9. Particle Man, Particle Man – Adding Polish to Your Game with Visual Effects and Particles | GameMaker Cookbook

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GameMaker Cookbook

By : Gardiner

5 (1)

GameMaker Cookbook

5 (1)

By: Gardiner

Overview of this book

GameMaker: Studio started off as a tool capable of creating simple games using a drag-and-drop interface. Since then, it has grown to become a powerful instrument to make release-ready games for PC, Mac, mobile devices, and even current-gen consoles. GameMaker is designed to allow its users to develop games without having to learn any of the complex programming languages such as C++ or Java. It also allows redistribution across multiple platforms. This book teaches you to harness GameMaker: Studio’s full potential and take your game development to new heights. It begins by covering the basics and lays a solid foundation for advanced GameMaker concepts. Moving on, it covers topics such as controls, physics, and advanced movement, employing a strategic approach to the learning curve. The book concludes by providing insights into complex concepts such as the GUI, menus, save system, lighting, particles, and VFX. By the end of the book, you will be able to design games using GameMaker: Studio and implement the same techniques in other games you intend to design.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Sections

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Game Plan – Creating Basic Gameplay

1. Game Plan – Creating Basic Gameplay

Introduction

Animating a sprite

Moving your player

Adding projectiles

Creating hazards

Programming basic enemies

Setting up player health and lives

Creating scoring mechanism

Creating win/lose scenarios

2. It's Under Control – Exploring Various Control Schemes

2. It's Under Control – Exploring Various Control Schemes

Introduction

Creating 2D movement

Adding a Run button

Making your character jump

Using a point-and-click interface

Following the cursor

Setting up a controller

Utilizing analogue joystick acceleration

Adding tap control

Using swipes

Moving characters or objects by tilting a device

3. Let's Move It – Advanced Movement and Layout

3. Let's Move It – Advanced Movement and Layout

Introduction

Dragging onscreen objects

Dragging objects on a grid

Moving a character on a grid

Setting a path

Creating enemy pathfinding

Controlling a character with a mouse and keyboard

4. Let's Get Physical – Using GameMaker's Physics System

4. Let's Get Physical – Using GameMaker's Physics System

Introduction

Creating objects that use physics

Alternating gravity

Applying force via magnets

Creating a moving platform

Making a rope

5. Now Hear This! – Music and Sound Effects

5. Now Hear This! – Music and Sound Effects

Introduction

Importing and playing background music

Implementing situational sound effects

Adding sound emitters and listeners

Adjusting the listener orientation

Replicating the Doppler effect with emitters

6. It's All GUI! - Creating Graphical User Interface and Menus

6. It's All GUI! - Creating Graphical User Interface and Menus

Introduction

Setting up a basic HUD with code

Making your HUD scalable

Using the GUI layer in full screen mode with views

Adding a title screen

Creating splash pages

Adding a game over screen

7. Saving the Day – Saving Game Data

7. Saving the Day – Saving Game Data

Introduction

Creating game settings

Making a pause screen

Saving player selection and score

Encrypting and decrypting save data

8. Light 'em up! – Enhancing Your Game with Lighting Techniques

8. Light 'em up! – Enhancing Your Game with Lighting Techniques

Introduction

Creating a room with a light switch

Lighting objects with a spot light

Changing day to night

Creating a flashlight

Making a flickering torch

9. Particle Man, Particle Man – Adding Polish to Your Game with Visual Effects and Particles

9. Particle Man, Particle Man – Adding Polish to Your Game with Visual Effects and Particles

Introduction

Using particles to simulate kicking up dust

Simulating rainfall

Creating an explosion

Adding screen-shake

Using slow motion

10. Hello, World – Creating New Dimensions of Play Through Networking

10. Hello, World – Creating New Dimensions of Play Through Networking

Introduction

Basic networking

Online play

Connecting a client to a server

Setting up asynchronous play for a turn-based game

Index

Index

Creating an explosion

What kind of a game doesn't have any explosions? Well, I'm sure there are some out there, but do you really want to play them? I doubt it* and that's why we're going to learn a little bit about GameMaker's particle systems by creating explosions. This will be much more coding-intensive than our previous forays into particles but, once we're done, you'll have plenty to play around with. GameMaker's particle systems and particle emitters can make some pretty interesting effects that add a lot of polish with just a little effort.

*I don't actually doubt it but just go with it.

Getting ready

We're going to start from scratch for this recipe. Due to the colors we'll be using and the nature of the recipe, I recommend that you change the background color of the room that you set to black. You'll also need two objects: obj_control (our controller object) and obj_partEmit_exp (our particle emitter object). Place an instance of obj_control in the room.

How to do it...

In obj_control...

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