MarkUp 1/Game Maker's Benefits
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| This article was originally found in issue 1 (here) of MarkUp Magazine, and was originally written by Eyas Sharaiha |
Game Maker might be criticized outside the Game Maker Community, but no one who has truly tried it can deny its benefits. Game Maker is beneficial to computer users who have just begun programming, and also to advanced users who are professional at coding, etc.
Contents |
[edit] Academia
[edit] Geometry and Mathematics
That is, because Game Maker - in principle - is based on many geometrical and mathematical concepts that are necessary to understand for better educational performance in schools and even universities. Using Game Maker, especially from an early age establishes a good foundation for important concepts that the user will encounter at an older age, which will provide the user with a very important advantage: the ability to quickly and easily understand complex mathematical and geometrical concepts and skills.
So what are the concepts introduced by Game Maker that makes it beneficial? Well, first of all, coordinates. Knowing what are x coordinates and y coordinates, how they are written (x before y, etc) will help people understand concepts such as the Cartesian Plane, and easily apply Game Maker skills for solving relevant problems.
Other than that, there’s direction, which not only improves geometric skills, but also mathematical! When people need to change their objects direction, their multiplication and addition skills will improve, for example, the frequent usage of the directions 0, 90, 180, 270 for simple motion will help the user memorize multiples of the number “90” in addition to multiplication in general. Third, many Game Maker functions such as degtorad(val) and radtodeg(val) also introduces younger users to the existence of other angle measurement functions.
In addition, Sine and Cosine functions probably ease the understanding of trigonometry as a concept and trigonometric functions particularly.
[edit] Logic
If conditions creates more logic to the user, especially when followed by “else” statements. It further introduces the user to the topic of logic gates, with and, or, not, and xor logic gates.
Logical operations such as “==”, “>”, “<”, “>=”, and “<=” also help in the area of logic, and enhances the thinking skills of the user in general. Such operations occupy the person’s thinking when trying to solve certain problem with the game/program being worked on. Not only that, but even functions as easy as drawing circles might expand people’s thinking skills!
[edit] General Educational Pillars
Game Maker is a highly beneficial educational tool, but as it has been discussed earlier, it expands knowledge and skills in other areas than programming and game development. So now it is time to describe the benefits that have been targeted by Mark Overmars as he developed it. Game Maker’s most recent versions have been developed in a way that eases the understanding of object-oriented programming in addition to programming in general.
It has separate resource groups which creates a clear organization and structure for the game in the making. Sprites are in a group other than timelines, objects are separate than rooms and backgrounds, everything is integrated yet separate at the same time, making things much more understandable and 'senseful' as well.
Game Maker creates an understanding for the user about the way objects exists, how they can be visible or invisible, how they can interact with each other, and perform all the tasks you need. You understand how everything is connected, how an object can create or destroy another one, how it can manipulate room settings, and interact with the user. In addition, the Object Properties window in Game Maker is so clearly organized, making it very easy to understand yet very educational at the same time.
[edit] Programming
In the Object Properties window, you can see how any object can perform “actions”, but you also understand that the object “doesn’t know” when to perform these “actions”, meaning they must be performed on a certain occasion, this occasion is called an “Event”, and suddenly, everything makes sense! Also, Game Maker’s code is somewhat similar to C++ and Java, which makes it realtively easy to understand code written in these languages and even learn how to program in the future.
[edit] Conclusion
In conclusion, I’d like to recommend older readers of this article, who are either parents, or have relatives who are as young as eight or nine years old to start and try this tool: Game Maker, because it is very likely to boost their knowledge and skills, educationally and their intelligence in general.
