Designing Games with Game Maker - YoYo Games

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This document will tell you all you need to know about Game Maker and how you can create your own games with it. Please realize that, even with a program like Game Maker, designing computer games is not completely effortless. There are too many aspects that are important: game play, graphics, sounds, user interaction, etc. Start with easy examples and you will realize that creating games is great fun. Also check the web site http://www.yoyogames.com/ for lots of examples, tutorials, ideas, and links to other site and forums. And soon you will become a master game maker yourself. Enjoy. Installation You probably already did this but if not, here is how to install Game Maker. Simply run the program gmaker.exe. Follow the on-screen instructions. You can install the program anywhere you like but it is best to follow the default suggestions given. Once installation is completed, in the Start menu you will find a new program group where you can start Game Maker and read the help file. The first time you run Game Maker you are asked whether you want to run the program in Simple or Advanced mode. If you have not used a game creation program before and you are not an experienced programmer, you had better use simple mode (so select No). In simple mode fewer options are shown. You can easily switch to advanced mode later using the appropriate item in the File menu. Requirements Game Maker requires a modern Pentium PC running Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or later. A DirectX 8 (or later) compatible graphics card with at least 32MB of memory is required for most created games. It requires a screen resolution of at least 800x600 and 65000 (16-bit) colors. Also a DirectX 8 compatible sound card is required. Make sure you have the most recent drivers installed. Game Maker requires DirectX version 8.0 or later to be installed on your computer. (You can download the newest version of DirectX from the Microsoft website at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/.) When designing and testing games, the memory requirements are pretty high (at least 128 MB and preferably more, also depending on the operating system). When just running games, the memory requirements are less severe and depend a lot on the type of game.
Upgrading to the Pro Edition Game Maker comes in two editions, the Lite Edition and the Pro Edition. The Lite Edition is meant for those that take their first steps on the path of developing games. It can be used for free but is limited in its functionality. Also it shows a popup logo when running games and will regularly remind you of upgrading the program. When you are using Game Maker regularly you are strongly recommended to upgrade it to the Pro Edition. The Pro Edition contains considerably more functionality and does not display any logos or popup messages. More precisely, the Pro Edition has the following additional functionality: • No Game Maker logo is shown when running a game. • No regular popups remind you of upgrading. • You can use rotated, color blended and translucent sprites. • There are additional actions for e.g. CD music, rotated text, and colorized shapes. • You can use special sound effects and positional sound. • You can create splash screens with movies, images, texts, etc. • There is a particle system to create explosions, fireworks, flames, rain, and other effects. • A number of advanced drawing functions are available, for example colorized text and textured polygons. • It is possible to create 3D games using functions for 3D graphics. • It is possible to create multiplayer games that can be played over a network. • You can define your own room transitions. • You can use functions to create, load, and modify resources (sprites, backgrounds, etc.) while the game is running. • There is a collection of functions to create and use data structures. • There are functions for motion planning. • You get the possibility to include additional files in the game executables that can be used when the game is run. • The Pro Edition can easily be extended using extension package. These can be made by everybody and will in general be provided free of charge. • Three such extension packages are included adding many room transitions, windows dialogs, and printing facilities.
Page 1 and 2: What is New Designing Games with Ga
Page 3 and 4: It can now be indicated whether or
Page 5 and 6: • You can now set the variable cu
Page 7: Playing computer games is fun. But
Page 11 and 12: http://www.yoyogames.com/upgrade He
Page 13 and 14: simple: There is a blue ball bounci
Page 15 and 16: (Actually, this is what you see whe
Page 17 and 18: Resources menu In this menu, you ca
Page 19 and 20: When you make a game you normally s
Page 21 and 22: To create a background resource in
Page 23 and 24: whether this is a solid object (lik
Page 25 and 26: Here you select the event you want
Page 27 and 28: the keys pressed happen. Note that
Page 29 and 30: Key release events This event is si
Page 31 and 32: Relative. If you check this, the ne
Page 33 and 34: object is reached. If there already
Page 35 and 36: Transform Sprite Use this action to
Page 37 and 38: Sleep With this action you can free
Page 39 and 40: Check Collision This is the reverse
Page 41 and 42: peferably only for small pieces of
Page 43 and 44: provide the positions and the capti
Page 45 and 46: to right. You specify the rectangle
Page 47 and 48: You can change most of these variab
Page 49 and 50: To add instances to the room, first
Page 51 and 52: At the top you will see the backgro
Page 53 and 54: When you start Game Maker in advanc
Page 55 and 56: • Show the origin and bounding bo
Page 57 and 58: Editing your sprites Up to now we l
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• Scale. This command scales the
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• Disappear. Makes the image disa
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Once you selected the correct set o
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• Clear. Clear the image to the l
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Multiple normal sounds can play at
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You can indicate a number of settin
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When a ball hits the floor it must
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action it lets the instance take a
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The following additional draw actio
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dies. The transparency slowly chang
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Resume CD Resumes a paused CD. Chec
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e the way you left it the last time
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At the left top there is the curren
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At the top there is a box labeled E
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Letters range that contains all upp
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top tool bar. Here you can also ind
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You might wonder what happens when
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Set the time line position With thi
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As you might have noticed, parts of
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In this form you can indicate which
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about the game and how it was creat
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Resolution In this tab you can set
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Also you can set the priority of th
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Change to change a selected file, D
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Here you can set a number of option
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Game Maker contains a built-in prog
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• !: not, turns true into false a
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} instance_create(xx,yy,ball); Addr
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} obj[1].id.x = 12; The last statem
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{ } repeat (5) instance_create(rand
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} for (i=0; i
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A function has the form of a functi
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with (ball) { } x = random(room_wid
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andom_set_seed(seed) Sets the seed
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string_copy(str,index,count) Return
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date_get_hour(date) Returns the hou
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Generating Events Miscellaneous Var
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Paths move_bounce_all(adv) Bounces
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e careful how and when you apply it
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overwritten by the new path. (See a
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mp_grid_add_instances(id,obj,prec)
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instance_count* Number of instances
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When you deactivate instances they
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As you should know, every instance
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loading. You can also save and load
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score The current score. lives Numb
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ev_joystick1_button7 ev_joystick1_b
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Here are some variables and functio
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There is no game without interactio
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vk_insert insert key vk_pageup page
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You can change the way the mouse cu
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image_index When the image has mult
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ackground_height[0...7]* Height of
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,xscale,yscale,rot,c1,c2,c3,c4,alph
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ection,showback,showborder) With th
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Fonts and text In games you sometim
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This functionality is only availabl
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sprite_get_texture(spr,subimg) Retu
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draw_set_blend_mode(mode) Indicates
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position (x,y) in the surface. This
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change their position, and even sca
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indicated depth to the new depth. W
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window_set_sizeable(sizeable) Sets
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window_default() Gives the window t
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can also assign an instance id to t
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Be careful when using this techniqu
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sound_volume(index,value) Changes t
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wave Waveform of the LFO. (0 = tria
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accordingly. The effect is especial
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MCI_command(str) This functions sen
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e adapted to the scaled size of the
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message_caption(show,str) Sets the
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place (1-10). This can be used to d
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sound_discard(index) Frees the audi
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script_exists(ind) Returns whether
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• Make sure you delete resources
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sprite_add_from_surface(ind,id,x,y,
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does not matter. background_create_
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Scripts an empty path. path_reverse
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ehavior we must define events for t
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oom. room_tile_add(ind,back,left,to
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fa_directory directories fa_archive
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using the file selector. Note that
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To pass certain parameter settings
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All data structures work globally i
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Lists ds_queue_size(id) Returns the
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ds_map_create() Creates a new map.
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Grids an easy mechanism for saving
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ds_grid_get_mean(id,x1,y1,x2,y2) Re
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• ef_smokeup • ef_star • ef_s
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at the beginning of the animation o
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Besides the color you can also give
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front of, or between object instanc
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• distribution indicates the dist
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settings. part_attractor_position(p
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Changers change certain particles w
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part_type_gravity(pt2,0.2,270); par
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mplay_connect_status() returns the
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calling the first routine. This id
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This functionality is only availabl
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ty_real,2,ty_real,ty_real); global.
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• When you use the 3D functionali
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Note that at the moment a new insta
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} ttt = background_get_texture(back
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Default you look along the negative
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A standard use for this is to draw
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{ } d3d_transform_set_identity(); d
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d3d_light_define_direction(ind,dx,d
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pr_trianglefan. d3d_model_vertex(in
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