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[dyzen2021]

Hi, I'm 17 years old, lifelong game fan, I want to start making games, but no coding experience.  Which app/game maker would you recommend to make a simple puzzle game like 2048?  Thx.

[enigma27]

I can't help but give a biased answer.

I like godot right now because it is simple and royalty free. But it will use a scripting language "GDScript" which is like python. I think it also has some visual scripting features now, but I'm not sure how mature they are. From what little I've seen I liked GDScript better.
This series can give you an idea of godot



I'd recommend unreal since you can program visually with blueprint, and blueprint is wicked fast to write once you learn it. But unreal has a lot of framework things that you have to learn in the process. And that might be overwhelming at first. Also some folks don't like it for 2D, but I've had good luck with unreal's paper2d for the simple stuff I've tried.

I've never tried unity, but a lot of people like that. I'm not sure where its visual scripting capabilities are at the moment.

Like I said, biased answer. I also haven't tried everything under the sun. So maybe gamemaker or whatever is just the easiest way to get up and going.

[raigan]

This might be worth a try -- it uses visual scripting rather than traditional programming:
https://www.construct.net/en

Another great gamedev tool worth trying is Pico-8: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
It's a complete package (sound, music, graphics, and code) and about as simple as it can be, while still enabling more or less any type of (2d) game you want to make.

IMO you'd be best served by at least learning the basics of programming.

My main advice would be to try tools until you find one that "clicks" with you. It's no different from musical instruments: someone who likes playing guitar isn't necessarily going to like (or be good at) playing drums. Finding tools that you can work with happily is really important, and everyone's different.

[qMopey]

For something really simple to start out I highly recommend P8. It's got great docs, a strong community, and the scope is tightly defined. You'll learn a lot and set yourself to make more cool things in the future really well.

If you want more advanced, then I'd say Game Maker or other options people here have recommended.

[Sgt. Pepper]

Honestly? If you're totally new to programming, you should start with whatever you're comfortable with. I got started writing stupid programs in Batch Script and Python, because that was all I knew how to do.

I think being the "new kid", so to speak, can be scary, because you might feel like you don't know what you're doing or where you're going, but trying to go from zero to 100 right out of the gate is also pretty scary and unrealistic.

If what you want to do is make puzzle games, think about how they function. Sure, when you press a button, something happens on screen, but how? How does a button press turn into some kind of action that's reflected on screen? Beyond just becoming a competent programmer, you also need to be able to break problems down in a way that can be expressed programmatically.

[neoicon]

I will suggest you to use Godot. It is easy to learn and good for making 2D games. Also Engine's language is similar to Python. So if you have a background in Python, you should go for Godot.