1. Strictly speaking encapsulation involves protecting variables so that they *can't* be accessed by other objects, but what we're doing is kind of in the same spirit.
4. If you're trying to follow this and it's not working, download the source code for this part from here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/368nuqqpg9lz1su/AADYdbXud4XM62v1Df1bb7Fta?dl=0
And open it in Game Maker. If it works, your code must be different somewhere, so look for that. If it doesn't work, it's something to do with Game Maker or your computer and I don't know anything about that.
5. I do about 2-4 episodes a week, whenever I have time, there's no more specific schedule than that.