Best Language or Game Engine for Beginners?

[PlayerReview]

If I wanted to learn a language/engine specifically for game development, what would it be? Does anyone have suggestions on what language one should learn [for game programming]? It could be anything, ideally something that is free or on the cheap. This isn't a question for just me, but for anyone here that may want to design their own game (preferably code, rather than a game engine - but, I'll take either and appreciate any input).

I've started to learn ActionScript and C# for work (testing/QA for jpeg viewers/business apps), but not sure if they would lend themselves to game development other than possibly extending to C++.

What about GML? (Game Maker Language)

It really depends on what game you want to make. I think the engine is more important than the language. There are games made in everything from Flash to Java to C# and C++ and even Basic( I learnt I don't like programming with Basic many years ago) so its whatever language you know, and have access to.

The engine will decide most of that. If I was making a game, just to make it to learn, and was going for an FPS I would use UDK. Which is Unreal Development Kit, and it uses Unreal Engine 3. Thats because I come from more the art asset space than programming. It also has good tutorials and examples.

Now if I was making a game, and was looking to sell it down the line and graphics fidelity were a priority I would use Unity Same as UDK, its very easy to make and import art assests in. There is also good tutorials out there, even Digital Tutors(These guys are great at tutorials!!) have a set here http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/learnin ... hp?lpid=38

Unity uses 3 languages - Javascript, C# and Boo scripts and its got a lot of examples. Cognition that was sold here was built with it, as was Dungeonland, Endless Space. There is a free version to learn with and to mock up, and then the PRO version costs $1,500 with add ons for IOS and Andriod and Flash costing aswell. You can also buy assests to bolt into your game, that you can learn from or use to get that polished look for reasonable price.

If you want to make a story based RPG, and are handy enough at drawing, RPGmaker is your best bet. Its used in a lot of decent RPGs, but the style is very much set and you need to buy it for the full experience, but it only costs $69.99 so its not too much.

There is also Game Maker which is free, and very good at making casual games and quickly but you will need to buy it for $49.99 to get games that can be played from it. The free version only lets you export test versions. The problem with this is that it uses its only language and scripting, and while the practises will travel, not all the language will, so if you wanted to delve deeper into game programming you would need to learn again.

Then on the other side if code scares you, there is Blender which appartenyly has a game enginge part, its new to me. Blender is a great open source modelling suite which integrates with its own code base.

I think the big question is what game do YOU want to make? I would go with unity myself, because of the amount of training and examples, also the community is meant to be nice. I have no idea on the others for community. UDK will give you a glimpse of a big studio, but it can be hard to work in.

One nice thing about GameMaker is you can get started with your game now and that way you only have to buy the 50 dollar licince if it's actually going somewhere.

There is also Construct. I had some luck putting together sidescrollers with that.

gamemaker.

[PlayerReview]

Thanks everyone for your replies, I really appreciate it! Look for my game in the year 2025. I will probably put a crappy concept and some shopped screenies up on kickstarter with a goal of $500,000.

I'm going to research GameMaker to start with and then maybe look into flixel just a bit.

I would start with Construct 2 personally, only because I really enjoy using it and they put out updates all the time. Constantly adding features, plus people make incredible plugins for it to extend it even further.

Nothing against the others listed, I just think Construct 2 is much easier to learn when first getting into game design.