Practical GameMaker: Studio

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xl

   PDF

2. Variables

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 1-9

3. Conditionals

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 11-17

4. Drawing

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 19-28

5. Drawing Continued

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 29-38

6. Keyboard Input and Simple Movement

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 39-44

7. Objects and Events

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 45-53

8. Sprites

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 55-63

9. Health, Lives, and Score

   • Ben Tyers

   Pages 65-73

10. Mouse

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 75-81

11. Alarms

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 83-89

12. Collisions

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 91-101

13. Rooms

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 103-111

14. Backgrounds

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 113-119

15. Sounds and Music

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 121-128

16. Splash Screens and Menu

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 129-138

17. Random

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 139-144

18. More Movement (Basic AI)

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 145-154

19. INI Files

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 155-160

20. Effects

    • Ben Tyers

    Pages 161-166

Gain the skills required to create fun and compelling games using GameMaker: Studio, and its GML programming language. In this full-color book you’ll learn 24 practical programming elements that are important when creating any game. Each section includes an introduction to a new programming element, some examples, a worksheet, and mini projects to allow you to test your new knowledge. After completing all elements, you will put into action what you have learned in a classic arcade style game.


In Practical GameMaker: Studio, you will create a fully featured game, with guidance and in color, using version 1.4. After each section you’ll see how you’ll apply what you’ve learned to the final game, and discover additional projects to try. These mini projects include a separate scoring guide, and a working example for each, which is useful if you’re using this book in an educational environment. Similarly, the book also contains a number of assignments, which you may include as part of any associated coursework in your classes.



What You Will Learn

• Use GameMaker: Studio and GameMaker Language (GML) to create games
  
• Work with GML variables, conditionals, drawing, keyport I/O, objects, and events
  
• Create GML sprites, health/lives, alarms, collisions, and rooms
  
• Improve your game with GML backgrounds, sound and music, splash screens and menus, and effects<
• Include GML random and AI movements in your game
  
• Use GML loops, arrays, ds_lists, paths, and scripts
  

Who This Book Is For


Experienced game developers new to GameMaker or for those with at least some prior exposure or experience with GameMaker: Studio but who are new to GML.

• GameMaker
• Game Maker
• Studio
• GML
• game development
• game programming

• Worthing, United Kingdom

  Ben Tyers

Ben Tyers is an expert GameMaker: Studio user, developer, coder, expert and IT trainer.  He has authored a number of small books on GameMaker for game application developers and runs a popular GameMaker resources web site.

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