Game Maker topic

[Jugem]

I've been working with Game Maker a little each night (most days) for the past while. And I'm becoming a lot more comfortable with the program, including its game maker (programming) language. During the last week or so, I've been working on my first project. And no, it's not Vanished Nights. I decided to work on something else first while I familiarize myself with GM.

It's kind of like Breakout mixed with some strategy/action as well. The blocks that the ball bounces off of/destroys will also serve a secondary purpose, which has to do with the strategy portion. And just to please Rodak (kidding), the game will feature a crazy theme. I won't say what that is, but it involves one of the world's (tv advertising's) most annoying people. Hopefully this game will actually be seen through to the end...something I haven't done since Tetris. But seeing as how this is a similar type of game (more of an arcade type of game), I'd say the chances are good.

After I've got the game mechanics down, I may release a demo level. Right now, I'm working on the physics of the ball hitting the paddle "object"; something which may just be the most complicated part of it all (aside from creating the graphics/music/sfx from scratch).

[BloodKnight]

Game Maker's the right type of program for arcade games isn't it?

Can't wait to see what your game is.

[Jugem]

It sure is BloodKnight.

Finally got around to sending off the payment not to long ago to get the registered version of game maker, so I should have that within the next day or two. No more annoying game maker logo will appear in the games I make with it now (as well as some extra capabilities).

Also, I've almost finished most of the core gameplay elements now, so I can then focus on the level designs, and resources (graphics, sfx, music -- currently, I'm using test sprites such as solid rectangles for things). If I wanted to release a demo, I'd say I could probably have one ready in one to two weeks, assuming I worked on some of the sprites at this time rather than at the end. But I'm still undecided on whether to go the demo route for this game.

[kennyken]

I've downloaded a few home brewed game maker games and most seem to have rather small graphics(like tiny characters) does this have something to do with the system? My buddy loves my RM2 game, but he hates the graphics. Since he's way into graphic arts we were going to get game maker and I would do the programming and he would design the look. Is it harder than RM2? I just want your first hand opinion. I imagine the programming language is real non cryptic, right? It would be great to be able to design every aspect of a game.

[Jugem]

Small graphics/tiny characters? No. You can have any size sprites you want. It's just that bigger sprites take up more memory, and are harder/take longer to create.

The Game Maker Language is similar to a normal programming language. If you've already got programming experience, then GML should be a breeze. If not, well, it still shouldn't be too hard if you read through the help files. Hard to say since I already had some extensive programming background.

Harder than RPGM2? Well, I would say it's easier than RPGM2. But there's many aspects to compare. You can use the drag and drop interface to do most things very easily. Now Game Maker is a lot more powerful than RPGM2, so obviously a bit more complexity comes with that. But I would still call GM easier. And quicker... except when it comes to creating resources (graphics, SFX, music). Then GM is obviously harder. Although I suppose the VFX editor isn't a piece of cake either. And to do some of the more complicated things in RPGM2, you need to spend a lot more time and effort. GM has a much broader range of things you can do without being much more difficult.

I wasn't going to say anything until I had a demo ready to go, but expect a demo of my Game Maker shmup project within the next 1-2 weeks (different from the game described in this topic). I have the demo level design done, as well as one enemy. All I need to do before I can release this demo is create a few more enemies. Honestly, it shouldn't take that long, but I'm allowing for some "lazy time" where I don't get any work done. But I really love where this game is headed so far.

As for the last game I mentioned (breakout type game), as I progressed a little futher, I had doubts to how much actual "fun" that game would provide. In the hopes of being more innovative, I had inadvertantly made it less fun to play. So I'm taking a good break from that so I can come back to it later and see if there's anything left from that to salvage.

So yeah, expect a demo soon. And this time there will definitely be one. Because even if I don't make any more progress (which I'm pretty sure I will), I will at least release what I have now. But hopefully I'll get everything I want done in the next week.

[kennyken]

thanks for the info, I'm trying to decide whether to go with RPGMXP or game maker. Of course GM is way cheaper and I don't really care to create a traditional rpg anytime soon, so GM seems to be my choice at the moment.


I love big sprites.

One more question.
I'm sure it's possible to do some nice parallax(sp?) scrolling, right?
I love that stuff

I'm looking forward to your project, Jugem. It's so nice you can share it with anyone with a PC(MAC?), that's what attracts me to it. I love RPGM2, but it severely limits the potential audience.

[realitybites]

Can't wait to try it out Jugem! ;D

[Jugem]

kennyken said:

One more question.
I'm sure it's possible to do some nice parallax(sp?) scrolling, right?
I love that stuff

Definitely. And I'll try not to disappoint you guys with my newest project. But even at its current stage, I think it looks pretty impressive. I'm going to try and set a schedule for myself to keep the progress flowing smoothly. So I'll set September 1 as the date I release the demo.

[kennyken]

my friend(the graphic artist)downloaded GM yesterday, He made a nice sprite of Superman and animated him to walk. I messed around with it too, and I'm happy, because it seems very intuitive to me. I'm really liking so far. Just wanted to let you know.

[Jugem]

Good to hear that. Did you register your version yet? You can get some pretty nice benefits by doing so (including not having the game maker logo appear whenever you load the game). Anyway, looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

[kennyken]

not registered yet, because I know myself, and if I jump to deep into just yet, I'll completely abandon my current RPGM2 project, which is turning out to be tremendous, I'm trying to get a teaser up on-line soon. I'm just tinkering with GM right now, getting to know the system better. It's really nice, I can't wait to see what you've done as your RM2 work seems to be top notch.

[Jugem]

Just a reminder that a demo of my shmup will be up very soon (probably in about 12 hours or so). I didn't get everything I wanted done, but I did want to get a demo out by Sept 1, so I'll provide a link to what I do have ready when I get back from work later.

[Neo Samurai]

Sounds like fun.

[kennyken]

sweet Jugem, as soon as you put it up, I'll check it out. I'll try to give you some good feedback.

[Jugem]

Ok, here's hoping this works:

www.sharemation.com/DerekWK/DereksShooter.exe

Remember, it's still at an early stage. The controls are as follows:

Space: Shoot, and start demo
Enter: Pause
Esc: Quit
Arrow Keys: Move

[Jugem]

Just tried the link now, and fount out you need to sign in first. I don't know if you need my account id and password, or if you can sign up yourself and use your id and password to access it. Try doing the latter if you can and see if you're able to download it. Or if anyone can recommend another site for me to upload it to, that would be great. At the very least, you can also give me your email address and I'll send it to you that way.

[Dungeon Warden]

I signed up and tried to download the game but it said I can't excess your directory. I tried right clicking the link and it did let me download something but the file was corrupt. I guess putting it on another site is advisable.

[Jugem]

Do you have any suggestions DW? I've tried a few, but that was the only one I got working. Or so I thought at the time.

[Doan the Nado]

You could always e-mail it to [e-mail] and I could put it up on the Domain.

[BloodKnight]

Yousendit is great. Only problem is the link stays active for like, 7 days.

[Jugem]

Let's try this then...

www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=E3F51D04427A9DD2

Hopefully that works. Thanks BloodKnight.

[BloodKnight]

Uh... Didn't know what I was supposed to do, but it works fine. You went for a more natural approach. The butterfly looked purdy. I wanted to kill the birds though.

[Doan the Nado]

I believe he told me that you had to shoot them something like 5 times to kill them.

[realitybites]

ripway.com is great it stays there forever....

[Dungeon Warden]

Interesting demo. Not much too it, but interesting.

It would have been nice if I could restart without having to close the game. I wanted to see if I could get the high score, but I think there are only 4 birds (1000 points each) in the demo and the high score is 5000.

I don't really see anything in the demo that couldn't have been done with flash, but it is still early. I'm sure Game Maker must have a lot of options that Flash doesn't.

Looking forward to seeing more of this project.