On Humble bundle at the moment there is the complete Gamemaker studio bundle

Link to HB

I haven't seen this posted on here but as there always a lot of people wanting to try to make their own games (and this website is all about games!) I figured i'd give those people who might miss it (I got lucky and it cropped up in my FB feed....the one and only time the adverts have been useful!) a heads up as its well worth it even if you want to just have a look. I've been using the free version for the last few months learning and while there is nothing limited with the free version that will stop you making something (I believe there are some functions that are simplified Here are the differences) the bit that always stopped me taking it as more than bit of fun was the price tag if I wanted to get serious about it.

Go fourth and get creative duders!

For anyone considering game development or looking for a hobby I can say GameMaker is a fantastic starting point. It's been a part of my life in one way or another for over 10 years and it's a fantastic piece of kit and this is a great way to jump in. Especially as it comes with some source code of some rather good games. I was never good at it myself but I've had fun creating odds n sodds in it purely as a hobby.

GameMaker does sound like the name of a crappy piece of software that's heavily restricted but you can do a lot with it.

I was very hesitant at first because it does sound like a crappy piece of software like Yesiamaduck, very unfortunate name and general look/feel/marketing. BUT it’s in fact an excellent piece of software, if you dig around you’ll realize 80%-90% of the good 2d games are developed with this, Hotline Miami, Spelunky, Gunpoint, Risk of Rain, Downwell, all of Vlambeer´s games (I think), just to name a few.

The bundle is a steal, for $15 you get the Pro license ($150), the IOS and Android modules ($300 each), and the HTML5 module ($200). The Pro license allows you to remove the “Made with Game Maker splash screen” and the export modules allow you to publish for those platforms (it´s not as easy as pressing a button though). They are probably launching Game Maker v2 in a couple of months and with this license you don’t get to upgrade, but if anyone is remotely interested in any of this I think it's still worth it.

Let me also recommend the excellent tutorial series by Tom Francis (developer of Gunpoint):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUtKzyIe0aB2HjpmBhnsHpK7ig0z7ohWw

This is what inspired and helped me to start, I've been developing a simple game for about 1 year and I’m close to releasing it, and it's been great!

I'm by no means an expert but if you have any questions feel free to ask. I hope Jeff grabbed the bundle and is secretly making his weird tapping card collectible auction game.

His video tutorial series is amazing (and actually what I originally used), what I would say to anyone who does watch it and follows along is this, when it gets to around episode 6 (might be 7) don't worry if it feels like its all gone wrong just watch the following recap episode he does immediately after and it will become crystal clear again.

Almost forgot about this until I saw this thread. Always been interested in at least seeing some of this stuff. Definitely going to check out that tutorial series @santiagocr linked.

Also reminds me that I need to go finish that GBeast Academy video.

Thanks for the heads up. I bought the $15 package.

finally i can absorb my own poops.