I purchased not long ago (because I am a fan of his teaching style) GameMaker: Studio 100 programming challenges.All in all I would recommend this book. 👌The GML landscape is constantly changing that is true, with basic fundamentals they typically do not change (if they do the *Feather features in GameMaker will highlight the depreciated functions and explicitly tell you what to use instead) with solid base you can build really anything.Would have been 5 stars but the rushed feeling took away 1 star.

It's a great way to learn about this excellent game engine, it's complete and allows you to make your first games.

I bought this book for a school assignment and for general interest. I've been using Gamemaker for just about a year now, making small games and programs.This book was a little more basic than I would have enjoyed, but I did learn about some new concepts like timelines and MP grids. This book does not go very deeply into each subject, yet it covers a lot of topics. Near the end, the author makes an example game which applies almost all the topics in the book. I found this very helpful. He also included some challenges to that game ranging from easy to very hard.Unfortunately, the grammar is messy and hard to understand in some spots. I have a feeling a beginner could definitely get lost and confused on certain parts. It does have lots of screenshots and examples though, and the part on setting it up and installing is very clear and helpful.Overall, this book is well presented and helpful, yet the grammar wasn't good, and it was a definitely a beginner book. I would suggest this book to someone who has a basic knowledge of Gamemaker or game making, but wants to learn the fundamentals of Gamemaker.

I really hoped to like this book, but after no less than five typos/editing errors in the first chapter alone (including in the actual programming code) I found it wasn't going to be reliable as a teaching aid.Further, I would classify this closer to a reference manual than a step by step learning guide. It is mostly code examples with very brief comments on what they will return. It assumes some basic knowledge of how Gamemaker works straight from the first page.Finally, though this is more a personal preference, the book has almost no 'soul' to it - there is practically nothing but choice snippets and the briefest explanations on what they actually do. It leaves the task of learning what you are doing with the code, rather than simply cut and pasting the snippets, fully to the reader, which, if you are new to Gamemaker or programming, can be a daunting task.