Backstory and Game Maker

So I suppose that anyone who has read my previous post must be beyond confused. There really wasn't any formal introduction; I just jumped straight into talking about my project. Let me elaborate. I am currently working on an independent game code named "Aldea Lenta" (Spanish speaking readers will notice this means "slow village"; I am taking inspiration from all the other meaningless, pretentious project code names). It takes after games, but I would pin "Portal" and "The Legend of Zelda" as the main inspirations. Why am I making this game? Basically, I am interested in some day developing video games professionally, whatever that means. This is practice and portfolio work; the best advice I have ever seen given to aspiring game developers has been, "Just simply make games." And that is what I am doing here.

Regarding the tools being used to craft this piece interactive entertainment, I am currently using Game Maker as the engine and GIMP for visuals. I am not completely decided on my audio tool set quite yet; it is in this field that I lack the most experience, so a lot of research and learning will go into making that a possibility. Currently I am looking at Audacity, LMMS, and sfxr as possible options. Currently the budget for the game has been $25, which was for the Professional copy of Game Maker, so things are being done on the extremely cheap side.

All the programmers out there (which would include many game devs) are probably rolling their eyes at my usage of Game Maker. Simply put, I want to create and finish the project as soon as possible and Game Maker, despite its many limitations and problems, provides a very quick and easy interface game creation. I know C++ and little bit of Java; I am familiar with the modding tools of quite a few mainstream games, so it was not out of sheer naivety that I made this decision. Many other independent developers have also reaped the benefits of this approach, using limited yet accessible game creation tools.

Hopefully this information is enough to explain the current state of affairs. Probably not, I am certain I have forgotten something, but regardless, I believe this info dump is helpful in understanding my previous post and the posts to come.