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GameMaker

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This article is about the game development tool for Microsoft Windows. For the television show, see Game Makers.

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Game Maker
Developer(s)YoYo Games
Initial releaseNovember 15, 1999
Written inDelphi
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
Available inEnglish
TypeGame development / Program development
LicenseProprietary
WebsiteYoYo Games

Game Maker is a proprietary software application written by Mark Overmars in the Delphi programming language. Overmars released the first public version on November 15, 1999. It is currently at version 7.

Originally, Game Maker was named Animo as a graphics creation tool, and eventually was programmed into an Easy Development Tool for programming specifically for inexperienced programmers.

Game Maker's primary development interface uses a drag-and-drop system, allowing users unfamiliar with traditional programming to intuitively create games by visually organizing icons on the screen. Game Maker comes with a set of standard action libraries, covering such things as movement, basic drawing, and simple control structures. To extend the drag-and-drop functionality of Game Maker, users can use custom-built action libraries to add new actions (drag-and-drop command icons) to their games. These can be created (generally by more advanced users) using the official special library builder tool.

This program is designed to allow its users to easily develop computer games without having to learn a complex programming language such as C++ or Java. For experienced users, Game Maker contains a built-in scripting programming language called the Game Maker Language (GML), allowing the user to further customize their game and expand features. Games can be distributed under any license subject to the terms of Game Maker's EULA, in non-editable executable .exe files or as .gmk (Version 7.x), .gm6 (Version 6.x), .gmd (Version 5.x and 4.x), and .gmf (Version 3 and below) source files. Users of Game Maker are allowed to distribute and even sell their creations as long as they comply with the terms of the Game Maker EULA, which prohibits a number of illicit programs such as those which involve unauthorized use of copyrighted material or those which are unlawful in general.

Game Maker is becoming more widely known and used. It has attracted a substantial number of users; mainly because of the program's accessibility to beginners while still allowing complex tasks to be undertaken by more advanced users. It is not as narrow in game creation as some other programs, as it allows the creation of many types of games, including platform games, first-person shooters, third-person shooters, massively multiplayer online games and construction and management simulation games. It is also possible to create standard applications with Game Maker.

Features

As of November 2007, Game Maker is at version 7, released on February 28. It still incorporates the use of Direct3D, allowing the usage of limited 3D graphics, and adds limited support for simple 3D models. Converters make it possible to use more popular 3D formats such as .3ds, and .obj for use in a 3D project. It also supports the ability to create certain particle effects such as rain, snow, and clouds easily.

Game Maker is available in an unregistered version ('Lite') free of charge and a registered version ('Pro'). The registered version, which costs €15, $20, or £10, extends the features available in the program, such as the ability to incorporate DLLs, take advantage of Direct3D, use particles, and utilize advanced drawing functions. The free version displays a small Game Maker advertisement during the loading of the game, while the registered version removes the advertisement, giving a more professional feel to the finished game.

The new website from which Game Maker can be downloaded is www.YoYoGames.com. Game Maker's runner program has improved over the years and gained wider functionality, particularly in the graphics area, allowing for easy alpha adjustments and blending settings for sprites and other shapes. Starting with version 6, Game Maker has adapted to the use of DirectX 8, making some of these effects possible, though it has led to an increase in the minimum system requirements.

Game Maker itself is not limited to the functions and abilities included in the Game Maker Language. Game Maker games can load and utilize DLLs for additional functionality. The community has developed a variety of DLLs to extend Game Maker with things like socket support and MySQL connectivity. As of version 7, the new extension mechanism allows users to easily include DLLs, GML scripts and action libraries in neat, pre-built extension packages.

There are many tools for Game Maker including the Library Maker, a program to create libraries of drag-and-drop functions, and the Extension Maker, which allows for the creation of scripts and functions in GML. Several resource packs can be downloaded on the website. The older versions are also available for download.

Sprite editor

Game Maker has its own sprite editor which can be used to make and edit sprites for games without using an external program. The basic version of the sprite editor includes a pencil tool, a line tool, a circle tool, a rectangle tool, a free-form line tool, a rounded-rectangle tool, true color format, and custom color palette creation. The advanced form includes a gradient-fill tool and a clear image tool. At the startup screen, special effects can be added to images. Such effects include: adding alpha, blurring the image, rotation, resizing of the canvas, stretching, and skewing. Animation tools include fading/colorizing, rotating and resizing, translation effects, merging images, and overlaying animated images. Advanced users can also use some of the built-in runtime drawing functions as an alternative to colorizing or scaling through the sprite editor. Sprites can also be dynamically edited at runtime using the built in drawing functions.

File:Sprite editor.jpg
The Game Maker Sprite Editor

Game Maker Language

Main article: Game Maker Language

The Game Maker Language (often abbreviated to GML) is a scripting language within Game Maker which allows for users to further enhance and control the design of their game through conventional programming as opposed to the drag-and-drop system. The syntax of GML borrows aspects from other languages such as C, C++, and Pascal. This has led to some confusion and has caused some to believe that such languages can be used directly in Game Maker.

Originally, GML was designed to supplement the drag-and-drop interface, allowing more advanced users to add additional functionality to their games or programs. Newer versions of Game Maker actually use GML as their base, with all of the drag-and-drop functions coming as pre-written GML scripts.

GML is an interpreted programming language instead of a compiled language. When Game Maker creates a stand alone game, all GML (including drag and drop functions) is packed into the game executable. Every time the generated program is executed, an included interpreter carries out the commands indicated by the GML code. Being an interpreted language, GML is generally slower than compiled languages such as C++.

GML also includes support for loading and using DLLs. This allows functions and routines to be written in other programming languages such as C++, Delphi, Pascal and others.

YoYo Games

On January 26, 2007, Mark Overmars announced that he would be working with a company in the UK named YoYo Games.[1] The company, headed by CEO Sandy Duncan (ex Vice President of Xbox Europe),[2] was founded to support the future development of Game Maker, and to develop a community for developers and casual games players. The motive behind the cooperation is that it would bring faster and better development to Game Maker, as well as provide a better website for its users. The website is a community in which users can upload, share, and play their created games and those made by others while having the ability to review and discuss these games, and games in development on the website. It will also provide a much extended help system and support for the sharing of resources. YoYo Games is recreating the GMC (Game Maker Community) and YoYo Games has published Game Maker 7. As of April 28, 2007, the YoYo Games Web site has been officially released to the public (in beta).[3]

YoYo Games provide a free hosting service for any Game Maker games - by early January, 2008, over 11,000 user generated games had been uploaded. The website also has an instant play feature so people can play games online, as well as offering downloads on all content.

On January 10th, 2008, YoYo Games concluded its first Game Maker competition [4], awarding $1750 in prizes to the three winning developers, and has promised similar contests in the near future. On 1st February, 2008, YoYoGames announced the second competition, based on the theme of 'Ancient Civilizations' with total prize money of $1750.

System requirements

The following specifications reflect the system requirements of Game Maker's exported executable files. The Game Maker tool has unspecified, but significantly lower requirements.[5]

System Requirements for Game Maker 7.x:

System Requirements for Game Maker 6.x:

  • Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista (if you use a patch)
  • DirectX 8 or later
  • DirectX 8 compatible graphics card with at least 16MB of video memory (32MB or more recommended)
  • Pentium or equivalent processor
  • DirectX 8 compatible sound card
  • 64 MB of memory or greater (noted only in official Game Maker help file documentation)
  • 800x600 (or greater) screen resolution with 16-bit or 32-bit colors

System Requirements for Game Maker 5.x:

Note: Versions 6.x and the .exe files from those versions do not work with the Microsoft Windows Vista Operating System, due to an incompatible compression implementation in its creation of executable files. Version 7 of the program, however, works correctly with Vista, as well as most supported functions in versions 5.x and prior. As of June 24th, 2007, Mark Overmars made a program to convert .exe files created with version 6 to work on Windows Vista.[6]

Educational use

Game Maker was written by Mark Overmars, a professor of the University of Utrecht, partly as a teaching aid for his students. It is gaining recognition as a useful teaching tool in primary and secondary schools because of its easy entry and sophisticated scripting language.[citation needed]

Game Maker Community

The Game Maker Community (commonly abbreviated "GMC" by its users) is an online forum with over 60,000 members, made for the discussion of Game Maker. The current forum was created by Mark Overmars on September 18,2003, merely a month after the first release and is now a subdomain of the official YoYo Games website. The forum currently has eight administrators and twenty-one moderators.

On March 20, 2008, a major upgrade went live on the GMC forum. The new server has 8GB of RAM, a quad core processor, more hard drive space and 10 terabytes a month bandwidth. It also got a re-skin to look more like the new YoYo games site and an update to the latest Invision Power Board software, version 2.3.4. The upgrade did not cause any loss of posts on the forum.[who?]

Lite and Pro editions

When downloading the software, one is only able to download the Lite Edition. In the Lite Edition of the software, fewer functions are available and some demo games, such as Asteroids, do not work as they use functions that are only available in the Pro Edition of the software. The Lite Edition is totally free but is not suitable for commercial and professional game-designing as it displays the logo of the Game Maker company and gives a limited availability to all the functions written on the Game Maker software. The Lite Edition of the software lacks some functions, e.g. playing music from a CD in the CD drive, extended graphic options such as transforming the image to a new size/shape, and creating a particle system which gives the option to create some effects such as rain, explosions, fireworks, sparks, etc.

To upgrade one's edition of the software from Lite to Pro, one must pay either $20 USD or €15 Euro. To get to the form that gives the option to upgrade one must open the software and click on "Purchase New" instead of "Cancel", the latter button opening the Lite edition of the software, the former opening a form from which one purchases their copy of the Pro license. The payment can be paid through PayPal or credit/debit card. When purchasing a license, one enters their personal details (e.g. name, address). An important detail mandatory for the upgrading of the software from Lite to Pro is the entering of the email, to which the details of the license. After purchasing, one must enter an Activation Code sent to their email account or the Purchase Reference from the "Reactivate existing license" button and then input the email (License holder). One license works on three computers, but an extra $9.95 can be paid to get a Backup CD which is sent to your address by mail and from the CD the Pro Edition is available on any computer with the CD in the drive. Currently, it is possible to get a new license code, by inputting your old version 6 registration code to a form on the YoYo Games web page. The link to the upgrade site is here: YoYo Games Upgrade Site

Other extension/extension packages

Game Maker supports the use of both specially programmed DLL's and specialized Game Maker extension files created with a separate editor which can contain DLL's, Libraries, GML scripts and any other desired resource. This allows users of Game Maker to add new features and functions to the program using GML or a compiled language such as C++ or Delphi. Several websites have been created since the addition of extensions in version 7.0 of the program to let users upload and share their extensions including a dedicated section of the GMC and also a section of YoYo Games.

Macintosh version

Sandy Duncan recently announced a port of Game Maker for Mac OS X. A beta version should have been running by the end of March 2008, was delayed until sometime in late April, but has still not been announced.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Public announcement from Mark Overmars, Game Maker Community
  2. ^ YoYo Games on CNNMoney.com
  3. ^ GMC post by Mark Overmars officially announcing the renewed opening of the YoYo Games website
  4. ^ YoYo Games Winter Competition on the YoYo Games website
  5. ^ The official Game Maker documentation
  6. ^ The topic where Mark Overmars released the converter
  7. ^ Sandy Duncan. "News Update". YoYoGames Glog. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Programming:Game Maker
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