Your First Hour With GM
A friendly first course through projects, rooms, objects, events, sprites, and running your first tiny GameMaker project.
Friendly GameMaker lessons
Welcome to GM Grove, a free beginner learning site for GameMaker! Earn XP, watch flowers bloom as you complete lessons, and relax in a friendly learning environment as you build your skills one step at a time.
Click the "Start Learning" button directly below to jump straight into the beginner path, or scroll down to view all the paths and courses currently available.
Example code
Switch between wrap and bounce, change the speed, and watch the code and preview update together.
// Step Event
var _speed = 3;
x += _speed;
if (x > room_width) {
x = 0;
} // Create Event
side = 1;
// Step Event
var _speed = 3;
x += _speed * side;
if (x > room_width) {
side = -1;
}
else if (x < 0) {
side = 1;
} This is a simple example of how some actual GML code works.
Learn how to use GameMaker from the bottom up and build a solid foundation of knowledge to help kickstart your game development journey!
A friendly first course through projects, rooms, objects, events, sprites, and running your first tiny GameMaker project.
Variables, conditions, comparisons, functions, and the core GML ideas beginners need to complete their first few simple GameMaker projects.
Build a complete tiny clown clicking game in GameMaker. Play the finished version in-lesson first and then build your own copy!
Learn how to save your GameMaker projects effectively to avoid losing your progress.
More courses coming
New courses will be added here as this learning path expands.
A repository for all the software, asset sites, audio tools, documentation, and helpful GameMaker links that I recommend.
I've dogfooded pretty much every resource on the list, and they're all free or cheap to use. Check it out and bookmark your favorites!
Like GM Grove?
GM Grove is free, made by me (RefresherTowel) in my spare time, and still growing. Support helps me spend more time writing lessons, improving the site, and helps pay for any hosting costs associated with the site. So if the content helps you, please consider a small donation or a small monthly subscription if you want to see more lessons come out quicker!
Support
GM Grove is totally free, but donations or subs help me spend more dedicated time writing and planning lessons, work on general improvements to the site and help offset any server costs I accrue.
Updates
Get an email when new lessons are added. No spam, just a quick ping when a new knowledge bomb drops.