Book Image

GameMaker Programming By Example

By : Brian Christian, Steven Isaacs
Book Image

GameMaker Programming By Example

By: Brian Christian, Steven Isaacs

Overview of this book

This book is excellent resource for developers with any level of experience of GameMaker. At the start, we’ll provide an overview of the basic use of GameMaker: Studio, and show you how to set up a basic game where you handle input and collisions in a top-down perspective game. We continue on to showcase its more advanced features via six different example projects. The first example game demonstrates platforming with file I/O, followed by animation, views, and multiplayer networking. The next game illustrates AI and particle systems, while the final one will get you started with the built-in Box2D physics engine. By the end of this book, you have mastered lots of powerful techniques that can be utilized in various 2D games.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)

Creating your Escape the Dungeon game


Your Escape the Dungeon game is going to be a simple 2D maze-like game where the player dodges enemies and escapes a labyrinth of sorts to proceed through the levels. Your player will be able to shoot at these enemies and the enemies in turn will shoot randomly. In addition, the player will need to collect keys to unlock doors to the next level. This will introduce the use of variables in the game. The game is fairly simple, but teaches many skills in terms of using GameMaker: Studio.

First, create a new game project called EscapeTheDungeon by selecting the New tab at the very start screen of GameMaker: Studio. Choose your directory and project name. The GameMaker IDE should then open in a new workspace.

The playable character

The playable character is something that has a few components that make it up. It is an object that the user of the game will control via keyboard input that can allow it to move in four directions and shoot. The player consists of...