In the previous section, backgrounds were implemented to help flesh out the environment; however, one important aspect of the game still appears to be using very primitive art: the platforms. One quick solution for this could be to replace the sprite resources used by the platforms, but because the platforms are being scaled to fulfill a variety of sizes, the sprites would be stretched, appearing extremely jagged or pixelated. To remedy this issue, tiles, which are a component in GameMaker: Studio just as backgrounds are, will be utilized.

Creating tiles

A set of tiles can be created in the Background Properties dialog window. Upon checking the Use as a tile set checkbox, additional parameters as well as a grid over the currently displayed background will appear, as shown in the following screenshot:

The parameters are used to define the tiles as follows:

• tile width: This parameter gives the horizontal size of the tile

• tile height: This parameter gives the vertical size of the...