UPDATE : With recent happenings in the Game Maker world, my opinion expressed in this article could have been completely wrong.

Every time you go to the Game Maker Community, you see that yet another N00b has made yet another Zelda or Mario clone using ripped sprites, or worse yet, sending you a PM asking you to make their game. (After all, they'll give you credit.) Are the N00bs a problem? Are they killing Game Maker?

Game Maker's N00b Problem

Any game design software developer would love to have the popularity of Game Maker. It is currently the most popular game design software package in history. This is partially due to the ease of using Game Maker. The drag and drop actions make "not programming" with Game Maker very easy.

The users of Game Maker are usually teenagers like I used to be when I started to design games in the 7th grade. ^{[ 1 ]} They want to make games, they want to do it fast, they want to do it without learning much computer science and they have flocked to Game Maker in swarms. In fact, so many of them have flocked to Game Maker that the forum is often down because the server simply can't handle the load.

Worse yet, it seems every N00b wants to make badly programmed clones of Zelda or Mario (or GTA or Halo more recently). When a N00b does do an original project, its always terrible. They PM more experienced game designers with requests that amount to them asking you to make their game for them. They clog the Resources section with requests for sprites for games that will never get made. They shout "I EAT BROCCOLI" as if the phrase were praise for an unholy N00b god.

With all this, its getting very, very hard to visit the GMC without INSTANTLY being awash with N00b. So, now I ask the question, with annoying N00bs everywhere, shouldn't more experienced game designers wade out of the N00b flood? Doesn't it give Game Maker a reputation for a being N00b software? Is the forum just going to break down soon? Is all this killing Game Maker?

The answer is —- yes and no. The forum may crash due to the load, but having so many N00bs is a good thing.

The typical N00b is an idealistic, know-nothing, rude, immature kid. I know, as I said, I used to be one. And that's the key, I used to be one. As it turns out, I grew up, got better at programming, and now run a popular website on game design. And I write articles that people like you read, as you are reading one now.

I will admit, the average N00b is a waste. Most will quit in the first few weeks. Only one out of 100 of them will go on to make a good game. Out of those 1 out of 100, about 1 out of 50 will contribute to the amateur game design culture. Out of the billion N00bs that Game Maker is attracting, thats alot of people joining the intermediate and expert ranks in and outside the GMC.

N00bs once making a terrible Zelda clone are now working on game physics engines, or working on completely new types of games like Street Bike Fury. Some have gone on to more complex projects outside of Game Maker.

So, my conclusion is this. Yes, Game Maker is awash in N00b. It is also the biggest stepping stone for people soon to become contributers to game design as a whole.

Notes :

[ 1 ] For more information about this turbulent time in my youth, see Selling Ideas to Video Game Companies.