Click New Project, click GameMaker Language, name your project,. For example, open the starting room and change the background.
The creation of an RPG, or any computer game, can be an arduous but extremely rewarding process. Large software companies can spend months or years on a single game, so making one by yourself--even a simplified one--is no small task. The finished product, however, can make the hours of planning and days or weeks of programming worth every second. Not only will you create something that you can share with friends and family, but self-driven projects are also a great way to gain experience and skill for novice programmers. The gaming industry is accepting of self-promotion, and being the producer of an indie game looks great on a resume.
Preparation and Planning
Plan out your game, inside and out, before you even think about starting Game Maker. There is no such thing as programming on the fly, especially not in this type of application. You will need to carefully, and in great detail, plan your story, settings, towns, characters, monsters, abilities and leveling system. Draw character sketches, design dungeons and write scripts until you essentially have your entire game on paper. Addition and changes will be possible, but you must try to keep them minimal once you start programming.
Begin making your artwork. You can choose to create your images in Game Maker itself, but it would likely be easier to use an image editing program. For 8-bit style sprites, MS Paint would work fine, but what program you use depends on your preference and game style. Make sure to keep all of your sprites organized as you create them, so you can locate them easily. Keep in mind that you can either render your settings as one large image and add invisible walls and objects in Game Maker, or you can draw individual tiles and make these into objects later.
Download and install Game Maker, and create your new game project. Save this project somewhere, and begin incorporating your sprites, keeping them organized. Once all of your sprites are in Game Maker, you are ready to begin building.
Building the RPG
Convert your sprites into objects and add the appropriate programming to them. If you have planned accordingly, you can do this all in one step, or you can add objects as you need them. Some programming challenges you will need to overcome will include: an experience counter, with diminishing returns for too-easy or too-hard encounters, flags for learning new abilities and algorithms for stat increases; flags to prevent the character from moving during cut-scenes and dialog; a save point system, or autosaves.
This will be the most frustrating and arduous part of your experience, even more so than adding the sprites, as you will constantly have to fix bugs and tweak behavior.
Being building the 'rooms.' Rooms are the game screens as used by Game Maker, such as the inside of a house, a dungeon or the battle screen. Each room will have to include various objects, such as transitions to other rooms, the playable character and other nonplayer characters. If you chose to draw your background images as complete pictures, you will have to use invisible walls to make certain areas 'unwalkable,' as you will not be able to make different pieces of terrain into different objects. If you drew individual tiles, then you can make some of them solid and others not as need be. Make sure to test each room extensively.
Test your game from start to finish. Explore each room carefully, looking for game-breaking holes or defects. Ensure that conversations work as expected, that battles play out properly and that the leveling system is in ideal working order. As you make changes to objects, be aware that other bugs may come up as a result. Enlist your friends and family members to try to break your game, and when they do, fix it. Remember that if you are doing this for yourself, you do not have a budget or timetable, and it is worth taking the time to fix any problems. Many great games have failed because of poor, rushed testing.
Distribute your game. Post it online, send it to your friends and promote yourself as much as possible. If you are trying to make profit, a simple 'Consider donating if you enjoyed this game' message with your PayPal info will help. Many people will support a game they enjoy, either monetarily or through other means, especially if their support might influence a sequel.
Tips
Use other RPGs are reference when coming up with your mathematical algorithms, such as the ones for leveling and loot.
You can use invisible objects as controllers and flags. Simply create an object with no sprite and place it in a room, and you can use it for odds and ends such as checking other party member's stats while swapping them.
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GameMaker: Studio has its own set of terms and vocabulary that may sound familiar to experienced game developers, but if you’re just breaking into the field, it helps to know what all those terms mean. The software also features a coding window that color-codes the code (say that five times fast!), which makes it easier for developers to find functions, variables, and the like — as long as you know what the colors mean. Finally, keyboard commands are a great way to save time and energy.
Glossary of Terms Used in GameMaker: Studio
Want to speak the language of GameMaker: Studio, but don’t know where to start? Here’s a short list of some of the most-used terms in the game development world of GameMaker: Studio.
- Actions: For each Event, you should assign an Action. An Action is what actually happens within an Event that is associated with an Object. For example, if you add a Keyboard Event for the spacebar, you can add a Create Instance Action, which is triggered when the player presses the spacebar. The Create Instance Action could then trigger another Object to appear in the game, such as a bullet Object. In this way, you can create a fighter plane that fires bullets.
- Events: An Event sets the table for what you want to happen in the game, which is further defined by Actions. Different Events include, Create, Step, Draw, and so on. Some Events are triggered for every step of a game, while other Events are triggered only when something specific happens.
- Instances: An Instance is an Object that you’ve placed in the Room. You can have many Instances of a single Object within a Room. For example, say you created an Object of an enemy plane. You can place many Instances of the enemy plane Object in the Room so that the player has several enemy planes to shoot at instead of just one.
- Objects: You use Objects to create things in a game, such as characters and atmosphere. For each Object, you add Events and Actions, which define the Object with different properties. You can add Events and Actions to an Object from the Object Properties window. If you’re an experienced developer, you may find it interesting to learn that GameMaker Language is not a true object-oriented programming (OOP) language and that Objects in GameMaker are not quite the same as they are in C++.
- Rooms: Rooms are where you assemble and define the different parts of your game. You can add Instances of your Objects to the Room so that they become part of the game. Rooms have many properties with many features, including the background and the speed of the Room. In a sense, you can use the Room as a preview to get an idea of how your game will look when it first starts. The Room Properties window also enables you to set the number of steps in your game, which then permits you to control the frames per second (FPS).
- Sprites: Use Sprites to create graphical representations of your Objects. Sprites tend to be bitmap images, but in GameMaker: Studio, you can also use vector-based images and Adobe SWF files made with Flash. Sprites can be a single image or a series of sub-images.When a Sprite consists of sub-images, you can tell GameMaker which sub-image to display, or to play each sub-image as a type of mini-animation within a game. For example, say you have a plane with propellers. The Sprite for the plane could consist of several sub-images, each sub-image has the propellers in a slightly different position so that when the sub-images are played continuously, it provides the effect of moving propellers on a flying plane.
Color-Coding for the GameMaker: Studio Coding Window
GameMaker: Studio features a robust coding window in which developers can type code. This coding window color-codes the code, which makes it easier for developers to find functions, variables, and the like. Here’s a guide to the various colors GamerMaker: Studio uses in the code window:
Color | Type of Code |
---|---|
Black | Background |
Dark gray | Current line, line number background |
Light gray | Normal text, selection |
Red | Error line |
Orange | Keywords, functions, script names |
Green | Comments |
Pink | Values, constants, built-in variables, resource names |
Light pink | Selected line, changed line |
Purple | Line number text |
You can update this color scheme if you want. Just follow these steps:
- From the Main menu, choose FilePreferences.The Preferences window appears.
- Click the Scripts and Code tab.
- In the Colors section on the right, select the code type, and then choose Change.A color graph appears from which you can choose a new color for the type of code you selected.
- Click OK from the color graph to save and close.
- Repeat Steps 3 and 4 with all the types of code you want to change.
- When you’re done updating your color scheme, click OK.Your updates are saved and the Preferences window closes.
GameMaker: Studio Keyboard Commands
Here are the best keyboard commands GameMaker: Studio has to offer. These time- and energy-saving keyboard combinations are available from the GameMaker: Studio main Project window.
Keyboard commands are a great way to get things done quickly. They provide a shortcut to accessing menus and different features. So, instead of clicking around on menus, you can use a keyboard command to get what you want.
Action | Keyboard Command |
---|---|
Open a new project | Ctrl+N |
Open an existing project | Ctrl+O |
Import a project | Ctrl+I |
Exit GameMaker: Studio | Alt+F4 |
Create a duplicate | Alt+Ins |
Create a group | Shift+Ins |
Delete something | Shift+Del |
Rename something | F2 |
Open the Properties window | Alt+Enter |
Create a shader | Shift+Ctrl+A |
Create a clean build | F7 |
Access the in-software manual | F1 |
Open GameMaker: Studio in Explorer | Ctrl+Alt+O |
Open project in Explorer | Ctrl+Alt+P |
The following keyboard commands are available from a Script Editor window:
![Project Project](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125839541/663328264.png)
![Game maker studio change project name Game maker studio change project name](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125839541/504748000.png)
Action | Keyboard Command |
---|---|
Opens the code snippet pop-up window | F2 |
Makes the size of the font smaller | F7 |
Makes the size of the font bigger | F8 |
Toggles the color coding for the code | F10 |
Search, find, and replace | Ctrl+F |
Undo the last action | Ctrl+Z |
Redo the last action | Ctrl+Shift+Z |
Select text | Shift+arrow keys |
Force the auto-complete to appear (if you have it turned off in the Scripts preferences) | Ctrl+Spacebar |