MAKE YOUR FIRST A-MAZE-ING GAME IN GAME MAKER 7

MAKE YOUR FIRST A-MAZE-ING GAME IN GAME MAKER 7 In this tutorial, you will learn how to create your first game in Game Maker. The game you will create will be a simple maze game. The object of the game will be for the player to move through the maze to reach the end point. In this example, the player is a Princess and the end point is the Castle. The maze walls are made up of hedges. This game is available for download in the Game Maker Tutorials section of the Games in Learning website at www.gamesinlearning.com. Creating the rooms for your game We are going to start by setting up the rooms in the game. A room is like a level or scene in a game. We will be adding three rooms. These will be the: Title Room - which we will name rm_title Maze Room - which we will name rm_maze Game Over Room - which we will name rm_gameover To create each room we follow this process. 1. Select the Create a Room button on the toolbar. 2. In the Room Properties panel that appears, select the settings tab and name the room. Use the names specified above as a guide to what you will call your rooms. 3. In the Caption for the room cell, type in a caption for your game. This will appear at the top of the game 4. Select the green tick in the top left hand corner to save your room. Repeat this process until you have set up three rooms. These will appear in the rooms folder in the Resource Explore window at the left of the screen. Your rooms folder should look like the one shown here on the right. Creating the sprites for your game When you want to create a character or object for your game, you need to first create it as a sprite and then make it an object. Think of a sprite as the visible part of an object. You will understand this better as you work through the next steps. We will need to set up three sprites for the game. In my game, these will be the following. You may however wish to have a different context for your game. Just say your player will be represented by a ghost rather than a princess, simply change the name from spr_princess to spr_ghost and so on. The Princess sprite - which we will name spr_princess The Hedge sprite - which we will name spr_hedge The Castle sprite - which we will name spr_castle To create each sprite, follow this process: 1. Select the Create a Sprite button on the toolbar. Page 1 of 9

2. In the Sprite Properties panel that appears, enter the name of your sprite. 3. Ensure that there is a tick in the box next to the text Precise collision checking. 4. Select Edit Sprite to draw and edit your sprite. Note that sprites can also be loaded into Game Maker. These can be images created in other graphics applications or sprites you have used in games you have previously developed. You can also find resource kits of sprites on the web that you can download and use in your game. 5. Double click on the green square that appears. This will take you into the image editor where you can draw your sprite. Before you start to draw your sprite in the Image Editor, here are a few tips: Tip #1 The size of your canvas where you will draw your sprite is set by default to 32px x 32px. This is a good size for tiles and objects within the game screen which is currently set at 640px x 480px. However, you may want to create sprites for characters and objects with different sizes. To change the canvas size so you have space to draw bigger objects and characters, select Transform from the menu and then choose Resize Canvas. Tip #2 The checkbox labeled Transparent (shown above) indicates whether the rectangular background of the sprite image should be considered as being transparent. Most sprites are transparent. The background is determined by the colour of the leftmost bottommost pixel of the image. So make sure that no pixel of the actual image has this colour. Tip #3 It s a good idea to use the Zoom In and Zoom Out tools when drawing and editing your sprite. By doing so, it will be easier to see what you are doing and you ll be able to create sprites with more detail. Tip #4 You can make your sprite an animation by adding additional images. We won t be covering animation in this tutorial, but you can access the Help menu to learn how to do this. 6. In the image editor design your sprite. My princess sprite is shown here. Note that the canvas size is still 32px x 32px. I have just zoomed in to be able to see what I was doing. 7. Once you are happy with your sprite, select the green tick button in the top left hand corner. This will take you into the Sprite Editor panel, select the green tick again to return to the Sprite Properties panel. Once there, select the OK button at the bottom. Repeat the process outlined in steps 1 7 until you have set up all three sprites for your game. Note that the sprite you will use for the wall of your maze will need to be the same size 32px x 32px. You will place multiple copies of this sprite / object when you make the walls of your maze in a later step. When you have finished designing the sprites you need for your game, the Sprites Folder in the Resource Manager window should look like the one shown here. Page 2 of 9

Creating the Objects for your game You have just created the sprites for the game. A sprite is an image that can be used to represent an object. In this next sequence of steps, you will set up the objects for the game. Before you start working through the steps below, learn about objects and how they work in Game Maker by reading the box to the right. To create the object for your main character in the game, follow these steps. 1. Select the Create an Object button on the toolbar. 2. In the Object Properties panel that appears enter the name for your object. The name I have entered is obj_princess, however yours could be something like obj_ghost, depending on what your main character is. Note that the use of the prefixes obj, spr and rm are just designed to help us identify what type of item we are dealing with. When creating programs or games, it is common practice to use conventions like this. ABOUT OBJECTS Objects are placed in rooms within your game. They are the main features of your game and can include game characters, inventory items, walls and moving objects. When you create and edit an object, you can select if it should be visible or invisible, moving or static or solid or not solid. Objects can be set up to move and react to input from the player and other objects. Things that happen to objects are called events. Every time you place an object in your game, you place an instance of that object. For example, if you create an object called tree and then place multiple copies in your room to create a forest, each copy of the tree is an instance. 3. Select the sprite that will represent your object by clicking on the Sprite Selector button and choosing the sprite from the drop down menu that appears (shown here). 4. Click on the box next to the word Solid to make your object solid. 5. Select the OK button at the bottom of the panel. To create the object that you will repeat for the wall of the maze, follow these steps. 1. Select the Create an Object button on the toolbar. 2. In the Object Properties panel that appears enter the name for your object. The name I have entered is obj_hedge. 3. Select the sprite that will represent your object by clicking on the Sprite Selector button and choosing the sprite from the drop down menu that appears (shown here). 4. Click on the box next to the word Solid to make your object solid. 5. Select the OK button at the bottom of the panel. To create the object that you will use for the end point in your maze, follow the same steps. In my game, this object is obj_castle. Once you have set up all three of your objects, the Objects folder in the Resource Manager window should look like this. Page 3 of 9

Putting your objects in the rooms We are now going to place the objects you have created in the room containing the maze. steps to do this. Follow these 1. Double-Click on the rm_maze room in the Rooms folder in the Resource Manager. 2. In the Room Properties panel that appears, select the Background tab and then click on the box containing the colour to select the colour you would like for your background. Note that you can use images for your background, however in this tutorial we are only using a solid background colour. 3. Now set the values of the SnapX and SnapY cells to 32. 4. We are now ready to place our objects in the room. To do this, click on the Objects tab in the Room Properties panel. One of your objects will be displayed in the left section of the panel. To select a different object, simply click on this object and a menu will appear which will let you switch between objects. 5. Prior to adding objects into the room, select the maximise button to maximize the window so you can see the entire area of the room. 6. Now select the object you want to add and click on the room to add the object. If you put the object in the wrong spot, simply right click on it to remove it from the room. To add multiple copies of an object to the room quickly, simply hold down shift whilst clicking and dragging. This is the most efficient way of adding the walls of the maze. Once you have added the objects to your maze room, you should have something like the image to the right. Adding text to a Room We are now going to add some text to the other rooms in our game - the Title room and the Game Over room. Adding text in Game Maker requires a few steps. These are outlined below. 1. Now when you add text to your game in Game Maker, by default the font is set to Arial and the size is 12pts. You will most likely want to use a larger and more interesting font for the text in your Title and Game Over rooms. To do this, we need to add a font. To do this, select the Create a Font button from the toolbar at the top. 2. In the font panel that appears, select the font you would like to use for your text, give this font a name such as fnt_main and increase the size of the font. Select the OK button at the bottom. On a piece of paper, make a note of the font and size you selected as you will need this info in a later step. Note that this font will now appear in the Resource Manager panel in the fonts folder. This means it will be loaded into your game and can be used when creating the sprites for your text in your next step. Page 4 of 9

3. Create a new sprite by selecting the Sprite button (shown here). 4. Name this Sprite spr_titletext 5. Select Edit Sprite to enter the Sprite Editor. Double click on the green box to enter the Image Editing Panel. 6. You won t fit much text in the default image size of 32px x 32px, so select Transform > Resize Canvas. In the Resize Panel that appears (shown to the right), change the width to 300 px and the height to 100 px. You will need to uncheck the Keep aspect ratio box to do this. Select OK. 7. Select the Text menu from the top menu bar and select Font. Choose the font and font size you set up in the previous step. Note that you can select any font on your system, but that they only work in your final game if you have set them up as a font using the Create a Font tool. 8. Select the Draw Text button from the toolbar at the left of the Image Editing Panel. 9. Enter your text in the Drawing a Text box that appears. Select OK. 10. Move your mouse over the text you have added and drag the text into the position you want it to be in. 11. When you are happy with the text, select the green tick in the Image Editing panel. Then select the green tick again in the Sprite Editor panel. Your text is now in a sprite that can be added to an object to display in the Title Room. 12. Select the Create an Object button to create the object for the title text. Name this object obj_titletext and select the sprite you just made containing the text. Select OK from the bottom. 13. Double click on the room name rm_title to open the Title Room. 14. Select the Background tab and then select a background colour for this room. 15. Select the Objects panel and select the title text object obj_titletext. Add this to the stage. You may wish to add some other objects to the room to enhance the look. At this stage, you have added some text to only the Title Room in your game. You should now take some time to add some text to the Game Over room. You may also want to add additional text to the Title room. To do this, work through the same steps. Remember to create any fonts you need, make the sprite for each bit of text, create each object and then add the text objects to the room. It seems like a lengthy process, but once you have been using Game Maker for a while, it doesn t seem as a bad. Once you ve added all your text to the game, move onto the next page of this tutorial. Page 5 of 9

Adding a Start Button to your game We have nearly set up all of the elements of our game. However, at this stage, if we played the game, you would only be able to see the Title room. You would be stuck on this page as we haven t added a button for the user to click to move onto the main game area, the room named rm_maze. We need to create a start button for your game. To do this, Create a Sprite and name it spr_start. Then select the Edit Sprite option and go into the Image Editing panel and draw what you want your button to look like. You will then need to Create an Object and set up the object for the start button. I named this object obj_start. Once you have done this, add the object to your Title Room. Your game should now look something like this. Adding the Events and Associated Actions to your game At present, the rooms in your game contain no interactivity. Even though we have added our objects, nothing happens when you play the game. You can see this for yourself by running the game. To do this, select the run button in the main toolbar. Once you have tested the game, click on the red cross in the corner to close the game window. In Game Maker, the main way that you add interactivity, is by adding events and actions to the objects you create. The steps below and on the following page, will lead you through the steps you need to follow to make your game playable. Whilst working through these steps, you are encouraged to click on the different tabs in the Object Properties panel. You should then roll your mouse over the different actions available to begin to become familiar with the types of actions that you can add to your game. Let s get started adding the events and actions. To begin with, we are going to add and event and action to the object containing the Start Button. 1. Double click on obj_start in the Resource Manager. 2. Select the Add Event button to see the Event Selector menu (shown here). 3. From this menu, select Mouse > Left Button. This will mean that the action we set in the next step will occur when the player places their mouse over the Start button object and presses the left mouse button. 4. We are now going to add an action that will take the player to the next room when they click on the button. To do this, select the main 1 tab from the collection of tabs on the right hand side of the Object Properties panel (as circled). 5. Click on the Next Room button (shown here) and drag it into the Actions section of the panel. Test your game by clicking the Run button. You should now be able to click on the start button and move to the maze room. If not, check the order of your rooms in the Resource Manager and reorder if needed. Page 6 of 9

Adding Events and Actions to the Main Character It s now time to add the main interactivity to the game. To do this we are going to add five events and associated actions to the character object. 1. Double click on your main character object from the Resource Manager window e.g. obj_princess. 2. Select Add Event from the Object Properties panel that appears. Then choose Keyboard and <Left>. This will mean that the action that we set up in the next step will work when the player presses the left arrow key on the keyboard. 3. Make sure the move tab is selected and click and drag the Move Fixed action into the Actions Panel. 4. In the Move Fixed properties panel that appears, click on the left arrow to make it red. This will make the object move left. Set the Speed to 3 and select OK. You have now set up that your character will move left when the player presses the left arrow on the keyboard. You will now need to add the additional events in to make the character move right, up and down when the other arrows are pressed. To do this, work through steps 2-4 again for each other direction. Make sure you select the correct arrow to match the keyboard key event you set up. If you test your game now, you ll see that you can make your character move by pressing the different arrow keys. The problem is that your character walks over the top of the walls of your maze. We need to add a Collision Event and a Move Fixed Action to prevent this from happening. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Select the character object again (obj_princess) and in the Object Properties Panel, select the Add Event button. 2. Select the Collision Event and from the drop down menu that appears, select the obj_hedge object or the name of the object you have created for your walls. 3. Select the Move Fixed action again and drag the action into the Actions panel. In the Move Fixed panel, select the Stop button in the centre of the arrows. Leave the Speed at 0. Test your game, you will now be able to move your player around the maze. Page 7 of 9

Adding the Final Interaction The last action we need to add to our main character is the action that will take the player to the Game Over scene. To set this up, we will add one additional event and action to our main character object. 1. Double click on your main character object in the Resource Manager window (e.g. obj_princess). 2. Select Add Event and choose the Collision event. From the drop down menu, select the object you have created to be your end point. In my game, this is obj_castle. 3. You are going to add a Next Room action to this event. To do this, select the main1 tab from the collection of tabs on the right hand side. From the collection of actions in the main1 tab, select and drag in the Next Room action. Your panel should now look like the one to the right. Adding the Final Object and Interaction Test your game now and see what you think. You should be able to click on the Start button in the Title Room (rm_title) and then move your character around the maze in the Maze Room (rm_maze). When your character reaches the castle or the end point of the maze, you should be taken to the Game Over Room (rm_gameover). Have you worked out what s missing? It s a button to allow the player to start again. After all, it s such a great game, they ll most likely want to. Ok, well I guess it s not going to win any Game Development Awards, but it is your first game, so you should make it fully functional. So it s time to add the Start Again or Replay button. You will need to design the sprite for this button, create the object for the button and then add the correct event and action. I m not going to show you how to do this, because you should know what to do by now. However, I will give you a hint, there is another action in the main1 tab that allows you to specify which room the player is taken to. It is called the Different Room action. When you drag this into the panel, you ll be able to choose the room you want the player to be taken to. Adding some Background Music to your game Your game is now playable, but it could be enhanced with the use of some sound. In the steps below, you will learn how to add sound to your game. 1. Select the Create a Sound button from the main toolbar. 2. In the panel that opens give your sound a name e.g. snd_bgmusic and then select Load Sound. Select a sound file from your computer. Game Maker can use wav, midi and MP3 sound files. Note that you can get a large number of free sound files off the web. A good place to get sound files from is the loops section of the Flashkit site at www.flashkit.com. 3. In the Kind options, select Background Music. Note that you can also select Normal Sound for sounds you want to play on events e.g. when the Princess runs into the Hedge. Page 8 of 9

Even though you have created a sound for use in your game, it can t be heard in the game until you attach it to one of your objects. Complete the following steps to get it working. 1. Double click on your main character object (e.g. obj_princess) to open the Object Properties panel. 2. Select the Add Event option and select Create. The Create event launches the attached action at the time in which the object it is attached to appears in the game. In this case, we will be attaching the sound. This will play when the Maze Room is reached as this is the first point in the game where the Princess or main character appears. 3. Select the main1 tab and from the action collection, select the Play Sound button and drag it into the Actions area. 4. In the panel that comes up, select the button next to the Sound cell and select your sound from the drop down menu that appears. Test your game to hear the sound. Notice how it begins playing only when your main character appears. Saving and Publishing your Work Now you should have been saving your game whilst working through this tutorial. I didn t remind you because it s something you should regularly do regardless of the application you are working in. Saving your game It s now time to save your final game. To do this select File > Save. Give your file a name if you haven t done so already. This is the file that you can reopen in Game Maker when you want to edit or enhance your game. Publishing your game Your final step is to make your game a standalone application - a game that can be played on any PC, regardless of whether Game Maker is installed. To do this, select File > Create Executable. This will allow you to save your file in.exe format. To play your game from this file, simply open the.exe file in the location you have saved it. You will see that your game opens in it s own window. It is now ready to share with friends. You ve done it - You re now a Game Maker! If you ve got to this point you ve created your first game in Game Maker. This tutorial was designed to introduce you to making games in this application and to help you develop an understanding of the Game Maker basics. You should be able to take what you ve learnt and apply it in a different game context. Remember that one of the best ways to learn is to click around, roll over and explore the different events, actions and features in the program. If you re ready to take on some other tutorials, head to some of the following websites: Game Maker Tutorial Collection at the Games in Learning Project Website www.gamesinlearning.com Official Game Maker Tutorials http://www.yoyogames.com/make/tutorials Page 9 of 9