How to Make Games in Gamemaker Studio Introduction
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How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio Introduction How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio Copyright © 2017 Leon Oscar Kidando About the Author I’m Leon Oscar Kidando Lwoga, a game developer from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I have been passionate about making for many years. However it was in 2013 that I decided to pursue Game Development as more than just a hobby. In 2015, I released my first commercial game for windows Battle Buggy Grounds. After learning more about game development, years later, I published a handful of other games (which you can find on myGameJolt and itch.io profiles). My next commercial game project is Battle Buggy Glitch. I’m determined to turn my passion for developing games into more than just a hobby. What this book covers This book covers making 3 games in GameMaker Studio using GML (Game Maker Language) code. It does not include publishing your games in market places. Rather it focuses only making these 3 video games from scratch. It will cover concepts and the fundamentals of developing games in general. Exploring common game features such as manipulating game images, sound and level designing within GameMaker. You will need GameMaker Studio You will require Free/Standard, Professional or Master edition of GameMaker Studio. Any version should work but this course be using version 1.4. Users of GameMaker Studio 2.0 can also follow along. There’s a section that briefly highlights the differences between GameMaker Studio 1.4 and 2.0 for those completely new to both applications. Who this book is for This book is for anyone ready to learn how to make games with no prior experience. It will be less challenging for those with a programming background, but this book is meant to hand-hold you throughout the entire process of making these 3 games. Even the programming concepts you will learn in this book have been explained in a non- conventional way. Page 2 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio Introduction It is not a detailed guide on how GameMaker Studio works nor is it a book that teaches GML coding from top-to-bottom. Rather it is concerned mostly with the exact requirements required to build the games the course will teach you to make. The first game is simple. The next game is slightly more challenging to create. The last is the most challenging of the 3 and utilizes more of the functionality GameMaker has. Things to note Any text that you see surrounded in an orange box such as this, will be used to go into a deeper explanation of concepts. It will also be used to offer readers with no prior programming experience a non conventional explanation of some of these concepts. Any words highlighted in red and emphasized will be used to mark an important keyword or phrase. It will also be used to highlight an element (like a button or icon) in GameMaker Studio. Any text written in a grey box such as this will contain code that can be copied and directly pasted in GameMaker Studio. This is to save you time from having to re-write on your own if you do not wish to. Also, you will notice that I indent code sometimes. For example, instead of writing this block of code like this: Why GameMaker? Here’s some inspiration GameMaker and GameMaker Studio have been praised by many in the game development industry for being easier to understand than many other game creation applications in the market. Not only that, but GameMaker and GameMaker Studio is responsible for the existence of so many amazing games. Below is a list links to games created by GameMaker. Page 3 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio Introduction Nuclear Throne Ultimate Briefcase Deadbolt Psebay Spelunky Classic Iron Snout Risk of Rain Gunpoint Nidhogg Skein 8bit Killer See No Evil Maldita Castilla Samurai Gunn Death’s Gambit Hydorah Hyper Light Drifter Gods Will Be Watching Downwell Charge Shot Hotline Miami Battle Buggy Glitch Get in touch with me If you have any feedback about the book, please feel free to get in touch with me. email: [email protected] twitter: @kidando facebook: kidando Final word before we begin I just want to wish you well on your journey to becoming a great game developer. More than anything, your imagination and willingness to experiment will be responsible for how well you make progress throughout your journey. When faced with challenges or concepts you may not immediately understand, experiment and seek alternative methods to accomplishing the same task. Page 4 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio Table Of Contents Table Of Contents GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 6 A quick look at what’s different in GameMaker Studio 2.0 and why you can still follow along if you don’t have access to version 1.4. Game 1: Chaos Disks 24 A simple game to introduce you to the game development work-flow inside of GameMaker Studio. Game 2: Fight Space Turbo 78 A side scrolling space shooter that uses the fundamentals learned in Game 1 to build a slightly more complex gaming experience. Game 3: Dangerous Dude 133 A platformer that teaches the basics of popular gaming mechanics like accomplishing goals, collecting items and moving between levels. Page 5 GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 About this chapter We will look at the important differences between GameMaker Studio 1.4 and 2.0 for this course. By the time his e-book was coming out, YoYo Games (owners of GameMaker Studio) stopped providing copies of GameMaker Studio 1.4 for free. Users now have to download 2.0 which might give them access to 1.4 as well. The differences aren’t that extreme. Users of both 2.0 and 1.4 will be able to follow along without any issues. How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 By the time I published this e-book, GameMaker Studio 2.0 was officially released and 1.4 was no longer made available for free download. Although this course uses screen-shots (and work-flow) from GameMaker Studio 1.4 (the version before GameMaker Studio 2.0 was introduced), making games in either version remains fundamentally the same. The graphical interface was overhauled, but a lot of the components from 1.4 can still be found in 2.0 if you know where to look. You can use the course with any of the versions. Here are some important comparisons between the two development environments that will be important to know if you are going to be using GameMaker Studio for the very first time. 1. Launching the application 1.4 Page 7 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 2.0 GMS 1.4 (GameMaker Studio 1.4) starts up with a welcome window with tabs at the top. At the bottom of the window are a list of your recently opened projects. To create a new project you would click on the New tab. GMS 2.0 starts up maximized. With title icons instead of tabs for actions such as creating a new project. Recent projects are listed on the left. 2.0 Page 8 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 One particular difference when starting a new game in 2.0 is that you now are able to decide before working on your project, whether you plan to use Drag and Drop or GameMaker Language. We will be building games using GameMaker Language. 2. The Development Environment 1.4 2.0 Page 9 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 2.0 received a visual upgrade to have a more modern look to it. Something that is also immediately noticeable is the resource tree shift. In 1.4 it’s on the left, while in 2.0 it’s on the right. 2.0 also introduced workspaces. However for this course, we will not be looking at that. You can get an overview of how this works by heading over the YoYo Games websites. 3. Working With Sprites 3.1 Creating sprites 1.4 1.4 2.0 2.0 Page 10 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 Creating a sprite remains the same. Right-clicking on Sprites from the resource tree will display a list of options including Create Sprite. The sprite properties / editor window is different visually, but everything you could do in 1.4 is available (and improved) in 2.0 To import a sprite in 1.4, you would click on Load Sprite from this Sprite Properties window. In 2.0 you click on Import. 3.2 Changing the sprite origin 1.4 2.0 Page 11 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 In 2.0 you can now select from a drop down, a list of locations on the sprite to set the origin. Note that to set the sprite’s origin to centre, you will need to select Middle Centre. 3.3 Manipulating the sprite’s collision mask 1.4 2.0 In 2.0 the sprites collision mask properties can be manipulated on the same sprite properties window. Clicking on Modify Mask in 1.4 will open a Mask Properties window. Page 12 How To Make Games In GameMaker Studio GameMaker Studio 1.4 vs 2.0 4.