The main goal for this week is to learn how to use Game Maker by working tutorials and tweaking those games a bit to explore Game Maker's capabilities.
Be sure to turn in the assignment due today.
The main goal for today is to get Game Maker running on the computer you will use all month and then to have some fun learning how to use it. The tutorials we will use today are available from YoYo Games | Tutorials. Each of the links is for a Zip archive. Download it to your computer and then expand it. The tutorial is in a PDF file. Some of the tutorials have a series of Game Maker files to open so you don't have to do all the steps. Make sure you understand what the steps were! The goal of these tutorials is not to produce a game, but to show how to produce a game. You'll need to use many of the same steps and techniques to build your game.
For the two tutorials today, work with a partner. One approach is to download the tutorial files to both computers, pull up the tutorial documentation on one computer and then use Game Maker work on the other.
- Tutorial: Your First Game (zip file, 850 KB) This tutorial is meant for people that have problems getting started with Game Maker. In very precise steps it helps you create your first game. Beginner.
When you have completed the game, implement it on the other computer, referring to the tutorial as little as possible.
- Tutorial: Creating a Scrolling Shooter (zip file, 1.8 MB) This extensive tutorial shows you how to create a scrolling shooter. It also treats a number of aspects of Game Maker like the use of variables, views, and time lines. Beginner.
This game is quite complex and has 7 example files to support it. You should work each of the steps yourself. For example, do not start this tutorial with the file 1945_1.gmk. Instead, start a new project, say 1945.gmk, and do the steps described by the tutorial. If you get stuck, look at 1945_1.gmk. This tutorial takes a bit of time to get through, but it covers a lot of useful features that you need to know how to use. Keep in mind that your goal is not to complete a tutorial, but to learn everything it covers. I'll be happy if today you can complete the first pat of the tutorial in which a plane flies over a sea—up to the section Enemy and weapon.
After you have completed this first part of the tutorial, you and your partner should discuss what you need to do to develop a revised Catch the Clown game that uses the arrow keys to move a character representing the player around instead of the mouse. The character should be able to move a little faster than the clown and the clown should behave a little more predictably—that is, take a little more time between direction changes. You should develop your own character to chase the clown.
