I need a advice from game developers...

In my experience Unity 5 (C# / Java) is the simplest to use for beginners getting
into development. However, it seems it wont have the quality that you're looking for
by what you've said.

So, you're going to have to use a different engine for what you want
to accomplish. I'd recommend Unreal Engine 4, it's free and has some
great lighting features that will really help bring life to your game.

But, there isn't a perfect starting language to start with. Just choose one that you're
comfortable with and learn from there. Also make sure that focusing on the bigger parts
of your game doesn't hold your game back. Take baby steps at first, then work your way up,
or you'll get burned out.

In my opinion GameMaker: Studio is the best option for 2D games. There is a nice Drag and Drop system for beginners. When you get the hold of the DnD system you can try out GameMakers program langauge, which is GML, it is super easy to learn.
You should also check out a youtube channel called HeartBeast, he makes really good tutorials for GameMaker.
If you want to make 3D games Unity is probably better :)

Hope this helps and sorry for any spelling errors.

Edit: Where do people get the region locked HTML DLC from? I see lots of people giving them away :P

What have you written?

Programming is just one part of game development. Can you create art assets? Sound effects? Background music? Write a story? Develop interesting game mechanics? Design levels? Raise money? Market/advertise your idea? How much time can you devote to all of these things? Do you have anyone else to collaborate with?

I use GameMaker extensively and HIGHLY recommend using it. It is a highly versatile engine, easy to learn, and fun to use

Don't worry about what you make, just keep working at it and make things you are interested in, best advice anyone can give.

Game-maker and unity are the ways to go.

Before offering any suggestions, what kind of games are you interested in making? Thinking in broad terms here, like 2D sidescroller / first-person 3D adventure / visual novel? Depending on what kind of games you ultimately want to make will I think more naturally put you on the path of which tools to recommend to you to explore.

Edit: Ah, I just re-read that you want to start with 2D platform games -- in that case, GameMaker Studio is definitely my top recommendation for you. The community is large, there are lots of walkthroughs, tools, and information available for making a 2D platformer in GMS, so it will be a great way to get started with the basics as you can research and learn a lot from whats already out there.

Spelunky and Gunpoint were made in Game Maker, so it´s pretty much a dead giveaway (sry, there´s no GA here :E) about how good Game Maker rly is. Also, i got it for free a couple years ago, it´ll always get my voice :D

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-indies-guide-to-game-making/

Game maker is the easiest that I know of but Unity can do so so much more. how ever for unity you will have to learn c# or javascript

Rule number 1:
To learn how to make games, you need to make games.

Don't wait, don't hesitate, just start making games. It is very easy to make a simple game, and you need very little code to do it. Today you can make game where under 5% of your workload is coding. Remaining 95% is graphics, animations, level design, sound effects and music. Unless you can do all these parts by yourself you will need help, or buy assets. (BTW - never delete obsolete assets. I've got over 50 GB of them on HDD - saved me a lot of time more than once, not to mention how they help during prototyping)

I personally use mostly Unity3D. Good Programming Reference, great Community. Documentation is better than UE3 in my opinion (I haven't worked with UE4 long enough to make an opinion yet) In Unity building a 2D platformer takes about 30 minutes to create including first tests and some tweaking. (plus the time to create assets - which can take anything between 2 hours and 12 months - depending on detail level and developer experience) Code for character movement will be something like 15-20 lines long, another 5-10 lines for scoring system. Level selection and menu can be found for free in Asset Store. And that's about it for a simple platformer. More than enough to learn how the game works, and to find a way to improve it.

Super Mario Brothers could be remade in Unity with about 300-400 lines of code, maybe even less. This is very good for someone who thinks about starting career in game development. You can very easily build prototype, and expand it with little effort, while keeping flexibility available only by hard coding new features.

You can consider something simpler than Unity - it is still a serious engine, used for game of the year candidates. (Pillars Of Ethernity, Wasteland 2, Her Story, Kerbal Space Program, Heartstone: Heroes Of Warcraft, Ori And The Blind Forrest to name few good Unity3D games) It can be intimidating, and if you never coded before you can fail to create anything more than copy-paste of tutorial. If Unity is too difficult you can try GameMaker Studio, App Game Kit or something even simpler, like one of these "no programming required" engines. Whatever you choose don't try more complex engines than Unity3D. CryEngine or Unreal Engine 4 are wonderful tools, but they are overkill for a 2D game, not to mention their complexity will make it very difficult for anyone who got no experience in game development.

Also remember that at one point you will need to learn how to code, or hire someone who can. Because in every bigger game you will run into bugs, and performance issues. And without experience it is next to impossible to do it. The problem in the beginning might be much more serious in Unity than in GameMaker Studio, since Unity is much more flexible, and allows you much more. But after some time limited possibilities of GameMaker and all the stuff it is adding will slow you down. The problem is that with GameMaker you can run into the engine limits in a few months, and than you will need to upgrade to something better.

One last thing. Good luck.

Though not a dev myself, Unity and GameMaker seem the most common choices to me, I imagine there must be good reasons. Then of course there's specialist engines like RPG Maker, AGS/Wintermute/etc, Twine, etcetc

You mention being a screenwriter, so maybe you can begin fiddling with Twine and see how that goes?

unity.bmp

Bump for Gamemaker Studio!