It’s Sunday again, and you know what that means, right? Another edition of ForTheLose.org’s “The Sunday Funnies.” Hard to believe that it’s been 10 weeks since volume 1, huh? Lets see, just curious, but when will the 50th volume be…
*does some math*
Wow, June 14th, 2009. Coolness. Well, until then, here’s this weeks funny videos.
I bet many of you out there have one time or another wanted to make your own computer games, no? Maybe you got flash in the hopes that you’d pick up Actionscript like that and boom, your game will magically fall into place and be the best game ever.
Did that ever happen?
No.
See, to learn Actionscript, it takes alot of hard work, trial and error, and overall… practice. Most of you sadly gave up on day one. Some of you may have actually gotten somewhere with Actionscript, maybe you made a ball that can go left and right with the arrow keys, but then you realized how difficult it was to accomplish just that, nevermind an entire game, and then gave up.
Either way, I have new hope for all of you. Heck, even if you are a master Actionscripter you might want to take a read too. What if I told you about a program that is free to download and is just as powerful as Actionscript on a game-making level? What if I told you this program was noobie-friendly and even the person that downloaded the program 10 minutes ago can have a very basic semi-finished game engine? Would you be interested?
Heck yes you will be.
GameMaker is probably one of the most powerful tools built into such a small package ever. With such ease that new users can make their own platformer or maze game or whatever in just a few days , and yet such power that advanced users can make a massive online multiplayer game in a few weeks (months?), GameMaker will not dissapoint you. Here’s a quick breakdown.
The games you create in GameMaker all run on multiple objects. Everything in your game, the player, the enemies, the floors, the magic key, the coins, even the little lost doggie - they’re all objects. When you edit objects, you are faced with 1 decision - do you want to write GML (GameMaker Language) code (and enable more advanced features), or do you want to use the innovative drag-and-drop system (no code knowledge necessary)?
If you’re new, you’d most likely go with drag-and-drop, as you probably have no knowledge of GML. But unlike Actionscript, GML is not that hard to master at all.
Once you’ve made a game (or two), you should start playing around with GML. Not only does it save you alot of time and make your game perform better, but it enables your game to have more advanced features and be more “flexible” to suit your needs. For example, no way in hell are you making an online multiplayer game with just drag-and-drop. You’d need to get in advanced GML to do that. But like I said, GML has only a very few similarities to Actionscript, and is not as math-based. It really won’t be hard for you to pick up at all, definitely if you spend time at the GameMaker Forums.
The GameMaker Forums are a great place. If you ever run into a problem, just make a quick topic there. Within 30 minutes, usually, you’ll have an answer and your game will be kink-free (for the time being). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ran into a brick wall and the guys over at the forum saved me. (Usually because of a stupid error on my part.)
I would post a few of my games here, but I don’t have any. Well, that’s a lie. I do have access to two of them (one is unfinished). I will post them one day, I promise. They are .exe’s (GameMaker exports games in this format), but don’t worry, I wouldn’t put any malware or crap in there.
Want more info? Here you go.
GameMaker Homepage: http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker
GameMaker Forums: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/
Download GameMaker 7.0 (latest release): http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/try
Play some GameMaker-made games: http://www.yoyogames.com/browse
Yeah…
School.
Whoopee. It started for me today, for Rid it started about two weeks back, but since I’m all-important and crap, I decided to make a post about it.
Not a very lengthy post, no. But a post, nonetheless.
I guess it’s not all bad, being a senior my schedule is kinda cool. Get to leave early and arrive late when I can, lots of free periods, that kind of nonsense.
When are you guys going back, and more importantly, how excited are ya’?
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