I have recently learnt how to use a program called "Game Maker" and I thought beginners who don't who flash but want to make games could use it. I have written a small tutorial so beginners can get over the learning curve.
Firstly, Game Maker is a drag and drop program where you can make a game without any scripting. However, it does use a scripting language but it is simple and is not used very much. Game Maker cane make all sorts of games from 3d to 2d arcade games like pacman and Mario.
Some negatives of Game Maker is the fact that it is tedious and is not very well known so it is a bit harder to put into html. It repetitive because you have to make a spirit then turn that into a object then you have to work out events for this object etc.
You can download game maker from http://www.gamemaker.nl/index.html
Game Maker Tutorial
1-Open a blank page, in this tutorial i will teach you how to make a simple squash style game.
2-Click the red pacman symbol up the top of the screen. This leads you to the spirits page. Now click load spirit and navigate to the folder where you installed Game Maker and go into the "spirits" folder.
Next, go to the folder named "breakout" and select "bat2.gif". Now you can name it bat where it says name, uncheck the checkbox labeled transparent and click "ok".
3-Do the same thing you did in step 2 but instead of opening bat2, open any of the files from stone1 to stone22 in breakout. Also, name it stone instead of bat.
4-Repeat 2 again but open ball1.gif or ball2.gif and name it ball.
5-Now you have your 3 spirits. Next you need to add sound. This is done almost the same as the spirits. Click speaker symbol up the top and click load sound, it should open the game maker sounds file, navigate to “zap” and double click on it. Name it hit and then click “ok”. You can also add a background sound and for this find a .wav file or mp3 or something like that and do the same thing but call it background .
NOTE:
You don’t have to do this if you don’t have anything suitable.
I recommend if you are doing background music to check the use multimedia player box.
6- Now what you need to do is to turn you spirits into objects. You do this by clicking on the blue ball up the top and clicking on the button near the text input area titled spirit. Select a spirit and then check “solid” then click “ok”. Also name it the same name as you named the spirit.
Do this for all the spirits, using different names for each and make sure you check solid.
7- Now we are going to make the objects do stuff. I find it easiest to just program one object but for this game we have to program 2.
a- Double click on the object titled ball.
b- Now click on “add event”
c- Click on “collision” and then “bat” in the sub menu.
d- Next, in the move tab, under jump there is a picture of a line and an arrow rebounding of it at an angle. Drag that into the Actions column while collision is selected and make sure it applies to self, not precisely and solid objects only.
Also drag the arrow pointing to a dot in move into the action column. Set x to 222,y to 222 and speed to 10.
e- Now make another collision event but this time with stone. Do the same thing with all the same options as the one with bat.
f- Create another event, this will be under other and will be “game start”.
g- Under this event drag the square with the red arrow pointing down under move. Set the speed to 10.
If you have background music, do the same thing that I have described in h except don’t cancel it and set loop to true.
h- We need to put sounds into this object. Under the collision with bat event, go to the “main 1” tab and drag the round speaker icon into the action column. Set the sound to “hit” and loop false. Note: This should be below the bounce action.
Next drag a stop sound after the play sound.
i- Do the same thing in h under the collision with stone.
We have programmed the ball, now for the bat, which we need to make move left to right.
a- Double click on the bat object.
b- Create a keyboard event and select “left” as the key.
c- Now drag the first square under the move tab, under move, it has red arrows on it in a star formation. Select the direction as left, set the speed to 13 and uncheck relative.
d- Do the same thing as c but click right instead of left.
e- Do the same thing as c but click stop (the square in the middle) and set speed to 0. This means when you press the down arrow the bat will stop moving in the direction you told it to before.
f- Now create a new collision event with stone. Drag the start moving in a direction icon and set the direction to stop (the middle square) and speed 0.
8- Finally we are up to making a room. To do this all you have to do is select the object and drop it onto the board. Make the room width 640 and height 480 (default).
Simple put stones around the edges of the room. The ball up the top somewhere and the bat lying on the bottom stones.
9- Now your done…to test click the green arrow up the top and to save you will find create executable in the file menu.
This is just a simple game, if the ball hits the bottom it doesn’t die even though you can still do this. I would have explained how to but didn’t have enough time. Maybe later I will write a full, more advanced tutorial.
[img][/img]
Firstly, Game Maker is a drag and drop program where you can make a game without any scripting. However, it does use a scripting language but it is simple and is not used very much. Game Maker cane make all sorts of games from 3d to 2d arcade games like pacman and Mario.
Some negatives of Game Maker is the fact that it is tedious and is not very well known so it is a bit harder to put into html. It repetitive because you have to make a spirit then turn that into a object then you have to work out events for this object etc.
You can download game maker from http://www.gamemaker.nl/index.html
Game Maker Tutorial
1-Open a blank page, in this tutorial i will teach you how to make a simple squash style game.
2-Click the red pacman symbol up the top of the screen. This leads you to the spirits page. Now click load spirit and navigate to the folder where you installed Game Maker and go into the "spirits" folder.
Next, go to the folder named "breakout" and select "bat2.gif". Now you can name it bat where it says name, uncheck the checkbox labeled transparent and click "ok".
3-Do the same thing you did in step 2 but instead of opening bat2, open any of the files from stone1 to stone22 in breakout. Also, name it stone instead of bat.
4-Repeat 2 again but open ball1.gif or ball2.gif and name it ball.
5-Now you have your 3 spirits. Next you need to add sound. This is done almost the same as the spirits. Click speaker symbol up the top and click load sound, it should open the game maker sounds file, navigate to “zap” and double click on it. Name it hit and then click “ok”. You can also add a background sound and for this find a .wav file or mp3 or something like that and do the same thing but call it background .
NOTE:
You don’t have to do this if you don’t have anything suitable.
I recommend if you are doing background music to check the use multimedia player box.
6- Now what you need to do is to turn you spirits into objects. You do this by clicking on the blue ball up the top and clicking on the button near the text input area titled spirit. Select a spirit and then check “solid” then click “ok”. Also name it the same name as you named the spirit.
Do this for all the spirits, using different names for each and make sure you check solid.
7- Now we are going to make the objects do stuff. I find it easiest to just program one object but for this game we have to program 2.
a- Double click on the object titled ball.
b- Now click on “add event”
c- Click on “collision” and then “bat” in the sub menu.
d- Next, in the move tab, under jump there is a picture of a line and an arrow rebounding of it at an angle. Drag that into the Actions column while collision is selected and make sure it applies to self, not precisely and solid objects only.
Also drag the arrow pointing to a dot in move into the action column. Set x to 222,y to 222 and speed to 10.
e- Now make another collision event but this time with stone. Do the same thing with all the same options as the one with bat.
f- Create another event, this will be under other and will be “game start”.
g- Under this event drag the square with the red arrow pointing down under move. Set the speed to 10.
If you have background music, do the same thing that I have described in h except don’t cancel it and set loop to true.
h- We need to put sounds into this object. Under the collision with bat event, go to the “main 1” tab and drag the round speaker icon into the action column. Set the sound to “hit” and loop false. Note: This should be below the bounce action.
Next drag a stop sound after the play sound.
i- Do the same thing in h under the collision with stone.
We have programmed the ball, now for the bat, which we need to make move left to right.
a- Double click on the bat object.
b- Create a keyboard event and select “left” as the key.
c- Now drag the first square under the move tab, under move, it has red arrows on it in a star formation. Select the direction as left, set the speed to 13 and uncheck relative.
d- Do the same thing as c but click right instead of left.
e- Do the same thing as c but click stop (the square in the middle) and set speed to 0. This means when you press the down arrow the bat will stop moving in the direction you told it to before.
f- Now create a new collision event with stone. Drag the start moving in a direction icon and set the direction to stop (the middle square) and speed 0.
8- Finally we are up to making a room. To do this all you have to do is select the object and drop it onto the board. Make the room width 640 and height 480 (default).
Simple put stones around the edges of the room. The ball up the top somewhere and the bat lying on the bottom stones.
9- Now your done…to test click the green arrow up the top and to save you will find create executable in the file menu.
This is just a simple game, if the ball hits the bottom it doesn’t die even though you can still do this. I would have explained how to but didn’t have enough time. Maybe later I will write a full, more advanced tutorial.
[img][/img]
