The GameMaker Standard

David Vinciguerra, Andrew Howell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317514688
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Digital Media
• Index: Computer Science

This book teaches students and entry-level novices how to create games using the GameMaker engine. Readers will quickly hone their design skills with tutorials that are written so that beginners can quickly start building games while also providing lessons on how designers can 'level up' and add advanced options to their games. Readers will also have access to a website containing all the assets and resources to create their games, including sprites and animations, walk-through video tutorials of each lesson and music composed by professional musicians. Also provided are rubrics for instructors to use when grading student work or for readers learning on their own to evaluate their own work.

Chapter 1
What Is GameMaker: Studio and Who Uses It?

Learning Objectives—Upon completion of Chapter 1 readers will be able to:

• Describe what a game engine is
• Identify popular commercial games created with the GameMaker: Studio engine
• Identify which game genres GameMaker: Studio is well suited to
• Recognize the various platforms games can be exported to

Where to Start

GameMaker: Studio’s user-friendly drag-and-drop interface allows both hobbyists and professionals alike to easily create video games. GameMaker: Studio allows potential designers with little or no coding experience to quickly design games and export them to various platforms. More advanced designers can make use of Game Maker Language or GML, the coding language of GameMaker: Studio, to create dynamic professional commercial products. This book will train you to use the GameMaker: Studio engine to create games in a variety of genres starting with the basic tools GameMaker: Studio provides and continuing to advanced options and techniques including using GML. The first step in our journey is to explore in more detail what GameMaker: Studio is and who uses it.

What Is GameMaker: Studio?

GameMaker: Studio is a game engine which allows users to easily create games by using drag-and-drop options and an easy-to-navigate interface. As users learn the basic steps and tools to create games they can then incorporate more advanced features into their games and customize their games further by using GML, the coding language of GameMaker: Studio. The term game engine is used to describe any software program which provides game creation authoring tools allowing users to create games without having to rely strictly on coding. Although games can be created using only coding, game engines allow users to skip much of the basic coding process by means of drag-and-drop options and game object property boxes in which designers can type in specific actions for objects within a game.

Who Uses GameMaker: Studio?

Although GameMaker: Studio is used by many hobbyists and students due to its user-friendly interface, it should not be considered a tool only for the novice. Many well-known commercial games have been created using GameMaker. A quick search through the games on the popular gaming website Steam, located at http://store.steampowered.com, will pull up several examples of commercially successful games created with GameMaker: Studio. An impressive list of games and comments by the designers on using GameMaker: Studio can also be located on the YoYo Games Showcase website. Included here are descriptions of a few of the games from the showcase with the designer’s comments. You might find that you have already played the games mentioned, yet not realized they were created with the GameMaker: Studio engine.

Gunpoint—The game Gunpoint published by Suspicious Developments Ltd. is a puzzle game that allows the user to rewire each level to defeat the enemies. According to Tom Francis, designer and writer of Gunpoint, “The best thing about GameMaker is that it eases you into writing code. You don’t need to write any to make something work, but as you gain confidence it’s natural to learn how to write simple instructions as you need them. You end up coding fluently without any steep learning curve.”

Hotline Miami—Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin of Dennation Games, based in Sweden, released the popular game Hotline Miami in the fall of 2012. Söderström has stated, “I would probably not be where I am without GameMaker. It’s been an amazing tool that really helped me getting into game design.”

Risk of Rain—The game Risk of Rain developed by Duncan Drummond and Paul Morse of Hopoo Games and released on Steam in 2013 incorporates elements such as permanent death and randomly spawning enemies. On the topic of GameMaker, Drummond suggests that, “It is magic. GameMaker allows you to circumvent the diffi culties of programming, allowing you to focus on more important aspects like game design and player interactions. If you’re new to making games, or just want to make games fast and effi ciently, GameMaker is the only option.”

Super Crate Box and Nuclear Throne—Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman of Vlambeer, a Dutch independent game studio, created both Super Crate Box and Nuclear Throne using GameMaker. Ismail informed us that, “GameMaker is what the designer at Vlambeer has been using since he was thirteen years old. GameMaker is the development tool that allows the fastest iteration, allowing us to create games that feel great simply by iterating over everything really rapidly.”

GameMaker: Studio Features

The version of GameMaker: Studio we will be using to create all of the games in this book is GameMaker: Studio Standard. GameMaker: Studio Standard is free to use and can be downloaded from the YoYo Games website at www.yoyogames.com.GameMaker: Studio Standard has all the features required to complete the games in this book with the primary restrictions including required registration, the exported game will include a “Made with GameMaker” splash screen, and games created can only be exported to the Windows platform.

There are two other versions of GameMaker: Studio: the Professional version and the Master Collection. The GameMaker: Studio Professional eliminates the need for registration and has the splash screen removed. Professional also includes additional features not present in the Standard version yet still exports only to the Windows platform. The GameMaker: Studio Master Collection contains all features and also includes multiple export options such as Mas OS X export, HTML5, Android, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Ubuntu Linux, among others. Each of these platform exports can be purchased separately for GameMaker: Studio Professional, allowing developers that are only looking to export one or two different platforms just those options rather than paying for everything. A full comparison list of differences between these three versions of GameMaker: Studio, as well as a complete list of the export options, can be found on the YoYo Games website mentioned earlier. In February 2015 YoYo Games was acquired by Playtech, the biggest and most successful software supplier in the real-money gaming industry, according to Nadav Goshen, Plamee Advisor, and Mor Weizer, CEO of Playtech. Playtech plans to invest more resources into improving GameMaker so it will appeal to a wider developer demographic, including the advanced developer segment.

Game Genres Ideal for GameMaker: Studio

With GameMaker: Studio Standard you are not limited to create just one particular type of game. In the following chapters we will be creating a variety of games crossing multiple game genres. In Chapter 2 we create the game Scout, which is a traditional Shoot ’Em Up–style game where we create an asteroid-blasting spaceship, in Chapter 3 we incorporate puzzles into a side-scroller game, and in Chapter 4 we create our first two player competitive game. Each chapter afterward explores other genres. GameMaker: Studio provides us with the options to actually create the games we have long been imagining.

Download and Install GameMaker Studio: Standard

Before starting Chapter 2: Side-Scroller Game Basics, download GameMaker: Studio Standard from the YoYo Games website (www.yoyogames.com), then install and run the software. The journey of game development is about to begin!

Resources

Steam Indie Games. “Super Crate Box.” Accessed October 31, 2014. http://store.steampowered.com/app/212800/.

YoYo Games. “Cross Platform from One Codebase.” Accessed March 15, 2015. https://www.yoyogames.com/studio/multiformat.

YoYo Games. “YoYo Games Is Acquired by Playtech Plc.” Accessed March 15, 2015. https://www.yoyogames.com/playtech.

YoYo Games Showcase. “Gunpoint.” Accessed October 31, 2014. http://www.yoyogames.com/showcase/6.

YoYo Games Showcase. “Hotline Miami.” Accessed October 31, 2014. http://www.yoyogames.com/showcase/1.

YoYo Games Showcase. “Risk of Rain.” Accessed October 31, 2014. http://www.yoyogames.com/showcase/15.

Chapter 2
Side-Scroller Game Basics

Learning Objectives—Upon completion of Chapter 2 readers will be able to:

• Create a space-themed side-scroller game
• Identify and work with sprites
• Animate sprites using switch states and rotation techniques
• Incorporate music and sounds into their project
• Add title screens and menu options to a game
• Include power-ups that modify game objects
• Identify object spawning and randomly spawn objects on the screen
• Incorporate scoring and graphical representations of player lives
• Modify their game with additional objects, sound files, and graphics provided

Project Overview: Scout

Our first game is Scout, a classic space-themed side-scroller in which the player controls a scout class spaceship assigned to destroy approaching asteroids. A side-scrolling game is one in which the scenery moves from one side of the screen to the other with the camera following the player in the center ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Artists
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 What Is GameMaker: Studio and Who Uses It?
• Chapter 2 Side-Scroller Game Basics
• Chapter 3 Multi-Level Games
• Chapter 4 Two Player Games
• Chapter 5 Pixel Art
• Chapter 6 2.5D—Simulating a 3D Look in a 2D Game
• Chapter 7 Game Maker Language (GML)
• Chapter 8 Role Playing Games
• Chapter 9 Selling Games and Licensing Fees
• Glossary
• Index