efficient game creation

Hello,

I'm new to making games. That is, completely. But I'm very much inspired by the recent rise in independant games and I want to contribute my own. I dig Knytt Stories quite a bit, as well as Cave Story, games like Metroid and Castlevania, Zelda, Mario, etc.

My question is, what is the most efficient way to create a top view and/or isometric adventure/puzzle/platform/action game? I've seen quite a few things that are usually devoted entirely to making role playing games, but I'm not interested in that.

More to the point, should I learn script thoroughly? I get the impression there's alot of potential in "game makers" like MMF2, with the visual interface and all (which I like) but I assume there isn't much of a way to get around having to code eventually. That being said, now I want to know: what code, and what game maker/engine, if any?

I'm overwhelmed by the options, which is why I'm trying to be specific as to what I want. My games will not be cheap/tacky. I'm going to have decent physics and visuals, and I'm willing to put forth the extra effort to achieve this, so I need a program that will suit my needs.

Game Maker is very popular and free (the "lite" version is free; the fully-functional "pro" version is not). Clickteam has several game-making programs, of which The Games Factory 2 is the cheapest and easiest-to-use, but also the least powerful. (Multimedia Fusion 2 and Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer are more powerful.) Construct is free (and open source), and very similar to MMF2. However, it's still in beta.

None of these programs requires you to know a programming language to use them. (Although MMF2 and Construct can use custom extensions written in C++.) (If you wanted to, you could actually learn a programming language and then make a game entirely on your own, without the aid of any game-making programs.) I don't know which one is most "efficient", though. None of these programs specializes in any one game genre, although some genre games (eg, platformers) are inherently easier to create than other genre games (eg, RPG). Game Maker and MMF have both been used to make numerous (relatively) popular games; Construct hasn't existed very long, and still isn't finished, so there haven't been any major games made with it yet.

Both GM and Construct use a event-based system, and both use some sort of code (Game Maker Language and Python, respectively). I personally prefer Construct over Game Maker, since it uses a behavior system for easy movement and overall has a cleaner interface. Again, Construct is still in beta, but version 1.0 might come out in the next year.

I use Multimedia fusion 2 and I reckon it's the best thing out there for 2D game creation. But people are now making 3D games with it! 

I've been playing around with Games Factory 2  for a while  (am upgrading to MMF2 when I have some time to go back to it) having tried both Game Maker and Games Factory and I found Games Factory 2 far more accesible. In fact I thought that Knytt had been made with MMF2 aswellwhich I think was why I chose it as I'm more interested in platforming exploratory things (like knytt)

I think that both GF2 and GM are very good and would give you as much as what you put into it and I suspect every programme you'd use would have its limitations whatever you were trying to do.

If it helps the support forum on GF2 is brilliant and you'd find answers to specific questions there - http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ - as well as quite healthy tutorials and examples of code.

I've also dabbled in Games Factory (1) a while ago and it was pretty accessible and easy to use. I can only assume GF2 is better in every way - depending on how rich you are and how 'advanced' you want your game to be, I'd probably go for that. Otherwise, MMF2 seems like a sure bet.

EDIT: Goog's mention of Construct is intriguing. I'm gonna look into that, but I can't offer any insight.

If you want to make an RPG, there's always OHRRPGCE (short for Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine).

ATM, I've only used Game Maker, so I guess I'm a little biased in this area. However, I think that Game Maker is pretty powerful, especially once you learn to code with it. I've actually created a working and playable SimCity-style game with it, mostly without coding. (although now that I can code, the source looks messy and inefficient )