xianc78 @xianc78@gameliberty.club

@beardalaxy I tried to find a way to get a cracked version of Game Maker Pro working, but I didn't know how to pirate software (outside of ROMs) back then.

There was another program that I forgot to mention earlier. It was DS Game Maker. It was also shareware and let you make DS games, but the Lite version was even more limited than GameMaker Lite. It only allowed you to have three rooms and no save feature.

But it looks like the project is still around and is now FOSS.

https://digitaldesigndude.github.io/DSGM-Resource-Site/index.html

Regardless of your opinions on Georgescu and his stances on certain issues, I think the main thing to take away is that he (as far as I know) was a completely independent candidate who despite all the odds (including not being a contender), won the Romanian election, but of course the elites will find a way to ensure that he would never get in. Our current system won't allow in anyone who goes against the status quo.

@vokainen099 @beardalaxy Yeah I know. Anyway my original point in the OP was that although it doesn't feel like it. These viral indiedevs actually have at least a decade of experience, and they were probably in various gamedev or modding forums back in the day. And that's why those who only started to make games after graduating college are struggling.

I'm not complaining, but I see myself in this in-between because I later learned how to actually program in middle school and high school and I learned to appreciate actually creating something rather than to compete with the professionals. I didn't have enough time to do it as much as I wanted, but I did enjoy every bit of it.

@beardalaxy @vokainen099 Steam Greenlight didn't appear until 2012. Until then, Valve handpicked what games would appear on Steam and the only way to appear on there as an indie was if you had a "proven track record" (i.e we're already successful on other storefronts like Desura or Green Man Gaming, or on places like NewGrounds). Valve actually did receive heavy criticism for it even though it meant quality over quantity.

@vokainen099 @beardalaxy
>How would a kid approaching middle school manage to carve a name for himself while competing with budding professionals with at least college education, if not years of experience?

Like I said, I was stubborn, inpatient, and naive. I also felt that if I didn't have my dream game created in time, someone else with the same idea would make it.

What I should've done was accept that I wasn't going to make professional quality games at the age of 10-12 and just make simple 2D games and have them published on YoYoGames. Maybe I could've gained some experience from that, and who knows where I would be right now. But like I said, I was stubborn and thought of myself as a child prodigy when all I had to show for it was memorizing all the keyboard shortcuts on Windows and having access to GameMaker.

@vokainen099 @beardalaxy
>You needed at least an adult ID to verify your ability to sign a contract with Valve and a bank account to store any gains

This is why I got excited when I first heard about Bitcoin during it's early years and how there was no age limit. I thought I could release my game as donationware and include a Bitcoin wallet address for people to donate to me.

@beardalaxy @vokainen099 It would probably be easier to do it as a job if everyone who has ever read a programming textbox wasn't making their own video game.

@vokainen099 @beardalaxy I was a stupid and stubborn little kid. If I just accepted that fact and actually made something in GameMaker Lite, who knows what situation I would be right now.

@vokainen099 @beardalaxy 2009-2010. I actually never asked for it. I just knew the answer was "no" because my parents didn't like buying things over the Internet at the time.

@beardalaxy I don't know how much RPG Maker costed back then, but I knew for a fact that my parents wouldn't buy me GameMaker Pro which costed $50 and required you to repay for every update. I messed around with GameMaker Lite, but it was severely limited and lacked certain features like scaling and rotating sprites.

There was also Video Game Tycoon which allowed you to create 3D action games and even burn them onto CD. It was in a monthly Scholastic book catalog that was given out to us in our elementary school. I really wanted it, but our teachers urged us not to buy anything on there outside of books (they couldn't prohibit us/our parents from doing so, but it was heavily discouraged), and my parents agreed with them (being public school teachers and education advocates themselves).

I think I was aware of RPG Maker back then, but I probably wrote it off because I felt like a genre specific game maker was worthless and I didn't care for turn-based games back then.