Game Maker Programming

Wikipedia has related information at Game Maker

Welcome to the Game Maker Programming tutorial at Wikibooks. Game Maker by Mark Overmars, which we deal with in these tutorials is not to be confused with GameMaker or The 3D Game Maker. Some of the chapters may be written using an older Game Maker version, so if the GUI does not look identical to your own, don't worry, these tutorials are all compatible with version 9.

Game Maker is a game development software application written by Mark Overmars in the Delphi programming language. It is designed to allow its users to easily develop computer games without having to learn a complex programming language such as C++ or Pascal. For experienced users, Game Maker contains a built-in scripting programming language called "GML", or "Game Maker Language". Games can be distributed either free, or for profit, as ".gmk", ".gm6", or ".gmd" source files, or as standalone ".exe", ".jar", or ".html" files.

To extend the Drag and Drop functionality of Game Maker, you can use files called Libraries to add new drag and drop items to the lists. These can be created by members with a special library builder, only available via the Game Maker Community, which has over 100,000 members.

Game Maker is not as widely known or as used as other game development programs, such as the RPG School (RPG maker) series for Role-playing games. It has, however, attracted a substantial number of users; mainly because of the program's accessibility to beginners while still allowing complex tasks to be undertaken by more advanced users. It is not as narrow in game creation as other programs, as it allows the creation of many types of games, including platform games, first-person shooters, third-person shooters, multiplayer online games, simulation games, programs, and more.

"Game Maker Studio" is the current version of Game Maker and the third version that has YoYo Games helping (a team of professional programmers). Game Maker Studio (non-free versions) can export to many platforms, including Android and Linux.

A program called "Game Maker Decompiler" has been released. Its authors are unknown. However, it has been found to decompile all game maker executables smaller than 10 megabytes into the readable source.

You can find Game Maker resources such as scripts, sprites, extensions, and more here.

• An introduction to Programming

You can find how to download Game Maker and how to make some of your first games here:

• Finding, and Installing Game Maker
• Basics of Game Maker
• Game Maker GUI
• Creating a room
• Creating Objects

These chapters look at the operations possible using the scripting component of Game Maker.

• Statements
• Variables
• Mathematical calculations
• Input Output
• Functions
• Expressions

This section approaches Game Maker issues from a different angle: problems, and how to solve them.

• Tough Topics

Q: How do I get my sprites animation speed to go faster?

A: 2 ways: in the room settings, you can change the numbers, thus changing the speed, although this will affect all sprites, to make one sprite faster, in the objects create event (or the event you are using) and drag in "SET VARIABLE" in the variable box type in: "image_speed", and change the value. To change the value, 1 is normal, 0 is still, for say, a little more, change to 1.5, or a little less, 0.5, etc.

NOTE THAT THIS IS ONLY THE DRAG AND DROP SOLUTION

• This Area is for a command list of each user built library as well as a link to where it can be downloaded.

• Finding and Installing Game Maker Library Builder
• Basics of Game Maker Library Builder

You can download the Library Builder here.

Game maker has a useful forum. Provided that you should post in the right place. You can access the forum from here.

• Game Maker Official Site
• Game Maker Games
• Screencasts of Game Maker tutorials
• Interview with Mark Overmars (Creator of Game Maker) as part of a thesis on game development

There are many other contributors/editors to the book; a verifiable list of all contributions exist as History Logs at Wikibooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/). If you wish to contribute join me and post your ideas in the contributors' lounge.

• Klingoncowboy4 (Contributions) (finished fixing naming conventions)