• usability9
• Stability7
• Installation10
• Functionality9
• Appearance5

So you want to make a game, but you have no idea what to do or where to start. Chances are, you'll be using Game Maker. The products this program makes are amazing, but you'll mostly be on the internet looking up tutorials because it isn't quite clear what to do. Usability is very high, you can make game maker do WHATEVER YOU WANT within a few clicks, and some typing. When you start off, you have a couple of folders, which all hold unique functions for games. Sprites, Sounds, Backgrounds, Paths, Timelines, Fonts, Scripts, Objects and Rooms. It is recommended to start off with sprites, which are the graphics for your game. It has a preloaded editor to make your own sprites. You can also just import gif animations. Sounds are next. Sounds aren't just sound effects you can add. You can add Music as well. Almost any format is supported. Backgrounds, are just the background in the rooms Paths are routes that any object can follow if you want Timelines are timed events that happen in exact order you put it in Scripts are pieces of coding that you can run and objects is the main folder pretty much. That is where you give EVERYTHING in your game a roll. The problem is you need to assign it to do EVERYTHING from moving left and right to making sure the gravity is on when your in the air. I should point this out, you don't have to just make platformers, you can also make top-down perspectives, like RPG's and such. But complication is in every corner. It isn't that easy to use. Eventually you will just look up tutorials and rather than using the drag and drop actions in the object editor, you'll just eventually be scripting everything. it is ESPECIALLY complicated to make 3D games, but I'll get into that later. Rooms are the map, the levels, the menus, the logos they are basically, the screens. You can code objects from there. After all that complicated stuff you went through, you test it. IF YOU GET A FATAL ERROR... learn from it. Because obviously, it is going to happen ALOT. Because you screwed up and even the TINYEST MISTAKE can ruin the ENTIRE GAME. But once the kinks are all worked out and it works. You have an amazing product. All that hard work pays off in the end. You can even save an executable and upload the game to see what other people think about it. But your not done the experience until you upgrade to Pro. For 25$ you can make 3D games! It is VERY complicated and you'll just end up downloading scripts. But again, the product comes out nice in the end. Downloading and installing is simple. Takes no more than a few seconds. It functions as it should, but it suffers from being complicated. I can't say much for appearance, the editor is basically a bunch of windows. All in all, it's a great start to making games. I recommend giving this a try!