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Gamer Maker Information.

If are wondering what Game Maker is, I will give a brief outline of what it is and what it can do.

Game Maker as its name suggests is for game creation, you may have thought from time to time that it would be nice to create your own game or utility program, but having looked at programming languages such as C++ and Visual Basic, you probably decided it looked too difficult, when all you wanted was a bit of light entertainment.

That is where Game Maker comes in, whereas C++ and similar languages can take months to gain even a basic working knowledge, with Game Maker you can begin to program within a few hours.

That is not to say that Game Maker is simple, in fact it has many advanced features and its own language GML.
But Game Maker is ideally suited to newcomers because you can start to program using simple drag and drop icons and then progress gradually to GML ( Often called code.). Both systems are completely interchangeable and most people use a mixture of both, as the drag and drop is so easy to use, even when experienced in GML.

The GM program, you use the menu to the left to choose objects
and then position them in your room with the mouse.

So what kind of game can you create with Game Maker?

Well pretty much any kind you want, there have been puzzles, shooters and platforms of all sorts, even real time strategy games ( Purper on the official GM site.).
A few people have even attempted 3D games and the registered version of Game Maker 6.0 onwards now has systems designed just for that, it is even possible to produce simple utilities, such as notepad programs, Game Maker isn't really intended for that type of use, but it is possible within limits.

It you wish to try some games made with Game Maker, I have several games on my programs page, including Square Puzzle, a sort of cross between a jigsaw and a click and slide puzzle and Cavern Defender a good old fashioned scrolling shooter.

Also if you check out the GM links section you will find several sites with excellent games on them, showing just what Game Maker can do.

My game Square Puzzle.

How much does Game Maker cost?

You can download and use the latest version 6.1 of Game Maker for free, its a fully working program, you can create games, turn them into stand alone games (.exe's), even sell them if you wish.

You can if you wish, register your copy of Game Maker for 15 Euro's or $18 at the time of writing, this gives you a lot of extra features such as particles, DLL ( Don't ask what they are!) support and 3D functions, registering also removes the GM logo shown when your finished game starts.
But registering is by no means compulsory and you can produce excellent games with the unregistered version, myself I still use version 5.0 which was produced before the registered features were introduced, because I prefer the sprite editors colour chart and the programs greater reliability over the newer versions.

Game Maker comes with everything you need to start making games, sprites, which are the pictures of aliens, spaceships etc, which you use as characters in your games, sounds, music, and backgrounds.
But you are not limited to the resources included with Game Maker and many users create their own sprites etc.
Game Maker also comes with a very good help file, available in several formats on the official site and worth printing out for reference, as it is far easier to learn that way.
There are also lots of tutorials posted on the forum and many, many examples on hundreds of Game Maker fan sites, on my own site you will find lots of helpful examples and tutorials, or links to them.

One final word, although Game Maker is an excellent Game creation tool, ( In fact probably the best one.) it still requires a considerable amount of time and effort to produce a nice game, ( My own game Square Puzzle took me several months. ) and the creation of a game like Halo or Command and Conquer is not really possible, these games have large teams of experts working on them and budgets of millions of pounds. But if you start small, in time you may even surprise yourself.

Additional: If your computer is an older model I would recommend using one of the version 5 series of Game Maker, as the graphic requirements of version 6.0 onwards are rather high. My own computer struggles to run some version 6 games and its specifications are:

800Mhz Intel Processor
128Mb Ram
Win 98 Second Edition
Graphics: Rage Fury/Xpert Pro 2000 16Mb
Direct X 8.1

So if your computer is of a lower specification, particularly in the graphics department, I would recommend using one of version 5 series. If you do not intend to register, version 5.0 is the best choice, having greater functionality than the later versions.

The Official Game Maker site: http://www.gamemaker.nl/
The download size of version 6.1 is about 3.6Mb.

The Official Game Maker forum: http://forums.gamemaker.nl/

Game Maker Site Links.

This is a collection of Game Maker sites, these are sites that have a reasonable amount of high quality GM related content and are stable, ie not here one day gone the next.
( They are listed alphabetically, apart from the official sites.)

Report broken links Contact Me

The home of Game Maker.
By Mark Overmars. The official GM site, full of useful resources and helpful advice.
http://www.gamemaker.nl/

The Game Maker Community.
This is the place to go for discussions, information, help, and announcements concerning Game Maker, if asking for help in the forums please remember to give as much information as possible about your problem and please be patient.
http://forums.gamemaker.nl/

Blackrat Studios.
An excellent site with some great games, a wide selection of examples and some very interesting art work.
http://www.blackratstudios.com/

Bouncing Fox Productions.
A large collection of excellent games, although if on a dialup connection, you may find some of the downloads a bit big. The site is also greatly improved at its new location.
http://www2.bouncingfox.co.uk/

Carl Gustafsson's Game Maker Pages.
One of the oldest GM sites in existence, but still updated occasionally. Has some games, but is best known for its large selection of examples, I even have two examples on it.
http://hem.passagen.se/birchdale/carl/

Chronic667.
Some GM games, examples and tutorials, plus quite a few interesting non-GM items, I particulary liked the tank made out of two match boxes and the problem solving flowsheet.
http://www.chronic667.com/

Claret Games.
By Nikolia Ivanov has a large collection of Game Maker games and examples, it also has a page of Flash games and some useful links. One of my favorite sites.
http://claret.atspace.com/

Cynical Games.
A good site with games, programs, examples, screensavers, scripts and articles.
http://www.cynicalgames.com/

Damaged Games.
A nice collection of examples, resources and games, including the famous Hard Hat series.
http://www.damagedgames.com/news.html

GameMaker Knowledge base.
By Andy Nicholas. A reference manual aiming to have detailed explanations of each and every GML function, as well as examples and the use of combined functions. It will also answer questions that many a game maker has asked time and time again. This reference file is laid out like the GML section of the original manual so you should be familiar as to where particular things are.
http://www.gmkb.madladdesigns.co.uk/

GameMakerGames.
A very very large collection of GM games, some with reviews, searchable by type, quality etc, well worth a visit.
http://www.gamemakergames.com/

Games Showcase.
The website where you have the chance to share your Game Maker creations with the rest of your fellow game makers. A collection of high-quality games can be found here.
http://www.gmshowcase.dk/

H3 Creation.
A collection of unusual and original games made with Game Maker. Choose to fly a space plane to the moon, play 2 player Pacman, or play table tennis in space.
http://www.h3creation.co.nr/

Hanoka Games.
Probably the most successful GM site for selling games, though all the games have free demos to try and there are a couple of free games on site. The games are usually of a graphical adventure/puzzle type.
http://www.hanakogames.com/

JassInc.com.
Features several games, including the excellent Randolf the Reindeer.
http://www.jassinc.tk/

JW Productions.
Primarily a Game Maker based site, but with plenty of content, including games, resources and some home made video animations.
http://www.jwpro.net/

Pug Fugly Games.
A nice selection of games and some useful hints and tips for making better games.
http://www.pugfuglygames.com

Quimp's Web Site.
Browse through a variation of GM games, examples and tutorials, website templates and snowskate related content.
http://www.quimp.net/

Random Dragon.
An excellent site, with Game Maker games, Flash movies/games, various (difficult) puzzles, music and more. Well worth a visit.
http://randomdragoon.com/

Shawn's Creations.
Probably the best collection of top quality GM games by one individual ever, nineteen at the last count, also reviews of the games, wallpaper a forum and more.
http://www.shawn64.com

Simon Donkers.
Simon has two sites, the first has a wealth of scripts, examples, tutorials, articles and tips, plus all the latest GM news.
http://gamemaker.simondonkers.com/index.php

Simons Donkers.
Simons second site is a showcase for his large selection of games.
http://games.simondonkers.com/portal/

Xception Game Design and More.
Probably best known for his DLL's (Dynamic Link Libraries) used to expand GM's capabilities, but also has the excellent Action Decoder program, plus various games and examples.
http://home.tiscalinet.de/xception/index.htm

Game Maker Resources.

This section contains items related to Game Maker that may be useful or interesting, they are often created by GM users.


Graphics.
A collection of thirty freeware gif and ico files made by me for my games, mainly buttons, but a few other bits and pieces as well, don't expect too high a standard as graphics are not my thing.
Gif and Icon collection. 12K.


Green Machine sound effects.
A selection of sound effects free to download and use in your games. Sound files are arranged in groups with an appropriate description.

http://www.greenmachine.tk/


Action Decoder 1.0 by Xception.
This is an interesting application that translates drag and drop commands into code, or Game Maker Language to be precise. It is designed for version 5, but the commands are still relevant for later versions.
The interface has a large sizeable window to display the code in and to the right of the window is a copy of the drag and drop actions found in the GM objects form.

To use the decoder simply click on a D and D icon and fill in any value fields the same as with D and D, the finished code will then appear in the window. If you then press return, your next bit of code will start on a new line, keeping everything neat and tidy. Its possible to write the code you wish very easily and then copy and paste it into a code form in GM proper.

This is a great learning aid, if the user concentrates on the code being produced they will soon become used to the format and commands of codes, even later on when experienced in the use of code, the program will still be handy as a quick reference, for when you just can't remember a code command. ( Or perhaps thats just me. )

The program can also be used as script/code editor, it works fine as that, but I prefer the GM version as you can set the colour coding and you have the code checker.

It should be noted that the decoder will not help you create code if you haven't first become proficient with D and D, thats not its intended function, what it excels at, is as a stepping stone between D and D and code and for that it is superb.
The application is recommended to those users who feel they are ready to move on to using code and will also be of interest to more experienced users.

The download size is 331k
http://home.tiscalinet.de/xception/index.htm


Old versions of Game Maker.
Mark has decided to make all the old versions of Game Maker available on his site, so I decided to remove the copies I had on my site, to save bandwidth and storage space.

If you are trying the oldest versions, I would recommend version 1.4 rather than 1.1, as they look more or less identical, but 1.4 works better.
If you have an older computer that struggles to run the newest versions, you may wish to try version 5.0, which is very similar to the newer versions, but with a few less features. But on the plus side it will run well on a lower spec computer and is very stable.

The Game Maker old versions page.

Game Maker Examples.

These examples made by me, will run on Game Maker version 5.x and version 6.x, although some of the functions may not operate perfectly with v6.x.
Note: If using v6.x you will need to change the file type to Old Game Maker files, to open the examples.

Joystick using code. Three different ways of controlling objects with a joystick using GML code.

Joystick drag and drop. Controlling an object with a joystick, using drag and drop actions.

Alarm Clock. A clock with an alarm.

Bounce. How to create a breakout style bat and ball, with a realistic bounce.

Countdown Timer. A timer that counts down from three minutes.

Depth. Shows how the depth can be set for objects and tiles.

Falling Blocks 1. How to make blocks fall down the screen, until they meet the floor, or another block.

Falling Blocks 2. A slightly more advanced falling blocks system.

Game Structure. Shows the how to create the basic structure of a game, with a title screen, game rooms, game over screen and highscore.

Image Cycle. How to stop and start a sprite animation.

Image Speed. How to alter the speed of an animated sprite.

Mouse Over Button. How to change a buttons appearance when the mouse cursor moves over it.

Mouse Writing. Allows you to write using the cursor.

Move Towards. How to make an object follow the cursor, or another object.

Moving Healthbars. Have a health bar that moves with an object.

Multiple Healthbars. How to have as many healthbars as you want.

Random Block. Creates random blocks on screen, always 32 pixels apart.

Direction Shooting. How to shoot in the direction you are facing.

Snap To Grid. How to make an object move correctly in a maze type game.

Two Healthbars. How to have two objects with a healthbar each.

Two Scores. How to have two objects each with their own score.

All the examples can be downloaded together here: All Examples

I also have some simple example games, each zip contains both a v5.x and v6.x version of the game.

Breakout. A simple one level breakout game, 34k.

Tornado Defence. A basic scrolling shooter, with all the main elements of a game, 237k.

Tornado Force. A slightly more advanced scrolling shooter, with more features, 240k.

Rob Goldfish Web Site