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CONTENTS
Table Of Contents
This Issue
It's truly amazing how fast time really goes. This time last year, GMTECH had released it's first issue. Look at us now, we have released our 10 th issue and are the longest current running magazine. GMTECH has now set a goal, a goal that we thought wouldn't be accomplished back when issue 4 was in production. But enough about how far we've come, let's talk about what we have in store for you. This issue we've got a number of great exclusives which you will want to check out. First we've got a preview of Barnstormer Beta 2 created by the BlueBind Development Team, and an interview with Jesper about the game. Next we have a preview of the latest version of Conflict Arcade developed by Rhys Andrews. We then have a exclusive interview with Mark Overmars, the creator of Game Maker, about the future Game Maker has. Finally we have a preview of the new MusicLib website and some insight into some new games. If that's not enough, this issue also has 9 casual articles and 7 development articles which will provide excellent reading material for you. So what modifications come with this issue? Well there are a few. For issue 10 we have given the magazine a colder, frosted look. We have introduced results for the User Opinion article and have added a new section: Exclusives. However we have some bigger news that isn't related to changes inside the magazine itself. As of issue 10, we have introduced a new service: GMTECH Wiki. This service is aimed at providing some of the magazine content online and allows for it to be commented on. Finally we have changed the website's host and moved our forum from the IPB software to the SMF software. What's next? Well we'll have to see what 2008 brings. We hope that 2008 will be a good year for Game Maker with it's upcoming updates. As for the rest of us Game Maker users, we should all aim to produce higher quality games. Doing so could raise the reputation of Game Maker and make it an even more popular game development tool. Lastly check out our slogan competition on page 38. By just making one banner you could earn yourself $5. Please send us your feedback from this issue. Gmjab Editor 1. ARTICLES What's Going On.....................................................................2 Beginner's Guide to the GMC..................................................3 2D Games Are They Outdated?...........................................5 Tools of the Trade..................................................................5 10 Ways to Stay Motivated.....................................................7 Increase the Replay Value of Your Game...............................8 The Problem with Online GM Games......................................9 Clichd Gaming.......................................................................9 Game Maker ActiveX Your Active choice?..........................10 Mini-Games in Games...........................................................10 User Opinion-What do you think about GM porting to Mac?.12 2. GMDEV Making Better Game Graphics..............................................14 Level Design.........................................................................15 Why and How to use Surfaces..............................................16 Environment Variables..........................................................17 Create your own simple language in GML.............................17 Tutorial: Auto Write Text......................................................20 Tutorial: Arc Angled Text.....................................................20 Tutorial: List Files.................................................................21 Tutorial: Highlight................................................................22 Pixel Tutorial........................................................................22 Weapon Spriting with Paint Tutorial.....................................23 3. EXCLUSIVES Exclusive: Barnstormer BETA 2............................................24 Exclusive: Interview with Jesper about B.S..........................25 Exclusive Review: Conflict Arcade........................................27 Exclusive Interview with Mark Overmars..............................28 Exclusive: MusicLib...............................................................30 Insight Into: CSW.................................................................30 Insight Into: Oi.....................................................................31 Insight Into: Chalk...............................................................32 Insight Into: Schism.............................................................33 Insight Into: Purple..............................................................34 Insight Into: HexBall............................................................34 4. GAMES & REVIEWS Review: Megaman Paradise..................................................35 Review: The Demon Within..................................................36 Review: Pure Action CTF......................................................37 5. EXTRAS New Year's Resolutions.........................................................38 Money Giveaway...................................................................40 The Game Maker Race Results.............................................40 Comic....................................................................................41 Adverts.................................................................................42 Closing..................................................................................43
Staff
Gamez93.......GMTECH Owner gmjab............Magazine Editor Rup13.............Assistant Editor Medieval................Researcher GMmarine..............Researcher mememe.......................Writer TheMagnitude...............Writer Polystyrene Man............Writer Bendodge......................Writer
HalfMillennium..............Writer Christian Sciberras........Writer the9thdude...............Reviewer Paul23......................Reviewer Hiyukantaro.....Tutorial Writer Bob11500K........Comic Artist NAL......................Proofreader eagleprof..............Proofreader
Online
Website...............www.gamemakertech.info (gmtech.vlexo.net ) Wiki............www.gamemakertech.info/wiki/ (gmtech.vlexo.net ) Forum.....www.gamemakertech.info/forum/ (gmtech.vlexo.net ) Email............................................gmtech.magazine@gmail.com
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What's Going On
GM Tech: Wiki The introduction of the GM Tech Wiki has come, there has been a gap in the top right corner of the GM Tech Website for a while, but it is now filled with the link to the Wiki, as planned a few months ago. The point of the Wiki is to allow you to view certain bits of content without having to continuously open up the whole issue. We also added it so that game/program creators can directly link to the review of their application, allowing game players to see how good it is. Furthermore, each piece of content that is on the Wiki has a separate Comment system, where everyone can comment on each article, and have their questions answered by the writers of the article or review. Content will typically be added 5 10days after the issue is released, and will not contain any images, so if you want the full formatting, you will have to check out the PDF. GM Tech: Staff Changes Over the last few months, there has been a lot of changes to the team members, some have quit due to giving up GM, or not having time to focus on the magazine, and others have joined, looking for new challenges to write and to entertain you. The staff list now reads as:
GM Tech: GM Race Is Finished Since it started we all thought that it will be a great contest for many to enjoy and take part in. Luckily, we were right. GM Tech and MarkUp decided to join forces to create the ultimate contest The GM Race. After head-to-heads and voting stages, we can reveal to you the winner of the contest. Turn to page 38 to find out the winner. Hopefully we will be back again next year, giving away more prizes. GM Tech: A Small Break Instead of releasing issue 11 at the start of February, we will be taking a break. GMT will be spending this extra time developing our magazine design further for 2008. So you can expect to see the next issue around March. YoYo Games: Contest, Contest, Contest! Over the last few months, members of the YoYo Games team have been asking for us to vote for them in various contests. As always, the GMC was ready to lend a helping hand, and they got straight over there. However, someone was just a little bit too overexcited, and voted numerous times in one contest, breaking the rules. Because of this, on Dec 13 2007, YYG was disqualified from the contest, however a mere one day later, Mark Overmars posted The people at Mashable have decided to move YoYo Games directly through into the final voting round, without having to pass through the current round. Thats the world on competitions for you. YoYo Games: Winter Contest The deadline for submissions for YYG Winter Contest entries ended a few days ago. There was just under 232 submissions, all of their creators hoping to scoop one of the large cash prizes (The winner receives US $1000, the second place US $500 and the third place US $250). There was much discussion about the rules, and how they will pick the winning game, many questions have been answered, but a few still remain in the air. Considering its the first contest, it's been a quite good one. If you missed this one, dont worry, there is always next time. Pure Action CTF Source Discount For a limited time only you can get the source to Pure Action CTF for $5($20 off). To buy the source simply contact dmitko via PM or email with the promotional code below in your message. dmitko will then provide further instructions to donate the $5 via PayPal. Once the donation has been processed, you will receive an email with a link to the source. So get in quick before the offer ends. You can find a review of PACTF on page 33. Promo Code: GMTPACTFDISC5
gamez93 gmjab Rup13 bendodge TheMagnitude paul23 Polystyrene Man HiyuKantaro the9thdude GMmarine mememe Bob - 11500k Medieval Christian Sciberras keysle NAL eagleprof
GM Tech: New Site and Forum Any of you who have read GM Tech Magazine for a long time, and visit the website and forum, will know that we have made a lot of changes in order to bring to you the best possible experience, so here are a few more Our host was always going down from time to time, so we decided that the best thing to do will be to move host, so you can now access the new GM Tech website via this link http://www.gamemakertech.info , however it may take some time for the NS to fully update, so you may still see the old website. If you do, then you can visit the website on the sub domain http://gmtech.vlexo.net. Not only do we have a new host, but we also have a forum system, so we host the forum under the domain, giving a more professional feel. We were unable to install a backup of the old forum onto the new forum, so you will first need to register before you can make contributions. Enjoy!
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Signatures A signature is the little box underneath every post you make that always displays the same content which you can set in your control panel. Signatures are usually used as your personal advertising space but there are limits on how obnoxious you can make them. Signatures have a size limit of 550x150 and the golden rule is that they shouldn't annoy people. Moderators always have a right to remove or edit your signature and complaining about it will not accomplish anything. Special links and images that do things like log you out, give you points for a game, or show connection information (IP address, ISP, etc) are not allowed. Just try to keep it sane.
Q&A Asking a question in the Novice or Advanced sections is the fastest way to get unstuck but it can't solve everything. You should not ask questions like how do I make a MMORPG? That's what tutorials are for. Questions should be very specific and provide plenty of background information to help others help you. If you are a new user, you should probably post your questions and answers in the Novice Q&A first, instead of jumping to the Advanced Q&A. Unless you really know what you are doing and have made several complete games your question probably belongs in Novice. One thing that never belongs in Advanced is a question that starts with is it possible. It's not easy medicine to take, but most people (including the Author) learn the hard way sooner or later.
One thing that shouldn't be here is a host of topics complaining about problems with Softwrap. Nobody likes Softwrap, but posting in the community forum about it will get you nowhere. Only YoYo Games and Softwrap can help you with registration. Also, introductions and farewells are not allowed in the Community subforum. It's not because people don't care it's because there are far too many people on the forum to allow that kind of thing (imagine what would happen if even a small fraction of the membership started posting such topics). If you want socialization, get it by joining satellite communities such as the Game Maker Off-Topic or 64Digits. Another issue that you shouldn't complain about is server error messages. The GMC is run on a dedicated server and it is already expensive to maintain. If there was an easy fix it would have been done.
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A popular form of entertainment is arguing with staff members about warnings and other staff decisions. This is not very effective and will only get you laughed at. So don't do it. In the unlikely event that there is a gross misunderstanding, you might very politely PM a moderator and explain your situation, but one appeal is all you're likely to get. Do not ask to become a staff member. This is a fast way to guarantee that you will never be one. Senior Members These are the people who have been around for a while and know the other regulars. Almost everyone enjoys delusions of grandeur after a few weeks on the forum, but you will quickly realize that it takes months or years to become wellknown. If and when you become a regular, you will know it because other regular members know you by name. Don't wait around for it to happen; start coding and helping others if you want attention. Sometimes someone will start a popularity contest in the Community forum. Just report them and ignore them. The GMC does not have a user ranking system, and it is not an accident. It's very tempting to PM a well-known person and ask for help. Some will help you, others won't. Usually people that don't mind being PMed will say so in their signature. Your best bet is almost always to ask your question in a Q&A forum, so consider that your first resort. Close The Game Maker community is a fun and friendly place as long as you do your part to be a good citizen. This means abiding by the rules and helping others. So invite your nerdy friends and enjoy the wonderful art of game making.
Use screen shots (the more the better, but don't put huge images directly in the topic use links). State the name, version, objective and controls. Be very polite and use correct grammar and spelling. This will have a major influence on your topic. Make sure that you use a reliable file host and avoid hosts that don't provide direct links. Use an attractive topic layout with a banner and sections marked off with the Drag 'n' Drop icons. (Click Show All under the smilies list when composing your topic).
Remember, the key here is a to cater to your players as much as possible, and don't expect more than a page or two of replies. Staff The Game Maker Community has a small army of admins and moderators dedicated to keeping a clean house. (You can see a complete list by clicking the link at the top of the Board Statistics box on the front page). Moderators are tasked with patrolling all the topics throughout the forum and responding to reports. They are usually helpful if you PM them a question, but it is very bad etiquette to ask them for coding help. That's what the Q&A forums are for. Also, do not PM or email Mark Overmars with anything that is not very important. He will not answer scripting questions of any kind. You would contact him if, for example, you found a security hole or a bug in GM.
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They
These dimensions consist of the x axis, which corresponds to the horizontal line, and the y axis, which corresponds with the vertical line. 3D as we know has the third dimension, or Z-axis, for depth. Another one of the major points is that graphics for 2D games are usually far easier to create. Therefore less time is needed for the creation of graphics, which can then be put into other aspects of the game. Another major point is that the overall cost to create 2D games is reduced. This is because the company pays less for the graphics artist, coders, etc... because they have to work less time to get the game completed. Because of the reduced costs, they are more favorable for indie game developers. It is one thing to just list the strengths of 2D, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any weaknesses. The major weakness is the illusion of reality that can be created by a 3D game. Our world is 3D, not 2D. So it is quite obvious that 2D games create less of an illusion. We want the adrenaline, the feel, the sense that we are actually there in the cockpit of a plane or the battlefield of World War II. The other weakness is that if you fail, it hurts more financially. As I said earlier, 3D games are more costly to make, and if your game doesn't do well, you end up losing far more money than you would have if you had made a 2D game. So, quite simply, 2D games are not outdated, and 3D games are not the king... yet. I expect a long life ahead for the 2D genre.
The father of 3D games, 2D games, is sadly starting to show it's age, in the same way as your dad. 2D games are quite simply, getting too old. Everyone one has got to die someday, but this is not the case with 2D! 2D isn't human so it doesn't have to die. In my opinion 2D games have got a long life ahead. But to understand why 2D hasn't died yet, and are far from being dead, I will lay down the facts for you. At first we must get a little background information on 2D games. The first game to enter the 2D genre was created in 1958 by William Higinbotham. This game's layout was similar to tennis, or a kind of ping-pong, which involved two players trying to get the ball past the other person's slider. To us, this isn't really a game, but this game is prehistoric and was great at the time. But as we all know, 2D games have grown up since then, as Game Maker shows us. Now that we have a little background information, we can proceed. Of course we all know that 2D has its weaknesses, but most importantly it has its strengths too. The best one in my opinion is that 2D games are easier to program. Because there are only two dimensions.
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Particle Designer is invaluable when making particle effects, because you can instantly see the results of your changes. It outputs GML scripts that you can import directly into your game with little or no modification. Save early and often with this tool though, because it is notoriously buggy and unstable. InnoSetup, along with some third-party addons like ISTool, will let you make professional installers with powerful capabilities and no nag screens.
Skeleton is a stick figure animator that allows you to set images for different bones of your skeleton and then create and render tweened animations. I've also asked some makers of popular games what they use to create their resources. I hope this provides an interesting insight for you. Interview with FredFredrickson GMT: You have made some very polished games which have enjoyed great popularity with players. What are some of the tools that you use for making your game's resources, specifically graphics and sounds resources? FFN: I'd say that two of my most used tools for graphics are Photoshop and Truespace. I've been using PS for a long time now, and I am very comfortable with how it works and am able to do just about whatever I need with it. Truespace has been a great help as well, allowing me to create models and animations quickly and easily. Combine the two (with a little help from UV Mapper, Marzipan, and some other tools), and you've got a nice graphics suite to work with. As far as sound goes, I mostly use the utilities that came with an old sound card of mine, and find my sounds on findsounds.com or sounddogs.com. Sounddogs.com isn't free, but you can get a great deal of quality sound effects for under $20. GMT: So would you recommend that people trying to make high-quality games buy sound resources, instead of trying to make their own? FFN: Well, if you're good at making sound effects, I'd take that route for the things you know you can do - anything that might net you some experience in a field you are interested in is a good thing, as far as I am concerned. Of course, not all of us have good recording equipment or guns to fire off in a sterile recording environment, so for those times, buying sound effects may be the right choice. GMT: Is there any advice you would give potential buyers as far as license types go? FFN: If you're going to pull an image or sound off the Internet, make sure you read the licensing agreement carefully (if there is one). Especially if you're planning on selling your creation. Interview with Rez: GMT: Hello and thank you very much for being with us today. We're talking about additional tools for making games. What are some of the tools you use to make your games' graphics and sounds? REZ: Game Maker's built-in sprite editor has always been my weapon of choice for pixel art, although I do occasionally use Paint Shop Pro for various effects and tile wrapping. I'm not really a musician or foley artist but I think Audacity is great for home brew sound FX. GMT: Do you ever purchase sound effects? REZ: Never. I figure those sound FX sites are meant for flash and the sounds they carry aren't very fitting for a GM game.
Paint.NET is, as the name implies, a Paint replacement. It isn't quite as powerful as GIMP, but it has a more traditional interface that some people will prefer.
HelpMaker and HelpNDoc are the only free CHM tools I have ever been able to find. Their interfaces can be a bit daunting at times, but it is definitely worth the effort to include a polished help file. HelpNDoc is only free for personal use, so be careful about licensing issues. HelpMaker is totally freeware and includes a handy button maker tool.
Beneton Movie GIF and Skeleton are two animation tools made with Game Maker. BMG is an extremely powerful animation tool that is almost totally unrivaled in the freeware world. Unfortunately, it is a resource hog, so don't try it on your Windows 98 machine.
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Dont set the bar to high The most paralyzing thing you can do is set the standards too high. Of course, sometimes its impossible not to think of how great your finished product will be. Dont let yourself get away with this: Save the excitement for when the game is actually done. The effects of setting the bar too high are far-reaching, as well. In addition to slowing game development, they keep you from improvising during game development. Some games were destined for a different course (potentially improving motivation); with a predetermined idealistic goal, this is impossible. Attack it in pieces Games are made of small parts. Theres the movement engine, the AI, the physics engine, the HUD, and so on. Its best to fine-tune these things in their own separate .gmk and then merge them into what will be the completed game. This makes testing easier and faster, as it is not necessary to load the entire game for testing purposes e.g. making sure the text in your HUD is aligned correctly. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time Take breaks Take breaks, and take them proudly. Dont be afraid of setting your project aside for a while. Ive done this myself and come back months later recharged and enthusiastic about my work. Dont even consider this as a last resort. Breaks are healthy, and improve the overall quality of your finished game (how good could will your game turn out if youre not even interested in making it?) Start small This ties in with not setting the bar too high. Start your game small. Really small. With no expectations except to add and add until youve decided the game is complete. A good example would be in creating an adventure game: if you start the game with the intention of creating a massive world map, the chance of you finishing is not very large. If, however, you begin by working on the first village, then slowly expand outside that, the game will grow until youre satisfied. You cant crack under the pressure if there is no pressure. Another example would be in creating games which have levels: Dont decide on making a 100-level game. Rather, create the levels one-by-one, only stopping when youve decided that youre finished working on the game. Also realize that no ones going to play through all 100 levels of a Game Maker game.
Turn off the Internet Log out of the GMC. Shut down Facebook. Get out of MySpace. Turn off the Internet. Dont work on a game with the Internet open if its too much of a distraction. I speak from experience on this one: My most productive times have been without Internet access. If youre anything like me, any time you get into a snag in programming, you open up the Internet just to check in on things. This is a motivation-killer; nothing ever gets done. Pray for a natural disaster Okay, imagine this: Youre stuck inside your house because some sort of natural disaster (or plague or something) has struck your town. You cant go to school, you cant go to work, you are unable to interact with other humans, the Internet is down, etc. What are you going to do? Probably work on Game Maker nonstop out of boredom. Youre bound to come up with something. Coffee Nothing is more motivational than a big cup of black coffee. It serves as both a fuel source and a reward. It also tastes wicked good.
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Clichd Gaming
By Polystyrene Man
When video games were first being developed, programmers didnt have to worry about some of the same things that modern-day game designers do: Graphics and sounds were limited and the gameplay was restricted to simplicity. Oh, and being pioneers in the industry, they didnt have to worry about clichs. Nowadays, familiar ideas are being used and reused. One could argue that this is the natural flow of things - someone has a good idea, others copy it and improve. Certainly, Sim City 4 is an improvement on earlier games such as Populous. We now have game companies that push graphics, gameplay, and sounds to the limit. The Halo series is a prime example - anyone whos played Halo 2 or 3 knows of the incredible graphics and physics. Indeed, games are evolving. But heres the thing: Game companies do not use Game Maker. Game Maker is relatively slow and not suited for serious games. This, coupled with the fact that most Game Maker users opt to go solo, means that we have a unique situation. Game Maker cannot necessarily take part in the evolution of older (now clichd) games; it's games cannot compete with the productions of large game companies. Game Maker has nothing new to offer in terms of graphics - it is still primarily suited for 2D game creation. Its sound editor is hardly anything special. GML is a high-level language. The point is this: No one is going to make a Halo 3 clone in Game Maker. Nor should they. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If anything, its a good thing. Because we are using this limited game creation program, we are forced to do something that game companies are not forced to do: Be creative. We are at the bottom of the game-creation food chain, just as the early video games were. Time has shown that ideas the stuff of survival - are produced at a low level, then passed on and magnified by the bigger animals. Theres a reason indie game making is so celebrated.
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What is GmX? GmX is a new way to let people play your games inside browsers yes inside them. It offers unique features for the game developer and the gamer alike. Basically it is like YoYoGames' InstantPlay, but with a difference: it offers real game-in-browser embedding and it could be used just about anywhere (including XP and Vista), as long as it is installed. Also, isn't it nice seeing your own game's loading screen while GmX is loading? Yes, it also supports the use of custom themes. How did it start? As with all programs, there is a reason how this started out. Some time ago, the creator was criticized because of his idea (of running GM games in browsers) not being practical. After some time he decided to take the challenge. Some problems with it delayed enough to let YYG develop their own. Well they do get credit in making the first working one... What are the features? Now this is the best part. What makes it so unique such that it is far from near to a YYG clone? Everything, starting from
the very simple yet powerful game manager, simplicity of use and dynamic. It is dynamic because it uses a master file system to connect different but related data and files for one game. This results in the possibility of using different theme files, multiple downloads and even an installer based game, which makes GmX download the required files. Other features include: online based website and game filter, and multiple file compression, so that it pinpoints the perfect compression method for your game. The last but most important feature is: GmX is free! What are the challenges the team is facing? The largest challenge of all is beating time. This feature-rich software is constantly under heavy development. In fact some functionality is disabled due to testing reasons. One of the main problems encountered was the need to create many sub-projects out of it, making it rather difficult to maintain. Nevertheless, we received some very good remarks on the released betas from various highly respected members giving us the spirit to move on. Lastly, I would like to publicly thanks these persons and all on the development side, including the faithful beta testers.
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Note that the edges are darker, and get progressively lighter towards the center of the sprite. This represents an unrealistic style of shading that turns otherwise good drawings into bad drawings. The fact is this: Light almost never hits an object exactly above it. This is what makes pillow shading so ugly. When in doubt, never pillow shade. Do not use the default colors of MSPaint As a matter of fact, dont use highly saturated (or bright) colors in general. They are ugly and painful to the eye. They are distracting. Theres no better way to explain this. Even if youre looking to make a bright, fun game, the default colors of MSPaint are much too fluorescent. Generally, a good saturation level exists between 120 and 180, but it is also good to contrast between higher levels and lower levels. Just be sure that all of your colors dont exceed 200thats the pain zone, where people have lost their vision. Those are the major do-nots of making game graphics. Now lets be a little more positive and list some good things that you can do to improve your graphics. Make small sprites Large sprites can be overwhelming to draw, and the larger your canvas is the more opportunity you have to draw something out of proportion. It also becomes difficult to shade large sprites realistically, and fluid animation is near impossible without a good deal of practice. No one is going to think youre cheap for making a 16x16 sprite. In fact, the old-school style is celebrated by many. However, if youre set on having large sprites, you can always set the resolution or change the scaling of the view (set the port on screen size to double the size of the view in room) such that your sprites appear larger onscreen. Note that to change the saturation level of a color in MSPaint, you must double click a color in the color tray. A box will pop up which allows you to edit the colors. Click on the button that says Define Custom Colors >>. A new saturation level can be entered into the second box of the first column (appropriately labeled Sat). Do not use MSPaint On the topic of MSPaint, dont use it. Some pixel art purists will probably disagree with me here, but the idea is to make your life easier. Spriting in MSPaint is difficult- more difficult than it needs to be. There simply arent enough tools to work fast and efficiently. I suggest using Graphics Gale . Its a free download, and is much better than MSPaint. Others promote Paint.NET and Photoshop, which are also good choices. Graphics Gale comes with a much more eye-appealing default color palette, and the interface (though it may not appear so at first) is very similar to MSPaint. Particularly
Shade The idea of shading might be intimidating, but its not overly difficult. Lets assume that we want to shade a circle. Only three colors are needed: A dark shade, a medium shade, and a light shade. From here, its only a matter of choosing a light source. This is where the hypothetical lamp or sun is assumed to be; generally it is in the topright or top-left corner of the sprite. Using the medium shade, fill the entire circle. Use the darkest shade to color the portion farthest from the light
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Level Design
By TheMagnitude
For example in New Super Mario Bros for DS the different environments not only looked different but also had their own features, such as: lava which you could fall in; jungle which had more ropes to swing on; snow, which had slippery ice that made the game a lot harder, volcano which literally summoned meteors right above you which you had to quickly dodge. So different environments should each have their own "thing" that defines them and excludes them from the rest, so not just a graphical touch, but twisting the gameplay also. Players would usually want to change the environment or feel its reaction. This is when we start focusing on making a level interact with the player as well as the player interacting with the level. Basically, as well as the general gameplay going on, the player needs to be able to interact with their surroundings such as pick up useful objects, or simply destroy parts of the environment. In some way the player should be able to change or modify the environment for their advantage or passage. This will give the game more than just its normal gameplay, it will also give the player dynamic control of their experience. And to make the environment a responsive one, the player needs to know that the game knows what the player is doing. This includes rustling of bushes when a player walks through them, and then leaves could come out of the bush to show that the player is indeed in the environment rather than sitting staring at a computer screen. Wading through water is another graphically nice effect, where when a player journeys through water, ripples, splashes and possibly reflections could be implemented. All these features that I have described above are key, and if you follow my guide you should have some well-designed levels and environments. Let's look at the key points I've made in this article: GOOD
Without adequate level design the player would get bored very fast, and since there is thousands of games in direct competition with you're game, then your going to want to keep players interested so they play your game more. What you will get out of this article is a, hopefully, more widened or initial knowledge of how to design your levels with varied environments and layouts. Professional games such as Call Of Duty and Super Mario Bros have been hailed again and again due to their unmistakable brilliance and varied environments, that push the gamer to the limits put the to the test in every possible scenario of the game, which is what good levels or maps should do. Now let me explain the difference between levels and maps, levels are usually a series of environments in which the player progresses through one after the other normally following some sort of storyline. Maps are environments that are inclusive and offer the player to wander round freely in any direction; maps are often used for various multiplayer modes. These definitions are not solid but are what is thought in general.
The more varied environments a player finds himself or herself in the less samey the levels will be to the player. If the levels are samey, then in most circumstances the player will get bored quite quickly, so the player needs to be thrown into some original and varied surroundings or else they may lose interest. A varied environment could consist of different backgrounds and sprite schemes, i.e. just changing the sprites with the same objects, and this would certainly give the player a more graphical aspect of the game to appreciate, but by doing it this way the level objects would essentially be the same. Different environments should contain unique objects that are only found in those environments, to give the game more of a trick.
Varied environments Dynamic, responsive, and reactive environments Environments that have unique twists on the gameplay Static, non-responsive, and non-reactive levels of all the same scheme of graphics
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draw_surface(id,x,y);
Adding a surface as a sprite
correctly. With the be drawn onto the in the memory until of surfaces exist but
Motion blur or blur in general. Rendering sprites and backgrounds in-game without the player realising Speeding up gameplay by sticking immobile sprites together Taking an in-game screenshot and displaying it without needing to save it as a file. And many more...
Surfaces don't stop there, in the advanced side of things surfaces can be used to take a text string, take an image, and draw the text but with that image as the text which I'll explain later. So heard enough? You want to know how to do it yourself, well it's your lucky day cause I'm going to tell you how to do just that. How do I make Surfaces? I've foolishly assumed just now that you know how to use the in built GML editor and are capable of programming in GML. If you don't know how to do those things I have just said, you're not going to understand the rest of this article. To start using surfaces you need to create one by using the function surface_create(width,height) < now this function actually returns a negative number if it fails to create a surface that big. This is usually because the graphics card of the computer running the game or program does not have enough memory to store the surface in. Now here's the interesting part: all you need to do then is set the surface as the drawing target and draw away with normal GML draw_ functions. But don't forget to reset the target of drawing to the screen after you have drawn everything you need on a surface. Don't worry, you can always come back and edit a surface later on. Below is some helpful code to get you started. Creating and drawing on a surface
var n; n=surface_create(w,h); // creates a surface with width of w and height of h if n<0 exit; // checks if the surface has been successfully created surface_set_target(n); // sets the drawing target to the surface // Draw code goes here, remember // Draw functions are exactly the same surface_reset_target(); // resets the drawing target to the screen
// Create both of the surfaces su1=surface_create(200,50); if su1<0 exit; su2=surface_create(200,50); if su2<0 exit; // Draw on surface one surface_set_target(su1); draw_set_color(c_black); draw_rectangle(0,0,200,50,0); draw_set_color(c_white); draw_text(10,10,"Textured Text"); surface_reset_target(); // Draw on surface two surface_set_target(su2); draw_sprite(spr_texture,0,0,0); surface_reset_target(); // Create sprites out of the surfaces sp1=sprite_create_from_surface(su1,0,0, 200,50,0,0,0,1,0,0); sp2=sprite_create_from_surface(su2,0,0, 200,50,0,0,0,1,0,0); sprite_set_alpha_from_sprite(sp2,sp1);
Draw Event
draw_sprite(sp2,0,0,0);
And there you have it, a nice text texture example. They're are lots of other uses of textures as I pointed out earlier which can have very nice graphics touches to a game. This concludes my article, thanks for reading.
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Environment Variables
By Gmjab
There are many functions found in the Game Maker manual. Most functions are easy to find and well-known amongst Game Maker uses. By reviewing over the functions contained in the manual regularly you may find new functions to use in your games. This can sometimes make things easier and quicker to develop. One function that many have yet not found or dont know how to use is environment_get_variable() . The environment_get_variable function is a very useful function which can obtain system environment variables. This information can include: the number of processors the computer has, operating system type, system directory path, username and the temporary directory path. Using the function is very simple and isnt any different to the way you use other similar functions. There is only one argument for environment_get_variable, and that is, the name of the variable as a string. The function will then return the result value. See code below for example: NUMPROCESS = environment_get_variable(" NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS"); show_message(string(NUMPROCESS)); // Show result developer. The list is as follows:
ALLUSERSPROFILE APPDATA HOMEDRIVE HOMEPATH LOGONSERVER PROGRAMFILES SYSTEMDRIVE SYSTEMROOT USERDOMAIN USERNAME USERPROFILE WINDIR ComSpec FP_NO_HOST_CHECK NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER PROCESSOR_LEVEL OS Path PATHEXT TEMP TMP
There are a quite few variables available to use. I have provided a list of variable that will be useful to any game
Using these environment variables you can find out information about a computer without using a DLL. Hopefully this article has given some insight into how to use the environment_get_variable() function. For more information on what these functions do, click here .
find_word('if a>50 then b=1',1) = 'if' find_word('if a>50 then b=1',3) = 'then'
The find_word() script contains: // Name: find_word // Description: Cuts a word from space to space // argument0 - string - text // argument1 - integer - word number (must be >=0) // returns - mixed - (<=0 word count) (>=1 word) // Example: find_word('hello there', 1)='hello' and find_word('hello there', 0)=2 return find_string(argument0,argument1, ' '); It contains a call to yet another script. This new extremely useful script returns a string from a whole sentence which is separated by any type of character. It is very useful because find_string is used for many purposes such as parsing math expressions.
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global.mylang_foo
First the variables need to be declared, so we will do this by using the define keyword ex: define foo. The most important check in making variables is that their names start with a letter. So to do this, we need to add another statement to the switch in the parse script: case "define": { if string_length(string_lettersdigits(find_word( argument 0,2)))!=string_length(find_word(argument0, 2)) then return "Error: Bad variable name." variable_global_set('global.mylang_'+find_word( argument0,2),0) return "Created variable "+find_word(argument0,2)+"." } Note line 4, it works by comparing the variable name's length with that passed through the filter, which returns letter and numbers only. This means you can't use special characters, even '_'. Of course some additional coding may remove this inconvenience but that is past the point of this article. Next, it is useful to make the parser return a variable's value. This will be done with keyword echo, (like PHP's) ex: echo foo returns 0. That's fine and simple, but how are the variables detected? Using the prefix system gives another advantage here. In fact, each variable in this language could be detected by simply using:
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Function the function we can get the coefficient, and it how sharp the curve is. It can decide how much single letter should have, this is how we do:
but we don't need to define all of those variables. For us this will work:
If you are not familiar with derivation you don't need to care about this, like you don't have to care about the next step if you do not know of trigonometry; as long as you can see what we want with each piece of code. How to calculate the angle for the n:th letter In the code each letter will correspond to one x, therefor we can use the derivation. The derivation tells us show sharp the curve is, therefore it can be expressed as the following:
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if (selected_nr<=c) { file = file_text_open_read("files/" +file[selected_nr]); } I add an If statement, with proper condition, because we do not actually know that the user will enter one of the numbers that are displayed. He might enter any number, by mistake perhaps, and if we try to open that file it will cause an error. This will work though. Note that you may also use the first part of the code, this last open-up-file code, but present it anyway other than in a pop-up. This method is highly sophisticated and it's possible to present the info in anyway, as you got it in an array.
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Tutorial: Highlight
By Calle Ekdahl
The question, how do you make it such that someone may highlight and copy your text?, inspired me to make an example. As nothing else were defined I chose to assume the one who asked used the draw_text function, but it will also work at other kinds of text as long as you know how wide it is and how high. Also important is that although highlighting literally means to put importance to something, in computer terms we often say it and mean the visual effect as when you select a text. I will do the visual effect. It may also be used to select a text, and then the program will know which text. This example has several advantages. If there is something you don't understand how to do with this example, just ask on, by commenting preferably. Here is the property of the single object that I use: Create Event highlight = false; offset = 5; some_text = "This is the test text!"; Global Left Mouse Button Event if (mouse_x<x+string_width(some_text)) && (mouse_x>x) && (mouse_y<y +string_height(some_text)) && (mouse_y>y) { highlight = true; //Now I copy the text to the clipboard, can be removed: clipboard_set_text(some_text); } else { highlight = false; } Draw Event draw_set_color(c_blue); if (highlight == true) { //This is a visual effect, which may be removed! draw_rectangle(x-offset,y-offset,x +string_width(some_text)+offset,y +string_height(some_text)+offset,false); } draw_set_color(c_black); draw_text(x,y,some_text); As you may see in the code there are a few places where I have commented and said something like that the following piece of code can be deleted. It could also be replaced by something custom. Keep that in mind. The visual effect could be changed for an example, and maybe you didn't want to copy the text to the clipboard, so you could replace that with anything else that you actually want to do. Good luck with your creations, instead of explaining how this thing works (you'll have to figure that out yourself, or ask).
Pixel Tutorial
By Hiyukantaro
screen. If not I'm a complete fool, you are not made for using this way of working. You're not paying close attention. When you decided to become an artist, you were excited, and wanted to do rather a lot in your new job. You took every job, and you screened the GMC Graphics section for some work. After a while you get in a game development team. And you just don't feel like doing the GMC Graphics requests that much anymore. You get all those jobs for your new boss... which is good. When I got into a team, I can remember it very well. It was the team of my friend Michael (who is a programmer) called MediYama Games. I'm still in the team now. Fast after that I joined ISI (Ice Spark Interactive), and did some other projects (one-game teams). Then I got in this state of being stuck in all my pixel work, which is a very common thing in art. The projects were done, but I was still in both teams. If you feel like you're in that state of being out of inspiration, and feeling like you're doing the same thing all the time, then challenge yourself, and try some new things. I have noticed that everyone who does this gets back on the right track. If you want to do something new, maybe try using the steps above.
Getting Inspiration This time you won't see any pictures or explanations about how to make anything, because this tutorial is about how to get inspiration, how to use it in your work, and how to get it anyway. I hope this will be useful to you, for most artists it is. 1. We want to have inspiration. No music in the background, this distracts you, because if you listen to music and do something else your brain tries to focus on 2 different things. We can turn on some music while pixelling though. 2. Think about what you're going to make. Is it for a game? Then ask the developer what he needs. Also, think about a style to fit that object. If you're doing a piece for yourself think about an interesting subject, and choose a style that fits the piece of art you want to make. This is also important for Drawing, Painting, Brushing And Computer Designing. Believe me, I have some experience with all of these types of art. 3. Now, if you want to do it the professional way... first make concept art. Take a sheet of paper and draw what you want. Make some designs, and be creative. Choose the best one, and try to pixel it. These steps will help you in getting your ideas onto your
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Smooth Shading This is when, on curved surfaces the colours fade lighter or darker depending on the amount of light that reflects off. Since this is sometimes hard to see, just copy where the weapon is darkest and lightest from your reference image. Smooth Shading looks like:
Now your ready to start, i recommend zooming in 6x when pixelling but if you have a steady hand 2x is good enough. The first thing you should do is draw a careful outline of the weapon on the screen with a definitive black colour. It should look something like this:
What you get in the end once you've shaded in everything should be something like this:
Once you have done that you just fill in the appropriate sections with the appropriate colours, which you can select from the reference image. Like this:
And then you can just remove all your reference images and pallets and be left with a very nice sprite. :) This method is very effective and I have made 10+ weapons with it.
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many lines of code are there which makes up BS? JSP: Now I found out how to get all the code at once, and pasted it to a text editor, I got some statistics for you. The code used in Barnstormer: 1920 consists of 278029 symbols/characters, 44793 words and 10619 lines. GMT: How were the plane physics done? Did you use an engine from an example or is it custom built? JSP: Runivo, who was a member of the team, had already made an engine for this. That's the engine which we used (after making many changes to it so it would be perfect for Barnstormer: 1920). So you could say it is half-engine, half custom built. GMT: BS is a freeware game; do you think the team will make any shareware games in the future? JSP: I've thought of that, and other people (probably everyone in the team) have done so too. This project is very likely to stay freeware, but for further projects, I have no idea whether they will be shareware or not. GMT: What do you think the future of the BlueBind team holds? JSP: Even better graphics, innovative coding and qualityprojects. We'll see. GMT: Thank you for doing the interview with GMT, are there any final things you would like to say about the project? JSP: It was my pleasure to have this interview. I hope you have all enjoyed the read and I also hope to see you on the Reunited forum, a nice community and home to the BlueBind team. We will continue our work on Barnstormer: 1920 and hope to release it within a month so make sure you check the topic out. Reunited forum
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My name is Mark Overmars (not related to the soccer player, whose first name by the way is Marc, not Mark), I live in Utrecht, in the center of the Netherlands. (This means that independent of what direction you take, within 2 hours by car you reach the sea or the border.) I am working as a full professor at Utrecht University in the Department of Information and Computing Sciences. There I am scientific director of the Center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation. I will write more about the work that is done in the research center in future contributions. I am doing research on path planning and animation in games and virtual environments. I am teaching a course on computer game design. And of course I am the creator of Game Maker and one of the directors and shareholders of YoYo Games. Also I am, as an advisor, involved in some game companies in the Netherlands. Here is a picture of my, although I hardly ever dress that formally. For more information on my university work, check out my web page there. People often asked me what computer games I played when I was young. The answer is simple: none. There were no computer games those days. There were hardly any computers. I saw the first computer in my life when I was 16 years old and a friend of mine took me to the place his father worked where they had a big computer (probably with the computing power of a modern watch). I remember how impressed I was when they showed me the core memory. For those who do not know, core memory consisted those days of a huge block of little metal rings (the cores) through which wires were run (horizontal, vertical, and diagonal). Each core represented 1 bit of information. One 1616 cm card represented 1 or 2 kilobytes and the memory consisted of a large number of such little cards. It was huge, heavy, and very expensive. Probably because of that visit I became interested in computer science. But it took until the 80ties while I was working on my PhD before I really got interested in computer games. In particular when the Atari ST appeared I got hooked on it. I played many games, created my own (more about that some other time) and started to write game reviews for a Dutch Atari magazine. Also in those days I wrote my first paper on what is a good game. Something we still do not fully understand. I hope my glog will shed some more light on that. Source: Mark Overmars Glog http://mark.glog.yoyogames.com
Now, the interview, we have split the questions into categories to allow you to easily find the question your looking for. Enjoy the interview.
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GMT: Have you enjoyed developing GM for all this time, or has it become a burden? MKO: It is amazing to develop a tool like GM and see what all the people create with it. Seeing the 10,000 games on YoYo Games makes me feel very proud that I created the tool with which people did this. (Although of course it really is the work of the creators that led to the results, not my work.) Sometimes it is a burden. Programming in general comes with ups and downs. And in that sense I am happy with the new situation. The responsibility simply became too large.
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Exclusive: MusicLib
By Gmjab
This month we got a special preview of the new MusicLib website. MusicLib is a site which allows users to upload/download music for their games. The update will come out soon. Until then, have a look at the screenshots below:
By GreenNex
This platform game is different from other platformers because it will contain great platforming elements, and an actual storyline. This game is not only a platformer, but it also feels like an action/adventure game. There's going to be many different objects that would be used to change your gaming experience. From weapons to tunics, and from items to masks. One main object, which acts as the mouse, is a pencil that will be used to overcome many objectives and challenges. Just wait into I have a demo. I didn't have enough time to put one together, especially because I am also working on some other games. For example, one called Toxic-Active, Invaders Invade, Droplet, and Gum Remake.
The game is about a character, which he has no name yet, has to travel through different locations, for example, planets, desert, a lake called LakeView, Planet Pyro, and other amazing locations. He reaches these locations through paintings on the walls of a chamber called Art Chamber. The game is based on art. I don't really have a storyline yet, but Im working on one. I got my ideas while playing Cave Story and The Legend of Zelda. I was inspired, and felt an urge to combine the both games. You should expect to see many different locations, amazing boss battles, amazing graphics, many weapons and "tunics" to use. Also, during the game, the player will run into "warriors" that will give you a mask, containing his powers, only if you defeat him. The hard part is that if you lose, you will never have another chance to challenge him, so be careful not to die.
Here you can view the add-ons menu; able to equip anything you want. Just showing how the cane and pencil work.
Bam, and the enemy is dead. The triangles are to level-up your weapons.
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Insight Into: Oi
By 2D Cube
So, when I decided on this graphical style, I started doing a little research. I searched for mysterious looking plants, looked into books about the jungle, and started drawing a lot of them. I draw everything in Flash, and I have a ton of different plants now. Some of them only show up one time in the whole game. Gameplay Oi starts out as a standard platformer. And it does look like a standard platformer which just happens to have an interesting style. This is understandable, because by looking at screenshots you cant see theres more to the gameplay. When you start the game, all you can do is walk and jump, all with the arrow keys. Shortly after you learn to bounce. This is done pressing the down arrow key. By first jumping and then bouncing, you can reach higher up platforms. A little later you get the magical ability to fly by defeating a bat-like enemy. You can only fly for a little bit each time, but it helps you cross long gaps. Pressing up again after you jump does flying. All the controls are fitted into just the arrow keys, and it works. So there are 2 special abilities: bouncing and flying. These have to be used (together with jumping) to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles. If you know my games, you may remember these abilities from Blopper. That game I once made uses the same abilities, but has a very abstract setting. The abilities are the same, but the way theyre used for puzzles are often different in both games. Design process So let me tell you a bit about the way I design games. Most of the time it starts with one or more little ideas, and I try to build a game around that (in my head or on paper). Then I start making a little engine so I can try out the idea. This is what I like about Game Maker, because its really easy to set up a small prototype of your idea. This immediately lets me know if it was actually a good idea, because sometimes, things I think up turn out to be a little boring. This first prototype actually lets me know a couple things: Is the basic idea fun, is it possible to build a whole game from that, and how difficult is it to make (in terms of programming).
Introduction I started work on Oi in the beginning of October last year. I wanted to make a game with original gameplay, which could be enjoyed by many people. Oi is a platformer game with a very particular setting and in it you play a little guy who got his girlfriend taken away from him. Its all very mysterious, and the game starts in a jungle deep down underground. The graphical style and the music help setting this special atmosphere, which Im really fond of. However, dont be misled, because the focus of the game is the gameplay, and not the graphics. The graphical style however does have a huge impact on the feel of the game and also the storyline. The story, how little it may be, fits the overall style and was implemented last.
Graphical style The graphical style isnt really anything new. The black silhouette style is a common thing in graphic design but hasnt been implemented in games a lot (especially not in GM games as far as I know). The game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet actually inspired me to use this style (search it up on YouTube, it looks amazing). The advantages of the graphical style are that they leave something for the imagination, because all you see is the silhouette of everything. This helps creating the mysterious atmosphere. And, not unimportant, it doesnt take a lot of time to draw. Before I chose this style the game looked very abstract (just colored tiles) and the other objects in the game werent explainable within a logical context. Thats not a bad thing, and can actually be a good thing sometimes. This is because a more realistic style often comes with gameplay restrictions. After I chose for the silhouette style I had to make sure everything fitted in with it, and that it still made sense within that style and the story as well. However, that has not been a problem so far, but it does limit me a little to what I can do.
So, it all starts with a little idea, and most of the time this is a gameplay mechanic. Graphics and sounds come later, and I make them so they fit the gameplay, not the other way around. I am always looking for original, interesting gameplay mechanics, because the rule-set underneath a game is what interests me the most. Its a mysterious thing, because nobody has been able to define what good gameplay actually is, and this intrigues me. There is no
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By BlueboyX
The name of this game is Chalk. It's basically about a chalkdrawn hero who must save his board before it gets taken over by the dark forces. As you go through the levels you will gain power-ups like being able to shoot mini-bullets out from your mouth. You go through different types of environments and maybe even different forms. Expect to see many different types of enemies and many bosses as well. This game was mainly inspired by my brother GreenNex, who is also a game maker, and one of his projects that he never completed. At the time I was lacking inspiration and needed some kind of creative game that no one has ever seen before which lead me to create this game Chalk. I have never really seen another side-scroller game before made in Game Maker and I did not want to create another platform game so I went with side-scroller. In my opinion, this game is going to be great, considering its originality.
Oh snap! A boss.
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From the beginning, Schism was intended to be a complex and unique endeavor. Our teams previous projects suffered from lackluster storyline and oversimplified gameplay, issues that are not easily remedied in game thats already been in development for some time. We wanted a game that challenged players minds as well as their reflexes, but not in the usual way. Simply put, we wanted to add more depth to every possible element of our work. Although little of Schisms storyline has been settled, several key factors are concrete enough to be revealed. Centuries into the future, two thirds of humanity is wiped out when a colossal asteroid smashes into our moon, sending shards of rock raining down on the surface. The remaining humans attempt to colonize any planet capable of supporting their biological and economical needs, realizing too late that they had intruded on the politics of an incredibly unstable galaxy known as the Chronos system. Each of the four alien races inhabiting this system will play a key role in the games storyline, some more significant than others. The most important element of the story stems from a human cult that had disappeared from known space thousands of years ago, reappearing in the midst of this tense period as the games main antagonist: the Angels. The Angels wield technology unlike anything any living creature has encountered before. Although they have not actually attacked the Chronos system, they plunder resources from any planet that interests them, and all races are helpless to stop them. They are simply too powerful. It goes without saying that the gameplay is the most important aspect of any game. We wanted Schism to be unique in this area, too- were incorporating multiple types of vehicle-based shooter gameplay along with some platforming elements. With the currently planned setup, different missions you are asked to accomplish will have varying gameplay depending on the specifics of the mission; for example, near the beginning of the game youll be asked to spearhead a counteroffensive against the Marenox fleet (a mission that is a traditional top-down tracked space shooter). But later on, youre asked to sabotage a Marenox capital ship thats guarding an asteroid field (a mission that
Two often neglected but equally important elements are the graphics and sound. Anaglyph traditionally shines in both of these categories, and we hope to outdo ourselves here. Were putting more emphasis on particle effects and atmosphere throughout the entire game, and the original soundtrack (composed by PowersWithin and ConsciousAutomaton) will provide the appropriate moods. Samples of the music have been posted in various Gamemaker forums, GMC included. In closing, were hopeful that Schism will mark a turning point in our ambitions to become professional-level game developers. Keep track of our progress on our website for updates, and watch for the first demo by the end of the year!
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Review
Megaman Paradise
Created By: Mixahman
Reviewed By: NAL As fan games go, the vast majority of efforts by GM users are utterly dire. Then, occasionally, one will crop up that is brilliant. This is that brilliant one. Since I have scarcely played Megaman, I cannot make conclusive comparisons between the original and this, but I do know this is one heck of a clone. It looks, plays and feels like you should have paid for it. It also looks, plays and feels like it was made by Capcom. As graphics go, they are direct rips from original Megamans. The animations are tied together ultra-smoothly, and fit together perfectly. The backgrounds and tilesets also flow with the game, with nothing ever looking out of place. The only thing that prevents graphics getting full marks is, of course, the un-originality, but in fairness it isnt that much of a matter, especially when it all boils down to the gameplay Which is very good, and very hard. Im sure Megaman veterans will find this game a walk in the park. I didnt. I got stuck on the second stage for ages, before realising it is fairly easy (thanks to the lenient health) to just avoid the enemies and leg it to the end. That and the difficulty are what puts the gameplay factor down a little, but not enough to ruin it completely. As with the graphics, a 4 is what I believe fits the game. Audio is pretty much exactly the game as the graphics, in that they are all taken from Capcoms original games, but are implemented into this version pretty much flawlessly. I cannot say much more than that. One of the best parts of this is the obviousness that Mixahman has poured effort into it. Nothing feels unfinished. Apart from a couple of issues with the in-game text (grammatical / punctuation errors), this game is as professional as game making gets. Im sure that if Mixahman removed this from the Internet and re-uploaded it with a price tag, hed make a bomb. Put simply, the game is great, moreso for Megaman fans. Its not my cup of tea personally, but that doesnt mean I cannot see this game is fantastic. Download it, and have fun.
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Review
The Demon Within
Created By: KingDiz Entertainment
Reviewed By: NAL Game Maker is capable of doing great things, but unfortunately too few people are willing to dip their toe into the genre that is the RPG. The main reason for this is they require numerous variables to handle such things as HP, mana, leveling up and suchlike. Luckily for The Demon Within, KingDiz has this nailed. The Demon Within is very polished, and the variable system is brilliant. Killing enemies brings up your level, and when you level up, you can pick a magic upgrade or a health upgrade. Fair enough, nothing spectacular. Collecting such items as scripts will regenerate lost health/mana (when the player decides to use them), and books will increase the maximum you can have. Enemies are also fairly well made; warriors patrol the area, following you if they see you, ghosts appear out of nowhere to launch an attack, and suchlike. Its also nice to see they face the direction theyre moving (well, a selection of up, down, left or right). There is a downfall to them though their attacks are boring. Warriors do not swing their swords when attacking, they simply hold them out, no movement. Gameplay is generally OK, but gets repetitive. It is mostly just wandering around, hitting Ctrl to swing your sword, and sometimes using Space or Shift to use magic. Some enemies are immune to certain attacks, so you have to learn what to use and what not to. Generally, your sword is the way to go free to use, a fair range, and provided you time its swings right, it wont let you down. Graphics were the up-point in the game. Menus are really nice to look at, and in-game graphics are consistent. Blood is not overdone or underdone, damage numbers are not intrusive, and you can in an instant recognise what everything is. The heads-up display is in style with the game, gives you a LOT of information clearly, and is rarely obtrusive (it got in the way a couple of times when the path I was taking was at the top or bottom of the view, and it occasionally made it unclear as to whether the path ahead was a dead end or not). Sound is nice, if not very varied. Both SFX and music fit well with the game. The storyline was OK. It didnt keep me riveted though, I only wanted to play on to kill some more enemies and acquire level-ups. There are a couple of annoyances I found in the game. When I first levelled up, I got the box asking whether I wanted to level up magic or health. While I was deciding, another enemy had appeared, and was attacking my character. I couldnt retaliate until Id chosen my upgrade. If Im going to nitpick, the rocks in the cave were not traversible. I simply walked into them helplessly, often with an enemy after me. Also, if youre walking diagonally your character does not, he retains an up/down/left/right stance. My only other niggle was the fact the game forces your resolution lower. Otherwise, this is a good, if not remarkable, game. It doesnt break any new ground, but it does everything thats been done before well, and with style. One of the better Game Maker RPGs out there.
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Review
Pure Action CTF
Created By: dmitko
Reviewed By: gmjab Pure Action CTF may not have the flashiest name around and it doesn't have the most flashiest graphics or gamplay. It is infact a pretty standard game that you would find on the GMC and on YoYo Games. As said above PACTF doesn't have flashy graphics. Its graphics are of low quality, however because of this you can expect it to run at a good frame rate. The game has just standard walls, buildings and trees with a low quality texture. There were some things that I did notice. When shooting the screen shakes and the aim cursor gets larger. The game also has some nice lighting on the guns and a light flashes underneath you when you shoot. There was also some dust and dirt effects when the bullet hit the ground. The sound is alright in this game. Some of the sound effects were really good and some weren't. I didn't like the one song that came with the game as I didn't think it suited it. The game runs without lag, however, contains a few bugs. The movement of the player could do with a touch up as I find running is almost as slow as walking. The animation of running needs improvement as the AI look stiff. The game has a few different guns that can be used, however it would be much better if you could have reload packs on the map. The AI of the enemies isn't very smart and just seems to use a simple procedure: seek and destroy. The game would be much better if the maps were larger and if the game had more objects the hide behind. The same goes for the AI: it needs to be much smarter then it currently is. One thing I didn't like was that I have to shoot many times at the AI to kill them. Besides these improvements the game functions well and it's good to see that it's not an edit of Mark Overmars FPS example. PACTF has a lot of improvements that can be made. At the moment PACTF is an average game with nothing special popping out at you. The creator has put a decent effort into the game.
You can get the source of this game for only $5 for a limited time only. See page 2 for more details.
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Money Giveaway
By Gamez93
This is a GM Tech Magazine first; we are giving away money as part of our new Giveaway section. Since this is the first one, we are hoping that things will run smoothly, here is some information on the first GM Tech Magazine Money Giveaway. You can win $5 USD, if you can come up with a slogan for GM Tech Magazine, the slogan will be used on ad pieces and in many other places to help get people talking about the magazine. The contest will run from now, until January 25th 2008. Introduction GM Technology Magazine is holding Giveaways, where we will give away money, or other prizes, the contests are done from time to time. . The Challenge To come up with a slogan for GM Technology Magazine, it has been without a proper slogan since the start, and now is your chance to change all that, by spending a few minutes to think of a slogan and enter it. Prizes $5 sent to the winner via PayPal, that small amount can go towards something big. How it All Works You are allowed an max of 5 entries, if you submit anymore, they will be counted as void. This contest will end on January 25th 2008, however GM Tech can change that date. Slogans must be original. GM Tech has the right to end this contest if they wish to do so. The winner will be announced in the next issue of GM Tech Magazine. You can enter the contest and see the full Terms & Conditions by visiting the contest page .
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Comic
By Bob - 11500K
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Take A Look
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Closing
Well, it's all over now. Issue 10 is finished and we will be back with our next issue soon. We hope you found this issue to be a good read. Remember, if you learnt something new from one of our issues, send us a letter. We enjoy listening to any experiences people have had with GM or with this magazine. Thank you for reading and look out for issue 11 in 2008. Next Issue - Interview with REZ - Building a basic website - Building a level editor - Resources - And much more... Feedback Good or bad, we value your feedback. Your feedback lets us know how we should improve to satisfy all the Game Maker users. Your feedback can be about (although not limited to) articles, reviews, gm tips or the magazine in general. You can leave feedback in either our GMC topic or on our forum. Submit to us Yes, we at GM TECH will take almost any submission for a chance of it being published in the next issue. To submit to the magazine, simply go to our forum and submit in the submit section, registration is required and you will get a fast reply by one of our friendly staff. We only ask that you submit content that you have permission to. Do not submit things that are not your own unless you have permission of the owner and do not submit illegal content. At GMTECH we take submissions seriously and we will do what it takes to keep our forum clean and friendly. Freelance writing Some of you don't have time to join the GM TECH team, however you may have great writing skills, and if that is the case, then we welcome you to write articles freelance (where you work independently and on temporary contracts) - so you can write articles when you want, and have no deadlines. If you like the idea of being a freelance writer, check out more information here . Creative Commons The Game Maker Technology Magazine is licensed under Creative Commons license. This means you are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work. This work is for NonCommercial use only. You are NOT allowed to alter, modify or build upon the work contained in the magazine.
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