Welcome to GameMaker Essentials. This book will teach you how to use GameMaker: Studio to create your very own games from start to finish. You will learn the very basics, such as how to use the GameMaker: Studio interface, as well as the more advanced features such as programming, monetizing your game, and finally exporting your game for publishing.
If you have ever wanted to create your own games for operating systems, such as Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, and more, then this book is the perfect place to start.
Chapter 1, Introducing GameMaker, introduces GameMaker: Studio by telling us exactly what it is and the basic idea behind it. The chapter also looks into some of GameMaker's history as well as showing how to install it onto your computer.
Chapter 2, Getting Started, walks you through the GameMaker: Studio interface, teaching you what each button does and introducing you to some of the core aspects of the interface.
Chapter 3, Resource Management, teaches you how to manage resources. In this chapter, you will learn what each resource is and also the best practices in organizing resources.
Chapter 4, Objects, introduces you to one of the core resources in GameMaker, objects. You will learn about the object interface and also how they function.
Chapter 5, The GameMaker Language, teaches you how to program using GameMaker's very own programming language. By the end of this chapter, you will be ready to program your own game.
Chapter 6, Sprites, takes a detailed look at the sprite resource in GameMaker. You will learn how to create sprites, edit sprites, the good sizing techniques, and finally, how to change the way sprites act through programming.
Chapter 7, Making a Game, walks you through the process of making your very own game using GameMaker Language (GML). You will learn more about rooms, objects, programming, and common practices in this chapter.
Chapter 8, Debugging, teaches you about debugging in GameMaker. You will learn how to read an error report, how to draw information to the screen, how to enable simple toggles, and finally, how to use the GameMaker debugger.
Chapter 9, Game Settings and Exporting, covers the settings available for each game in GameMaker. You will also learn how to implement ads, analytics, how to export your game, and also how to publish your final game.
For this book, you will need:
An active Internet connection
GameMaker: Studio (free version or higher)
If you are an experienced developer or a beginner who wants to enter the rich world and experience of GameMaker: Studio, then this book is ideal for you.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "To do this, right-click on any branch and choose Create Group."
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